Club Free Time Blog

Sights and Sounds

Gail Wein
March 01, 2015

Music and visual art and music are a natural combination. So it stands to reason that a museum would be a wonderful place to see a concert. Museums in New York definitely adhere to this notion: many of our city’s great art institutions are also superb places to hear live music.

Beginning with the grandest of these galleries, the Metropolitan Museum’s Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium has been home to a concert series for over half a century. Performances coming up this spring include Matt Haimovitz and Christopher O’Riley performing all of Beethoven’s music for cello and piano (April 11), New York Philharmonic’s contemporary music series Contact! (March 7 and June 5) and Attaca Quartet performing Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross in a multi-media presentation (April 2).

The Met also produces performances in some other spots on their property: the grandiose Temple of Dandur is host to the world premiere of Jóhann Jóhannsson's Drone Mass, performed by the composer with the vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth on March 17, and the string quartet Ethel and guest artists hold forth every Friday and Saturday at the Met’s Balcony Bar. The Met’s mediaeval outpost uptown, The Cloisters, is also home live music in the ambiance of its ancient galleries. Renaissance choral ensemble Pomerian performs on April 4, and a capella chamber choir Calmus performs on April 22. The performances at the Balcony Bar are free with museum admission; tickets for the other concerts mentioned may be purchased at MetMuseum.org.

Just up Fifth Avenue from The Met, the corkscrew cylinder that is the Guggenheim Museum has presented its Works in Process series for 30 years. Coming up on March 15, Fun Home on Broadway with Alison Bechel gives a behind-the-scenes peek, including performances of excerpts, prior to the show’s Broadway premiere. On March 30, excerpts from the opera Cold Mountain will be performed, along with a panel discussion with Jennifer Higdon, the opera’s composer, and other members of the creative team of the forthcoming world premiere production at Santa Fe Opera. Tickets may be purchased at the Guggenheim Museum’s website.

Also on Fifth Avenue, The Frick Collection is in the midst of its 76th season of concerts in the museum’s beautiful music room. Coming up on March 15, Vienna Piano Trio performs, and on March 29, cellist Leonard Elschenbroich is in recital. Events on this series tend to sell out very early, so plan accordingly.

The Morgan Library and Museum has a wonderfully comfortable and intimate recital hall which opened about ten years ago. This spring’s chamber music and recital offerings include violist Kim Kashkashian and pianist Peter Nagy (March 11), vocal music as part of the George London Foundation recital series (March 22), music of Handel, Steffani and Monteverdi performed by the Boston Early Music festival (April 9), and St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, May 13 and 15.

Plenty of art. Lots of music. A delight for all the senses.