The Observer (UK) 05/18/13

The New York Times (Texas Monthly) 05/18/13

The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition begins next week, and its problems cannot all be attributed to the death of its namesake earlier this year.    

After winning over a Webster Hall crowd, the band Wild Cub said on Facebook: “Thank you New York. You gave us two sold out shows in one week, we gave you half our equipment.”    

This week, Bradford Cox barks on Deerhunter’s “Monomania”; Patty Griffin’s “American Kid” is an elegy for her father; and Bobby McFerrin takes a playful yet devotional look at Negro spirituals on “Spirityouall.”    

With nary an encore, the troubled, and troublesome, mechanized set for the “Ring” cycle at the Met is being placed in storage for at least a few years.    

In “Fama,” the composer Beat Furrer seamlessly blends notions from two disparate sources: Ovid’s depiction of a house in “Metamorphoses” and Arthur Schnitzler’s novella “Fraulein Else.”    

Michael Jackson’s oldest son, once shielded by his father from any public exposure, has appeared on TV and made his acting debut.    

The Young Concert Artists showcased three of its gifted musicians — the violinist Bella Hristova, and the pianists Benjamin Moser and Louis Schwizgebel — who played concertos with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Alice Tully Hall.    

Discussing punk’s origins and its legacy, and answering the question: what did hippies ever do to punks to be so hated?    

The days of CDs and liner notes are mostly gone, but for those wanting all of the information about the music they listen to, Rhapsody, for one, is now providing digital credits.    

The International Contemporary Ensemble, joined by Third Coast Percussion, performed works by Julio Estrada at the Miller Theater on Thursday night.    

Mabel Mercer and Bobby Short shared the stage at Town Hall in an epic concert on May 19, 1968; a concert on Thursday night paid tribute to these titans of cabaret.    

The pianist Yuja Wang, whose petite frame contrasts with her forceful playing, performed lush post-Romantic works and a Lowell Liebermann piece on Thursday at Carnegie Hall.    

The Scottish singer and songwriter won prizes for best song and most performed work.    

The debut album from Candice Glover, winner of “American Idol” on Thursday night, is set for a July release.    

XXL Freshmen Live 2013, at the Best Buy Theater, isn’t really the rookie show it purports to be.    

As Wagner’s 200th birthday approaches, one of his interpreters, the German conductor Christian Thielemann, is in the process of scaling back the excess in his own life.    

This week, the North American premiere of debut albums by the London-based retro-pop singer Willy Moon and the Australian indie band Alpine.    

Ta’u Pupu’a, a former N.F.L. lineman, is now a rising tenor with the Hawaii Opera Theater.