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

Read More

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,

Read More

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

Read More

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

Read More

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

Read More

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

Read More

'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.

Read More