Music

City Opera Names Steel as General Manager

Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times

George R. Steel, left, will be City Opera’s general manager.

The tottering New York City Opera has appointed the impresario and conductor George R. Steel as its leader.

Bach, Not So Conservatively

In “Bach the Progressive” at Corpus Christi Church on Sunday, the harpsichordist Bradley Brookshire demonstrated how Bach updated traditional forms with contemporary touches.

Club Jazz That Travels a Line Between Old Fashions and New Tastes

In Fred Hersch’s music, which he plays as part of a quintet at the Village Vanguard this week, two elements are balanced pretty perfectly.

A Crooner Returns, With a Swing in His Heart

To watch the 96-year-old Tony Martin perform songs he recorded more than six decades ago is to witness how popular songs and memory can work together as a kind of Proustian madeleine.

Getting Together With Brahms

The violinist Gil Shaham has assembled a group of friends, including family members, for a compact, three-concert survey of Brahms chamber works at Zankel Hall.

Recalling Rodgers, Along With His Friends

The usual buzz of happy expectation that attends the 92nd Street Y’s venerable Lyrics and Lyricists series was noticeably muted at this season’s opening concert.

A Spinner of Tales, Folksy or Fantastic, Up and Down the Keyboard

Olli Mustonen’s concert in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Sunday provided an opportunity to hear him in three modes.

Finding the Romantic in Bach and Beyond

In his recital at Town Hall on Sunday, the pianist Alon Goldstein seemed intent on finding and illuminating the Romanticism in music.

For the Philharmonic, Next Stop, Vietnam

On the heels of its attention-grabbing trip to North Korea last February, the New York Philharmonic is planning another high-profile visit for next season: to Vietnam.

Shock Greets Move to Close Amato Opera in May

The opera has served up homemade productions for 60 years in basement theaters, always under the loving care of Anthony Amato.

• Audio Slide Show: Addio Amato Opera

Around the World in One Night, Courtesy of Song

Most of the performers at Globalfest, which featured 12 acts on three stages over five hours, were traditionalists of a slightly more faithful stripe.

Singers, How About a Modernist Challenge?

Grazia Doronzio, an Italian soprano from the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program of the Met, sang two demanding works for voice and chamber ensemble by the Italian modernist Luigi Dallapiccola on Sunday.

As Gluck’s Mythic Hero, a Mezzo-Soprano Takes Command With Bolts of Melody

Stephanie Blythe gave a vocally commanding and deeply poignant portrayal of Orfeo in the Metropolitan Opera’s “Orfeo ed Euridice.”

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• Slide Show | Times Topics: Metropolitan Opera

New CDs

New releases from Rokia Traoré, Ravi Coltrane, Eliane Elias and Late of the Pier.

Acts Onstage (and on the Market) at Three Clubs

The Winter Jazzfest is a gluttonous feast: just under two dozen acts appeared in this year’s edition.

Worlds Apart: Harmonies Earthbound and Lunar

Combining works by Wagner and Schoenberg for a concert program, as the Ensemble ACJW did, makes sense.

No Teen Idol but Young at Heart

The singer Eric Michael Gillett is the first to admit that he is 57 going on 17.

Is That the Sound of a Distant Tombak?

Had you been led blindfolded into the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, you probably wouldn’t have guessed that a string quartet was performing.

Opera Company to Close

After 60 years the Amato Opera will close its doors after this season.

Idols, You’ll Have to Pass Through Her

As the new judge on “American Idol,” the feisty, heartfelt and outspoken Kara DioGuardi will have to get comfortable under the pop microscope.

• Times Topics: 'American Idol'

Bringing Back a Dead Rapper, and the Tears

To portray Biggie Smalls on film, Jamal Woolard had to lose himself.

• Trailer: 'Notorious' | Would-Be Biggies
• Urban Eye Video: Notorious in Brooklyn

New Faces, Old Sounds: Getting Back to Roots

A selection of what’s left from the pile of CDs from 2008 — some of which deserve a listen even after the deadlines have come and gone.

The Tragedy of ‘Antony and Cleopatra’

When this Samuel Barber opera inaugurated the new Metropolitan Opera House in 1966, it entered theatrical lore as one of the great operatic disasters of all time.

Notes to Soothe the Savage Cells

A playlist for living with cancer, from a music-obsessive being treated for the disease.

• Well Blog: Dana Jennings's Prostate Cancer Journal

Jon Hager, ‘Hee Haw’ Regular, Dies at 67

Mr. Hager performed with his brother Jim in the musical comedy duo the Hager Twins on the television series “Hee Haw.”

Claude Jeter, Gospel Singer With Wide Influence, Dies at 94

Mr. Jeter was the founder of the gospel group the Swan Silvertones and had a wide influence on both pop and religious singers in the 1950s and ’60s.

Songs About the Common People, Performed in an Uncommon Setting

Mr. Earle played a good, long and fidgety set of songs going back 25 years, and sang duets with Ms. Moorer, his wife, at City Winery on Thursday.

Contemporary Storm Amid Classical Waves

The New York Philharmonic turned “Gondwana,” a substantial work by Tristan Murail, into something approachable at Avery Fisher Hall on Thursday.

Period Instruments, Modern Imagination

The orchestra opened its 24th season on Thursday with strong performances from many of New York’s early-music regulars.

W. D. Zantzinger, Subject of Dylan Song, Dies at 69

Mr. Zantzinger’s six-month sentence in the fatal caning of a black barmaid moved Bob Dylan to write a dramatic, almost journalistic song in 1963 that became a classic of modern American folk music.

Jermaine Dupri Out at Island Records

Mr. Dupri was hired by Island in early 2007 to recruit artists and produce records for Island Def Jam, but has had little success at the company.

Brooklyn Philharmonic's New Firehouse Home

The architectural firm that will redesign a former firehouse to serve as the new home of the Brooklyn Philharmonic has unveiled its plans, the real estate Web site GlobeSt.com reported.

Nodding to Tradition While Pursuing the Ideal

Mario Pavone’s gig at Iridium on Wednesday had two traditions running through it: the rhythmic and harmonic grids of bebop, and the cathartic tracing-in-air of free jazz.

A Little Bit Country, a Little Bit Soft ’n’ Roll

Lady Antebellum’s blithe and sprightly show at Joe’s Pub included a performance of “All We’d Ever Need,” the most affecting track from the group’s self-titled debut album.

Lending an Ear to Lerner Songs Less Frequently Heard

Steve Ross’s new show at the Algonquin Hotel is a tasty examination of Alan Jay Lerner, the lyricist for “My Fair Lady,” “Gigi” and “Camelot.”

Addicted to Peter Lorre (That Voice, Those Eyes)

Jack Terricloth is the driving force behind “Addicted to Bad Ideas: Peter Lorre’s 20th Century,” a self-described punk songspiel that is part of the Public Theater’s Under the Radar festival.

On That Bumpy Road to Stardom, Insight in a Trail of Dashed Illusions

For Okkervil River, from Austin, Tex., self-awareness borders on an obsession.

Lead Us Lest Too Far We Wander

“Morgan Sills Sings the Johnny Mercer Songbook” is a gossipy, superficial 30-song centennial anthology that plays through the end of January at the Metropolitan Room.

Israel Horowitz, Record Producer and Billboard Columnist, Dies at 92

As the director of classical artists and repertory for Decca Records from 1958 to 1971, Mr. Horowitz produced many influential recordings.

Ron Asheton, Guitarist in the Stooges, Dies at 60

Mr. Asheton was a guitarist of the Michigan proto-punk band the Stooges, and the guiding hand of some of the most simple, satisfying and copied riffs in rock ’n’ roll.

Judging an Elusive Artist by His Distinctive Covers

Barney Bubbles’s lusciously witty artwork for bands like Hawkwind and Elvis Costello and the Attractions has made him a hero to young designers.

'Appetite for Self-Destruction'

Steve Knopper’s stark accounting of the mistakes major record labels have made in the digital era suggests they are largely responsible for their own demise.

Revisiting the Rare, in Search of a Surprise

Among the works on the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players’s Monday program at Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church were unusual glimpses of Glinka and Puccini.

Part Concert, Part Chat: Two Guys Talking Music

The bassist Christian McBride kicked off “Conversations With Christian,” a yearlong series of onstage dialogues, with words and music, at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola on Monday.

Want to Copy iTunes Music? Go Ahead, Apple Says

Apple said it would begin selling song downloads without anticopying measures and change its pricing structure.

• Bits Blog: Macworld Live Blog | Times Topics: Apple

Betty Freeman, Patron of New Music, Dies at 87

Ms. Freeman was one of the most influential patrons of contemporary composers over the last 40 years and long the keeper of a famously gracious musical salon in Los Angeles.

Where Undercurrents of Electricity Crackle Beneath a Serene Surface

Yefim Bronfman’s chamber music concert with musicians from the New York Philharmonic seemed to owe something to Carnegie Hall’s Perspectives program.

Hamming It Up With a Cuban Accent

The Cuban saxophonist, clarinetist and composer Paquito D’Rivera performed a first-time run of shows with his new band.

New CDs

New releases from Glasvegas, Scarface, Erin McCarley and the Joe Morris Bass Quartet.

Reopening a Pianist’s Treasury of Chopin

The pianist Nadia Reisenberg is a good example of dedicated artists with lower profiles who influence classical music from within and enjoy productive and important careers.

A Hefty Sound for Bach and a Piano-Centric Strauss and Szymanowski

There was not much magic in the New York Philharmonic’s performance of the “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 2.