Cynthia Peck, Author at Metropole

newsletter

Wien Modern IV | A Private Vastness

Michael Hersch treats his audience to an 11-hour concert at Wien Modern

Cynthia Peck - November 21, 2019

Online

Wien Modern V | Closing the Gap

Listening to new music is not rocket science – it is simply a blend of memories, expectations and discovery.

Cynthia Peck - November 13, 2019

General

Wien Modern III | Anything That Moves

I guess human beings will always pay attention to anything that moves. Or makes noise. In fact, I paid attention to people doing both for more than an...

Cynthia Peck - November 7, 2019

Online

Wien Modern II | Arditti Quartet

Reading new music as if it were a newspaper, they play with a finesse, erudition and passion that is breathtaking.

Cynthia Peck - November 6, 2019

Online

Wien Modern Erupts

The opening concert of Vienna’s festival of new music kicks off five weeks of contemporary sounds.

Cynthia Peck - November 4, 2019

Culture

Music is Trump

The Resonanzen Festival, nine intensive days of early music in January, confirms that music still holds all the cards. It’s not f...

Cynthia Peck - January 18, 2019

Culture

Culture Music | November

Mesmeric Metamusic Composer Olga Neuwirth creates magnificent soundscapes from apparent chaos Following one modernist paradigm in the fine arts ...

Cynthia Peck - November 27, 2018

Culture

Our Guide to Musiksommer in Lower Austria

Vienna closes its concert halls in the summer, but the nearby countryside offers a plethora of musical events For much of July and August, Vienna...

Cynthia Peck - June 30, 2018

Culture

“Supersaturated with Electricity” | Anticipation for Arnold Schönberg Anniversary Exhibi...

Twenty years of the Arnold Schönberg Center and an exhibit on Jung-Wien, Vienna’s fin-de-siècle creative wave “New music is never beautiful on fi...

Cynthia Peck - May 28, 2018

Culture

Fame and Fable | Composer Ignaz Pleyel’s Forgotten Legacy

On composer Ignaz Pleyel and a tiny museum less than an hour from Vienna. It’s a story that sounds like sardoodledom – a contrived plot, improbab...

Cynthia Peck - May 3, 2018

Music

Silence! Or What to Do on International Noise Awareness Day

Thoughts about music in a raucous world and International Noise Awareness Day. The concert halls in Vienna are phenomenal spaces. You might think I...

Cynthia Peck - March 29, 2018

Music

The Millennials of the Cuarteto Casals Present a Two-Weekend Cycle of the Complete String Quartets b...

Some might find it astonishing that the string quartets by Beethoven continue to be a defining edifice in the music world. But once again, ther...

Cynthia Peck - February 13, 2018

Music

Is Music Composed Before 1961 old?

The Klangforum’s Festliche Tage Alter Musik – with works composed between 1908 and 1961 – show us how old (and beautiful) modern music really ...

Cynthia Peck - January 31, 2018

Music

If you Love Classical Music, Keep Your CD Player on Hand

The compact disc is still a viable archival medium, especially for classical music.

Cynthia Peck - October 31, 2017

Music

Wunderkind or not, Vienna’s Amateur Orchestras Give you a Stage

A plethora of orchestras for non-professionals makes Vienna a paradise for amateur music You took piano lessons and then you quit. The lessons ...

Cynthia Peck - September 28, 2017

Culture

At the Theater an der Wien René Jacobs Does The Magic Flute

Enchanting and confusing, Die Zauberflöte returns to the house it helped build However you look at it, the story is confusing. Somehow, Mozart’s ...

Cynthia Peck - August 30, 2017

Restaurants

L’Orient Serves up Savory Morrocan in Leopoldstadt

The cuisine of Morocco at L’Orient combines warm spices with a carefully designed space In Arabic, khattat means calligrapher, the scribe whose p...

Cynthia Peck - August 30, 2017

Music

Summer at Schloss Grafenegg, Where Classical Music Meets the Outdoors

Outdoor concerts at Schloß Grafenegg are the perfect setting for an ambrosial sound experience My first summer job as a teenager was ushering at ...

Cynthia Peck - July 1, 2017

Music

Take me to Church! Vienna’s Godliest Music Venues

Your guide to the best musical performances at churches throughout Vienna. It is obvious, but must be said: A church is not a concert hall. But...

Cynthia Peck - June 1, 2017

Music

The Konzerthaus Celebrates Pierre Boulez’s Legacy one Year After his Death

Composer, interpreter and conductor Pierre Boulez is unquestionably the most important “serious” musical figure of the last seven decades No one ...

Cynthia Peck - April 29, 2017

Music

Celebrating the Strauss Dynasty and the 150th Birthday of the Viennese Waltz

The Strauss Family: Kings of the Blue Danube Music megastars are the kings: the king of pop, the king of rock, the king of the guitar. Vienna’s...

Cynthia Peck - March 31, 2017

Music

Celebrating 200 Years of Teaching Music and Performing Arts

The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (MDW) celebrates its 200th anniversary with a cascade of events Friends of mine used to live...

Cynthia Peck - March 6, 2017

Music

The Power of Four

The enduring fascination of string quartets for musicians, composers and audiences The remarkable thing about the string quartet is how it endure...

Cynthia Peck - February 6, 2017

Music

Sounding Treasures

What do old musical instruments displayed in glass cases have to do with music? The world-renowned Collection of Historic Musical Instruments has the ...

Cynthia Peck - December 5, 2016

Music

The Toughest Ticket in Town

A closer look at the Vienna Philharmonic and the New Year’s Concert, its most important event of the year A curious thing, tradition. On the firs...

Cynthia Peck - December 5, 2016

Music

Bernhard Günther of the Wien Modern Festival Answers Unanswered Questions

Bernhard Günther, the new artistic director of the Wien Modern festival, sets his course Where do we come from? Where are we going? And where the...

Cynthia Peck - November 1, 2016

Music

Elysium and the Death of Socrates

Ernst Krenek’s opera Pallas Athene weint: A musical megaphone for our political times. Does music amplify the uproar of the world around us, or d...

Cynthia Peck - October 1, 2016

Music

Vienna’s Classical Music | Tonight’s the Night

An intro to subscriptions for the upcoming music season, or how to remember where you put the tickets The concert season has finally reopened. From...

Cynthia Peck - September 1, 2016

Culture

On Stage: Impulstanz – Kaleidoscopes of Movement

Europe’s largest contemporary dance festival soars above all preconceptions Dancers dream of space, limitless space to move. Of rooms with no...

Cynthia Peck - July 1, 2016

June 2016

On Music: Profound Lightness

Pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja celebrates her 70th birthday performing Franz Schubert Pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja doesn’t take time for pleasantries...

Cynthia Peck - June 1, 2016

April 2016

On Music: Nigel Kennedy – Irreverently Reverent

Nigel Kennedy pays tribute to the king of electric guitar with his Jimi Hendrix Project Lime green sneakers, a messy, greying punk haircut, baggy...

Cynthia Peck - April 1, 2016

March 2016

On Music: Of Triangles and Other Groups of Three

Péter Eötvös’s Tri Sestri at the Staatsoper: A cornerstone work about paths not taken, memory and farewells It takes only about ten notes of a lo...

Cynthia Peck - March 1, 2016

February 2016

Concert: Gambling on a Gothic Master

René Clemencic and his Consort celebrate half a century of early music concerts at the Musikverein What do we know about European music in 1492, ...

Cynthia Peck - February 1, 2016

December/January 2015/2016

On Music: Stages for the Little Ones

A plethora of performances on stages both large and small, to delight even the youngest. So borrow a child and go! One of the most wondrous momen...

Cynthia Peck - December 15, 2015

December/January 2015/2016

Be My Guest: Steirereck Chef Heinz Reitbauer

Steirereck's Chef Heinz Reitbauer's quest is perfection – or a reflection of the essence.

Cynthia Peck - December 10, 2015

Music

On Stage: Pop.Song.Voice. – Wien Modern

Wien Modern, the festival for new music, in its 28th year Apparently Wien Modern wants to change its image. This year the nearly month-long festiva...

Cynthia Peck - November 1, 2015

Stage

L’Incoronazione di Poppea

The Theater an der Wien concludes its Monteverdi trilogy with this bloody tale of desire Opera is an exotic and irrational entertainment,” observed S...

Cynthia Peck - October 1, 2015