Classical Music Agenda (October 2013)

Tintoretto, Tancredi Baptizes Clorinda
Museum of Fine Arts, HoustonEARLY MUSIC:
Leading the picks of the ten concerts I most want to hear in October are several free performances of early music. It is the month when the Washington Bach Consort's noontime cantata series gets under way, one of the best musical offerings in the city. On the first Tuesday of most months, WBC members perform one of

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Briefly Noted: Inscape's CD Debut

Sprung Rhythm, Inscape Chamber Orchestra, R. Scerbo
(released on July 30, 2013)
Sono Luminus DSL-92170 | 82'36"
Among the ensembles that play a lot of contemporary music in the Washington area, the programs offered by the Inscape Chamber Orchestra intrigue me the most. Since the group was founded, in 2004, I have reviewed their concerts only twice -- at the National Gallery of Art in 2011 and

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Miquel Barcelo at the Musée de Céret

There is a new exhibit of the works of Miquel Barceló, called Terra ignis, at the Musée d'art moderne de Céret, in the Pyrénées-Orientales region of France, which reveals some new directions in the artist's work. Philippe Dagen has some thoughts on this in an article (Miquel Barcelo transforme ornements de toit et urnes de jardin en œuvres d'art, August 28) for Le Monde (my translation):
The

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À mon chevet: 'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle'

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


"Do you know the story of the monkeys of the shitty island?" I asked Noboru Wataya.

He shook his head, with no sign of interest. "Never heard of it."

"Somewhere, far, far away, there's a shitty island. An island without a name. An island not worth giving a name. A shitty island with a

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Briefly Noted: More of Pappano's Rossini

Rossini, Petite Messe Solennelle, M. Rebeka, S. Mingardo, F. Meli, A. Esposito, Coro e Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome, A. Pappano
(released on April 23, 2013)
EMI 4 16742 2 | 103'19"
This is the latest in the series of live recordings of the Chorus and Orchestra of Rome's Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, from EMI. The Petite Messe Solennelle is the largest

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An 'Amélie' Musical? Quelle horreur!

Jean-Pierre Jeunet hates musicals. Still he did not put a stop to the adaptation of his cult film Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain into a Broadway musical, as reported in an article ("Amélie Poulain" mangé à la sauce Broadway, August 26) in Le Point (my translation):
[The rumor] was confirmed on August 13 by Dan Messé, the American composer charged with the project, on the Facebook page of his

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In Brief: Last Gasp of August 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.)

Concerto Italiano performs Giulio Caccini's L'Euridice at the Innsbrucker Festwochen. Rinaldo Alessandrini leads a cast including Silvia Frigato, Furio Zanasi, Sara

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Dip Your Ears, No. 152 (A Schwarz-Schilling Concerto)

R.Schwarz-Schilling, Violin Concerto, Partita, Polonaise,
K.Troussov / J.Serebrier / Staatskapelle Weimar
Naxos


Determined Quality

Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling is one of the many secondary victims of the Third Reich and subsequent shift in musical ideology—roughly along the lines of Walter Braunfels, Wolfgang Fortner, and Karl Amadeus Hartmann. The post-war environment wasn’t without

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Mezzo-Soprano Teresa Berganza's New Memoirs

T. Berganza and O. Bellamy, Un monde habité par le chant (Buchet-Chastel, 2013)
The legendary mezzo-soprano Teresa Berganza is celebrating her 80th birthday by publishing her memoirs, Un monde habité par le chant, written with Olivier Bellamy. Thierry Hillériteau has an interview with her (Teresa Berganza : «Les compositeurs sont mes dieux, Mozart est mon messie !», August 23) for Le Figaro (my

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Briefly Noted: More Faustian Bartók

Bartók, Violin Concertos 1/2, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, D. Harding
(released on August 13, 2013)
HMC 902146 | 57'59"
You can throw another top-notch recording of Bartók's two violin concertos on the pile. Why would so many of the leading violinists of our time make recordings of the Bartók concertos? The answer is in the music, two pieces that feature some exquisite writing for the

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For Your Consideration: 'Vous n'avez encore rien vu'

For Washington cinéphiles, the La Cinémathèque program, supported by La Maison Française at the Avalon Theater, offers many delights. The series features rare -- often singular -- screenings of recent French films, in the beautiful old Chevy Chase movie house that was saved and restored by community support. Last night, it was a screening of Vous n'avez encore rien vu, a film directed by Alain

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Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 16 ) Salzburg contemporary • Klangforum Wien 2, Heinz Holliger

Salzburg contemporary • Klangforum Wien 2: Heinz Holliger
Japanese Rain, Confused Owls, Nocturnal Guitar Lessons

All pictures courtesy Salzburg Festival, © Silvia Lelli. Details - click image to see entire photo.
Heinz Holliger is wonderful: A charming advocate of contemporary music—his own but especially that of others’. Still an outstanding oboist. The finest Haydn conductor I’ve heard in

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Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 15 ) Shakespeare/Mendelssohn • Ein Sommernachtstraum

Shakespeare/Mendelssohn • Ein Sommernachtstraum
Inspiration for Wagner
All pictures above and below courtesy Salzburg Festival, © Ruth Walz. Details - click image to see entire photo.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is perhaps—probably—Shakespeare’s funniest comedy and raunchiest play, but apparently young Felix Mendelssohn-B. only got the bowdlerized version to read, or in any case one prepared ad

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Briefly Noted: Heras-Casado in HIP Schubert

Schubert, Symphonies 3/4, Freiburger Barockorchester, P. Heras-Casado
(released on September 10, 2013)
HMC 902154 | 54'33"
The historically informed performance (HIP) movement is officially mainstream, as I have noted before, a sub-discipline that most conservatory students now are at least exposed to, an alternative career path or option to add to the list, along with specialized contemporary

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A Helping Hand for Hans Gál!

Support the Hans Gál-indiegogo project here— Happy news: Goal achieved!!!

Conductor Kenneth Woods and his Orchestra of the Swan are busily raising money (via indigogo) for the last installment of their splendid, admirable, gorgeous-sounding Hans Gál Symphony project. Hans Gál is a composer dear to ionarts, he's been mentioned in the past and bound to get more attention still, in the future. His

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Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 14 ) El Sistema • Ntl. Children’s Symphony Orchestra & Simon Rattle

El Sistema • Ntl. Children’s Symphony Orchestra & Simon Rattle
Pint-sized Mahler
All pictures courtesy Salzburg Festival, © Silvia Lelli. Details - click image to see entire photo.
Eighteen (!) double basses, about the size of a cello on PEDs, were bound to make up with quantity for what they lacked in volume. As did the gusto with which the pint-sized bass-steersboys and steersgirls of the

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Classical Music Agenda: September 2013

September is just around the corner, and that means the return of the Classical Music Agenda. For those who are new around here, this is a regular post in which I pick the ten performances I think are the highlights of the month here in Washington. The rest of the calendar will scroll through the sidebar as the month goes by.


Conductor Philippe Auguin
OPERA:
Washington National Opera's

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In Brief: Books, Dirty Looks 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.) Now you know what to do with that last week of summer vacation.

Listen to an all-Schumann recital by baritone Christian Gerhaher and pianist Gerold Huber, including

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Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 13 ) Liederabend • Christian Gerhaher & Gerold Huber

Liederabend • Christian Gerhaher & Gerold Huber
The Art of Darkness
Picture courtesy Salzburg Festival, © Silvia Lelli. Detail - click image to see entire photo.
Chances of a recital with Christian Gerhaher and Gerold Huber being special are higher than for just about any other recital or concert. “Just about 100%” Jay Nordlinger suggested before heading up the stairs of the Mozarteum to hear the

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Dip Your Ears, No. 151 (A Trio of Austrian Trios)

K.Goldmark, H.Gál, A.Zemlinsky, Piano Trios,
T.A.Irnberger, E.Sinaiski, A.K.Cernitori
Gramola SACD



Tempting Trios

We’re at the beginning of a greatly desirable Hans Gál renaissance, and so it was that composer’s piano trio that drew me to this recording from Vienna’s enterprising Gramola label. Bending and twisting with summery delight, the Trio makes no bones about Schubert and Bahms

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Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 12 ) El Sistema • White Hands Choir

El Sistema • White Hands Choir
The Calligraphy of Song
Pictures above and below courtesy Salzburg Festival, © Silvia Lelli. Detail - click image to see entire photo.
Had I not been cajoled and convinced that I absolutely had to see the El Sistema Coro de Manos Blancos—the White Hands Choir, I would have missed it, and if I hadn’t missed it on the program, I might have dismissed it. A double choir

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For Your Consideration: 'I Give It a Year'

Most romantic comedies are simply reiterations of the same overtired plot device, cinematized pulp not worth serious consideration. A select few examples -- When Harry Met Sally, Roman Holiday, Four Weddings and a Funeral, There's Something about Mary, Breakfast at Tiffany's, to name a few -- rise above the genre, mostly by being so well written that they are irresistible. I Give It a Year, the

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À mon chevet: 'My Name Is Red'

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


Nasir the Limner was making a mess of a plate he intended to repair from a version of the Quintet of Nizami dating back to the era of Tamerlane's sons; the picture depicted Hüsrev looking at a naked Shirin as she bathed.

A ninety-two-year-old former master who was half blind and had

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Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 11 ) Soloist Recital • Till Fellner

Soloist Recital • Till Fellner
Baroque Brawn and Classical Timidity
Picture courtesy Salzburg Festival, © Silvia Lelli. Detail - click image to see entire photo.
If you favor pianism over star-power, the replacement of Evgeny Kissin (ill) with Till Fellner on short notice for the soloist recital on August 7th in the Grosses Festspielhaus should not have spelled disappointment. If you love Bach,

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Rodríguez Explains the Tango

Charles T. Downey, In Smithsonian’s Steinway Series, Carlos César Rodríguez piano concert has pedagogical flair (Washington Post, August 13, 2013)


Carlos Gardel: King of Tango, Vol. 1
In the middle of his recital at the Smithsonian American Art Museum on Sunday afternoon, Carlos César Rodríguez did something intriguing. The Venezuelan-born local pianist teaches at the Levine School of Music,

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Washington's Season to Come: 2013-2014

Here in Washington, there is relatively little to hear in the sleepy month of August, and one's ears start to think ahead to the fall. This city offers a lot of high-quality music, more than most people can afford to hear. What are the performances that you should mark on your calendar now, the ones you do not want to miss? Here are my picks for the Top 25 events in classical music in the season

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In Brief: Savoring Summer 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.) Now you know what to do with that last week of summer vacation.





You can now listen to the end of the Ring cycle from Bayreuth. [Siegfried | Götterdämmerung]

Listen

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'Falstaff' at Wolf Trap

(L to R) Tracy Cox (Alice Ford), Mireille Asselin (Nannetta), Margaret Gawrysiak (Quickly),
and Carolyn Sproule (Meg) in Falstaff, Wolf Trap Opera, 2013 (photo by Carol Pratt)
Five years after Wolf Trap Opera presented Verdi's first and only other comedy, Un Giorno di Regno, the company let the other shoe drop. Their new production of Verdi's Falstaff is timed conveniently with the composer's

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Dip Your Ears, No. 150 (Langgaard’s Stringed Nightingale)

Rued Langgaard
String Quartets Nos. 2, 3, 6, Variations on “Oh, Sacred Head”
Nightingale String Quartet
Dacapo SACD

Musical Nattergale

Rued Langgaard (1893—1952) is a strange and most wonder-full romantic composer, whose 16 symphonies cover the gamut from massively delightful to charmingly bizarre. His violin and piano miniatures are among the sweetest found in the 20th century. His works

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Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 10 ) Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra 1 • Mariss Jansons

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra 1 • Mariss Jansons
A Russian Pair of Sixes

A pair of Russian Sixes came from Mariss Jansons and his Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in their first of two Salzburg concerts: Shostakovich’s and Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony each, related by their key (B minor), nationality, and number, but little else.

The lower strings of the BRSO opened the Shostakovich with

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Ionarts in Santa Fe: San Miguel Mission

On this last trip to Santa Fe, I spent more time in Santa Fe itself, rather than in the surroundings. On Sunday afternoon, that meant visiting the Loretto Chapel, whose beautiful spiral staircase is the subject of Barbara Hershey's movie The Staircase, and another visit to the city's cathedral, which features in Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop, the best evocation of the mystery of

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Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.5 (Part 1)

Continued here: "Gustav Mahler — Symphony No.5 (Part 2)"
Picture of postcard with Mahler by Hans Boehler (detail; click to see in entirety) courtesy Carnegie Hall Archives
Gustav Mahler’s Fifth, along with the Fourth, is the most popular among Mahler’s symphonies… not the least because of the famous slow fourth movement, the Adagietto (soundtrack to “Death in Venice” and Robert Kennedy’s funeral

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Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 9 ) Vienna Philharmonic • Zubin Mehta

Vienna Philharmonic • Zubin Mehta
Mahler in the Morning

Mahler in the morning is a tough proposition, even for avowed Mahlerficionados™. Which is perhaps why the concert of the Mahler Fifth Symphony in this year’s Salzburg Mahler cycle was buffered with Mozart before intermission—Mozart being decidedly more morning-suited music to the extent that any orchestra performance can be truly suited to

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Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.5 (Part 2)

This continues "Gustav Mahler — Symphony No.5 (Part 1)"
In early 1901, Mahler last conducted the Philharmonic concerts with Bruckner’s Fifth, vigorously cut down to Mahler’s preferred size. The Mahler-groupie Alma Schindler followed his movements breathlessly as he conducted Die Zauberflöte at the opera. He then suffered a massive, life-threatening hemorrhoid-caused hemorrhage that necessitated

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Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 8 ) El Sistema • Simón Bolívar Orchestra

El Sistema • Simón Bolívar Orchestra
A Scherzo to Remember

Success in “Mahler 3” (see review), however rare or great, does not spell automatic success in Mahler’s considerably stranger, elusive Seventh Symphony—a work so full of ambiguous atmosphere, point blank banality, and ‘or-is-it’ irony that among all of Mahler’s eleven symphonies it seems to best resist the efforts of audience and

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Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.7 (Part 2)

This continues "Gustav Mahler — Symphony No.7 (Part 1)"
Gustav Mahler in New York (detail, click to see entire picture). Picture courtesy New York Philharmonic Archives
By the time Mahler premiered his Seventh Symphony, his reputation as a conductor well exceeded that of him as a composer. He had quit the Court Opera in the summer of 1907 and traveled to the US where he conducted his first

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Christine Brewer, the Last Rose of Summer

Wagner, Wesendonck-Lieder / Britten, Cabaret Songs, C. Brewer, R. Vignoles (live at Wigmore Hall) [MP3]
At the end of my week at Santa Fe Opera was the first of a series of song recitals, presented by the company at the Lensic Center in downtown Santa Fe. Heard on Sunday afternoon, this concert featured soprano Christine Brewer, who was marking the birth anniversaries of Richard Wagner (200)

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Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.7 (Part 1)

Continued here: "Gustav Mahler — Symphony No.7 (Part 2)"

Mahler’s Seventh Symphony is a forbidding work that can baffle the listener even more than the Third. The author of liner notes to one recording tries to help: “What idea might help comprehend the whole symphony? The same as the Third Symphony, it might be “the World”. But this time the composer has created a world where we would not find

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Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 7 ) Mozart-Matinee • Ingo Metzmacher

Mozart-Matinee • Ingo Metzmacher
Ives Got Something to Remember
Click on excerpt for whole picture. Picture courtesy Salzburg Festival, © Silvia Lelli

The Mozart Matinees at the Salzburg Festival are gladly attended AM-concerts, musical amuse-gueules, easily digestible, and quickening stuff consumed before the concert-activities that follow later that day. Comfortably air-conditioned (not the

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Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 6 ) Lucio Silla • W.A.Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart • Lucio Silla
Pretty to Die for and Deadly Boring
Pictures above and below courtesy Salzburg Festival, © Matthias Baus
Click on details to see entire picture
The Haus für Mozart was rather sparsely filled on Friday afternoon, August 2nd, to welcome Mark Minkowski and his Musiciens du Louvre for the third performance of Mozart’s early opera, Lucio Silla.

The difficulty of

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Ionarts in Santa Fe: 'Figaro' Redux

(L to R) Keith Jameson (Basilio), Susanne Mentzer (Marcellina), Dale Travis (Bartolo), Daniel Okulitch (Count), Zachary Nelson (Figaro), Lisette Oropesa (Susanna), Susanna Phillips (Countess) in Le Nozze di Figaro, Santa Fe Opera, 2013 (photo by Ken Howard)

The final opera of the season at Santa Fe Opera had to be Mozart, and it had to be the Mozart opera most produced here, Le Nozze di Figaro.

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In Brief: Red or Green 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.) Now you know what to do with your Sunday.

In case you missed the live streams of the Ring cycle from Bayreuth, you can listen to the performance of the first two operas,

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Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 5 ) Jeanne D'Arc • Walter Braunfels

Walter Braunfels • Jeanne D'Arc
The Would-Be Future of Opera at Stake
Jeanne d'Arc, signature
There is a special pleasure when an anticipated highlight turns into an experienced highlight. Walter Braunfels’ opera Jeanne D’Arc, Scenes from the Life of Saint Joan, one of the initial reasons not to miss this year’s Salzburg Festival (the other having been the hindsight-makes-you-smarter Gawain) was

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Notes from the 2013 Salzburg Festival ( 4 ) Salzburg Contemporary • Klangforum Wien 1

Salzburg Contemporary • Klangforum Wien 1 (Birtwistle)
"Trading Places" and Other Deadly Compositions
Click on excerpt for whole picture. All pictures courtesy Salzburg Festival, © Silvia Lelli

The Salzburg Festival may have done away with the “Kontinent” series that successfully focused on one contemporary composer every year, but under “Salzburg Contemporary” (the title in English, which is of

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Dip Your Ears, No. 149 (Hans Rott Returns)

H.Rott, Symphony in E, Suite for Orchestra in B-flat,
P.Järvi / Frankfurt RSO
RCA

Rott’s Return

Finally a label – RCA – has agreed to release the Frankfurt RSO and Paavo Järvi’s 2010 performance of Hans Rott’s grand Symphony. The story of composer and work (see Listen Winter 11) is as fascinating as the ebullient music. Paavo Järvi has channeled his enthusiasm for the youthful

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Ionarts at Santa Fe: The Lady without a Lake

Joyce DiDonato (Elena) in La Donna del Lago, Santa Fe Opera, 2013 (photo by Ken Howard)
Charles T. Downey, Santa Fe Opera’s thrilling “Donna del Lago” proves the highlight of the summer
The Classical Review, August 2
It had to happen eventually, and it did.

After some disappointments earlier in the week, Thursday was a very good night to be at the Santa Fe Opera. The company’s debut production

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For Your Consideration: 'Europa Report'

Recent discoveries of unexpected forms of life able to survive at the bottom of the ocean, surviving off thermal vents rather than sunlight, have made the possibility of similar forms of life on other planets seem even more likely. Scientific speculation is focused on Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter and known at least since the time of Galileo, where the smoothness of the ice observed on the

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Ionarts in Santa Fe: 'Oscar'

David Daniels (Oscar Wilde, center) and cast in Oscar, Santa Fe Opera, 2013 (photo by Ken Howard)
Charles T. Downey, Morrison’s “Oscar” premiere proves a trial at Santa Fe Opera
The Classical Review, August 1
One of the best things about coming to the Santa Fe Opera each summer is the chance to hear new or at least recent operas. The company has a decorated history of world and U.S. premieres,

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