The Philharmonic Brings China to New York

Chinese-born composer Huang Ruo had the New York premiere of two parts of his work Three Pieces for Ochestra, the “Announcement” and the “Fanfare”, this weekend at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall. The New York Philharmonic attacked the percussive pieces with a ferocious gusto–so much, in fact, that a blaring gong roll at the finale sent the half of the orchestra not already wearing ear plugs to frantically cover their ears!

The composer came out after the performance to appreciative applause, although the piece may have been too modern for many in the audience. The subsequent pieces performed–Lalo’s Symphonie Espangnole (with Vadim Repin on violin) and Beethoven’s Seventh–received heartier applause by my measure. (And why not? Both pieces were fantastically performed.)

The orchestra was conducted by fellow Chinese-born Xian Zhang, the associate conductor of the New York Philharmonic.

Read my review here, or read The New York Times‘ grumpy old Allan Kozinn’s here.

Tibetan Music at The Cathedral of St. John The Divine

Exiled Tibetan musician Tenzin Choegyal and three Namgyal monks from the Dalai Lama’s monastery brought their Compassionate Mandala Tour to the Cathedral of St. John The Divine last Friday. I interviewed two of the performers and recorded some of their chants and songs. Check it out here.

One of the monks, Lobsang Kunga, began by the blowing a 10 foot longhorn called the Dung Chen. The horn’s sound was supposed to be an invocation to invite Buddhas to join us. After this, the monks began chanting.

Next Tenzin Choegyal performed. Here are some of his instruments:

And the venue itself:

Finally, here is a video that R. Ortiz posted on her blog Footnoted. It shows the monks working on their Kalachakra Mandala earlier last week: