The Week in Classical Music.A Tone Parallel to Harlem:
Our critics and reporters offer a glimpse of what’s moved and delighted them over the past week. Read the rest of our classical music coverage here.
'Alas, the exigencies of scheduling meant that there were two overlapping performances I needed to attend last Sunday afternoon. In order to catch the entire Grand Finals Concert of the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions, I had to miss the second half of the pianist Maurizio Pollini’s recital at Carnegie Hall. During the first half, devoted to Chopin, Mr. Pollini was at his best, especially in an intense and mysterious performance of the Second Sonata. But I had to skip out before he played all of Book II of Debussy’s Préludes. He performed this set of pioneering pieces, along with some other Chopin works, in London in February. (Here he is in a recent interview talking about the connections between the two composers.) But check out his recording of the Préludes. In “Fairies are Exquisite Dancers,” a favorite, he draws gnarly strands from the swirling riffs, which makes these dancing fairies seem intriguingly dangerous. But not as dangerous as the final “Fireworks” prelude, which comes across here like a modernist inferno. ANTHONY TOMMASINI
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/04/arts/music/a-tone-parallel-to-harlem-the-week-in-classical-music.html?