16 THENEWYORKER, MARCH 9, 2020
ILLUSTRATION BY ALVA SKOG
This year marks the two-hundred-and-
fiftieth anniversary of Beethoven’s birth,
and Carnegie Hall is taking charge of
the celebration. Yannick Nézet-Séguin
conducts the symphonies with the Phila-
delphia Orchestra (March 13, March 20,
March 26, and April 3), and a pantheon
of celebrated talents covers the keyboard
repertoire—András Schiff (April 2 and
April 5), Mitsuko Uchida (April 7), Ye fi m
Bronfman (April 21), Emanuel Ax (May 14),
and Maurizio Pollini (May 17) among
them. In Zankel Hall, the Ébène Quartet
performs the composer’s sixteen string
quartets across six concerts, an endurance
test if ever there was one (April 17-19,
April 30, and May 1-2).
Not to be entirely eclipsed, Bartók also
claims a spotlight: the Chamber Music
Society of Lincoln Center programs
his rhythmically ferocious masterpiece
Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
(March 15), and the grotesquerie of his
pantomime ballet suite “The Miraculous
Mandarin” appears a few weeks later at
David Geffen Hall (March 26-28). On
that same stage, Simon Rattle conducts
the London Symphony Orchestra in
performances of “Bluebeard’s Castle”
(May 3-4). In a fitting nod to both com-
posers, the Emerson Quartet serves up a
predictable but insightful pairing of Bee-
thoven’s “Razumovsky” cycle with Bartók’s
quartets (March 31, April 21, and May 5).
The New York Philharmonic fea-
tures several Russian superstars. Valery
Gergiev leads Stravinsky’s “Petrushka,”
with Denis Matsuev joining the orchestra
for Rachmaninoff ’s Third Piano Con-
certo (March 12-14). The following
month, Matsuev’s young compatriot
Daniil Trifonov headlines four concerts
(April 15-16, April 18, and April 21).
Across the plaza, Anna Netrebko reigns
as the M.V.P. of the Metropolitan Opera
with her reprisal of the title role in
David McVicar’s production of “Tosca”
(March 26-April 18). And, to round out
the Met’s season, intimate tragedy finds
expression in Janáček’s “Kát’a Kabanová,”
which features Susanna Phillips, Dolora
Zajick, and John Tomlinson in only three
performances (May 2-9). Seize the oppor-
tunity; it hasn’t played there since 2005.
Brooklyn caters to those with a taste
for the new. At National Sawdust, JACK
Quartet plays John Zorn’s string quar-
tets (March 13-14), and the singer Lucy
Dhegrae continues her journey into the
heart of trauma with the third concert in
her “I Was Breathing” series (March 28).
Areté hosts album releases for two emerg-
ing ensembles: Treesearch explores the
boundary between improvised and com-
posed music (March 22), and Latitude 49
advocates for fresh voices with an array of
contemporary works (March 24).
—Hélène WernerCLASSICAL MUSIC
SPRING PREVIEW
An Opera Diva, Beethoven, Bartók
1
THE THEATRE
Cambodian Rock Band
Pershing Square Signature Center
Fact and fiction, past and present are interwo-
ven in Lauren Yee’s play with music. When a
young Cambodian-American, Neary (Courtney
Reed), arrives in Phnom Penh to help prosecute
Comrade Duch (Francis Jue), a real-life Khmer
Rouge official who oversaw the killing of thou-
sands in the notorious prison camp S21, she does
not realize that the case is going to hit so close
to home. A flashback takes us to 1975, when the
rise of the genocidal Communist regime put
an end to the young rock band the Cyclos—
and we discover what happened to the guitarist
Chum (Joe Ngo) and the bassist Leng (Moses
Villarama). Yee’s storytelling is undermined by
credibility-testing coincidences, but Chay Yew’s
production, for the Signature Theatre, comes
alive when the actors turn into the Cyclos to
perform songs by vintage Cambodian artists and
the contemporary Los Angeles band Dengue
Feve r.—Elisabeth Vincentelli (Through March 15.)Chekhov /Tolstoy: Love Stories
Theatre Row
Presenting these two short, evocative one-acts
under the rubric “Love Stories” is perfectly
correct, though it does undersell them a bit.
“The Artist,” directed by Jonathan Bank, and
“Michael,” directed by Jane Shaw, were adapted,
by Miles Malleson, from short stories by Anton
Chekhov and Leo Tolstoy, respectively—two
guys who weren’t afraid of tackling the big is-
sues and who grapple here with questions of
morality, social justice, the role of the artist, and
miracles of Christianity. Malleson, an English
actor, playwright, and pacifist, devised these
elegant reconfigurations as the Great War was
coming to a close; Bank’s Mint Theatre pairs
them for the first time, in productions that are
thoroughly handsome and thought-provoking.
A cast of seven performs the two plays, featur-
ing Henry Clarke and the incandescent nona-
genarian Vinie Burrows.—Ken Marks (Through
March 14.)Dana H.
Vineyard
In 1997, a woman named Dana Higginbotham
was abducted by an ex-convict and member
of the Aryan Brotherhood. He dragged her
from motel to motel around the South for five
months, abusing her physically and mentally.
Higginbotham happens to be the mother of
the playwright Lucas Hnath (“A Doll’s House,
Part 2,” “Hillary and Clinton”), who turned the
story into a play. And not just any play—this is
a channelling, an exorcism, and a tribute. The
brilliant concept is that the actress Deirdre
O’Connell, alone onstage, lip-synchs—with
virtuosic precision—to edited segments of
interviews with the actual Dana H. (Steve
Cosson, the artistic director of the docu-theatre
company the Civilians, conducted the inter-
views, in 2015.) Directed by Les Waters with
chilling precision and his usual skill for creating
an eerie atmosphere, this Vineyard Theatre pro-
duction is as stunning as it is harrowing.— E. V.
(Through April 11.)