MUSIC

New York Philharmonic: The Elements

FRIDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 – OCTOBER 1, 2023
8:00 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY
2:00 PM SUNDAY

David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center
10 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan

$52.50-$215.50
TICKETS + INFORMATION

The Elements is a set of concertante violin pieces commissioned by soloist Joshua Bell from five composers. When you’re talking about composers as disparate as Kevin Puts, Edgar Meyer, Jake Heggie, Jennifer Higdon, and Jessie Montgomery, it should go without saying that various pieces are wildly inconsistent. I’ll just be polite and say that Montgomery remains one of the best composers for strings now writing. Closing the concert is Aaron Copland’s Third Symphony, which has always struck me as one of the more underrated pieces in the American mainstream orchestral repertoire, its (to me unimportant) flaws discussed more than its (to me rather magnificent) virtues. And a piece that Jaap van Zweden should be able to conduct pretty well.

MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You can just make it to Kwame Onwuachi’s in-house Afro-Caribbean smash Tatiana (not to be confused with the one in Brighton Beach) for dinner after the evening shows (whether you can get in is another question entirely). Sunday matinée, maybe Épicere Boulud.