Bargemusic Reviews & Press
New! Read Mark Peskanov’s blog, “Behind the scenes at Bargemusic”—weekly observations and stories about the performances and musicians at Bargemusic.
“[Mark Peskanov] is one of the major artists of his day, a consummate virtuoso. He also has an extraordinarily ebullient personality offstage, and that is communicated through his instrument. He is remarkably expressive.” —Markand Thakar, music director of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, quoted in the Baltimore Jewish Times, 10/5/07
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“Toward the urgent, intense conclusion of the piece, the barge, perhaps from waves created by a passing boat, seemed to rock with increased force, creating a perfect symmetry of sound and sensation.” —New York Times review of performance by clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein, cellist Nicholas Canellakis, and pianist Steven Beck, 8/31/07
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“The Scherzo for Piano, with Mr. Del Tredici himself supplying two of the four hands, was tough, tight atonality: an elegant example of the biting colors and fractured meters so dear to the postwar, post-Schoenberg school.” —New York Times review of performance by pianist Marc Peloquin 9/10/07
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“…the ruby in the tiara here is Bargemusic, which, after three decades, is now a permanent cultural icon of New York City, screaming for official landmark status.” —Denis Hamill in the Daily News 10/16/07
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“The interplay was congenial, cooperative and briskly confident at Bargemusic on Thursday night during the first of two sets by the guitarist Howard Alden and the clarinetist and tenor saxophonist Ken Peplowski. ... The two musicians were covering familiar turf in one guise or another, but with a spirit of inquiry that renewed itself at every turn.” —New York Times, 11/3/07
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“... an overflow crowd crammed every nook and cranny of the cozy room on Sunday afternoon to hear artistic director Mark Peskanov and two young charges explore the piano trio repertoire of Beethoven. Beginning before the beginning and ending with the ultimate, the threesome traversed sacred territory and did so spendidly.” —New York Sun, 7/31/07
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“There is no better way to state this than straightforwardly: The rendition of the Third Cello Sonata in A major, Op. 69 was a magnificent performance. —New York Sun review of cellist Peter Bruns & pianist Annegret Kuttner, 10/30/06
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“All of us in that little jewel of a floating room, and, it seemed, especially the two pianists were enjoying themselves immensely.” —New York Sun review of pianists Ursula Oppens and Jerome Lowenthal, 9/11/06
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It would be difficult to imagine a performance that took better advantage of the expressive potential in Ravel’s youthful work. —New York Times review of Shanghai String Quartet, 9/11/06
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“The barge, with the bridge and the towers of Lower Manhattan as a backdrop, is host to a regular series of classical concerts. This afternoon it was three violins, a viola and a cello performing pieces by Haydn, Ligeti, Dvorak and Beethoven, as we bobbed gently with each passing riverboat. —New York Times listing in “The Quest: All Culture, All the Time,” 7/14/06
see the full listing (pdf)
Over the years, Bargemusic has become the most reliably consistent venue in the city. There is simply never a poor concert here. And considering that they mount over 200 performances a year, that is really saying something. —New York Sun, 7/10/06
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Ms. Bloom's salon—an extraordinary cherry wood-lined old coffee barge--has been moored beneath the Brooklyn Bridge for the last 29 years, offering classical music to match the soaring Manhattan skyline across the way. Tens of thousands of music lovers have boarded this bobbing, cherished outpost to hear prodigies from concert stage and conservatory, vibrant as the river glistening beyond the barge's picture window. —New York Times, 5/8/06
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“One of the best places to hear chamber music in New York is a converted barge docked in Brooklyn right next to the Brooklyn Bridge.” —New York Times listing, 11/12/04
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In a surprising expansion, if only because the tiny stage holds so few players, Bargemusic…presented I Virtuosi Italiani, an Italian chamber orchestra. The group is fairly compact, with eight violinists, two violists, two cellists and a bassist, but the violists spilled off the stage and into the audience. Even so, for two of the three works on the program, Bargemusic swelled the ensemble’s ranks with New York players, perhaps as a way to maintain the spirit of chamber music collaboration that is Bargemusic’s mission. —New York Times, 7/3/04
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“The most exhilarating violin-and-piano recital of 2003 didn't open the fall season. It didn’t take place at Carnegie Hall, and it didn’t include anyone named Gidon or Mitsuko. It happened in a half-full room (and with considerable lack of ceremony) on Friday at Bargemusic, the intimate performance space that floats under the Brooklyn Bridge. The stars were the mercurial 26-year-old Moldaviaan violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and her accompanist, the 25-year-old Romanian pianist Mihaela Ursuleasa.” —New York Sun, 12/1/03
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banner photo: Anne Garland; top right photo: Etienne Frossard
