Ionarts-at-Large: Berg is Best with Metzmacher

When the schedule dictates, compromises might include attending a matinée orchestral performance. No musician I know does AM particularly well, but with a program of Berg’s Three Orchestral Pieces, Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, Hans Pfitzner’s Palestrina Preludes, and Wotan’s Farewell and Magic Fire Music from Die Walküre, the last of the Munich Philharmonic’s three concerts in that series was

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Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra -- Whither WPAS?

This review is an Ionarts exclusive.

The Neale Perl era at Washington Performing Arts Society is coming to an end, and the organization has just announced its new leader, Jenny Bilfield, who will take over as President and CEO of WPAS in April. The official announcement was made last night, before WPAS's presentation of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.

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Hamelin @ Shriver Hall

Haydn, Piano Sonatas, Vol. 3, M.-A. Hamelin (2012)


Liszt, Piano Sonata (inter alia), M.-A. Hamelin (2011)
Marc-André Hamelin is a showman, but far from an empty-headed one. The program he played on Sunday evening, for his debut at Baltimore's Shriver Hall, combined the Canadian-born pianist's cardinal virtues: ear-tickling virtuosity, an exploratory curiosity for unlikely repertory, and an

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Isserlis, Gut Strings and All

Steven Isserlis (cello) and Kirill Gerstein (piano)
Photo by Kim P. Witman/Courtesy of Wolf Trap
Steven Isserlis was back in town on Friday night, this time in the Barns at Wolf Trap, with pianist Kirill Gerstein. The program was different from what they played in 2010 at the Kennedy Center (he also appeared with the National Symphony Orchestra in 2011), but it had many similar qualities. The

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Bang on a Can at the Atlas

Stalwarts of the new music scene for the past twenty years, the Bang on a Can All-Stars brought the kind of engaging, genre-bending performance they are known for to the Atlas Center on Friday. Throughout a fresh and varied program, they showed closer affinities to jazz and popular music than to the avant-garde. All the instruments, which included drum set and electric guitar, were miked as if

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In Brief: 11 Years 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 opening night of Rossini's La Cenerentola at the Vienna Staatsoper. [Österreichischer Rundfunk]

A performance of Wagner's Das Liebesverbot from the Münchner

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NSO Ready for Tour

As reported last week, the National Symphony Orchestra is preparing for a European tour this month. Along with a recording contract with Ondine, this is the most visible sign of Christoph Eschenbach's tenure with the orchestra outside of Washington. Tours raise the NSO's profile and bring its playing to the ears of critics in other countries. We will try to follow the results by bringing you

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For Your Consideration: 'Quartet'

Some of you may remember Daniel Schmid's delightful documentary Il Bacio di Tosca from the 1980s. It examined the lives of the residents of the Casa Verdi in Milan, the retirement home for poor opera singers that Verdi established with some of his fortune. He and his wife, Giuseppina Strepponi, even decided to be buried there, instead of at their home at Sant'Agata, and thus the wily old composer

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Briefly Noted: Nielsen's Piano Music

C. Nielsen, Complete Piano Music, C. Bjørkøe (2008, 2 CDs)
The music of Danish composer Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) is always worth discovering, rare as it is. Nielsen made his musical living as a violinist, but he learned the piano from a young age and began most of his compositional work at the keyboard. Over the course of his life he composed enough solo piano pieces (see also the extraordinary

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Briefly Noted: Schumann with Melnikov

Schumann, Opp. 44, 47, Jerusalem Quartet, A. Melnikov
(released on May 8, 2012)
HMC 902122 | 54'56"
Alexander Melnikov is a pianist after my own heart. He is in many ways an old-fashioned virtuoso, with solo recordings to his credit in the big 20th-century repertory (fine discs of Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich). To his credit, he has also shown an interest in historical instruments and

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Classical Music Agenda (February 2013)

In February the second half of the classical music season really gets going, making whittling down our monthly concert picks to just ten choices rather difficult. Suffice it to say that there will be many other worthy concerts that will scroll by in our sidebar calendar throughout the month.

VISITING ORCHESTRAS:
China's National Symphony Orchestra is making its first U.S. tour since 2006, with

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Daniil Trifonov, Anguished Soul

Chopin, Preludes, op. 28, G. Sokolov
[Review]


Scriabin, Piano Sonatas, M.-A. Hamelin
In the calculated pursuit of technical perfection, a virtuoso can lose that most exciting musical quality, the adventurous taking of risks. This was one of the things that most impressed me hearing Daniil Trifonov play with the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra in 2011, in Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto, with

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Canadian 'Wonderland'

Ballet is largely about fantasy, and the suspension of disbelief required to enjoy it is perhaps the greatest among all the arts, even more than in opera. How exactly that aura of fantasy has been achieved through the centuries has changed significantly, and some companies are moving past the traditional means of frilly costumes and carefully choreographed movements to make the dancers seem

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Schubert, Schumann, Ives: Not Beautiful, Courageous!

C.Ives, Violin Sonatas,
J.Wood / D.Riley
Endeavour


C.Ives, Violin Sonatas,
C.Thompson / R.Waters
Naxos


C.Ives, Violin Sonatas,
H.Hahn / V.Lisitsa
Naxos


It may look like Violinist Carolin Widmann has emerged from a contemporary music niche to the much larger niche of classical music in general; from Boulez and Salonen to Schumann and Schubert. That’s not quite right in the

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In Brief: Inauguration Edition

There is something big going on here in Washington this weekend: best to stay inside and listen to some music. 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's a long list this week.


The Centre de Musique Baroque

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A Survey of Bruckner Cycles

Like the Beethoven Piano Sonata Cycle Survey and the Sibelius Symphony Cycle Survey, this is a mere inventory of what has been recorded and whether it is still available. Favorites are denoted with the “ionarts’ choice” graphic.

There are several incomplete, out of print, hard to get, and just plain obscure (at least in the West) Bruckner Symphony cycles that are not listed below. This

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NSO Prepares for Tour, Week 1

Christoph Eschenbach is back in town, for two weeks of concerts. To prepare the National Symphony Orchestra for its upcoming European tour (January 31 to February 10), Eschenbach is giving test runs of most of the planned repertory this week and next at the NSO's regular concerts. (They trotted out Strauss's Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche this past November.) Last night, in the Kennedy

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Toby Spence de Retour

Charles T. Downey, Vocal Arts D.C. offers milestone local recital of tenor Toby Spence
Washington Post, January 18, 2013

Janáček, Diary of One Who Disappeared, I. Bostridge, R. Philogene, T. Adès (2001)Vocal Arts D.C. presented two major debuts Wednesday night, the first local recital of Toby Spence and the first appearance of Leos Janacek’s “The Diary of One Who Disappeared” on its concert

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For Your Consideration: 'Hyde Park on Hudson' and 'Lincoln'

When depicting a U.S. president on film, a director and the actor who portrays him can create a saintly icon or a glimpse of the man behind the history. Two of the year's presidential movies, Steven Spielberg's dour, overstuffed hagiographical Lincoln and Roger Michell's backdoor portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Hyde Park on Hudson, demonstrate the two opposing approaches. In the latter,

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Quicksilver's Washington Debut

Charles T. Downey, Quicksilver offers night of discoveries at Dumbarton Oaks
Washington Post, January 15, 2013

Stile Moderno: New Music from the 17th Century, Quicksilver (2011)
[Sample tracks]When Dieterich Buxtehude is by far the best-known composer on a concert program, you know you are in for a night of discoveries. The others surveyed by the historically informed performance ensemble

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Ionarts-at-Large: Mariss Jansons' Birthday Turangalîla

Edit: You can listen to this performance via the Bavarian Radio's free on demand stream here.
At 8:02PM, Friday January 11th, I wondered how Mariss Jansons in seemingly out-of-character Messiaen—specifically the Turangalîla Symphony—would sound like. Would Messiaen’s central part of his Tristan & Isolde triptych, this “love song” and “hymn to joy” (Messiaen), really be up Jansons’ alley?

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'Alexander Nevsky'

Charles T. Downey, With ‘Alexander Nevsky,’ BSO channels medieval bombast
Washington Post, January 14, 2013


Prokofiev, Alexander Nevsky, E. Gorohovskaya, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Y. Temirkanov
When foreigners watch patriotic American films, they must find them obnoxious. This was one of my reactions to Sergei Eisenstein’s 1938 epic “Alexander Nevsky,” a glorification of the medieval

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In Brief: Foggy Town 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 Lausanne, a rare performance of Leonardo Vinci's opera Artaserse, with Philippe Jaroussky, Max Emanuel Cencic, and Concerto Köln. [France Musique]

Fabio Luisi

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A Survey of Sibelius Cycles

Update 19/01/2013: Colin Davis' second (first LSO) cycle is being re-issued and already available in Europe.

Update 12/01/2013: Abranavel's, Karajan and Bernstein's incomplete, and Ashkenazy's Stockholm cycle added. Links and images updated and Amazon-links internationalized. Ionarts's Choice cycles updated. Misdirecting links double-checked after initial posting.

Update 04/01/2013: Paavo

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For Your Consideration: 'Smashed', 'Les Misérables', 'Celeste and Jesse Forever'

Smashed
Director-screenwriter James Ponsoldt returns to the theme of alcoholism in his second feature, after Off the Black from 2006. It follows the struggles of a young wife to get sober and how it distances her from her husband, who suffers from the same addiction. This view of the devastation of alcoholism is neither sentimental nor exaggerated for dramatic effect, seeming to have the touch of

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For Your Consideration: 'Amour'

The one thing that is most certain in life, that we will die, is also the thing for which most of us will not or cannot prepare. In his most recent film, Amour, Michael Haneke explores this most personal stage of life, as a devoted husband and wife, both retired music teachers, confront the inevitable end. Since The Piano Teacher in 2001, Haneke has had startling critical success as a filmmaker,

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Classical Month in Washington (February)

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!

February 1, 2013 (Fri)
7:30 pm
Merlin Ensemble Vienna
Music by Zemlinsky, Schoenberg, Koerber, Bruch
Embassy of Austria

February 1, 2013 (Fri)
8 pm
China National Symphony

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Awards Season: It's All Happening

The film industry announced today how it would likely pat itself on the back this year. Last year, I decided that it was time to stop caring about the Academy Awards, but I am interested in what an actually impartial group -- the film critics -- thought about the year's movies. The New York Film Critics Circle held its ceremony on Monday night, along with several other critics' groups in the past

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For Your Consideration: 'A Late Quartet'

String quartets -- not the musical pieces, but the people who play them -- can be notoriously fractious. String quartet players have related their disagreements in memoirs or in spoken comments: traveling, rehearsing, and working so many hours out of the year with the same three musicians has its challenges. Even composers have played on the conflicts among members of string quartets, as in the

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Ionarts-at-Large: Youthful Bruckner With James Gaffigan

James Gaffigan is a young conductor (*1979) with a bright future. Well possibly a future in Munich at some point, where his performances with the Munich Philharmonic have been well received on both sides of the podium. He continued that streak when he was back in town December 16th through the 18th. A neat and clean program comprised Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto played by Sergey Khachatryan and

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Ionarts-at-Large: Ageing Maestros and a Youthful Knight-Errant

Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss, and an errant sheep from Don Quixote
Some conductors get more interesting with age (Riccardo Chailly!), some probe new depths (Vänskä), many get increasingly more bland and boring (Mehta, Maazel), some are merely tolerated on the podium because of past achievements (Previn) or because they’d die if they didn’t any longer have conducting.

The most obvious example

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London Town: Wigmore's Grumpy Mr. Handel

Louis de Bernières reminds me of Dom DeLuise, at least he did when he appeared as the titular composer in a frivolous little ditty of a Wigmore-Hall recital called “Mr. Handel”.




G.F.Handel, The Six Cello (ex-Recorder) Sonatas,
Brook Street Band
Avie



G.F.Handel, Trio Sonatas Op.5,
Brook Street Band
Avie


It was an evening of musical excerpts from the master and contemporaries,

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Briefly Noted: La Figueras

La Voix de l'Emotion, M. Figueras, La Capella Reial de Catalunya, Hespèrion XX-XXI
(released on March 13, 2012)
AVSA 9889A+B | 153'43"
When soprano Montserrat Figueras died in 2011, a trailblazing career came to an end. Jordi Savall, the Catalan viola da gambist Jordi Savall who was married to Figueras for 47 years, told an interviewer that she would always remain his muse: "She understood

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In Brief: Epiphany 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 Barbican Hall in London, a performance of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis by the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, with John Eliot Gardiner directing the

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À mon chevet: Joseph Anton

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


In one of the sessions [of the 48th Congress of International PEN in New York] he was dragged into the heavyweight prize fight between Saul Bellow and Günter Grass. He was sitting next to the German novelist, whom he greatly admired, and after Bellow -- also one of his favorite writers --

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Best Recordings of 2012 (#1 - 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.



# 1 - New Release
H.Purcell et al., Dorothee Mields, Lautten Copagney Berlin,
Wolfgang

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Did You Hear What I Heard, 2012

As a year-in-review exercise, Mark Berry at Boulezian recently counted what music he had heard in the past year, ordered by composer. The results were interesting, in a cross-section of the classical music world sort of way, so here is the same tabulation for my listening in 2012 -- with concerts and operas considered together (plus dance, if the music was performed live) , just my reviews, in

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Best Recordings of 2012 (#2)

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.
# 2 - New Release
E.Wolf-Ferrari, Violin Concerto, Overtures & Intermezzi, Benjamin Schmid, Friedrich Haider, Oviedo Filarmoniía, Farao 108069




E.Wolf-Ferrari, Violin

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Best Recordings of 2012 (#3)

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.
# 3 - New Release
A.Schoenberg, L.v>Beethoven, J.Haydn, A.Berg, An die ferne Geliebte op.98, Adelaïde op.46, The Book of the Hanging Gardens op.15, Altenberg Lieder, 3 Songs

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