Writing for The New Yorker
Some of the longer essays and profiles are collected in my book Listen to This.
Essays
Noise, April 22, 2024.
Liszt, Sept. 11, 2023.
Ernst Jünger, July 3, 2023.
Hildegard of Bingen, Feb. 5, 2023.
Lubitsch, Aug. 15, 2022.
Thomas Mann, Jan. 24, 2022.
Neutra, Sept. 20, 2021.
Josquin, June 21, 2021.
Tarkovsky, Feb. 15 and 22, 2021.
White supremacy in classical music, Sept. 21, 2020.
Wagner in Hollywood (excerpt from Wagnerism), Aug. 31, 2020.
German émigrés in Los Angeles, March 9, 2020.
Bristlecone pines, Jan. 20, 2020.
Nietzsche, Oct. 14, 2019.
Salieri, June 3, 2019.
Debussy, Oct. 29, 2018.
Twenty-first-century music, Aug. 27, 2018.
The Hitler Vortex. April 30, 2018.
Willa Cather, Oct. 2, 2017.
The Occult Roots of Modernism, June 26, 2017.
Bach's Passions, Jan. 2, 2017.
Death Valley, Nov. 14, 2016.
Music and violence, July 4, 2016.
Mallarmé, April 11, 2016.
Orson Welles, Dec. 7, 2015.
Gay Berlin, Jan. 26, 2015.
Beethoven, Oct. 20, 2014.
Adorno and Benjamin, Sept. 15, 2014.
Henry Wallace, Oct. 14, 2013.
Shakespeare, Wagner, Aldridge, July 29, 2013.
Love on the March, Nov. 12, 2012.
Harry Kessler, April 23, 2012.
Gesualdo, Dec. 19 and 26, 2011.
Oscar Wilde, Aug. 9, 2011.
Ten Bars of Wagner's Ring, April 25, 2011.
John Cage, Oct. 4, 2010.
Fictional composers, Aug. 24, 2009.
Marian Anderson, April 13, 2009.
Bernstein, Dec. 15, 2008.
Classical music in China, July 7, 2008.
Copland (excerpt from The Rest Is Noise), Aug. 27, 2007.
Sibelius (excerpt from The Rest Is Noise), July 7, 2007.
Mozart, July 24, 2006.
Morton Feldman, June 19, 2006.
The Record Effect, June 6, 2005.
Listen to This, Feb. 16, 2004.
Wagner and Tolkien, Dec. 22, 2003.
Pop-music studies, July 14, 2003.
Schoenberg, Feb. 18, 2002.
Verdi, Sept. 24, 2001.
Stravinsky, Nov. 6, 2000.
Shostakovich, March 20, 2000.
Richard Strauss, Dec. 20, 1999.
Bob Dylan, May 10, 1999.
Wagner and Hitler, Aug. 10, 1998.
Pfitzner, July 21, 1997.
Schubert, Jan. 27, 1997.
True Crime, Aug. 19, 1996.
Thomas Mann, March 11, 1996.
Mahler, Sept. 4, 1995.
Kurt Cobain, April 25, 1994.
Wayne Koestenbaum's The Queen's Throat, April 12, 1993.
Profiles
Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, Aug. 9, 2024.
Susan Sorrells, Jan. 4, 2022.
Davóne Tines, Nov. 22, 2021.
Igor Levit, May 18, 2020.
Completing The Other Side of the Wind, Sept. 26, 2018.
Yuval Sharon and Hopscotch, Nov. 16, 2015.
Iván Fischer, June 2, 2014.
Joyce DiDonato, Oct. 7, 2013.
Michael Giacchino, May 7, 2010.
Mitsuko Uchida and Marlboro, June 29, 2009.
John Luther Adams, May 12, 2008.
Esa-Pekka Salonen and the LA Phil, April 30, 2007.
Music education, Sept. 4, 2006.
Peter Sellars and Doctor Atomic, Oct. 3, 2005.
Björk, April 23, 2004.
Radiohead, Aug. 20, 2001.
St. Lawrence Quartet, May 21, 2001.
John Adams, Jan. 8, 2001.
Thomas Adès, Oct. 26, 1998.
Valery Gergiev, April 13, 1998.
Musical Events columns
Ives in Bloomington, Nov. 11, 2024.
Mazzoli's The Listeners, Tesori's Grounded, Oct. 14, 2024.
Mendelssohn on Mull, Oct. 7, 2024.
Carolina Uccelli at Teatro Nuovo, Aug. 12, 2024.
Des Moines Metro Opera, Aug. 5, 2024.
Chanticleer sings Machaut, July 1, 2024.
Yuja Wang, June 3, 2024.
Zemlinsky in Prague, Schulhoff in Brno, May 20, 2024.
The Escher Quartet's Bartók, Igor Levit's Eroica, April 1, 2024.
Schoenberg in Los Angeles, March 18, 2024.
Ukrainian composers, Feb. 5, 2024.
George Lewis, Jan. 15, 2024.
California Festival, Dec. 11, 2023.
James Austin Smith and the East German oboe underground, Nov. 20, 2023.
Butterfly in Detoit, Dead Man Walking at the Met, Oct. 20, 2023.
Kosky's Rheingold at the Royal Opera, Oct. 2, 2023.
The End of Mostly Mozart, Aug. 28, 2023.
Monteverdi's Orfeo at Santa Fe Opera, Aug. 21, 2023.
Frank's Frida y Diego at SF Opera, the Busoni Concerto at SF Symphony, July 10 and 17, 2023.
Sciarrino, Saariaho, June 19, 2023.
Dudamel at the NY Phil, Mozart at the Met, June 5, 2023.
The Louisville Orchestra in Mammoth Cave, May 15, 2023.
Max Richter and Cassandra Miller, April 17, 2023.
Kate Soper's Romance of the Rose, Lohengrin at the Met, March 13, 2023.
MTT in LA, Feb. 5, 2023.
Klaus Mäkelä, Xian Zhang, Dec. 26, 2022.
Puts's The Hours, Giddens and Abels's Omar, Dec. 12, 2022.
Bezuidenhout's fortepianos, Nov. 21, 2022.
The new Geffen Hall, Oct. 31, 2022.
Rossini's Otello in Philly, Medea at the Met, Oct. 17, 2022.
John Adams's Antony and Cleopatra, Oct. 2, 2022.
Rachmaninoff at Bard, Sept. 5, 2022.
AMOC at the Ojai Festival, July 4, 2022.
The German Opera System, June 20, 2022.
Anthony Davis's X, Brett Dean's Hamlet, June 6, 2022.
The South Dakota Symphony, May 23, 2022.
LA Master Chorale, April 18, 2022.
Don Carlos at the Met, March 21, 2022.
Tyshawn Sorey at Rothko Chapel, March 14, 2022.
Stephen Hough's Nocturnes, Jan. 31, 2022.
Claire Chase, Jan. 3, 2022.
Ash Fure's Hive Rise, Dec. 13, 2021.
Jonas Kaufmann, Nov. 1, 2021.
Blanchard's Fire Shut Up in My Bones, Oct. 18, 2021.
Blomstedt in Tanglewood, Aug. 30, 2021.
Corigliano's Lord of Cries, Aug. 16, 2021.
Saariaho's Innocence in Aix, July 26, 2021.
Eastman's Femenine, July 12 and 19, 2021.
Stravinsky's Oedipus at LA Opera, June 28, 2021.
NY Phil at the Shed, May 3, 2021.
MaerzMusik, April 12, 2021.
Proustian CDs, March 22, 2021.
Wild Up's Darkness Sounding, March 1, 2021.
David Hockney's Wagner Drive, Jan. 18, 2021.
Pandemic orchestra seasons, Dec. 7, 2020.
Yuval Sharon's Twilight: Gods, Nov. 2, 2020.
Jennifer Walshe, Oct. 26, 2020.
LA Phil at the Bowl, Sept. 28, 2020.
Poulenc's songs, Aug. 17, 2020.
New music after George Floyd, June 29, 2020.
Met and Bang on a Can marathons, May 25, 2020.
Víkungur Ólafsson and Liza Lim on CD, May 4, 2020.
Yuval Sharon's Sweet Land, April 6, 2020.
The Flying Dutchman and Agrippina at the Met, March 23, 2020.
The LA Phil's Weimar Republic festival, March 16, 2020.
Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony, Feb. 10, 2020.
Kentridge's Wozzeck, Lise Davidsen in Queen of Spades, Jan. 6, 2020.
Neuwirth's Orlando, Czernowin's Heart Chamber, Abrahamsen's Snow Queen, Dec. 30, 2019.
ECM Records and the Danish Quartet, Dec. 2, 2019.
Julia Bullock, Christian Gerhaher, Nov. 18, 2019.
Porgy and Bess at the Met, Philip Venables's Denis & Katya, Oct. 14, 2019.
Kirill Petrenko at the Berlin Philharmonic, Sept. 9, 2019.
Korngold at Bard, Aug. 19, 2019.
Meredith Monk's Atlas at the LA Phil, July 1, 2019.
Stockhausen's LICHT in Amsterdam, June 24, 2019.
The Shed, May 20, 2019.
Tyshawn Sorey, April 22, 2019.
Piano concertos by Adès and Adams, March 25, 2019.
Sonnambula plays Leonora Duarte, Jakub Orliński, Feb. 11, 2019.
Philip Venable's 4.48 Psychosis and Ellen Reid's prism at Prototype, Jan. 28, 2019.
Kurtág's Fin de Partie, Dec. 24 and 31, 2018.
Yo-Yo Ma's Bach Project, Dec. 17, 2018.
LA Phil at 100, Nov. 26, 2018.
Nico Muhly's Marnie, Nov. 5, 2018.
Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, Oct. 22, 2018.
Bernstein at 100, Sept. 17, 2018.
Yuval Sharon and Barrie Kosky in Bayreuth, Aug. 20, 2018.
Kopatchinskaja in Ojai, July 2, 2018.
Simon Rattle and the London Symphony, May 28, 2018.
Harpsichordists, May 21, 2018.
Augustin Hadelich in Detroit. April 9, 2018.
Semiramide and Parsifal at the Met. March 12, 2018.
Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques. Feb. 26, 2018.
Florence Price, Feb. 5, 2018.
Street Symphony, Jan. 1, 2018.
John Adams's Girls of the Golden West, Annie Gosfield's War of the Worlds, Dec. 11, 2017.
Gardiner's Monteverdi, Nov. 13, 2017.
Ashley Fure, Oct. 30, 2017.
Norma at the Met, van Zweden at the Phil, Oct. 16, 2017.
Peter Sellars returns to Salzburg, Aug. 21, 2017.
The Tank, July 24, 2017.
Alan Gilbert's farewell, July 3, 2017.
Elbphilharmonie, Boulez Saal, May 22, 2017.
Chaya Czernowin's Infinite Now, May 15, 2017.
Icelandic music at the LA Phil, May 1, 2017.
SHIFT Festival in DC, April 17, 2017.
Kate Soper, Feb. 27 , 2017.
Julius Eastman, Jan. 23, 2017.
Daniil Trifonov, Jan. 9, 2017.
Opera in LA, Dec. 12, 2016.
Rossini's Tell at the Met, Nov. 7, 2016.
Saariaho at the Armory, Grisey at BAM, Oct. 31, 2016.
Tristan at the Met, Rheingold in Chicago, Oct. 17, 2016.
Wandelweiser, Sept. 5, 2016.
Thomas Adès's The Exterminating Angel, Aug. 22, 2016.
Second NY Phil Biennial, June 28, 2016.
The Piatigorsky Cello Festival, June 6 and 13, 2016.
The Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, April 18, 2016.
Opera Startups, March 28, 2016.
Messiaen in Los Angeles, Abrahamsen in New York, Feb. 22, 2016.
In memoriam Boulez, Jan. 18, 2016.
Marina Abramovic stages Igor Levit's Goldbergs, Jan. 11, 2016.
Heggie's Great Scott in Dallas, López's Bel Canto in Chicago, Jan. 4, 2016.
Kentridge's Lulu at the Met, Nov. 23, 2015.
András Schiff on Schubert, Nov. 2, 2015.
Laurie Anderson at the Armory, Oct. 19, 2015.
Otello at the Met, Oct. 12, 2015.
Twentieth-century symphonies, Aug. 31, 2015.
Harry Partch and Ethel Smyth, Aug. 10, 2015.
Steven Schick in Ojai, July 6 and 13, 2015.
McVicar's Cav/Pag at the Met, Owens's Dutchman in DC, Goerke's Brünnhilde in Houston, May 11, 2015.
Dusapin's Penthesilea in Brussels, Herreweghe in Gent, April 27, 2015.
The Paris Philharmonie, April 20, 2015.
Meyer Sound in Berkeley, Feb. 23 and March 2, 2015.
Early music at the Met Museum, Feb. 9, 2015.
Meredith Monk and Gabriel Kahane at BAM, Jan. 5. 2015.
Organ and orchestra, Dec. 15, 2014.
Andris Nelsons at the Boston Symphony, Dec. 1, 2014.
Klinghoffer at the Met, Nov. 3, 2014.
Peter Sellars stages the St. Matthew Passion, Oct. 27, 2014.
Netrebko at the Met, Oct. 20, 2014.
The classical cloud, Sept. 8, 2014.
Dudamel, Salonen, and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla at the Hollywood Bowl, Aug. 25, 2014.
The NY Phil Biennial, June 23, 2014.
Spring for Music, May 26, 2014.
Liza Lim, April 28, 2014.
Igor Levit, April 14, 2014.
Carnegie's Vienna Festival, March 24, 2014.
Paweł Szymański and Agata Zubel in Warsaw, March 3, 2014.
Gregory Spears's A Paul's Case at the Prototype Festival, Feb. 3, 2014.
Robert Carsen's Falstaff at the Met, Jan. 6, 2014.
The Britten centenary, Dec. 9, 2013.
Hilary Hahn's commissions and the demise of City Opera, Nov. 25, 2013.
Gergiev's politics, Nov. 4, 2013.
Turnage's Anna Nicole at City Opera, Oct. 7, 2013.
Castorf's Ring at Bayreuth, Aug. 26, 2013.
Chéreau's Elektra in Aix, Aug. 12, 2013.
John Luther Adams's Become Ocean in Seattle, July 8, 2013.
James Levine returns, Alan Gilbert at the NY Phil, June 10 and 17, 2013.
Rebecca Saunders and female composers, April 29, 2013.
TENET's Tenebrae series, April 15, 2013.
Gotham Chamber Opera's Cavalli, April 8, 2013.
Benjamin's Written on Skin, Birtwistle's The Minotaur, March 25, 2013
The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, March 4, 2013.
David Lang's love fail, Michael Gordon's Timber, Jan. 7, 2013.
Adès's Tempest and David Alden's Ballo at the Met, Dec. 3, 2012.
A Rite of Spring conference in North Carolina, Nov. 19, 2012.
The Donaueschingen Festival, Nov. 12, 2012.
The Franck Symphony, Oct. 22, 2012.
Stockhausen's Mittwoch in Birmingham, Cage's Europeras in Bochum, Sept. 10, 2012.
Andris Nelsons and Gunther Schuller at Tanglewood, Aug. 27, 2012.
The Brooklyn Philharmonic, July 2, 2012.
John Adams's The Gospel According to the Other Mary, June 18, 2012.
Fischer-Dieskau, Gerhaher, Boesch, June 4, 2012.
Auber at the Opéra Comique, and the Paris scene, April 30, 2012.
MTT's American Mavericks festival, April 16, 2012.
The Kennedy Center, April 2, 2012.
The Ring disaster at the Met, Rufus Wainwright's Prima Donna, March 12, 2012.
Glass's Einstein and Ninth Symphony, Feb. 13 and 20, 2012.
The Busoni Piano Concerto, Jan. 9, 2012.
Operas by Nico Muhly, Nov. 28, 2011.
The White Light Festival at Lincoln Center, Nov. 14, 2011.
Opera in Tulsa and Kansas City, Oct. 31, 2011.
Atys at BAM, Anna Bolena at the Met, Oct. 10, 2011.
Weinberg's The Passenger, Sept. 5, 2011.
Tannhäuser, Meistersinger, and Lohengrin at Bayreuth, Aug. 15, 2011.
Bruckner at Lincoln Center, Aug. 1, 2011.
The opera scene in Italy, July 25, 2011.
The Oregon Symphony at Spring for Music, June 6, 2011.
More problems at City Opera and the Met, May 9, 2011.
Gardiner's Bach cantatas, April 11, 2011.
J. C. Adams's Nixon at the Met, J. L. Adams's Inuksuit at the Armory, March 14, 2011.
The New World Symphony in Miami, Feb. 14 and 21, 2011.
Blue Heron and Renaissance polyphony, Jan. 10, 2011.
Georg Friedrich Haas, Nov. 29, 2010.
Bernstein's Quiet Place at City Opera, Nov. 15, 2010.
Eric Owens in Rheingold at the Met, Oct. 18, 2010.
Muti in Chicago, de Waart in Milwaukee, Oct. 11, 2010.
Berg at Bard, Sept. 13, 2010.
CDs: Stephen Hough, Thomas Larcher, Isabelle Faust, Aug. 9, 2010.
New scores at New York City Ballet, June 28, 2010.
The Emerson Quartet's Dvořák, June 7, 2010.
Andriessen's Commedia, May 3, 2010.
William Christie at BAM, April 19, 2010.
Problems at Peter Gelb's Met, March 29, 2010.
The Minnesota and other orchestras at Carnegie, March 22, 2010.
Xenakis, March 1, 2010.
Poisson Rouge and the classical crisis, Feb. 8, 2010.
Schubert and Beckett, Jan. 4, 2010.
Dudamel arrives in LA, Dec. 14, 2009.
Alden's Don Giovanni at City Opera, Chéreau's From the House of the Dead at the Met, Nov. 30, 2009.
Meredith Monk, Nov. 9, 2009.
Alan Gilbert arrives at the NY Phil, Oct. 19. 2009.
Tosca at the Met, Oct. 5, 2009.
Bel canto at Caramoor at the art of improvisation, Aug. 31, 2009.
Pristine Audio and music online, Aug, 10, 2009.
Make Music New York, July 6, 2009.
Barenboim and Boulez's Mahler, June 8, 2009.
Cavalli at Yale, May 25, 2009.
Salonen's farewell in Los Angeles, May 4, 2009.
Trovatore and Sonnambula at the Met, March 30, 2009.
The renovation of Alice Tully Hall, March 16, 2009.
Mendelssohn at 200, Feb. 23, 2009.
Cheap seats in New York, Feb. 2, 2009.
The centennials of Carter and Messiaen, Jan. 5, 2009.
Adams's Doctor Atomic at the Met, Oct. 27, 2008.
Stockhausen's Gruppen in Berlin, Oct. 13, 2008.
The social history of the classical concert, Sept. 8, 2008.
Shakespeare operas at Glimmerglass, Aug. 25, 2008.
Zimmermann's Die Soldaten at the Lincoln Center Festival, July 21, 2008.
The Brentano Quartet and late style, May 5, 2008.
One Tristan and two Isoldes at the Met, March 31, 2008.
John Doyle's Peter Grimes at the Met, March 17, 2008.
Carl Nielsen, Feb. 25, 2008.
Jonny Greenwood's score for There Will Be Blood, Feb, 4, 2008.
Marin Alsop at the Baltimore Symphony, Jan. 7, 2008.
The "Berlin in Lights" festival at Carnegie, Dec. 3, 2007.
Glass's Appomattox and Eighth Symphony, Nov. 5, 2007.
Mostly Mozart and the Lincoln Center Festival, Aug. 20, 2007.
Unsuk Chin's Alice in Wonderland, July 30, 2007.
Orchestras in Indianapolis, Nashville, Birmingham, June 25, 2007.
Wordless Music, April 16, 2007.
Lang Lang and Yundi, April 2, 2007.
Mahagonny in LA, Gordon's Grapes of Wrath in Minnesota, March 5, 2007.
Takemitsu, Feb. 5, 2007.
Tan Dun's The First Emperor, Jan. 8, 2007.
Adams's Flowering Tree, the Kurtágs in Vienna, Dec. 4, 2006.
Haitink's Beethoven, Gergiev's Shostakovich, Nov. 20, 2006.
Reich at 70, Nov. 13, 2006.
Minghella's Butterfly and Peter Gelb at the Met, Oct. 9, 2006.
In memoriam Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Sept. 25, 2006.
Operas by Hartke, Rorem, Goldenthal, Carter, Aug. 21, 2006.
Barenboim's farewell in Chicago, in memoriam Ligeti, July 3, 2006.
The Volpe gala at the Met, June 12, 2006.
Handel with William Christie and René Jacobs, May 8, 2006.
Saariaho's Adriana Mater, April 24, 2006.
Kronos Quartet, April 10, 2006.
Ian Bostridge's Britten, March 27, 2006.
Puccini reconsidered, Feb. 27, 2006.
Beethoven's Grosse Fuge, Feb. 6, 2006.
Picker's American Tragedy at the Met, Dec. 26, 2005.
David Robertson at the St. Louis Symphony, Dec. 5, 2005.
Giacinto Scelsi's quartets, Nov. 21, 2005.
Rossini and Dukas at City Opera, Oct. 24, 2005.
CDs: Domingo's Tristan, Hyperion, Golijov's Ayre, Sept. 26, 2005.
Mostly Mozart, Aug. 29, 2005.
Schreker's Gezeichneten in Salzburg, Aug. 22, 2005.
Glass's Koyaanisqatsi, June 27, 2005.
The Sellars-Viola Tristan in Paris, May 30, 2005.
Jordi Savall, May 2, 2005.
Harry Partch's Oedipus, April 18, 2005.
Ruders's Kafka's Trial in Copenhagen, Adamo's Lysistrata in Houston, March 28, 2005.
Lupu and Anderszewski, Feb. 28, 2005.
Osmo Vänskä at the Minnesota Orchestra, Feb. 14, 2005.
Bolcom's A Wedding in Chicago, Rodelinda at the Met, Jan. 3, 2005.
James Levine at the Boston Symphony, Nov. 29, 2004.
Gordon's Decasia and election-year music, Nov. 8, 2004.
CDs: Jacobs's Mozart, Netrebko bel canto, Fellner's Bach, Sept. 27, 2004.
Shostakovich at Bard, Sept. 6, 2004.
Schlingensief's Parsifal at Bayreuth, Aug. 9, 2004.
Ives Festival at the Philharmonic, June 7, 2004.
Student composers: Muhly, Andres, Little, May 17, 2004.
Leon Fleisher master class, April 19, 2004.
Mattila's Salome, April 5, 2004.
Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time, March 22, 2004.
Adès's Tempest, March 1, 2004.
Colin Davis's Peter Grimes, Feb. 2, 2004.
La Juive at the Met, Nov. 24, 2003.
The opening of Disney Hall, Nov. 17, 2003.
Andrew Manze and Pomerium, Nov. 3, 2003.
Ned Rorem, Oct. 20, 2003.
The opening of Zankel Hall, Sept. 29, 2003.
Golijov's Ainadamar, Sept. 1, 2003.
Gergiev's Russian festival at the Met, Aug. 4, 2003.
Bang on a Can, June 30, 2003.
Liszt in Cincinnati, June 9, 2003.
Kiki and Herb, May 19, 2003.
Wispelwey's Bach, Muraro's Messiaen, April 21, 2003.
Berlioz and Dalbavie, March 31, 2003.
Uchida and Andsnes, March 17, 2003.
In memoriam Lou Harrison, Les Troyens at the Met, March 3, 2003.
Jenufa at the Met, Feb. 3, 2003.
Maw's Sophie's Choice in London, Reich's Three Tales in Berlin, Jan. 6, 2003.
Arvo Pärt in Copenhagen, Dec. 2, 2002.
Pappano at Covent Garden, Nov. 11, 2002.
Messiaen's St. Francis in San Francisco and Berlin, Oct. 28, 2002.
Rattle in Berlin, Maazel in New York, Oct. 7, 2002.
Mark Adamo's Little Women, July 22, 2002.
Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Project, May 27, 2002.
Monteverdi operas at BAM, May 13, 2002.
Trouble at City Opera, April 1, 2002.
Prokofiev's War and Peace at the Met, March 4, 2002.
Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Met, Jan. 7, 2002.
Vocal recitals, Dec. 10, 2001.
Martha Argerich, Nov. 5, 2001.
Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic, Oct. 22, 2001.
Music after 9/11, Oct. 8, 2001.
Ligeti, May 28, 2001.
Prokofiev's Gambler at the Met, April 9, 2001.
Golijov's Pásion, March 5, 2001.
Vivaldi, Feb. 19, 2001.
Busoni and Frank Martin, Jan. 29, 2001.
Marc-André Hamelin and Earl Wild, Dec. 18, 2000.
New music at Miller Theatre, Dec. 4, 2000.
Flimm's Fidelio at the Met, Oct. 30, 2000.
Jansons in Pittsburgh, Oct. 9, 2000.
The Flimm Ring at Bayreuth, Sept. 4, 2000.
Electronic music at the Lincoln Center Festival, July 31, 2000.
Glyndebourne and Aldeburgh, July 10, 2000.
CD collecting, June 5, 2000.
Lauren Flanigan and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, May 8, 2000.
Boulez at 75, April 10, 2000.
Bach anniversary, March 6, 2000.
Anne-Sophie Mutter, Feb. 7, 2000.
Harbison's Gatsby, Jan. 10, 2000.
Tristan at the Met, Dec. 6, 1999.
Millennial music at the NY Phil, Nov. 29, 1999.
Bolcom's View from the Bridge, Feldman's Second Quartet, Nov. 1, 1999.
Busoni's Faust in Salzburg, Aug, 23, 1999.
Central Park at Glimmerglass, Aug. 9, 1999.
The Ring in San Francisco, Salonen in Ojai, July 12, 1999.
Cleveland Orchestra, May 31, 1999.
Ian Bostridge's Schubert, May 17, 1999.
Messiaen's Canyons, April 5, 1999.
The Great Pianists series on Philips, March 29, 1999.
Schoenberg's Moses und Aron, March 8, 1999.
Korngold and Elgar, Feb. 15, 1999.
Milton Babbitt and Elliot Carter, Dec. 21, 1998.
Tchaikovsky, Nov. 30, 1998.
Miller's Figaro at the Met, Nov. 16, 1998.
Previn's Streetcar Named Desire, Oct. 5, 1998.
In memoriam Schnittke, Aug. 31, 1998.
Cecil Taylor and Sonic Youth, July 13, 1998.
Ockeghem and others, June 1, 1998.
Robert Wilson's Lohengrin, March 30, 1998.
Oscar-nominated scores, March 9, 1998.
Colin Davis's Sibelius, Jan. 12, 1998.
MTT in San Francisco, Nov. 17, 1997.
Oasis and Radiohead, Sept. 29, 1997.
Lieberson's Ashoka's Dream in Santa Fe, Adès's Powder Her Face in Aspen, Aug. 18, 1997.
Gubaidulina's Viola Concerto in Boston, June 16, 1997.
Pavement's Brighten the Corners, May 26, 1997.
Mark Lamos's Wozzeck at the Met, March 10, 1997.
The NY Phil's American Classics series, Henry Cowell in Berkeley, Feb. 17, 1997.
Tim Albery's Midsummer Night's Dream at the Met, Dec. 16, 1996.
Book reviews, shorter pieces
Switched on Pop podcast, March 8, 2021.
Bernstein at 100, Oct. 9, 2017.
Tyshawn Sorey, July 10 and 17, 2017.
Lou Harrison at 100, April 24, 2017.
Esa-Pekka Salonen's Cello Concerto, March 20, 2017.
Missy Mazzoli's Breaking the Waves, Jan. 9, 2017.
Julia Adolphe, Nov. 21, 2016.
Ginastera, April 11, 2016.
David Lang at the Golden Globes, Feb. 29, 2016.
Nancarrow at the Whitney, June 22, 2015.
Juilliard's "Focus!" on Japan, Feb. 2, 2015.
Chaya Czernowin, Oct. 27, 2014.
Steven Schick, Feb. 3, 2014.
Kubrick's 2001, Sept. 23, 2013.
Georg Friedrich Haas in New York, Nov. 11, 2013.
The Lutosławski Third, Jan. 28, 2013.
Uchida's Schubert, April, 30, 2012.
Björk's Biophilia, Feb. 27, 2012.
Augustin Hadelich, Jan. 4, 2010.
Ralph Shapey, Dec. 7, 2009.
Lisa Bielawa, March 2, 2009.
Quatuor Ebène, April 6, 2009.
The classical Internet, Oct. 22, 2007.
Robert Ashley's Concrete, Jan. 22, 2007.
Dylan's "Ain't Talkin'," Sept. 18, 2006.
La Monte Young's String Trio, Oct. 24, 2005.
In memoriam David Diamond, July 11, 2005.
Klinghoffer scandal in Boston, Nov. 19, 2001.
Johanna Fiedler's history of the Met, Nov. 5, 2001.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music, July 9, 2001.
Concert Rage, March 26, 2001.
Bosie Douglas, July 24, 2000.
Stanley Kubrick Was My Friend, Too, Aug. 2, 1999.
Bret Easton Ellis, Jan. 11, 1999.
In memoriam Sinatra, May 25, 1998.
Professor Moriarty, Aug. 11, 1997.
The Finnish Crescendo, April 28, 1997.
David Helfgott, March 17, 1997.
Introduction to the Music Issue, Aug. 26, 1996.
Online
The coda of the Shostakovich Fifth, Nov. 21, 2024.
Klaus Mäkelä and overbooked conductors, April 2, 2024.
Bradley Cooper's Maestro, Dec. 17, 2023.
The Wagner Group, Sept. 2, 2023.
Apple Classical, July 31, 2023.
Oppenheimer and Doctor Atomic, July 25, 2023.
P-22, April 3, 2023.
Dudamel goes to New York, Feb. 15, 2023.
All Quiet on the Western Front, Feb. 9, 2023.
The Korngold Symphony, Nov. 20, 2022.
The modernist villain's lair, Oct. 27, 2022.
Othmar Schoeck's Elegie, Oct. 6, 2022.
In memoriam Richard Taruskin, Aug. 23, 2022.
Schindler House centennial, July 21, 2022.
Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and Ukraine, March 25, 2022.
Gergiev, Putin, and Ukraine, March 3, 2022.
Spotify remains awful, Feb. 2, 2022.
Jonny Greenwood interview, Dec. 19, 2021.
Marian Anderson sings "Crucifixion," Oct. 19, 2021.
Harry Hay and gay rights in LA, June 25, 2021.
Josquin's Missa L'Homme Armé super voces musicales, June 15, 2021.
Welles, Citizen Kane, and Mank, April 2, 2021.
Heine vs. Platen, Feb. 5. 2021.
New books on Beethoven, Jan. 19, 2021.
Hitler's last days in the bunker, Dec. 2, 2020.
JACK and Spektral Quartets, Nov. 10, 2020.
Billy Budd and Beau Travail, Oct. 20, 2020.
The ecological cost of recording, Sept. 23, 2020.
Interview with John Williams, July 21, 2020.
Willa Cather's One of Ours, July 7, 2020.
My mother and Brahms, April 16, 2020.
Coronavirus concerts, March 14, 2020.
A visit with Jürg Frey, Oct. 29, 2019.
In memoriam Jessye Norman, Oct. 3, 2019.
Revisiting Salome, Aug. 21, 2019.
The Karl Muck affair, July 2, 2019.
Corigliano's First Symphony, May 30, 2019.
Weinberg's Kaddish, May 8, 2019.
Furtwängler's wartime recordings, May 2, 2019.
Shoshana Zuboff's The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, April 1, 2019.
Gabriel Kahane's Book of Travelers, Jan. 30, 2019.
Esa-Pekka Salonen's Move to San Francisco, Dec. 5, 2018.
Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks, Nov. 13, 2018.
Astrid Varnay, June 6, 2018.
In memoriam Cecil Taylor, April 10, 2018.
Inuksuit on the Mexican border, Jan. 31, 2018.
In memoriam John Ashbery, Sept. 5, 2017.
Wagner, incest, and Game of Thrones, Aug. 29, 2017.
Gay opera, July 27, 2017.
Toscanini and power, July 12, 2017.
Richard Gerstl, June 22, 2017.
Stravinsky's Funeral Song, April 25, 2017.
The future of the LA Phil, March 23, 2017.
Criticism in crisis, March 13, 2017.
Making art in a time of rage, Feb. 8, 2017.
The Frankfurt School and Trump, Dec. 5, 2016.
The Thomas Mann house in Los Angeles, Aug. 18, 2016.
Litigating Led Zeppelin, April 14, 2016.
The Star Wars scores, Jan. 1, 2016.
The music of Orson Welles, Dec. 7, 2015.
Norman Lloyd, Dec. 14, 2015.
Behind the scenes of Hopscotch, Nov. 12, 2015.
In memoriam Carl Schorske, Sept. 28, 2015.
Apple Music, July 6, 2015.
Twenty-first century symphonies, April 11, 2015.
In memoriam Andrew Porter, April 4, 2015.
The Górecki Fourth, Jan. 30., 2015.
Virgil Thomson's criticism, Dec. 4, 2014.
The Anna Madgdalena Bach theory, Oct. 31, 2014.
The Kennedy Center Honors, Sept. 10, 2014.
Strauss, Wagner, and the politics of music, Aug, 20, 2014.
American soldiers and Richard Strauss, July 14, 2014.
Music on the Voyager spacecraft, Feb. 19, 2104.
Chopin's heart, Feb. 5, 2014.
Esa-Pekka Salonen remembers Patrice Chéreau, Dec. 14, 2013.
Alice Herz-Sommer, Nov. 26, 2013.
Women, gays, and classical music, Oct. 3, 2013.
A Wagner Birthday Roast, May 19, 2013.
A Walking Tour of Wagner's New York, May 13, 2013.
Beyond the gay-marriage victory, March 25, 2013.
In memoriam Roger Ebert, April 5, 2013.
Beethoven Dada, April 1, 2013.
Gay-rights victories, Nov. 7, 2012.
Two reports from the Sandy storm, Oct. 30 and Nov. 1, 2012.
The case for Wagner in Israel, Sept. 25, 2012.
Cage at 100, Sept. 4, 2012.
The NY Phil at the Armory, July 6, 2012.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg's favorite records, May 14, 2012.
A Gesualdo photojournal, Dec. 11, 2011.
Zofia Posmysz and music at Auschwitz, Aug. 29, 2011.
Top Ten Glissandos, Feb. 26, 2010.
The Beatles and the avant-garde, Feb. 23, 2010.
The Fatal X, Feb. 2, 2010.
Decoding the Eroica, Dec. 15, 2009.
Sondheim's Swedish fetish, Nov. 11, 2o09.
The case of the missing candlesticks, Oct. 29, 2009.
Bernstein, Nixon, and the FBI, April 14, 2009.
Selected pieces for The New York Times, 1992-97
Tributes to John Cage, Nov. 7, 1992.
Diamond's Eleventh, Dec. 7, 1992.
John Moran's Everyday Newt Burman, March 15, 1993.
Ligeti in Boston, March 20, 1993.
Caroliner, April 15, 1993.
Satie's Vexations, May 10, 1993.
Finns beyond Sibelius, May 30, 1993.
Schreker, Zemlinsky, Schmidt, Nov. 21, 1993.
Petr Kotik and SEM, Dec. 3, 1993.
Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Dec. 12, 1993.
Interview with Schnittke, Feb. 10, 1994.
In memoriam Lutosławski, March 6, 1994.
Elektra w/ Jones, Rysanek, Voigt, April 4, 1994.
AMM, May 7, 1994.
Schulhoff and lost composers of the 20s and 30s, June 12, 1994.
Reinbert de Leeuw at Tanglewood, Aug. 11, 1994.
Esa-Pekka Salonen interview, Nov. 27, 1994.
Schubert piano sonatas on recording, Dec. 4, 1994.
Richard Strauss on recording, Feb. 5, 1995.
Brendel's Beethoven, April 12, 1995.
Boulez at 70, April 16, 1995.
Feldman's For Philip Guston, May 13, 1995.
Galina Ustvolskaya, May 28, 1995.
Zimmermann's Die Soldaten in Dresden, performances in Prague, June 6, 1995.
Birtwistle's The Second Mrs. Kong at Glyndebourne, Nicola Lefanu's The Wildman at Aldeburgh, June 24, 1995.
Magnus Lindberg and Thomas Adès at Aldeburgh, July 2, 1995.
Schnittke's Faust, July 6, 1995.
Music in World War II, Aug. 20, 1995.
Biber and Zelenka, Oct. 8, 1995.
Musical personality, Dec. 10, 1995.
Purcell, Jan. 14, 1996.
Orson Welles, Jan. 21, 1996.
Chailly at the Concertgebouw, Feb. 25, 1996.
Osmo Vänskä and the Iceland Symphony, Feb. 29, 1996.
MTT's Mavericks Festival, June 19, 1996.
Music News, July 14, 1996.
Percy Grainger, Aug. 11, 1996.
Herrmann's Vertigo, Oct. 6, 1996.
Babbitt's Clarinet Quintet, Oct. 16, 1996.
Composers' graves, March 30, 1997.
The music of Thomas Mann, April 6, 1997.
Other publications
Brahms, The New Republic, Jan. 23, 1998.
Wallace Stevens, Slate, Jan. 8, 1998.
The memoirs of Klaus Kinski, Slate, Jan. 24, 1997.
Adorno, Transition, 1996.
New Zealand rock, Feed, 1995.
In memoriam River Phoenix, Washington Post, Nov. 7, 1993.
Schnittke, The New Republic, Sept. 28, 1992.
Corigliano's Ghosts of Versailles, The New Republic, March 9, 1992.
Britten on WHRB, 1988.
Scholarly articles
"Hartke, Stephen," New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Grove, 2001).
"Strauss's Place in the Twentieth Century," in The Cambridge Companion to Richard Strauss, ed. Charles Youmans (Cambridge University Press, 2011), pp. 195–212.
"Götterdämmerung 1945: Wagnerian Fantasies in English-Language Reports of Hitler's Death," Wagner Journal, vol. 16 no. 2 (July 2022), pp. 4–14.
"On the Origin of R. M. Schindler's Architectural Program," Nonsite (2023).
"Der Teufel im Paradies: Doktor Faustus und die Soundscape von Thomas Manns Los Angeles," in Das Thomas Mann House: Politischer Denkort am Pazifik, ed. Nikolai Blaumer and Benno Herz (Wallstein, 2o23), pp. 65–69.
Selected blog posts
Tiny Valhalla, Applause, Star-Spangled Wagner, Björk's Favorite Records, Did Tosca survive?, Chord of the curse, Ligeti's Third Quartet, Herrliche or herrlichste?, Wikileaks, music, and power, Aptest eve, Schoenberg buys a car, The Popov Discontinuity, Vivaldi in Antarctica, Fanfare for the Royal Wedding, Leverkühn Companion, Benchmark and Send, David Raksin, Full fathom nine, For Peter Lieberson, Deep River, For Andrew Patner.