Author Archives: susannisbett
The List: 2014 in the Arts!
SUSAN ISAACS NISBETT (Ann Arbor, Dec. 31, 2014) It’s time to say good-bye to 2014 and welcome in the New Year. It’s a time to settle accounts and make plans, but I’ll wait till tomorrow to do the latter. Today, … Continue reading
Turin’s “William Tell” hits the mark in Chicago
SUSAN ISAACS NISBETT (Ann Arbor, Dec. 9, 2014) It’s possible that I’d fall in love with any opera performance that included complimentary tiramisu, cannoli and coffee at the first intermission; crisp apples and more coffee at the second. But Rossini’s … Continue reading
Leonidas Kavakos and Yuja Wang: Hearing with your eyes
SUSAN ISAACS NISBETT (Ann Arbor, Nov. 29, 2014) Hearing with your eyes was not the main thing on my mind during Yuja Wang and Leonidas Kavakos’ recital at Hill Auditorium Sunday Nov. 23, presented by the University Musical Society. No, … Continue reading
San Francisco Symphony, Night Two: Invitation to the Dance
SUSAN ISAACS NISBETT (Ann Arbor, Nov. 16, 2014) Is it all about the dancing? In a way, it was, for better and worse, at the San Francisco Symphony’s second concert of two at Hill Auditorium this week, under University Musical … Continue reading
Stellar Mahler from the San Francisco Symphony in the first of 2 UMS performances
Susan Isaacs Nisbett (Ann Arbor, Nov. 15, 2014) It’s cold. It’s dark. The ground is a little icy from a slick of snow. It’s a good night to be moving toward the light. Whether they knew it or not, that’s … Continue reading
Anton Nel: An old friend returns for A2SO’s ‘Tchaikovsky & Friends’
Susan Isaacs Nisbett (Ann Arbor, Nov. 13, 2014) When your concerto soloist is marooned by a massive snowstorm and stuck 500 miles from the concert hall, who you gonna call? For the Cleveland Orchestra, one winter back in the mid-‘90s, … Continue reading
When San Francisco Symphony returns to Ann Arbor, even what’s old is new
Susan Isaacs Nisbett (Ann Arbor, Nov. 12, 2014) The San Francisco Symphony – Mahler, Liszt, Prokofiev and Ravel Who: The San Francisco Symphony What: Two different concerts, featuring Mahler (Thursday); and Liszt, Prokofiev and Ravel (Friday). Where: Hill Auditorium, 825 … Continue reading
If it’s Saturday, it must be the USA: A2SO concert highlights what’s homegrown
Susan Isaacs Nisbett (Ann Arbor, Oct. 12, 2014) I’m reminded, as I write this review, of the scary name-that-tune tests we had to take in college music history: As the stylus descended on a mystery LP (yup, that’s what we … Continue reading
All-American: A2SO presents ‘Made in the USA’
Susan Isaacs Nisbett (Ann Arbor, Oct.11, 2014) Arie Lipsky, music director of the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, is a man on the move. Literally. “I’m just dusty and trying to remember what I put where,” he said by phone recently … Continue reading
Sleight of hand: ‘Kiss & Cry’ offers a world of dreamlike illusion
Susan Isaacs Nisbett (Ann Arbor, Oct.11, 2014) A miniature train loops around a track through a bucolic landscape where cows graze alongside an improbable giraffe. Toy people sit on park benches, watch their neighbors through dollhouse windows, stand in little … Continue reading
The Downbeat 