Tonight occurred the annual rite of passage that heralds the beginning of a new classical concert season in this country: Live from Lincoln Center’s live telecast of the Opening Night Gala of the New York Philharmonic. It was hardly a ground-breaking tv event: Yo-yo Ma played the Dvorak Cello Concerto for the 80,000th time, and this was followed up by…wait for it…Dvorak’s Seventh Symphony. My spine hardly tingled when I read that information, so we missed the cello concerto due to a marathon viewing of the first five episodes of “Heroes” on DVD. We did catch the last three movements of the symphony, so I can (and will) comment on what I saw of that. [Read more →]