The Pianist Kirill Gerstein Pulls Out of 92nd Street Y Concert

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Kirill Gerstein at Carnegie Hall in March. Richard Termine

When musicians withdraw from performances, the word “indisposed” can be useful — since it can either mean “unwell” or “unwilling.” But when the pianist Kirill Gerstein pulled out of a performance of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” in its original jazz band arrangement with Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks on Tuesday night, the opening of the 92nd Street Y’s 2015-16 season, he did not avail himself of it — and instead cited “irreconcilable artistic differences.”

Of course, that raised questions too. Were there disputes over what tempo to play? Cadenza issues? Differences of interpretation with the conductor, Maurice Peress?

Mr. Gerstein said in a telephone interview that he did not want to elaborate on his reasons for withdrawing. “I think I’m too honest to say ‘I’m sick,’ ” he said. “This would have been the easiest, and some people would have liked me to say, look — flash food poisoning, can’t play. Very easy. Story finished. I think that that’s not honest, so that’s not what was done.”

The 92nd Street Y scrambled and found a last-minute substitute: Ted Rosenthal, a respected jazz pianist.

So how was the concert? Listeners can judge for themselves online. Video of the concert was streamed for free at 92 Y on Demand. Those curious about Mr. Gerstein’s approach can see him playing the piece in the jazz band arrangement at Berklee College of Music.

New York Philharmonic Announces Next Biennial Program

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Alan Gilbert leading the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall in June 2014. Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times

Alan Gilbert will lead alumni of the Lucerne Festival in works by Ligeti and those he influenced in three concerts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Jennifer Koh will play short new works for solo violin by some 30 composers at National Sawdust in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Ilan Volkov will conduct a chamber orchestra of New York Philharmonic musicians in the United States stage premiere of Gerald Barry’s opera “The Importance of Being Earnest” at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

These are among the offerings of the second NY Phil Biennial, a new-music festival that has become one of Mr. Gilbert’s signature achievements as the Philharmonic‘s music director. The orchestra and its partners will spread out across the city from May 23 through June 11 to present works by 74 composers, including many premieres, in a program planned by Mr. Gilbert and Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Philharmonic’s composer in residence.

“Hopefully without being indiscriminate, I’ve approached these biennial planning processes as under the mantra of more is more,’’ Mr. Gilbert said in an interview, in which he spoke of the importance of the orchestra’s partner institutions. “There’s a limit to that, but the idea is to create a kind of whirlwind and maelstrom of enthusiasm and energy, and we literally could not do it alone.”

Mr. Gilbert will lead the Philharmonic in the premieres of works by William Bolcom, John Corigliano, Per Norgard and Mr. Salonen. Other ensembles performing at the festival include Brooklyn Rider, the Knights, and the JACK Quartet.

Music

Seong-Jin Cho Wins Chopin Piano Competition

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Seong-Jin Cho of South Korea, the winner of the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition. Radek Pietruszka/European Pressphoto Agency

Seong-Jin Cho, a 21-year-old pianist from South Korea, has won the gold medal at the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. The prize has helped a number of major pianists begin their careers over the years.

Charles Richard-Hamelin, 26, of Canada, won the silver medal, and Kate Liu, 21, of the United States, won the bronze, the competition announced on its website.

The prize for Mr. Cho, who studies at the Paris Conservatory, came with $33,600. Ms. Liu, who won the third prize, is studying at the Curtis Institute of Music. She has given several recitals in New York, including at Carnegie Hall and Subculture.

Past first-prize winners include Maurizio Pollini, Martha Argerich, Garrick Ohlsson, Krystian Zimerman and Rafal Blechacz. Concerts from this year’s competition can be seen and heard at www. medici.tv.

Adele Confirms New Album ‘25’ in Open Letter to Fans

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Adele’s album is named for her age at the time she wrote it, she said in an online message to fans, adding that “turning 25 was a turning point for me.” Christopher Polk/Getty Images

In a musing on aging posted to social media, Adele has announced that her long-awaited new album will be titled “25,” following the tradition of her first two releases, “19” and “21.”

Named for the age she was while writing it, “25” will reportedly be released on Nov. 20 via Columbia in the United States. The album comes close to five years after “21,” which sold some 30 million copies worldwide and won seven Grammys.

“My last record was a break-up record and if I had to label this one I would call it a make-up record,” Adele, 27, wrote on Wednesday. “I’m making up with myself. Making up for lost time. Making up for everything I ever did and never did.”

The singer added: “Turning 25 was a turning point for me, slap bang in the middle of my twenties. Teetering on the edge of being an old adolescent and a fully-fledged adult, I made the decision to go into becoming who I’m going to be forever without a removal van full of my old junk.”

The music was first teased on Sunday, in a commercial during “X Factor UK” that provided a preview but few details. “Hello, it’s me,” she sang in the clip. “I was wondering if after all these years you’d like to meet/To go over everything/They say that time’s supposed to heal you/But I ain’t done much healing.”

In her open letter, Adele concluded, “25 is about getting to know who I’ve become without realizing.”

“And I’m sorry it took so long, but you know, life happened,” she wrote.

Tough, Ribald Anne Meara Is Recalled at Tribute

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Anne Meara in her West Side apartment in 1995. Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Laughter was abundant on Tuesday at the tribute to Anne Meara, the actress, comedian and playwright, who died in May at 85.

During the remembrance at the Eugene O’Neill Theater, much was made of what her son, the actor and filmmaker Ben Stiller, called her tough Irish broad exterior, and her delight in the use of profanity by her and others. Recalling Ms. Meara’s ribald, crotch-grabbing behavior while directing her in a television movie, Bob Saget called her “one of the best men I’ve ever met.”

She was also the object of the playwright Donald Margulies’s youthful affection. “My love of shiksas can be traced back to Anne Meara,” he said. “I was 9. She was 34.”

The speakers and film and television clips suggested that there was more to Ms. Meara than wisecracking and profanity. She was an actress of diverse comic and dramatic gifts who could swap comic lines with Carroll O’Connor in “Archie Bunker’s Place” or deliver Molly Bloom’s epic soliloquy.

She could offer a few words of encouragement to her daughter, Amy Stiller, to elevate her acting performance. Liam Neeson said that Ms. Meara overcame her fear of forgetting her lines with hard work when they were in “Anna Christie” on Broadway. “She was one brave actress,” he said, punctuating his praise with one of Ms. Meara’s favorite curse words.

Michael Patrick King, who directed the “Sex and the City” films, said Ms. Meara delivered a long monologue at the end of a day of shooting for a scene in which her character has Alzheimer’s and enters a rest home. “I told her she was amazing,” Mr. King said. And, imitating her voice, he added: “She said, ‘Yeah, it’ll never make the movie.’ And it didn’t. She knew that at 6 a.m., and she still brought it for me.”

Mr. King was also proud to be “the only man on the planet who got her to do a nude scene — including Jerry,” referring to her husband, Jerry Stiller, for an episode of the “Sex and the City” series.

Mr. Stiller, 88, moved cautiously on and off the stage, flanked by his children. He recalled how, when the comedy team Stiller and Meara was hot, his wife insisted that they have children.

“Either have kids or this mishegas is over,” he recalled her saying. “We had Amy and Ben. Bingo.”

Speaking through sniffles, Amy Stiller compared her mother to Holden Caulfield in “The Catcher in the Rye. After reading the passage where Caulfield says, “What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff,” Ms. Stiller said. “That’s what Anne was for a lot of people.”

Steve Martin-Edie Brickell Musical ‘Bright Star’ Sets Broadway Opening

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Carmen Cusack in the world premiere of "Bright Star," a new American musical with music by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, in 2014 at The Old Globe theater in San Diego. Joan Marcus

“Bright Star,” a bluegrass-inflected musical with a score by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, will begin Broadway performances on March 7, 2016, following a previously announced run at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.

The show, which premiered in 2014 at The Old Globe theater in San Diego, adds to a robust slate of new musicals vying for attention (and awards) this season, headed by the smash “Hamilton” but also scheduled to include “On Your Feet!,” “Allegiance,” “School of Rock,” “Waitress,” “American Psycho” and “Tuck Everlasting.”

Joey Parnes, the lead producer, announced the Broadway plan on Tuesday, but would only specify that the show would play at a Shubert theater. (Translation: It will replace a show that’s currently flagging at the box office but hasn’t set a closing date yet.)

Carmen Cusack, who earned sterling notices for the San Diego run, will reprise her role as a North Carolina magazine editor at the center of love stories set in the 1920s and 1940s. Among those joining her in the cast will be Paul Alexander Nolan, A.J. Shively and the Tony nominees Dee Hoty and Stephen Bogardus. The Tony winner Walter Bobbie is the director.

“Bright Star” runs at the Kennedy Center from Dec 2 to Jan. 10. Opening night on Broadway is set for March 31.

Taylor Swift’s ‘Blank Space’ Is Vevo’s Most-Watched Video

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Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” has become the most-watched video on Vevo, surpassing Justin Bieber’s “Baby,” with more than 1.2 billion views.

The video is a winking response to the tabloid-driven image of Ms. Swift, depicting the rapid rise and violent fall of a relationship against an opulent fairy-tale backdrop. Joseph Kahn, who directed the clip, has also overseen major videos for Lady Gaga, Eminem, Katy Perry and Britney Spears.

Ms. Swift’s high-budget music videos for her singles from the 2014 album “1989” have dominated pop culture and caused several stirs over the past year, including the star-studded “Bad Blood,” the dance-filled “Shake It Off” and the African dreamscape “Wildest Dreams.”

“Blank Space” was also Vevo’s fastest video to hit 1 billion views, and it scooped up two V.M.A.s this year.

Theater

Royal Shakespeare Company Will Bring History Plays to BAM

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Martin Droeshout’s engraving of William Shakespeare. via Associated Press

Shakespeare’s monarchs will meet the County of Kings next year when the Royal Shakespeare Company brings its cycle of history plays to the Brooklyn Academy of Music as part of the academy’s winter and spring season.

“King & Country: Shakespeare’s Great Cycle of Kings,” which will run in repertory at the Harvey Theater between March 24 and May 1, includes “Richard II,” “Henry IV, Part 1,” “Henry IV, Part II” and “Henry V,” in productions directed by Gregory Doran, the company’s artistic director. It is the exclusive American engagement for the plays, which will also be performed at the Barbican in London — presenting the complete cycle — and in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. The BAM performances, presented with Ohio State University, will be accompanied by talks, master classes and an exhibition of rare books and objects from the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington.

The new season’s other theater offerings include “Rimbaud in New York,” a meditation on that poet’s work by the Civilians, based on translations by John Ashbery and inspired partly by the 1970s downtown New York scene; a production of “The Cherry Orchard” by the Maly Drama Theater of St. Petersburg; and “The Judas Kiss,” David Hare’s play about the downfall of Oscar Wilde, starring Rupert Everett. Dance and opera events include appearances by the Trisha Brown Dance Company, the Mariinsky Theater of St. Petersburg and Les Arts Florissants.

Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Nov. 16.

Big Ears 2016 Lineup Includes a Laurie Anderson and Philip Glass Performance

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Big Ears, one of the most wide-ranging music festivals in America, proposes a unified-field theory of immersive listening; it encompasses classical, traditional, electronic, experimental, improvising and rock traditions. On Tuesday, it announced the lineup for its 2016 festival, to be held March 31 to April 2 in the theaters and clubs of Knoxville, Tenn.

The festival has named John Luther Adams as composer in residence, and will present several of his works, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Become Ocean,” performed by the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. Laurie Anderson and Philip Glass will be on hand for the first American performance of their new collaboration. The composer and saxophonist Anthony Braxton will present both a 10-piece group and a trio.

Other selected highlights: Tony Conrad and the German band Faust will perform their 1973 collaborative album “Outside the Dream Syndicate.” Jazz musicians and improvisers on the schedule include Vijay Iyer, Wadada Leo Smith, Mary Halvorson, Kamasi Washington and the long-running Australian group the Necks; there will be electronic music from Hieroglyphic Being, Ikue Mori and Andy Stott; the power of the electric guitar will be represented by the drone-metal band Sunn O))), the Tuareg musician Bombino and the New Jersey trio Yo La Tengo. Tickets will go on sale on Friday at noon; more information is at bigearsfestival.com.

Globalfest Announces Lineup for 2016 Concert

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Zap Mama (the Belgian afrobeat artist Marie Daulne), far right, performing during Globalfest at Webster Hall in January. Karsten Moran for The New York Times

Globalfest has announced the lineup for its 13th annual concert, which will feature performers from Mexico, Ethiopia and Haiti and be held at Webster Hall on Jan. 17.

Last year, Jon Pareles wrote in The New York Times that the festival was “full of fusions both geographical and temporal: local and far-flung, old and new.” He continued, “What fortified nearly every performance was the sense that the music still comes from some place like home.”

Next year’s edition will likewise showcase an intriguing mix of artists devoted to cultural exchange and preservation. The singer Astrid Hadad brings vibrant cabaret and subversive performance art from Mexico City. Fendika, an ensemble led by the exuberant dancer Melaku Belay, mixes traditional music and dance from Ethiopia. And Debauche reroutes Russian punk through New Orleans.

Lakou Mizik from Haiti, Mariana Sadovska, from Ukraine, and Tribu Baharú, from Colombia, will also perform, as well as Ginkgoa (France), Ironing Board Sam (United States), Stelios Petrakis Quartet (Greece) and the Dhol Foundation (Britain).

More information is on Globalfest’s website.