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Juilliard Orchestra Perform Beethoven & Ravel

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Monday, 19 January 2026 14:35; Written by Jack Angstreich

Photo by Paula Lobo, courtesy Juilliard

At Lincoln Center’s wonderful Alice Tully Hall, on the night of Monday, November 10th, I had the privilege to attend a splendid concert featuring the precocious musicians of the Juilliard Orchestra, here under the distinguished direction of Fabien Gabel.

The event started impressively with an excellent account of Ludwig van Beethoven’s magisterial Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61, from 1806, with the accomplished James Birch as soloist. There’s some eccentricity in the introduction to the initial, Allegro ma non troppo movement—it is unusually complex and ambitious—but the music quickly becomes dramatic—the primary melody is especially beautiful, even haunting. The ensuing Larghetto is solemn too, while the Rondo finale, marked Allegro, is lively, dance-like and charming.

The second half of the evening was even more memorable, if only for the sterling rendition of Maurice Ravel’s extraordinary set of orchestrations—from his marvelous piano suite—Le Tombeau de Couperin, from 1919. In useful notes on the program by violist Noémie Chemali, who received a master’s degree from Juilliard 2022, she comments thus:

As Ravel notes, this work is “directed less in fact to Couperin himself than to French music of the 18th century,” a broader invocation of the Baroque keyboard tradition that shaped French musical identity.

She adds:

The movements most directly connected to Couperin—the Forlane and Rigaudon— draw inspiration from the Concerts royeaux, while the Prélude traces back to Couperin's pedagogical treatise, L'Art de toucher le clavier. The original piano suite was completed in 1917 with four movements, including a Fugue and Toccata that Ravel ultimately excluded from the orchestrated version he completed in 1919.

The opening, exquisite Prélude is more sprightly than might be anticipated in a work written as a memorial to fallen soldiers—it ends very softly. Also surprising is the seemingly even more playful Forlane that follows, but it is, again, thoroughly bewitching, if quirky; it too finishes gently. The succeeding Menuet is more lush and yet more transparently elegiac in tone—it closes very quietly. The concluding Rigaudon is energetic and brisk in rhythm—it also has a surprisingly cheerful quality, although the middle section is more subdued and slightly mysterious, but with ludic moments; the movement ends abruptly.

The concert finished enjoyably with a satisfying reading of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s enchanting Symphony No. 39 in E-flat Major, K. 543, from 1788. The Adagio introduction to the beginning Allegro is majestic, like the movement as a whole, and its musical material recurs throughout its main body which is more dynamic and at times celebratory. It precedes an Andante con moto that too has a somewhat weighty ethos and before long becomes more impassioned, but it’s not without serene measures. The consequent Menuetto, marked Allegretto, although less somber, retains an elevated approach, but the delightful Trio section is more jovial in spirit, while the Allegro finale is exhilarating and exultant. The artists deservedly received a standing ovation.

January '26 Digital Week II

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Wednesday, 14 January 2026 22:00; Written by Kevin Filipski

Streaming Releases of the Week

Christy

(Black Bear Pictures)

David Michôd’s fast-paced, Oscar-bait biopic about boxer Christy Martin—one of the first female (and first out lesbian) boxers to hit it big—Sydney Sweeney burrows into her character, trying on an outsized Dukes of Hazzard accent and enough sweaty physicality in her major awards-season bid.

Of course, the movie went belly-up at the box office—most likely because the conservatives who defended her jeans/genes ad didn’t want to actually see a queer heroine—but it’s certainly watchable, proficiently tackling the high (and low) lights from the undoubtedly dramatic life of a woman who fought all comers, including her abusive, and murderous, manager and husband (Ben Foster, in another amusingly overdone portrayal).

Nuremburg

(Sony Pictures Classics)

Writer-director James Vanderbilt’s efficient dramatization of the postwar trials of Nazi officials spotlights Hitler’s right-hand man Hermann Göring, played menacingly but with a glint of amused hubris in his eye by Russell Crowe. His conversations with American army psychologist Douglas Kelley—played decently by Rami Malek—are the centerpiece of a film that gets many details right but doesn’t do much more than a documentary on the subject would.

There’s also the long shadow of Stanley Kramer’s self-important but memorably acted Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) but, in these fraught times, a Cliff’s Notes version might speak to us more pointedly.

In-Theater Releases of the Week

My Neighbor Adolf

(Cohen Media)

When Mr. Polsky, a Holocaust survivor living in a rural area of Colombia, notices that his new and reclusive neighbor seems somewhat familiar, he starts collecting evidence that Mr. Herzog is actually Hitler himself in Leon Prudovsky’s goofy comedy-drama that has some laughs but never follows through on its premise.

David Hayman is an amusingly exasperated Polsky and Udo Kier a wonderfully expressive Herzog, but the actors are let down by Prudovsky and Dmitry Malinsky’s soggy script, filled with superficial rather than subtler moments.

No Other Choice

(Neon)

This second adaptation of Donald Westlake’s sly novel The Ax—the first was a leaden Costra-Gavras film in 2005—Korean director Park Chan-wook’s version is less clunky but still too scattershot to truly work. When Man-su, a longtime employee of a paper factory, is laid off, he scrambles to find a new job while his stay-at-home wife, messed-up teenage son and young cello prodigy daughter all deal with what becomes a shockingly pared-down existence. Desperate, Man-su decides to get rid of any competitors for a job by killing each off.

What in Westlake’s book is a spot-on satire on the excesses of capitalism—especially of the era it was written, in the late ‘90s—becomes in Park’s hands amusing but numbingly repetitive. So many sequences are dragged out that, accompanied by chipper music (when it’s not somberly classical), Park’s directorial sledgehammer is never more apparent. Even the acting, especially by Lee Byung-hun as the put-upon protagonist, suffers by approaching hysteria quickly instead of by degrees.

Sirāt

(Neon)

In Olivier Laxe’s apocalyptic slowburn, a father and his young son join a group of ravers in the Moroccan desert to look for his missing daughter; soon, though, the group starts being picked off one by one in a vast, unforgiving landscape that has become a theater of war.

It begins promisingly but, as Laxe ratchets up the tension, his characters are interchangeable and mostly unsympathetic, which turns the film into a miserabilist stunt, viscerally effective but emotionally remote. And when the minefield explosions take over, it becomes a surprisingly lax and ultimately pointless exercise.

CD Release of the Week

Respighi—Maria Egiziaca

(Naxos)

Italian composer Ottorino Respighi’s 1931 theatrical triptych follows the prostitute Maria of Alexandria, whose sacrifice later earned her Catholic sainthood, in a dramatically tense account accompanied by some of Respighi’s loveliest music. This audio recording of Pier Luigi Pizzi’s 2024 Venice production centers on the fiery aliveness of soprano Francesca Dotto, whose Maria could have been merely symbolic but instead is a flawed, fully achieved protagonist.

Respighi’s score sounds luminous performed by the Venice State Opera orchestra and chorus under the baton of Manlio Benzi. The Blu-ray of this staging was released more than a year ago, and the visuals add immeasurably to the powerful story.

January '26 Digital Week I

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Friday, 09 January 2026 01:23; Written by Kevin Filipski

In-Theater Releases of the Week

The Housemaid

(Lionsgate)

This often risible but entertaining drama based on Freida McFadden’s lively page-turner of a novel, tries a sleight of hand by pitting an unhinged mother, Nina, against her new, desperate housemaid, Millie—as Nina’s angelic husband, Andrew and young daughter Cece look on.

Director Paul Feig could never be accused of subtlety, so when it’s obvious early on who the villain is, the rest of this overlong flick becomes a slog, especially when everything is spelled out with clunky flashbacks. Still, the twisty revelations and consequences meted out are fun to watch, as are Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney’s paired performances as Nina and Millie.

Holding Liat

(Meridian Hill Pictures)

When Liat Beinin Atzili and husband Aziz are taken hostage during the horrific October 7 Hamas attacks, her parents Yehuda and Chaya Beinin, sister Tal and children are left wondering if they are still alive and dealing with an unwanted notoriety, publicly discussing the hostages and navigating a minefield of political machinations from every side.

Brandon Kramer’s powerful documentary—which has been unjustly criticized for not acknowledging the suffering of Palestinians as well as other Israelis attacked that day—explores the family’s anger, despair, hope, sadness and willingness to put their trust in politicians with whom they disagree (notably Netanyahu) in an almost unbearably intimate way.

4K/UHD Releases of the Week

Black Phone 2

(Universal)

In this unnecessary sequel, director Scott Derrickson—who also helmed the much cruder original—cleverly made this entry a creepy slowburn that nevertheless overstays its welcome with the usual dumb behavior and cheap scares typifying its genre.

Still, the performances of Madeleine McGraw, Mason Thames and Miguel Mora as the teenage leads more than compensate, and even those not enamored of slasher flicks can find something worth their time. The UHD transfer looks superb; extras include deleted scenes and featurettes.

Bugonia

(Universal/Focus Features)

Director Yorgos Lanthimos returns for yet another hamfisted, unfunny satire-cum-allegory-cum-cautionary tale that takes a few interestingly offbeat ideas from Korean director Jang Joon-hwan’s 2003 film Save the Green Planet! and proceeds to make comic, dramatic and cinematic mincemeat of them.

When two inept kidnapers somehow capture a pharmaceutical company CEO believing she’s an alien about to supplant humanity, little happens that is any way original, amusing or insightful. Even changing the gender of the second kidnaper makes no narrative or symbolic sense; and if Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons continue to put themselves at Lanthimos’ behest with diminishing returns, poor Aidan Delbis as the expendable autistic idiot is hung out to dry. The film does look impressive in 4K; extra is a making-of documentary.

Streaming Release of the Week

Visions

(Dark Sky Films)

In this equally disturbing and enervating mystery, Diane Kruger gives a smoldering performance as Estelle, a jet pilot having an affair with another woman, Ana, who must figure out why she disappeared and whether her husband Guillaume (or Estelle herself) is involved. Yann Gozlan directs for maximum slickness, and considering the cast and locations, it all certainly looks good.

But the script is a mess, and the attempt to make this a sort of erotic Twilight Zone episode is only partly successful. Kruger, Marta Nieto (Ana) and Mathieu Kassovitz (Guillaume) do their best to keep this from going off the rails before the risible ending reveal.

Blu-ray Release of the Week

Good Fortune

(Lionsgate)

Keanu Reeves is having a good time as Gabriel, an inept angel who is literally clipped of his wings when he screws up and ends up working in menial jobs while waiting for another chance to redeem himself in writer-director-star’s Aziz Ansari’s rather mild gig-economy satire set in a Los Angeles of haves and have nots.

Instead of concentrating on his own, drippy character Arj—hoping for a get-rich-quick break and winning the heart of Elena (the winning Keke Palmer)—Ansari should have junked it all (including the usual one-note Seth Rogen as Jeff, the rich tech bro who turns out to be a hero of sorts and the equally insufferable Sandra Oh as Martha, Gabriel’s angelic supervisor) and concentrated on Gabriel’s subplot, which is by far the best thing in the film. It all looks terrific on Blu-ray; extras are an audio commentary and featurettes.

CD Release of the Week

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra—A Hero’s Life

(Beau Fleuvre Records)

The latest excellent release from conductor JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO) is an adventurous recording bringing together a seemingly unlikely pair: Richard Strauss’ virtuosic tone poem Ein Heldenleben—the English translation of which gives the disc its title—and the world-premiere recording of Behzad Ranjbaran’s Violin Concerto.

A Persian composer, Ranjbaran filters thousands of years of his culture through the virtuosity of the orchestra and writes exquisitely for the violin. Strauss also powerfully unleashes large orchestral forces throughout, including a lovely violin line as well. BPO concertmaster Nikki Chooi is a masterly soloist in each piece, and Falletta conducts first-rate performances.

New York Philharmonic Perform Frolyak & More

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Thursday, 08 January 2026 13:56; Written by Jack Angstreich

Dalia Stasevska conducts Joshua Bell. Photo by Chris Lee

At Lincoln Center’s excellent David Geffen Hall, on the morning of Friday, November 7th, I had the privilege to attend a fine concert presented by the New York Philharmonic, under the distinguished direction of Dalia Stasevska.

The event started brilliantly with Aaron Copland’s extraordinary, stirring Fanfare for the Common Man. The celebrated Joshua Bell then entered the stage for an impressive performance as soloist of Thomas de Hartmann’s unsung Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 66, from 1943. The Largo introduction to the initial movement is lyrical and seemingly wistful; it transitions to a much livelier, playful section of the Allegro main body, but the more elegiac music returns, followed by an extended, more forceful—even martial—episode that, after a solemn cadenza, concludes with a sad dénouement. The slower, ensuing Andante religioso is at times anguished but ultimately affirmative, closing gently, while the more folkish Menuet fantasque that follows contains a lilting, dance-like Trio. The energetic Finale, marked Vivace, builds to a dazzling climax. Enthusiastic applause elicited a delightful encore from the violinist and the ensemble: Frédéric Chopin’s Nocturne, Op. 9, No. 2, arranged by Bell and B. Wallace.

The second half of the concert was even stronger beginning with the admirably realized US premiere of Bohdana Frolyak’s striking Let There Be Light, from 2023. The composer contributed this note on the piece for its premiere:

All the music I write these days is about Ukraine: about its beauty, its uniqueness — and about light, which has to defeat darkness.

This single-movement work for symphony orchestra is quite a dynamic composition, symbolizing light that takes a path through darkness and back to light. This path is reflected in the musical language of the work. A calm beginning, with lyrical cello and violin solos over a background of coloristic harmonies in strings, and with these solos imitated in woodwinds, leads to a disturbing central section and then a dramatic culmination, at the peak of which we hear a melody in violins and full orchestra with expressive solos for strings.

Before the end of the work, where peace and an atmosphere of light take the lead, the music immerses itself in dissonant intervals and chords, as if to remind us of the darkness that rules the world.

The piece closes with a calm, enlightened coda, built on the basis of a clear C major, supplemented with layers of additional intervals and chords which, however, don't interfere with the “sound” of light and quietness.

Probably, the highlight of the program, however, was its beautifully enacted final selection: Benjamin Britten’s remarkable Sinfonia da Requiem, Op. 20, from 1940. About it, in an interview from that year, he explained:

I'm making it just as anti-war as possible. I don't believe you can express social or political or economic theories in music, but by coupling new music with well known musical phrases, I think it's possible to get over certain ideas. ...

One's apt to get muddled discussing such things — all I'm sure of is my own anti-war conviction as I write it.

He also contributed the following commentary on the piece for its premiere:

I. Lacrymosa. A slow marching lament in a persistent 6/8 rhythm with a strong tonal center on D. There are three main motives: (1) a syncopated, sequential theme announced by the 'cellos and answered by a solo bassoon; (2) a broad theme, based on the interval of a major seventh; (3) alternating chords on flute and trombones, outlined by the piano and harps. The first section of the movement is quietly pulsating; the second a long crescendo leading to a climax based on the first 'cello theme. There is no pause before —

II. Dies irae. A form of Dance of Death, with occa-sional moments of quiet marching rhythm. The dominating motif of this movement is announced at the start by the flutes and includes an important tremolando figure. Other motives are a triplet repeated-note figure in the trumpets, a slow, smooth tune on the saxophone, and a livelier syncopated one in the brass. The scheme of the movement is a series of climaxes of which the last is the most powerful, causing the music to disintegrate and to lead directly to —

III. Requiem aeternam. Very quietly, over a background of solo strings and harps, the flutes announce the quiet D major tune, which is the principal motif of the movement.

There is a middle section in which the strings play a flowing melody. This grows to a short climax, but the opening tune is soon resumed and the work ends quietly in a long, sustained clarinet tone.

The first movement, marked Andante ben misurato, begins dramatically and portentously—a certain lugubriousness is sustained throughout and it closes quietly. The Allegro con fuoco, second movement is more impassioned and turbulent, while the finale, with a tempo of Andante molto tranquil, is more subdued—the music intensifies but ends very softly.

The artists deservedly received a standing ovation.

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