Best Recordings of 2012 (#4)

Time for a review of classical CDs that were outstanding in 2012. My lists for the previous years: 2011, (2011 – “Almost”), 2010, (2010 – “Almost”), 2009, (2009 – “Almost”), 2008, (2008 - "Almost") 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004.
# 4 - New Release
F.Schubert, Fanatsie in C, Rondo in b, Sonata in A, Carolin Widmann, Alexander Lonquich, ECM 1648702




Schumann, Fanatsie, Rondo, Sonata
C.Widmann,

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Ionarts-at-Large: HJ Lim, Ken Masur, and Hints of Scriabin

HJ Lim is best known for a marketing blast by EMI, eager to promote the young Korean pianist’s recording of the (almost*) complete Beethoven sonatas which was given away for a tenner on iTunes: An audacious undertaking, accompanied by cringe-worthy high-falutin’ ‘chapter-titles’ into which Lim divided the sonatas. The accompanying essays fluctuate between astute observation and reinforcing the

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Classical Music Agenda (January 2013)

Happy New Year to all of our readers! Now that we have nearly put 2012 in the rear view mirror, it is time to think about the ten concerts we most want to hear in the coming month. Hope to see you at some of these performances!

VIRTUOSOS:
The last Sunday of the month features an impossible pileup of top-notch performers, all of whom we want to hear. Violinist Rachel Barton Pine will perform all

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Ionarts-at-Large: Mahler in Frankfurt

The same Frankfurt Opera & Museum Orchestra—if not the identical personnel—that had performed L’étoile and Pelléas et Mélisande on the Saturday and Sunday before returned on Monday to Frankfurt’s Old Opera—remodeled in the 80s to become a concert house*—for Gustav Mahler’s Third Symphony.

To meet Mahler’s immodest demands on the orchestra, MD Sebastian Weigle picked 22 students from the

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Best Recordings of 2012 (#5)

Time for a review of classical CDs that were outstanding in 2012. My lists for the previous years: 2011, (2011 – “Almost”), 2010, (2010 – “Almost”), 2009, (2009 – “Almost”), 2008, (2008 - "Almost") 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004.
# 5 - New Release
Max Richter / Antonio Vivaldi, Recomposed - The Four Seasons, D.Hope, André de Ridder, Konzerthaus CO, DG 1748602



M.Richter, Recomposed / Four Seasons

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In Brief: Sixth Day of Christmas Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to online audio, online video, and other good things in Blogville and Beyond. (After clicking to an audio or video stream, press the "Play" button to start the broadcast.) It is a full selection that should divert you all week.


For your extended holiday listening, sacred music by Bach performed by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Concentus Musicus

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Best Recordings of 2012 (#6)

Time for a review of classical CDs that were outstanding in 2012. My lists for the previous years: 2011, (2011 – “Almost”), 2010, (2010 – “Almost”), 2009, (2009 – “Almost”), 2008, (2008 - "Almost") 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004.
# 6 - New Release
August De Boeck, Piano Concerto, Theroigne De Mericourt Prelude, Francesca Orchestral Suite, Jozef de Beenhouwer, Ivo Venkov, Janácek Ph.O., Phaedra 92071

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Ionarts-at-Large: The Domestication of Pelléas and Mélisande

There they stand like two lonely snowmen: Christiane Karg’s Mélisande and Christian Gerhaher’s Pelléas at the opera’s end, as if they had never done anything else. And in truth, they hadn’t… such is the strangely intoxicating stasis of Debussy’s only opera.

Pelléas et Mélisande glides along at a tranquil pace on the deep black waters of Debussy’s music, an endless instrumental parlando

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Classical Month in Washington (January)

Last month | Next monthClassical Month in Washington is a monthly feature. If there are concerts you would like to see included on our schedule, send your suggestions by e-mail (ionarts at gmail dot com). Happy listening!

January 4, 2013 (Fri)
8 pm
U.S. Navy Band [FREE]
GMU Center for the Arts

January 5, 2013 (Sat)
2 pm
Brian Ganz, piano [FREE mini-concert]
Music by Chopin
JCCGW

January 5,

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Best Recordings of 2012 (#7)

Time for a review of classical CDs that were outstanding in 2012. My lists for the previous years: 2011, (2011 – “Almost”), 2010, (2010 – “Almost”), 2009, (2009 – “Almost”), 2008, (2008 - "Almost") 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004.
# 7 - New Release
Hans Pfitzner, Palestrina, K.Petrenko, Frankfurt Opera & Museum Orchestra and Chorus, Oehms OC 930



Hans Pfitzner, Palestrina
K.Petrenko / Frankfurt Opera &

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Best (and Worst) of 2012

It is time to take stock of the year that was, with a list of the ten best concerts I heard here in the Washington area. These are in no particular order of preference, listed simply in chronological order. A few honorable (and dishonorable) mentions, in various categories, and a remembrance of some of the artists we mourned in 2012 are added at the end. Happy New Year to all our readers!

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Best Recordings of 2012 (#8)

Time for a review of classical CDs that were outstanding in 2012. My lists for the previous years: 2011, (2011 – “Almost”), 2010, (2010 – “Almost”), 2009, (2009 – “Almost”), 2008, (2008 - "Almost") 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004.
# 8 - New Release
L.v.Beethoven & A.Berg, Violin Concertos, Isabelle Faust, Claudio Abbado, Orchestra Mozart, Harmonia Mundi 902105


>
L.v.Beethoven, A.Berg, Violin Concertos,

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Best Recordings of 2012 (#9)

Time for a review of classical CDs that were outstanding in 2012. My lists for the previous years: 2011, (2011 – “Almost”), 2010, (2010 – “Almost”), 2009, (2009 – “Almost”), 2008, (2008 - "Almost") 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004.
# 9 - New Release
A.Diepenbrock, Orchestral Works, Symphonic & Orchestrated Songs, Missa in die festo, et al., Various artists, et'cetera KTC1435



A.Diepenbrock, Collected

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Best Recordings of 2012 (#10)

Time for a review of classical CDs that were outstanding in 2012. My lists for the previous years: 2011, (2011 – “Almost”), 2010, (2010 – “Almost”), 2009, (2009 – “Almost”), 2008, (2008 - "Almost") 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004.
# 10 - New Release
E-P. Salonen, Violin Concerto, Nyx, Leila Josefowicz, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Finnish RSO, DG 1752102



E-P.Salonen, Violin Concerto, Nyx,
L.Josefowicz /

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Merry Christmas 2012: The Lord Said to Me

NEW HEAVEN, NEW WARRE

Come to your heaven, yowe heavenly quires!
Earth hath the heaven of your desires;
Remove your dwellinge to your God,
A stall is nowe His beste abode;
Sith men their homage do denye,
Come, angells, all their faults supply.

His chilling could doth heate require,
Come, seraphins, in liew of fire;
This little ark no cover hath,
Let cherubs' winges his body swath;
Come,

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High Camp With Elegance: Alden’s Fabulously Entertaining L’étoile

Emmanuel Chabrier’s opéra bouffe L'étoile is very light stuff. The music is fluffy enough to make Wodehouse seem somber reading in comparison. But as with Wodehouse, the craftsmanship is audible, the ingredients refined, and the outcome of the kind of pretty sophistication that belies its superficial simplicity.

There’s plenty of dialogue in the opéra bouffe which raises the question of whether

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À mon chevet: Robert Southwell

À mon chevet is a series of posts featuring a quote from whatever book is on my nightstand at the moment.

Benjamin Britten chose poetry by the Elizabethan poet Robert Southwell for two of the movements of his Ceremony of Carols. Heard in a recent performance, Southwell's words have been haunting me for the last few days. His poetry was published posthumously, and he wrote most of it while

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In Brief: Advent IV Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to online audio, online video, and other good things in Blogville and Beyond. (After clicking to an audio or video stream, press the "Play" button to start the broadcast.)


From the Pesaro Festival, Ewa Podles and Michael Spyres star in Rossini's Ciro in Babilonia, conducted by Will Crutchfield last August. [Österreichischer Rundfunk]

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'Hansel and Gretel'

Sarah Mesko (Hansel) and Emily Albrink (Gretel),
Washington National Opera (photo by Scott Suchman)
When Washington National Opera inaugurated a new family opera tradition with a production of Engelbert Humperdinck's charming opera Hansel and Gretel at the Lincoln Theater in 2007, we were charmed. The tradition, it turned out, took a while to take root, but after a five-year hiatus, the company

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Ionarts-at-Large: A Blend of Riccardo Muti

Riccardo Muti gets bravos just for bowing before the concert. He does it so stylishly, granted. He bows, moves, even stands, certainly conducts with grace, aloof dignity. The crease of his trousers always seems to fall just right. It’s magical. Much like his hair. He’s the master of the gorgeously homogenized blend (vowel interchangeable, on occasion), and creates great nuance within that broad

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'Screwtape Letters' at the Lansburgh

C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (1942)
C. S. Lewis was one of the important Christian apologists of the last century, although criticism has been chipping away at his reputation. His delightful series of Narnia books for young adults is perhaps the most influential example of this side of his work, but he also wrote a number of works that put a modern spin on many facets of Christianity. One

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The M-Word

Charles T. Downey, Rolf Beck leads NSO, soloists in a workmanlike version of Handel’s ‘Messiah’
Washington Post, December 21, 2012


T. F. Kelly, First Nights: Five Musical Premiers (including Messiah) (2001)
Handel’s “Messiah” is a remarkably sturdy piece of music. How many other works could stand up so well to so many years of far too many performances?

The National Symphony Orchestra, for

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Brassy Christmas

Charles T. Downey, At Strathmore, Washington Symphonic Brass sound their holiday horns
Washington Post, December 20, 2012
One of the benefits of life in Washington is a surfeit of talented brass players, employed by the area’s orchestras and military service bands. Many talented musicians from the Army and Marine bands, and some from farther away, were featured in the Washington Symphonic Brass

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Ionarts-at-Large: Maazel's Warhorses

Every praise of Maazel from city or orchestra officials smacks of desperation, full of preemptive retaliatory barbs against Christian Thielemann; coded in language that stresses—beyond breaking point—the variety of repertoire that Maazel brings to the Munich Philharmonic. A worthy cause, variety, but undermined by programs like this:

Wagner: Tannhäuser Overture, Debussy: La Mer, Stravinsky: Le

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Folger Consort's Trecento Natale

Laudario di Cortona: A Medieval Mystery, Ensemble Organum, M. Pérès (1996)
[Listen]
The Folger Consort's annual Christmas Concert has been on an international tour for the last several years: Spain (2011), England (2010), Germany (2009), and Spain again (2008). The ensemble, which has won the coveted Ionarts Christmas Concert Award more than once, took us to Italy this year, with a program

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Ionarts-at-Large: Penderecki's New Double Concerto

On November 15th and 16th, under the eyes of the composer, Julian Rachlin and Janine Jansen gave the German premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki’s brand new Double Concerto which had received its world premiere in Vienna just a few weeks earlier. The last time I heard Julian Rachlin première a work it was Giya Kancheli’s Ciaruscuro for Soloist, a concerto for violin and viola, but, as the name

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20th-Century Christmas

J. Deak, The Passion of Scrooge, or A Christmas Carol, W. Sharp, 20th Century Consort (2000)
This review is an Ionarts exclusive.

The competition for the "coveted" Holiday Concert Award here at Ionarts gets stronger each year. I have listened to many Christmas concerts over the years, and most of them fall into the dreaded chestnut category. There is obviously a market for that kind of program

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Ionarts-at-Large: Mariss Jansons' Beethoven Cycle

I have lost track of Mariss Jansons’ Beethoven Cycle with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. It started some time in 2008 and was—and continues to be—spiced up with world premieres especially commissioned for the occasion. I remember Symphonies Three, Seven, Eight, and Nine (see sidebar); not the others. Either I missed them and their respective commissioned works, or they are being

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Ionarts-at-Large: Marc-André Hamelin at the Herkulessaal

Ferrucio Busoni
Ten years ago, no one would ha ve wanted to hear Marc-André Hamelin in Debussy, and rightly so. Now he’s among the best in that sort of repertoire. The transformation of Hamelin from piano-pyrotechnician to musician with great tonal control and a splendid legato is remarkable. He proved that with ease and a gorgeous tone from his Fazioli piano in a recital at Munich’s half-filled

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In Brief: Advent III Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to online audio, online video, and other good things in Blogville and Beyond. (After clicking to an audio or video stream, press the "Play" button to start the broadcast.)





To mark the passing of soprano Lisa della Casa, a selection of her performances of music of Strauss, Mozart, Schubert, Wagner, and Othmar Schoeck. [Österreichischer

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Matthias Pintscher Portrait at the Phillips

Sought after by the world’s top orchestras for both his compositions and his conducting, Matthias Pintscher (b. 1971) fit the bill for the Phillips Collection’s Leading European Composers series. His music, brought to life Thursday night with intimacy and precision by members of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), displayed a subdued fragility that belied its creator’s star power. The

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Bach and Violinists

The Art of Instrumentation: Homage to Glenn Gould, G. Kremer, Kremerata Baltica
(released on September 25, 2012)
Nonesuch 528982-2 | 57'49"


The Music I Love, R. Podger (compilation)
(released on October 9, 2012)
CCS SEL 6212 | 2 CDs


Bach and Beyond, Part 1, J. Koh
(released on October 30, 2012)
Cedille CDR 90000 134 | 78'35"
Gidon Kremer once described the works of Bach for unaccompanied

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Fine Arts Quartet @ KC

E. Zimbalist, String Quartet (inter alia), Fine Arts Quartet (2012)


Haydn, String Quartets, op. 77, Quatuor Mosaïques (2001)


Schubert, String Quartet 14 ("Death and the Maiden"), Quatuor Mosaïques (2010)
The Fine Arts Quartet, founded in 1946, is in a transitional phase at the moment. The group's pedigree is perhaps greater than its current cachet, with the two veteran violinists learning

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London Town: A Sibelius Lover's Frozen Dream

A program of the Sixth and Seventh Symphonies and the Violin Concerto is the stuff dreams are made of. A Sibelius lover’s dream, that is… and certainly when the performers are the LSO (Sibelius being perhaps the only composer these all-rounders can take specialist-credits for), Leonidas Kavakos as the soloist, and conductor Osmo Vänskä.

The latter, in turn, is one of the very few replacements

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London Town: Too Beautiful Beethoven

The Philharmonia Orchestra put on two shows while I stayed in London: the Kurt Sanderling Centenary Concert (a Beethoven-Brahms program with prior outings in Leicester and Bedford) and a Prokofiev-Tchaikovsky night the following Saturday. Preferring contemporary performers, I skipped the Lorin Maazel-led concert and missed, by trustworthy accounts, a sad performance of the Second Prokofiev

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KC Chamber Players in Terrace Theater

This review is an Ionarts exclusive.

On Sunday evening in the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, the Kennedy Center Chamber Players, all principals of the National Symphony Orchestra, presented a polished program of music tied loosely together by the theme of contrast between sacred and profane.

The program began with Darius Milhaud’s four-movement Suite for Violin, Clarinet, and Piano, op.

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Chantry's Palestrina Christmas

This review is an Ionarts exclusive.



Palestrina, Missa Benedicta es,
Tallis Scholars (1996)
Ah, it is December again, and the sounds of Christmas are all around us: the rhymed Latin poetry, the theological explications of the mystery of the Virgin Birth, the Propers of the Dies natalis Christi, the complex six-voice polyphony. At least these were the sounds of the season at the Palestrina

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London Town: The LSO, Vengerov, and the Queen

As my colleague-friend-mentor Bob Reilly and I approached the air-raid shelter masquerading as a cultural center under the name “Barbican Hall”, a motorcade skipped by… tiny, by Washington DC / Presidential standards. Thirty feet further, amid a handful of enthusiast bystanders, it spilled its contents—chiefly a little white haired woman—into the Barbican, blocking the entry for a couple minutes

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In Brief: Advent II Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to online audio, online video, and other good things in Blogville and Beyond. (After clicking to an audio or video stream, press the "Play" button to start the broadcast.)

Listen to a performance of Wagner's Lohengrin from La Scala, with Jonas Kaufmann, Anja Harteros, Evelyn Herlitzius, Tomas Tomasson, René Pape, and Zeljko Lucic, with Daniel

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Notes from Istanbul: Tricontinental Dvořák with Borusan Quartet

The Borusan Quartet consists of four former first chairs of the Borusan Philharmonic: Esen Kivrak and Olgu Kizilay (violins), Efdal Altun (viola), and Çağ Erçağ (cello). Some time into their chamber music exploits they gave up performing in the orchestra and focused on the quartet entirely. A wise decision: All too often chamber-music-as-a-side-project produces horribly mediocre results. And

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Yuja Wang's Polished Performance with the NSO

Fantasia, Y. Wang (2012)


Rachmaninoff, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini / Piano Concert No. 2, Y. Wang, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, C. Abbado (2011)The National Symphony Orchestra is performing its last major program of the year, not counting the annual Messiah, heard on Thursday night at the Kennedy Center. Hans Graf, returning to the NSO for the first time since 2008, led a program unified

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Ballet West's 'Nutcracker'

Utah's Ballet West was invited to the Kennedy Center Opera House this year in the revolving series of December performances of The Nutcracker, and it was an easy choice for our December picks. After a musically disappointing return visit to the Washington Ballet's version of this holiday favorite this weekend, Miss Ionarts and I had high hopes for the Ballet West production, especially since

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Simón Bolívar Symphony

The last time we reviewed the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, they still styled themselves as a youth orchestra, the top-level ensemble of the country's famed music education system, El Sistema. As such, they are a high-energy ensemble, a vast number of musicians, mostly young and avid, who piled onto the stage of the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on Tuesday night, at the invitation

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Yo-Yo Ma's Om

Bach, Solo Cello Suites, Yo-Yo Ma
Washington Performing Arts Society presented cellist Yo-Yo Ma in an exclusive solo recital at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on Monday night. It was the first such local performance since 2006, not counting a duo recital with Kathryn Stott, and it also featured three of Bach's solo cello suites. It is a rare thing to see a single classical musician -- a man, a

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Anderszewski @ Shriver

Charles T. Downey, Pianist Piotr Anderszewski makes Shriver Hall debut
Washington Post, December 4, 2012


Bach, English Suite No. 6 (inter alia), P. Anderszewski (2004)


Schumann, Humoreske (inter alia), P. Anderszewski (2011)Polish-Hungarian pianist Piotr Anderszewski is on a U.S. tour this month, making his first return to the Washington area since a recital at the National Gallery of Art

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Washington Ballet 'Nutcracker'

Septime Webre's choreography of The Nutcracker, made for Washington Ballet and presented each December at the Warner Theater, will always be associated with good memories. Webre reimagined the famous story as taking place in Washington, with Clara receiving the present of a nutcracker from her eccentric godfather at a Christmas party in Georgetown, seeing the dance of the snowflakes with the

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'Die Fledermaus'

Charles T. Downey, Virginia Opera's "Die Fledermaus" at George Mason University
Washington Post, December 3, 2012


J. Strauss, Die Fledermaus, E. Schwarzkopf, N. Gedda, Philharmonia Orchestra, H. von Karajan
The Virginia Opera’s 2011-12 season was marked by daring programming and innovative staging, a gutsy move for a company that has just undergone a crisis in leadership. But it was a

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New Music Triple Bill at the Atlas

In back-to-back concerts Friday night, the Atlas Performing Arts Center presented three of New York’s hottest new music ensembles, cementing its own reputation as one of the finest venues for contemporary music in Washington, D.C.

First, in the main theater, Sō Percussion played an assemblage of works by John Cage and more recent composers. The pieces were played seamlessly alongside and atop

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In Brief: Advent I Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to online audio, online video, and other good things in Blogville and Beyond. (After clicking to an audio or video stream, press the "Play" button to start the broadcast.)
Listen to the world premiere of Pierre Henry's new piece Le Fil de la vie, performed in September at the Cité de la Musique. [France Musique]

Here is a performance of Wagner's Die

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Interview with Kaija Saariaho

Video and transcript/translation of Johannes Baumann’s interview with Kaija Saariaho in Istanbul at the Borusan Arts & Culture Foundation’s Music House on the day of the world premiere of her piece for violin and electronics, Frises. (Review here.) Because Mme. Saariaho didn’t feel comfortable with an interview being conducted solely in German, I happily volunteered to facilitate or translate

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La Risonanza @ LoC

Charles T. Downey, La Risonanza shines in U.S. debut concert at Library of Congress
Washington Post, December 1, 2012


Le Cantate Per Il Marchese Ruspoli (Le Cantate Italiani di Handel, vol. 2), E. Galli, R. Invernizzi, La Risonanza (2007)
George Frideric Handel wrote a lot more than a certain piece played to death in the month of December. During his stay in Rome, from 1707 to 1710, he

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Classical Music Agenda (December 2012)

December is the busiest month for most musicians, what with all the Nutcrackers, Messiahs, and Christmas concerts. I used to list all of them in our calendar, but it just did not seem worth it this year, so I have listed only the ones of some interest to me. As for what makes the cut for the Top 10 concerts we most want to hear this month, the leading contenders for the coveted Ionarts Best

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Operatic Double Bill: Soporific Donizetti Redeemed by Strasnoy

In an attempt to be kind and not repeat the sins of the programmers of the operatic double bill of Donizetti and Oscar Strasnoy at Munich’s Prince Regent's Theatre, I’ll try to summarize the boring and daft Donizetti one-act farce I Pazzi per progetto (Fools by Design) into as few words as possible, instead of droning on for nearly 90 minutes, as Donizetti did.

Not even the superior singing of

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'love fail'

Marie de France writing the Lais
David Lang's Little Match Girl Passion, which won the composer the Pulitzer Prize in 2008, is a significant work that still haunts me. For the most part, Lang's other compositions have failed to move me in the same way as that one piece, but the hope for an experience like listening to Match Girl made the performance of Lang's new vocal work, love fail, on

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Rubenstein Family Organ Inauguration

The National Symphony Orchestra inaugurated the new concert organ in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall with a free concert on Tuesday night. Once the queue of nearly three thousand people, snaking around the Kennedy Center and awaiting free tickets to the most unique event in town, found their seats, the evening began with a delightful fast-motion video of the organ's installation. Although only 89

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Classical Music in CRISIS Magazine

Latest column by my colleague, mentor, and friend Robert R. Reilly in the (truly) catholic CRISIS Magazine.

Mary in the City of Angels
Los Angeles today might not be the first place that comes to mind when seeking out hymns to the Blessed Virgin Mary. However, a recent concert on Sunday, November 18, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, featuring Monteverdi’s Vespers (Vespro della Beata Vergine)

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Briefly Noted: Le Bœuf sur le Toit

Le Bœuf sur le Toit: Swinging Paris, A. Tharaud (et al.)
(released on October 22, 2012)
Virgin 5099960255228 | 67'
We mentioned Alexander Tharaud’s new CD, Le Bœuf sur le Toit: Swinging Paris, when he was giving a dramatic series of concerts across France featuring its music. Incredibly, this was shortly before he came to Washington on a brief recital tour: we hope that the French Embassy will

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A Confusion of Languages: Widmann's Babylon

It was as if the circus had come to town: an elitist circus, granted, but still. The tent was pitched inside the National Theater and the ringmasters of La Fura dels Baus hard at work. The spectaculum at hand? Babylon, the new opera by Jörg Widmann.

Jörg Widmann does many things right, foremost among them the rediscovery of sensuality in contemporary opera. High hopes for a contemporary

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Birthdays and Portraits

This past Friday was the 17th birthday of the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. They grow so fast! As with everything, time has flown by. I remember delivering the building's architectural model to then-Governor Donald Schafer’s office in Annapolis, with museum founder/director Rebecca Hoffberger, to lobby his support.

AVAM has had its growing pains, and as anyone who has visited

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Gift Ideas for Cyber Monday

Here at Ionarts Central December is Advent -- and not Christmas -- until the evening of December 24. One does need to think about presents at this time of year, however, and for that culture-loving person in your life, here are some gift ideas, a few discs and films I most enjoyed over the past year. A gentle reminder: if you buy something we recommend by clicking on the Amazon link provided, a

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Notes from Istanbul: Brahms, Dead on Arrival

At the heart of a recent press-junket to İstanbul lied the Borusan İstanbul Philharmonic Orchestra. It’s a very young orchestra, sort of a bit older version of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, except 95% Turkish (a few Romanians sprinkled in; with a clear female majority) which is the result of actively appreciated circumstance. After all, the Borusan Foundation intends to further classical

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In Brief: Giving Thanks Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to online audio, online video, and other good things in Blogville and Beyond. (After clicking to an audio or video stream, press the "Play" button to start the broadcast.)




Watch clarinetist Martin Fröst with the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, under the baton of Giovanni Antonini, founder of the Il Giardino Armonico, with music by Kraus,

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Briefly Noted: Drama Queens

Drama Queens (Handel, Hasse, Monteverdi, et al.), J. DiDonato, Il Complesso Barocco, A. Curtis
(released on November 6, 2012)
Virgin 5099960265425 | 67'54"
We are longtime fans of mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, especially for her contributions to the series of Handel opera recordings from the historically informed performance ensemble Il Complesso Barocco and conductor Alan Curtis. Sadly, the

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À mon chevet: Lennox Berkeley

À mon chevet is a series of posts featuring a quote from whatever book is on my nightstand at the moment.


The difficulty of assessing the value of contemporary works of art is well known. We can always seem to be either too close or too far away to see them in their true perspective. If we can understand or perhaps even speak their language, we are too close, too grateful for their expression

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Notes from Istanbul: With the Ears of an Ass

During my stay in İstanbul, I had the opportunity to see an opera in the charming little, 600 seat Süreyya Opereti opera house in the Kadıköy district, a quick commuter-ferry ride from the European side of the town. The house has a story of itself; built in the 1920s, it was never actually used for opera before becoming a movie theater in the 30s. Only in 2007, after extensive redevelopment, was

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WNO's Bite-Sized New Operas

(L to R) Yuri Gorodetzki, Julia Mintzer, Soloman Howard, María Eugenia Antúnez, Washington National Opera (photo by Scott Suchman)One of the many benefits of Washington National Opera's merger with the Kennedy Center is that the company can now use the Terrace Theater and other venues for different kinds of productions, ones not likely to fill the Opera House. This summer, WNO created the

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Notes from Istanbul: Saariaho World Premiere

The Borusan Culture & Arts Foundation, the artistic and charitable offshoot of the Borusan Holding Company has a “Music House” on İstanbul’s İstiklal Avenue, the downtown pedestrian zone in the Pera district, custom built to show off its modern art collection, but also the home to contemporary classical music. Artists and ensembles are invited to fill the six storey building with roof top

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Classical Month in Washington (December)

Last month | Next monthClassical Month in Washington is a monthly feature. If there are concerts you would like to see included on our schedule, send your suggestions by e-mail (ionarts at gmail dot com). Happy listening!

December 1, 2012 (Sat)
2 pm
Lukáš Vondrácek, piano
WPAS
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

December 1, 2012 (Sat)
5 pm
21st Century Consort
Music by Brehm, Ives, Rush, Stravinsky

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Briefly Noted: Revenons à Mouton

J. Mouton, Missa Dictes moy toutes voz pensées, Tallis Scholars
(released on October 9, 2012)
Gimell CDGIM 047 | 67'54"
Having just written about the latest installments in the superb complete cycle of Josquin's Masses from the Tallis Scholars, it is icing on the cake to mention this new release. Jean Mouton (c. 1459-1522) is a lesser-known composer championed by the Suspicious Cheese Lords

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In Brief: South Pacific Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to online audio, online video, and other good things in Blogville and Beyond. (After clicking to an audio or video stream, press the "Play" button to start the broadcast.)
Here is a rare performance of Charpentier's Medée (1693) from the Opéra de Lille, accompanied by Le Concert d’Astrée under the baton of Emmanuelle Haïm. [France Musique]

Watch the

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Schiff Reconsiders the WTC

Bach, WTC, A. Schiff
(released on September 25, 2012)
ECM 2270-73 | 245'43"


Bach, WTC, A. Schiff (1984-85)
[Vol. 2]
If one is not careful, the experience of reviewing a new recording of The Well-Tempered Clavier (Vol. 1 / Vol. 2) is like going down an endless rabbit hole of countless interpretations. In spite of the outrageous number of recordings already available, pianists and

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Jennifer Koh at Strathmore

Bach and Beyond, Part 1, J. Koh
(released on October 30, 2012)Jennifer Koh gave a commanding solo performance Wednesday night in a program that honored the enduring relevance of J. S. Bach, both as a touchstone for composers after him and as a voice that directly appeals to audiences now. Filling the Strathmore Mansion's cozy music room with an electrifying sound, Koh used two Bach partitas,

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For Your Consideration: 'Flight'

Flight is Robert Zemeckis’s return to live-action filmmaking for the first time since he was Cast Away so many years ago with motion capture movies such as The Polar Express and Beowulf. Yes, those dead-eyed, eerie semblances of recognizable actors painted over digitally with all the warmth and verve of a hologram resurrection. Working now with his actor, Denzel Washington, it may be the case

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Takács and Hamelin

R. Schumann, String Quartet (op. 41/3) / Piano Quintet, Takács Quartet, M.-A. Hamelin (2009)


Schubert, String Quartets 13/14, Takács Quartet (2006)Take the Takács Quartet, one of our favorite string quartets, and Marc-André Hamelin, one of our favorite pianists, and put them together on one free concert at the Library of Congress, and you have our full attention. The concert by that

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Doric Quartet @ Phillips

Charles T. Downey, Britain’s Doric Quartet shows off knife-edged sound at Phillips Collection
Washington Post, November 13, 2012


R. Schumann, String Quartets, op. 41, Doric Quartet (2011)


Schubert, String Quartets, Doric Quartet (2012)
A young string quartet may distinguish itself by its unusual sound, an unconventional choice of repertoire or an attention-catching gimmick. The gimmick

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Lang Lang with the NSO

The Chopin Album, Lang Lang (2012)


Complete Recordings (2000-2009), Lang Lang
Lang Lang's residency with the National Symphony Orchestra has been the week's big news maker. Now that the brash, spiky-haired prodigy is in his 30s, critics are finding that he may have something behind all that virtuosity. I am not sure that I heard anything this week that changes my opinion of him. I have never

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In Brief: Armistice Day Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to online audio, online video, and other good things in Blogville and Beyond. (After clicking to an audio or video stream, press the "Play" button to start the broadcast.)
From the Théâtre des Abbesses in Paris, harpsichordist Céline Frisch plays the first book of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. [France Musique]

Hervé Niquet conducts his ensemble, Le

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Momenta Quartet at the Freer

Since its founding in 2004, the Momenta Quartet has voraciously championed new music, averaging one world premiere for every two of its concerts. On Thursday night, the quartet brought that venturesome spirit to the free concert series in the Freer Gallery of Art’s Meyer Auditorium. The program, featuring music inspired by Buddhism, presented four pieces written within the last ten years — two

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Jérôme Ferrari, Prix Goncourt 2012

The big literary news in France in the fall is the Prix Goncourt, which went this year to a young novelist named Jérôme Ferrari, 44. He spoke about his new book, Le sermon sur la chute de Rome (The sermon on the fall of Rome, published by Actes Sud), with François Aubel (Jérôme Ferrari, Goncourt 2012, November 2) for Le Figaro. The story concerns a Corsican family (Ferrari's family is from

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Lang Lang and Christoph

Bartók, Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, M. Perahia, G. Solti, E. Glennie (DVD)


Carnegie Hall Concert, E. Kissin, J. Levine
The partnership of a piano-playing conductor and a great pianist, united in music for piano, four hands, or for two pianos, can produce invigorating results, for the conductor, for the virtuoso, and for the audience. To a list that includes Georg Solti and Murray

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Henze, 86, and Carter, 103

Henze, L'Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe


Henze, Symphonies
1-6


Carter, Complete Piano Music


Carter, Complete String Quartets


Carter, What Next?


Music of Elliott Carter, Vol. 8 (16 Compositions, 2002-2009)


Carter, Cello Concerto

Two giants of modern composition died this week: Hans Werner Henze on October 27, at 86; and Elliott Carter on November 5, at 103. For all of their

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Second Opinion: Beethoven's Operatic Missa Solemnis

"There is, of course, among musicians an underground tradition of critical reserve" about Ludwig van Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, as Theodor Adorno once observed. People may think of it as a glorious monument because of its length and intensity, even if they are not really all that familiar with it. Beethoven worked on this piece for a long time, and perhaps because of all that labor, it sometimes

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Beethoven's More Intimate Side

Charles T. Downey, For a breather, NSO turns to Beethoven’s back catalogue
Washington Post, November 5, 2012

Mozart / Beethoven, Quintets for Piano and Winds, Netherlands Wind Ensemble, Klára WürtzBetween the two performances of Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis” on Thursday and Saturday, music director Christoph Eschenbach gave his singers and most of the National Symphony Orchestra a break on

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In Brief: Open House Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to online audio, online video, and other good things in Blogville and Beyond. (After clicking to an audio or video stream, press the "Play" button to start the broadcast.)

The Opéra de Liège opened its season with a staging of César Franck's Stradella (video embedded at right). Left incomplete, the composer's manuscript was rediscovered in 1984, and

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Cor ad cor loquitur: NSO and the Missa Solemnis

Many thanks to Robert R. Reilly for this review from The Kennedy Center.


On Thursday evening, November 1, Christoph Eschenbach, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Choral Arts Society of Washington, and soloists performed Ludwig van Beethoven’s Missa solemnis at the Kennedy Center.

The Missa solemnis was written for the installation of Archduke Rudolph of Austria as Archbishop of Olmütz (now

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Joshua Bell @ Strathmore

French Impressions (Franck, Saint-Saëns, Ravel) (2012)
Joshua Bell is a regular on the Washington Performing Arts Society season, a big name that fills a big hall. The American violinist, one of the few classical musicians whom most people would recognize by name -- if not by sight, at least not in a baseball cap at L'Enfant Plaza -- was just here in January, at the Kennedy Center. He was back

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For Your Consideration: 'Brooklyn Castle'

Chess is important here chez Ionarts, a longtime obsession of your moderator and a shared passion with Master Ionarts, with whom I regularly play the matches diagrammed in the last few weekly newspaper columns devoted to the game: Lubomir Kavalek, formerly (much beloved) of the Washington Post and now of the Huffington Post, and Dylan Loeb McClain in the Sunday New York Times. So Brooklyn Castle

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Emmanuelle de Negri with Opera Lafayette

Soprano Emmanuelle de Negri
(photo by Bdallah Lasri)
Hurricane Sandy, among many other far more dastardly things, disordered the Washington concert schedule. On Tuesday night, the planned WPAS recital by András Schiff was canceled: it has now been rescheduled for next April, but Schiff will no longer play the second book of the Well-Tempered Clavier, replacing it with his next tour programming,

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Classical Music Agenda: November 2012

Assuming that cultural life continues in the wake of Hurricane Sandy's visit to Washington, here are the ten concerts we most want to hear in the month of November. We had to leave out many worthy choices, but this exercise would not really be any fun if we did not. Keep your eye on the sidebar for many more options.

NATIONAL SYMPHONY:
It is true that Beethoven's Missa Solemnis is a difficult

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ETHEL Pokes Fun at Classical Music

Charles T. Downey, Todd Rundgren and Ethel: Reimagining the ’70s
Washington Post, October 30, 2012


T. Riley, Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector (inter alia), Kronos QuartetDid anything good come out of the 1970s? Music of all kinds was composed, and that was the focus of “Tell Me Something Good,” the latest venture off the beaten path for the string quartet known as Ethel. The group is

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BSO Musicians Shine in Brahms Double

Conductor Cornelius Meister
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Cornelius Meister, 32, performed a program of Brahms, Mozart, and Richard Strauss Saturday evening at the Music Center at Strathmore. The gem on the program was Brahms's Double Concerto for Violin and Cello in A minor, which featured the BSO's own concertmaster, Jay Carney, and principal cellist Dariusz Skoraczewski

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Alexandre Tharaud de Retour

Charles T. Downey, Alexandre Tharaud’s expressive piano at La Maison Française
Washington Post, October 29, 2012


D. Scarlatti, Sonatas, A. Tharaud (2011)


Le Bœuf sur le Toit, A. Tharaud et al. (2012)
Where some pianists thrill with fanfaronade, Alexandre Tharaud teases out the piano’s delicate side, weaving threads of sound into exquisite lace patterns. The French pianist returned to La

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In Brief: Hurricane Sandy Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to online audio, online video, and other good things in Blogville and Beyond. (After clicking to an audio or video stream, press the "Play" button to start the broadcast.)
From the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, hear a rare performance of Niccolò Piccinni's Atys, performed by the Le Cercle de l’Harmonie under violinist Julien Chauvin. [France Musique]

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Ionarts-at-Large: MPhil and Dausgaard in White, Blue, and Orange

A very fine guest conductor, a superb soloist—not as a name, but as a musician (though in this case both)—and an intriguing, intelligent program in white, blue, and orange: Promising stuff for a concert of the Munich Philharmonic. And indeed Thomas Dausgaard and Leif Ove Andsnes in Kurtág, Beethoven, and Dvořák delivered with panache.

Kurtág’s quasi-Piano Concertino …quasi una fantasia… op.27/1

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Concert Program Synesthesia

When you see a concert program, do you associate it with colors? It’s a strange kind of faux-synesthesia, but one I experience in full blown form. I see works and composers on a program and I associate them with colors or color combinations and, to a lesser extent, with shapes, linearity, clearness, and purity. One look and I see whether it fits (according to my perfectly subjective prejudices

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There she blows: Moby-Dick in the Bay Area

Many thanks to Robert R. Reilly for this review from San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House.


On the evening of October 22, 2012, I was at the San Francisco Opera House, which maintains one of the highest standards of production values in America. In its San Francisco premiere, the presentation of composer Jake Heggie’s and librettist Gene Scheer’s Moby-Dick confirmed this impression.

To say

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'War Horse' at the Kennedy Center

After huge success in London and a run of almost two years in New York, Nick Stafford's stage adaptation of War Horse has come to the Kennedy Center Opera House, where I saw it on Thursday night. Somewhat incredibly, the story is drawn from Michael Morpurgo's book for young readers, in which the story is told from the view point of the horse. A hunter, part thoroughbred, Joey ends up on a farm

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Latest Docu-Opera from Philippe Béziat

Philippe Béziat made his new documentary Traviata and Us during the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence. Including footage of rehearsals and performances, he claims to show how soprano Natalie Dessay "literally becomes Verdi's heroine." Christian Merlin writes about the film in an article (Natalie Dessay, les secrets d'une métamorphose, October 24) for Le Figaro (my translation):
Up to this point there

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Gershwin for the 21st Century

Charles T. Downey, New York Festival of Song pokes gentle fun at politics in Vocal Arts D.C. show
Washington Post, October 24, 2012


Gershwin, Of Thee I Sing / Let 'Em Eat Cake, 1987 studio cast recording, M. Tilson Thomas [MP3]
The chance to hear some gentle fun poked at America’s political obsessions was welcome Monday night, especially as it coincided with the final presidential debate. The

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Thibault Cauvin at the Phillips

This review is an Ionarts exclusive.



Bell'Italia, T. Cauvin
In the Phillips Collection Music Room, adorned with prized paintings and warmly awash in a fall Sunday afternoon’s light, French virtuoso guitarist Thibault Cauvin gave a masterful recital in support of his latest album, CITIES, released just three days before. The simple conceit of a global journey, with each programmed work

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Gregorian Chant Supreme

Charles T. Downey, Cathedral Choral Society opens 71st season
Washington Post, October 23, 2012


Duruflé, Complete Choral Works, Choir of Trinity College Cambridge
The Cathedral Choral Society opened its 71st season with a tribute to the flowering of late romantic music in France. This grand program, at Washington National Cathedral on Sunday afternoon, combined the cathedral’s imposing organ

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Great Noise Ensemble at the Atlas

Kicking off their residency at the Atlas Performing Arts Center on Friday, Washington’s homegrown Great Noise Ensemble delivered an engaging performance that included two world premieres. Though David Vickerman conducted for the evening, the concert bore the mark of Armando Bayolo, who in addition to being one of the premiered composers, is the founding music director of the Great Noise Ensemble

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In Brief: Gala Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to online audio, online video, and other good things in Blogville and Beyond. (After clicking to an audio or video stream, press the "Play" button to start the broadcast.)

Watch the Paavo Järvi conduct the Orchestre de Paris in music by Haydn (Symphony No. 84), Mozart (Piano Concert No. 27, with Menahem Pressler), and Sibelius (Symphony No. 1). [

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Classical Month in Washington (November)

Last month | Next monthClassical Month in Washington is a monthly feature. If there are concerts you would like to see included on our schedule, send your suggestions by e-mail (ionarts at gmail dot com). Happy listening!

November 1, 2012 (Thu)
10 and 11:30 am
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Youth Concert
Wizards and Wands, with Enchantment Theater
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

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Ionarts-at-Large: BRSO in Shchedrin, Shostakovich, Beethoven

Once one finds out the under-communicated fact that Yefim Bronfman is one of the two 2012/13 Artists-in-Residence with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (the other one is, considerably more titillating, Christian Gerhaher), it becomes understandable that he doesn’t seem to leave town anymore at all, with appearances in June (alongside terrific Salonen), July (granted with the Berlin

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Gerhaher & Co. Remember Fischer-Dieskau

The memorial matinée for Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau at the Bavarian State Opera—‘Dieskau’s opera house’—on October 14th, started ideally: With no speech. Just the Larghetto from Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, one of the most beautiful movements in music, beautifully performed by the members of the Bavarian State Orchestra that make up the Schumann Quartett (thank goodness not their LazArt Quartett)

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Laurie Rubin's Technicolor Dreams

L. Rubin, Do You Dream in Color? (2012)


Do You Dream in Color?, L. Rubin, M. Stroke, N. Sivan
(released on February 14, 2012)
Mezzo-soprano Laurie Rubin is coming to Washington next week, to give a free recital at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage (October 22, 6 pm). While she is in town, she will speak on the radio to Diane Rehm and Bob Edwards and give a private performance at the

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From Hell's Heart

Charles T. Downey, ‘And God Created Great Whales’ by Rinde Eckert at Clarice Smith Center
Washington Post, October 19, 2012
Writing an opera is hard enough. Now imagine you are suffering from a degenerative disease that is destroying your ability to remember anything. This is the premise of “And God Created Great Whales,” a fascinating multimedia theater piece by singer and composer Rinde

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Thomas Dunford at the Maison Française

This review is an Ionarts exclusive.

As the candidates rehearsed their cutting remarks before Tuesday night’s debate, two men shared a very different stage in the ballroom of La Maison Française: French lutenist Thomas Dunford (pictured) welcomed Iranian-French percussionist Keyvan Chemirani for an amiable encounter between musical worlds. Though Dunford headlined the evening, it was marked

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Cinderella in Manhattan

Unlike opera, the more traditional ballet is not updated or recontextualized as much by new choreographers -- with a few notable exceptions, like Alexei Ratmansky, formerly of the Bolshoi in Moscow and now of American Ballet Theater. In his choreography of Prokofiev's Cinderella, which the Mariinsky Theater brought back to the Kennedy Center Opera House last night (the troupe performed it here in

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'Pearl Fishers'

Charles T. Downey, Virginia Opera’s ‘The Pearl Fishers’ may signal a turn to the conventional
Washington Post, October 16, 2012


Bizet, Les Pêcheurs de Perles, B. Hendricks, J. Aler, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, M. Plasson
Last season the Virginia Opera positioned itself as the local opera company most willing to challenge its audiences. It had accomplished this in the wake of a

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Inon Barnatan in WPAS Solo Debut

Darkeness Visible I. Barnatan
(released on April 10, 2012)
Avie AV2256 | 69'27"
Pianist Inon Barnatan gave his well-deserved Kennedy Center Terrace Theater solo debut Saturday afternoon, under the auspices of the Washington Performing Arts Society's Hayes Piano Series. Now in his early thirties, Barnatan is transitioning from first-call collaborative piano partner -- read: accompanist -- to

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In Brief: Cool Air Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to online audio, online video, and other good things in Blogville and Beyond. (After clicking to an audio or video stream, press the "Play" button to start the broadcast.) This week is chock-a-block with options, so you had better get started.

You can watch five operas staged at the Armel Opera Competition and Festival in Szeged, Hungary, including

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PRISM Quartet at the Atlas

We welcome a new guest contributor to Ionarts, Noah Mlotek, who is a singer and classicist here in Washington. You know how much we love classical languages here at Ionarts: please direct all your Latin and Greek questions to Noah. Noah's first review is an Ionarts exclusive.

Having traversed near-total gridlock on the night of the Nats’ last stand on Friday, and reaching the Atlas Performing

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Second Opinion: Eschenbach and the Sheer Beauty of Bruckner

Many thanks to Robert R. Reilly for this review from the Kennedy Center.


I caught on to the glories of Christoph Eschenbach’s Bruckner some time ago when I came across the Koch CD live-recording of his 1996 performance of the Bruckner Second Symphony, with the Houston Symphony. He somehow conjured the players of that orchestra into sounding like the Berlin Philharmonic. Since his arrival in

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More of Eschenbach's Bruckner

Wagner, Wesendonck-Lieder (arr. Henze), J. Van Nes, Northern Sinfonia, R. Hickox (Chandos, 1995)


Bruckner, Symphony No. 7, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, K. Böhm (Audite, 1977) [64'30"]


Bruckner, Symphony No. 7, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, B. Haitink (CSO Resound, 2007) [67'30"]
They can't all be winners. This week's concerts from the National Symphony Orchestra certainly worked on

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Roger Tapping Joins the Juilliard Quartet

In the world of string quartets, this is big news: Roger Tapping, much beloved at ionarts for his musicianship—as part of the Takács Quartet (where he played viola for a decade and shaped the group's extraordinarily successful 'Decca - period') and as an add-on violist to many young quartets (which stopped by the Corcoran Gallery when it still had the best chamber music series in town), the Auryn

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Bella goes to the Prinzregententheater

Writing from the Family Concert of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra on September 29th is our Junior Family correspondent, Isabelle Lysette Zeba. We’re very grateful that she took the time out of her busy schedule of being fabulous, eating flowers, sipping champagne, and furthering her operatic career-in-the-making, to report from this glamorous event with artists from the BRSO, Yefim

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Paulo Szot Goes to Hell

This review is an Ionarts exclusive.


Paulo Szot in Don Giovanni, Dallas OperaWe have already written a lot about Washington National Opera's revival of John Pascoe's staging of Don Giovanni, with reviews by me on opening night and by Robert R. Reilly mid-run. The production has only one remaining performance, this Saturday, but Ionarts went back to the Kennedy Center Opera House for the

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Sretensky Monastery Choir Goes Secular

The concerts of the Sretensky Monastery Choir made our picks for October principally because we wanted to hear them sing Orthodox liturgical music. Anyone who went to their second concert, at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater on Monday night, hoping to hear that repertory was, like me, disappointed to learn that this program, unlike the one at the Library of Congress over the weekend, was

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44th Annual ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards Announced

44th Annual ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards AnnouncedNew York, NY, October 9, 2012: The American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers has announced the winners of the 44th Annual ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards for outstanding print, broadcast and new media coverage of music. The winners will be honored at a special invitation-only ceremony and reception on Wednesday, November 14th at ASCAP's New York

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Jupiter Quartet Brings Music Back to NAS

Mendelssohn (op. posth. 80) / Beethoven (op. 135), Jupiter String Quartet
After winning the Banff Competition in 2004, the Jupiter String Quartet gave a pair of top-notch concerts in Washington in 2005, at the Corcoran and the Library of Congress. For that and for personal reasons (the first violinist, Nelson Lee, is the son of my undergraduate piano teacher), their subsequent performances here

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Ionarts-at-Large: MPhil Season Opening Concerts

After two introductory concerts (Mahler and Wagner/Bruckner), Lorin Maazel’s first season with the Munich Philharmonic was well under way in a variety—deliberately varied—of concerts. The inclusion of works by Bach, Schubert, Strauss, Stravinsky, Puccini, Fauré, and Ravel was no accident, it’s all part of the consistently stressed, heavy handed at times, repertoire-diversity that Maazel is meant

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Krenek Symphonies

This article was originally published at The Classical Review on October 7, 2012.


E. Krenek, Complete Symphonies, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, T. Ukigaya, A. Francis
(released on May 29, 2012)
cpo 777 695-2 | 229'39"It took a while, but the last installment in the cycle of Ernst Krenek’s symphonies, recorded by the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, has finally appeared. For those who had

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In Brief: Baroque October Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to online audio, online video, and other good things in Blogville and Beyond. (After clicking to an audio or video stream, press the "Play" button to start the broadcast.)
Watch a performance of the Orchestre de Paris, with Tomas Netopil and Anja Harteros, in music by Janáček, Strauss, and Dvořák. [Cité de la Musique Live]

A rare performance of

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Ionarts-at-Large: BRSO Season Opening Concerts

The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra’s courtship (perhaps already engagement period) of the wonderfully, sharply musical Andris Nelsons, currently Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, continues: In 2012/13 by handing him the season opener and letting him play with the BR’s unequaled chorus in a very smart program of Arnold Schoenberg, Richard Strauss, and—treasure of

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Dip Your Ears, No. 124 ("get happy")

"get happy",
Rodgers, Berlin, Gershwin et al.,
Jenny Lin
Steinway & Sons
[Release date 30.10.12]

A new release by Jenny Lin – a long time ionarts favorite in Shostakovich and Mompou (Best Recordings of 2011) and various clever piano exotica – is always something to delight about. Even when it is ‘only’ one of “virtuoso show tunes for piano”, titled Get Happy… I suppose.

Hodge-podge

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NSO Celebrates Love

For what can be more wretched than the wretch who has no pity upon himself, who sheds tears over Dido, dead for the love of Aeneas, but who sheds no tears for his own death in not loving thee, O God, light of my heart, and bread of the inner mouth of my soul, O power that links together my mind with my inmost thoughts?

The Confessions of St. Augustine, Book I (trans. Albert C. Outler)
Dante

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BSO Goes for Baroque

Charles T. Downey, Markus Stenz makes BSO debut in concert influenced by early music movement
Washington Post, October 6, 2012


Beethoven, Sy. 3, Helsingborg SO, A. Manze


Rebel, Les élémens, Les Musiciens du Louvre, M. MinkowskiThe historically informed performance movement continues to have an impact on mainstream orchestral ensembles. For a time, conductors shied away from that territory,

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WNO's Don Giovanni: Eros to the End

Many thanks to Robert R. Reilly for this review from the Kennedy Center.


Halfway through its run till October 13th, on October 1st, I caught the Washington National Opera’s performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni.

The theme of the opera is that Eros unbound and undirected to an end that can fulfill it—such as marriage—is destructive. We see this destruction all around the decidedly unmarried Don

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Tharaud and the Cabaret

Le Boeuf sur le Toit: Swinging Paris, A. Tharaud et al.
Alexandre Tharaud is an Ionarts favorite, and his upcoming recital at La Maison Française (October 26, 7:30 pm) is high on our list of concerts to hear this season. Tharaud plays well, obviously, but we also admire him for some of the more unusual projects he takes on. For example, at the moment, he is involved in a recreation of Le Boeuf

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Historical Brahms

Brahms, Piano Sonatas 1 and 2 / Scherzo, op. 4, A. Melnikov
(released on February 8, 2011)
HMC 902086 | 69'23"
Recordings of 19th-century music with historical pianos are becoming an obsession of mine -- Andreas Staier's Diabelli-Variations on a Graf, Edna Stern's Chopin on a Pleyel, or Kristian Bezuidenhout's Schumann on an Erard. Publicists, please keep sending them to me, because I find them

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NSO Opens Third Season with Eschenbach

Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter
Our recommendation of the National Symphony Orchestra's Season Opening Ball Concert came with the caveat that such gala events rarely merit serious consideration. Christoph Eschenbach, who embarked on his third season as the NSO's music director on Sunday night, has made an effort to make this and his earlier gala concerts of at least some interest. He did that

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'Creation' on Cathedral Day

This review is an Ionarts exclusive.

President Theodore Roosevelt spoke on the grounds of what would become Washington National Cathedral on September 29, 1907, when the building's corner stone was set in place. The anniversary of that event is celebrated as Cathedral Day, for which the cathedral's choirs and hired period orchestra performed Haydn's oratorio Die Schöpfung on Saturday evening.

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Time Stands Still

Charles T. Downey, Folger Consort explores the tunes of 17th-century London
Washington Post, October 1, 2012


Dowland, The Collected Works, The Consort of Musicke, A. Rooley
The Folger Consort is presenting a musical tour of five European cities for its 35th season of concerts of early music. On Friday night, it began with a delightful survey of music in early 17th-century London, quite

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Classical Music Agenda: October 2012

In October the volume of concerts on the schedule expands considerably, making the selection of the ten concerts we think will be most worth hearing that much more difficult. Still, that is the point of this exercise: follow the complete concert calendar in the sidebar all month long for many more options.

VOICES:The National Symphony Orchestra is celebrating Richard Wagner this month, with two

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In Brief: Nationals Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to online audio, online video, and other good things in Blogville and Beyond. (After clicking to an audio or video stream, press the "Play" button to start the broadcast.)
Watch the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France perform Shostakovich's sixth symphony and Dvořák's cello concerto, with Ion Marin conducting and Jian Wang as soloist. [Cité de

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Head Butt

The Centre Pompidou opens an exhibit of works by Adel Abdessemed this coming Wednesday: Adel Abdessemed Je suis innocent (through January 7). As part of the show, he has installed a bronze sculpture (Coup de tête) in front of the museum depicting Zinedine Zidane's infamous head butt to the chest of Marco Materazzi during the final match of the World Cup in 2006, after which Italy went on to

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An Inspired New Home for Islamic Treasures

It's the largest expansion project since I. M. Pei designed the pyramid in front of the Louvre some twenty years ago. The Cour Visconti, a lavish interior courtyard at the Louvre, has been transformed into the new Department of Islamic Art, complete with an undulating, golden mesh roof -- referred to as a “dragonfly wing” by architects Mario Bellini and Rudy Ricciotti.

The new wing is home to

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More of Tallis Scholars' Josquin Cycle

Complete Josquin Edition:
M. Pange Lingua / M. La Sol Fa Re Mi / L'homme armé Masses (2006)


M. Sine nomine / M. Ad fugam (2008)
[Review]


Missa De beata virgine / Missa Ave maris stella (2011)
[Review]


Josquin Des Prez, M. Malheur me bat / M. Fortuna desesperata,
Tallis Scholars
(released on March 10, 2009)
Gimell CDGIM 042 | 75'27"
I somehow missed one volume in the Tallis Scholars'

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À mon chevet: The Satanic Verses

À mon chevet is a series of posts featuring a quote from whatever book is on my nightstand at the moment.


On the shelf of Changez Chamchawala's teak-lined study, beside a ten-volume set of the Richard Burton translation of the Arabian Nights, which was being slowly devoured by mildew and book-worm owing to the deep-seated prejudice against books which led Changez to own thousands of the

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Nathan Gunn Celebrity Recital

An opera star recital can be a wonderful thing, which is why Plácido Domingo established the Washington National Opera's Celebrity Series. One can present a first-tier singer, whom the company could probably never engage for a full production, and it brings in revenue with a minimum expenditure. It really only works when the singer is of the caliber to drive ticket sales -- in the last two

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Shaham Plays Barber with the BSO

Charles T. Downey, At Strathmore, BSO’s Americana optimism
Washington Post, September 24, 2012


Barber / Korngold / Walton, Violin Concertos, J. Ehnes, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, B. Tovey
At the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s first subscription concert of the new season, heard at Strathmore on Saturday night, the orchestra played a program of classic Americana with grace and power. The

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In Brief: Start of Fall Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to online audio, online video, and other good things in Blogville and Beyond. (After clicking to an audio or video stream, press the "Play" button to start the broadcast.)
From the Festival de Sablé, listen to Caligula, an opera by Giovani-Maria Pagliardi from 1672, performed by Le Poème Harmonique and a troupe of marionnettes. [France Musique]

From

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From the 2012 ARD Competition, Day 7

Day 7, String Quartets, Semi FinalsSix string quartets (performers) and 18 string quartets (compositions) in just under nine hours is something you will not likely experience anywhere outside the ARD Music Competition. It’s a marathon, exhausting and gratifying, and particularly insightful when it comes to the ARD commissioned competition that participants of the semi final are required to play.

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Art in Belleville

Have a look at some of the art being shown at the Belleville Biennale, with some images (La Biennale de Belleville, un parcours initiatique à l'art contemporain, September 19) published in Le Monde. The show is taking place at various galleries and artist studios in the Belleville neighborhood of Paris, with a theme focusing on revolution. Florence Evin has a review (Prendre l'art à Belleville,

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'Don Giovanni' Gets the Wilis

Ildar Abdrazakov (Don Giovanni) and Soloman Howard (the Commendatore) in Don Giovanni, Washington National Opera, 2012 (photo by Scott Suchman)
Opera companies perform Don Giovanni a lot: Wolf Trap this past summer and in 2005, the San Francisco Opera in 2011, the Salzburg Festival in 2010, to list only the most recent reviews in our archive. The Washington National Opera has again revived John

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Briefly Noted: More Josquin

Complete Josquin Edition:
M. Pange Lingua / M. La Sol Fa Re Mi / L'homme armé Masses (2006)


M. Sine nomine / M. Ad fugam (2008)


M. Malheur me bat / M. Fortuna desesperata (2009)


Josquin Des Prez, Missa De beata virgine / Missa Ave maris stella, Tallis Scholars
(released on November 8, 2011)
Gimell CDGIM 044 | 75'58"
As someone who listens to a lot of music, I hate to answer that irksome

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The Doors Revealed

Here I am in Florence, one of my favorite cities, to be wowed by Lorenzo Ghiberti's newly restored Baptistry Doors of Paradise. Installed in 1452 and weighing eight tons, the gilded wonders must have dazzled when new. Time and pollution left a darkened patina, which was then layered with varnish in the late 1700s.


During World War II, the doors were removed and stored in a train tunnel for safe

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Washington Concert Opera: 'La Sonnambula'

René Barbera and Eglise Gutiérrez, La Sonnambula, Washington Concert Opera, 2012 (photo courtesy of Washington Concert Opera)
The Teatro Carcano had quite an 1830-1831 season in Milan. Founded in 1801, the management had dreams of rivaling La Scala as an opera theater. As noted in my preview of the past weekend's highlights here in Washington, the theater premiered both Donizetti's Anna Bolena

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Ionarts-at-Large: Gatti & GMYO in Dresden

Daniele Gatti and the Mahler Youth Orchestra stopped by in Dresden’s Semperoper with their Wagner-Berg-Strauss-Ravel program, the morning after Christian Thielemann had conducted his inauguration concert with the Staatskapelle. It was a fitting concert to cap a trip through Saxony—‘on the paths of Wagner’—I had been on. In fact it was the first Wagner I heard after traipsing through the

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Sondra Radvanovsky Transcends Drab 'Anna Bolena'

Sondra Radvanovsky (Anna Bolena) and Sonia Ganassi (Giovanna Seymour) in Anna Bolena, Washington National Opera, 2012 (photo by Scott Suchman)
When the Metropolitan Opera presented the disappointing Anna Netrebko in the title role of Donizetti's Anna Bolena last year, they missed the chance to cast Sondra Radvanovsky as the hated arriviste Queen of England. New York's loss is Washington's gain,

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Classical Month in Washington (October)

Last month | Next monthClassical Month in Washington is a monthly feature. If there are concerts you would like to see included on our schedule, send your suggestions by e-mail (ionarts at gmail dot com). Happy listening!

October 1, 2012 (Mon)
7 pm
Mozart, Don Giovanni
Washington National Opera
Kennedy Center Opera House

October 2, 2012 (Tue)
12:10 pm
Noontime Cantata: O heilges Geist - und

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In Brief: 24 Violins Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to online audio, online video, and other good things in Blogville and Beyond. (After clicking to an audio or video stream, press the "Play" button to start the broadcast.)

A concert I mentioned this summer and looked for in vain online has finally shown up in an audio stream: the reconstruction of the 24 Violons du Roy, with Patrick Cohën-Akenine

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