Bargemusic Reviews & Press
“It had been nearly a year since I'd been to Bargemusic, the floating concert hall docked at the Fulton Street pier in Brooklyn, so it was a great pleasure in any case to be back there last Saturday night. They have even acquired new chairs in the interval, so to all the other pleasures of the Barge—that is, classical music in an intimate setting, the stupendous view of the Manhattan skyline out the glass wall behind the stage, airconditioned splendor in summer and congenial warmth in winter, and the occasional gentle rocking of the boat—one can now add seating comfort. But simply being back in this delightful setting was not enough to account for my exuberance last Saturday. That can be attributed to the three musicians: Mark Peskanov on violin, Nicholas Canellakis on cello, and Adam Golka on piano. Together, they selected and performed the kind of program that I only get to hear about once out of every thirty or forty tries—a program in which everything seems both perfect and exciting.” —“Back at Bargemusic", by Wendy Lesser, ARTicles, 6/23/11
“This was magical. Please pardon the purple prose. Magical is a word best handled with critical care. But it is apt in contemplation of Bargemusic, the sophisticated chamber-music series presented in a floating, gently bobbing concert-hall at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. Although operating since 1977 — about 220 programmes annually — it remains one of New York’s better-kept secrets.” —“Barber on the Barge", New York, Financial Times, 8/3/10
“A violinist who has played the world over with the likes of Yo-Yo Ma and Isaac Stern, Peskanov steered his considerable talents back to New York, and has anchored himself for the past seven years at what is possibly the Big Apple’s most unique venue. His mission is to bring classical music down from the rarefied rafters into the heart and soul of the city.” —“Meet Your Friendly Neighborhood Master Violinist,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 6/15/10
“…as usually happens during performances of Feldman’s more expansive conceptions, an initial period of ennui ultimately gave way to something approaching a hypnotic bliss: a disembodied sensation heightened here by Bargemusic’s amniotic wobble.” —“Amniotic Rocking, Broken by Morton Feldman’s Whisper Quiet,” New York Times, 6/6/10
“When you take your seat, you face a stage set before a large window that offers a spectacular view: the river, with its varied traffic, and the looming cityscape of Lower Manhattan. The performances, by an expansive roster of regulars, as well as visiting ensembles and soloists, are typically so involving that they eclipse even the view.” —“A Music Hall Sways to Its Own Beat,” New York Times, 5/20/10
“Although New York City has a happy myriad of concert halls, few can compete in distinctiveness with Bargemusic.” —“Bargemusic: Magic on the Waterfront,” entry on The New York Grapevine 3/3/10
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“Bargemusic. Mark Peskanov has enlivened this former coffee barge, where you can hear first-class chamber music by everyone from Bach to Bright Sheng.” —“Brooklyn vs. Manhattan,” Time Out New York, 3/3/10
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“Presenting a stunning 220 concerts a year, Bargemusic also preserves the more intimate, social tradition of chamber music. … There’s an undeniable coziness to the setting, enveloped in dark wood paneling, with spectacular views of lower Manhattan and the occasional seagull swooping past the windows.” —“Fan of Fulton Ferry Discovers a New Treasure,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle 1/4/2010
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“Bargemusic is perfect for Manhattanites wanting an easily accessible, relaxing get-away or any New Yorker wishing to experience intelligent musical programming performed by world-class musicians.” —“Bargemusic: Grand Scenery to Match Marvelous Music,” entry on 212City.net
“The music’s real charm is its inventive, richly detailed piano writing, which Steven Beck put forth with suppleness and agility.” —“A Weekend for Floating on the East River,” New York Times, 9/4/09
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“When "Thoughts on Marvin Gaye," a restless work for string quartet by the adventurous jazz composer Don Byron, is the most conventional piece on the program, you know you are attending a no-fooling modern music event. And so it was on Friday night at Bargemusic, the popular venture atop a floating barge docked at Fulton Ferry Landing near the Brooklyn Bridge, a wonderfully intimate place to hear chamber music.” —New York Times, 7/20/09
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“In 1976 the violinist Olga Bloom bought a dilapidated barge and renovated it herself. Her unusual venture resulted in one of the best places to hear chamber music in New York: an intimate floating concert hall, moored at the Fulton Ferry Landing in Brooklyn, that bobs gently against a backdrop of the Manhattan skyline.” —New York Times, 4/4/09
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“Having done important work with its Here and Now contemporary music series, Bargemusic hopes to do the same for music at the other end of the historical spectrum with a new early-music series, There and Then.” —New York Times, 2/20/09
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“The concert presented by the Jubilee Trio at Bargemusic on Friday night was billed as a commemoration of Lincoln’s birthday and the lOOth anniversary of the NAA.C.P. But this rare New York appearance by the group’s three noteworthy Boston musicians—the contralto Marion Dry, the baritone Robert Honeysucker and the pianist Leslie Amper—was itself cause for celebration.” —New York Times, 2/3/09
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“[A] successful piece sparks imitation, leading to both a fresh repertory and new groups to execute it. Those ensembles then compel the creation of more custom-tailored music. Presumably that explains how the Electrum Duo—the relatively unorthodox pairing of a flutist, Sophia Anastasia, and a percussionist, Ralph Sorrentino—was able to fill the two-hour program at Bargemusic on Friday night. Appearing as part of the praiseworthy Here and Now series devoted to contemporary American music, they covered an impressive range of styles in 10 works composed since 1960”. —New York Times, 12/1/08
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“The orchestra held the stage for the rest of the concert, which continued with Jonathan Leshnoff’s handsomely wrought, lyrical Trombone Concerto. Christopher Dudley, the soloist, played glowing melodic lines over autumnal string harmonies in the outer movements. An animated central section featured a leaping solo part and playful interplay among the string sections.” —New York Times, 11/4/08
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“My girlfriend Zoe and I went with another couple to Bargemusic recently for the first time, and it was fantastic.” —”Pulse: My New York,” New York Post, 10/4/08
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“‘Bright Music’ … lived up to its title. In the first movement of "Fandango," impressionistic ripples of jaunty sound are followed by a robust waltz. ‘Pierrot,’ the subdued second movement, features wistful flute and string melodies. String pizzicatos dance over a whirling piano line in ‘Dance-SongDance,’ the third movement, with two lively sections interspersed with a Coplandesque interlude.” —New York Times, 9/9/08
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“Bargemusic has been gradually reinventing itself in recent seasons, and probably the most striking change has been in its programming of new music. Its Here and Now concerts, which are turning up with increasing frequency, are devoted entirely to contemporary works. MUSIC Mark Peskanov, the violinist who now oversees the barge’s programming (his official title is president, executive and artistic director), has been commissioning new works and is treating them as repertory rather than as one-off special events.” —New York Times, 9/1/08
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“The Zukofsky Quartet seems intent on looking past the favorites of the quartet repertory and exploring works that may not yet have had a fair hearing. At its public debut, last December at Bargemusic, the group introduced itself with quartets by Milton Babbitt, Fritz Kreisler and Verdi. It was an audacious debut program: if you want to declare your emancipation from the tried and true, you probably can’t do much better than that. In its Bargemusic concert on Saturday evening, the quartet also focused on inviting rarities. —“Giving Chamber Repertory Some Dashes of Adventure,” New York Times, 8/26/08
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“Beyond a shimmering technique, Mr. Peskanov presented the first movement as heroic, varied in tonal color and breadth and punctuated with a cadenza that deconstructed the music in a noticeably contemporary manner. The orchestra supported with broad strokes and underlying fire. The middle Larghetto was the highlight of the evening, as the soloist designed and delivered the most delicate of tapestries. When the violin finally sings byitself, Mr. Peskanov established and nurtured a lovely cantabile tone, luxuriating in lyrical line. This was music making of the highest order.” —New York Sun, 8/4/08
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“[H]is program was chock full of challenging works by some of the 20th century’s more formidable musical thinkers, including Roger Sessions, Ralph Shapey, Stefan Wolpe and the now ubiquitous Elliott Carter. But Mr. Holzman’s intent was to humanize these figures and to provide an entry point for comprehending their music.” —”Floating, Personalizing and Performing,” David Holzman at Bargemusic, New York Times, 8/4/08
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“[I]n a concert by the NeoLit Ensemble at Bargemusic on Friday night, it was refreshing to encounter a slate of works by seven female composers, presented without any hint of corrective polemic. … The event was part of Bargemusic’s admirable Here and Now series, which celebrates contemporary American music, no further qualifiers attached.” —“And Now, Works by Female Composers (Hold the Polemics),” New York Times, 7/1/08
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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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“There was a good deal of freshness in his approach, which put a little more emphasis on momentum and drama than violinists tend to do these days. Peskanov added welcome personal touches in the cadenzas - he wrote them himself. They were full of propulsion and bravura, yet not excessively so.” —Review of Mark Peskanov performance with Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Baltimore Sun, 10/18/07
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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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“[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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“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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“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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“... 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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“[T]he concert was tremendously exciting, though as always some of the credit goes to the setting for this popular series: an actual barge docked at the Fulton Ferry Landing near the Brooklyn Bridge and seating about 160. Audiences are engulfed by Bargemusic performances. And the Flux players held nothing back in this bracing program.” —New York Times, 6/29/07
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“The one aspect of this realization that Mr. Crumb could not have written into the score turned out to be the most transporting of all. The rocking of the water beneath us all not only supported the whale imagery, but, more significantly, was the ideal atmosphere for a birthing experience.” —New York Sun, 6/4/07
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“[George] Crumb is occasionally rediscovered by young, hip Americans: seekers of freshness who might not be caught dead at a string quartet concert but like his provoking experiments with sound. Crumb revivals like the one at Bargemusic on Wednesday night show that serious and talented musicians like the Sonar Players are interested too. The violinist Mark Peskanov is doing Bargemusic’s planning now and has ideas for more American evenings in the future.” —New York Times, 6/1/07
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“Times Says Fulton Ferry Landing a ‘Ghost Town’, Overlooks Bargemusic, River Cafe, Fireboat House, Eagle Warehouse, and the Landing Itself.” —McBrooklyn blog, 5/20/07
Back in 1976, violinist Olga Bloom had the offbeat notion of mooring an inactive coffee barge at Fulton Ferry Landing, near the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, and converting it into a floating chamber-music space. Thirty-plus years later, Bargemusic remains one of New York’s busiest, liveliest concert halls: for years, it has presented a steady stream of concerts on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons. The experience of gently rocking while you listen can be slightly disconcerting at first, but the setting is intimate and the sound is remarkable. —Night After Night blog, 4/25/07
The dance-like finale rippled off the fingers of Peskanov as crisp as new snowflakes. His total control of this devilish movement brought the house to its feet. The muted warmth of his violin added a gentle range of colors to this flashy concerto. —review of Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra in News Tribune, 1/29/07
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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
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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
