Kim Gordon Is at the Peak of Her Powers

The Carnegie slate probes these heightened tensions with some of its most exciting programming in years: on March 21, Max Raabe and his Palast Orchester return to Stern Auditorium with their swoony mix of big-band standards and heart-rending Kurt Weill songs. On March 23, Melissa Madden Gray, the provocative Australian vaudevillian who performs under the name Meow Meow, puts on a cabaret at Zankel Hall dedicated to Weimar “wild women,” including Lotte Lenya and Marlene Dietrich. On April 19, also at Zankel, the zesty band the Hot Sardines put on a set with the multitalented performer Alan Cumming (a Tony winner, for, fittingly, his turn as the m.c. in a revival of the Weimar-era musical “Cabaret”)—which promises to evoke the feeling of a nicotine-stained nineteen-twenties jazz club. The series’ offerings also extend beyond Carnegie Hall’s main building. On Thursday, March 28 (and on the last Thursdays of April and May), the trombonist J. Walter Hawkes and his band play a rowdy set at Fotografiska, as part of a free weekly companion series there, “Swinging on the Precipice.” And on April 5, Metropolitan Museum of Art staff and guest artists give a talk titled “Picturing the Weimar Republic,” about photography of the era.