Classical Candor

Grieg: Piano Concerto (CD review)

2013-05-23T00:04:00.001-07:00

Also, Symphonic Dances; In Autumn Overture. Havard Gimse, piano; Bjarte Engeset, Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Naxos 8.557279.

Naxos has always offered good value for the classical buyer’s dollar, as this album of Grieg’s music demonstrates. The performances and sound may not rank with the absolute best, but they’re close enough for most folks, I’m sure, and the seventy-one minutes of playing time provide plenty to listen to.

The opening movement of Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor, a staple of the piano concerto repertoire and therefore having many alternative rivals, is famous for its dramatic opening drum roll and cascading crescendos from the piano. Pianist Havard Gimse, Maestro Bjarte Engeset, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the Naxos engineers nicely capture the theatrical effect of this opening, and, indeed, the whole of the first movement follows closely the excitement set out in the beginning. Throughout the work, Gimse follows this pattern in exemplary fashion. Tempos remain moderate but flexible; intonation is nuanced; transitions, as into the second subject, sound smooth and fluid; and Gimse seems always sensitive to Grieg’s designs.

The second movement comes across wonderfully hushed and continues to portray the beauty of nature as Grieg intended. It’s in the final movement that the Concerto itself begins to suffer, as the finale has never seemed to hang together well with the rest of the piece. The last movement is like a miniature concerto unto itself, very folksy in its outer sections and sweetly quiet in its middle. But it doesn’t have much to do with anything that went before it, and neither Gimse nor conductor Engeset can do much about that. In fact, by playing up the extremes, the performers only make matters worse. Oh, well; it’s not a serious complaint.

Accompanying the Concerto is the brief tone poem “In Autumn” and the suite of folk tunes called “Symphonic Dances.” They also come off well, very colorfully and pictorially presented, although I doubt that most buyers would be attracted to the disc by anything but the Concerto.

The Naxos sound is excellent in terms of the piano tone in the Concerto, very vibrant, clean, and alive. As for the orchestral sound, it’s a little less so, both in the accompaniment to the Concerto and in the coupling. I found it a bit lean in the bass and not entirely transparent in the midrange. Still, it’s more than adequate, broad and spacious.

Finally, I should mention that as good a bargain as this Naxos release is, one can still buy the two-disc, mid-priced Philips set that includes one of the best Grieg Concerto performances of all, with Stephen Kovacevich and Colin Davis, along with piano concertos from Schumann (Kovacevich), Addinsell (Dichter), Tchaikovsky (Argerich), and Brahms (Kovacevich again), making the Philips set one of the ultimate great bargains in the history of recorded music.

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

JJP

Mahler: Symphony No. 1 (HDCD review)

2013-05-21T00:02:00.000-07:00

Christoph Eschenbach, Houston Symphony Orchestra. HDTT HDCD283.

The folks at HDTT (High Definition Tape Transfers) usually take recordings that are either out of the catalogue or out of copyright and transfer them to CD from commercial tapes or vinyl discs in audiophile sound. This time they did something slightly different, taking 16-bit Betamax master tape and converting and processing it for compact disc. The results are up to HDTT’s typically high sonic standards, and the performance by Maestro Christoph Eschenbach and the Houston Symphony, heretofore commercially unreleased, is quite good.

Gustav Mahler wrote the Symphony No. 1 in D major in 1888, premiering it in 1889, calling it at first a symphonic poem rather than a symphony and temporarily, at least, giving it the nickname “Titan.” Within a few years, however, he revised it to the four-movement piece we have today and dropped the “Titan” designation. The work’s popularity soared at the beginning of the stereo age, along with that of the Fourth Symphony, possibly because the composer scored the First for a very large orchestra, and with its soaring melodies, enormous impact, and dramatic contrasts it makes a spectacular impression on the listener. Plus, the First and Fourth are Mahler’s shortest symphonies, making them ideal for home listening.

Anyway, you’ll recall that for the Symphony No. 1 Mahler said he was trying to describe a protagonist facing life, with a progression beginning with the lighter moments of youth and proceeding to the darker years of maturity. In the first movement, “Spring without End,” we see Mahler’s youthful hero in the symbolic stirring of Nature before a long spring. In the second-movement Scherzo, “With Full Sail,” we find Mahler in one of his early mock-sentimental moods, displaying an exuberance that he may have meant as ironic. In the third movement we get an intentionally awkward funeral march depicting a hunter’s fairy-tale burial, which comes off as a typical Mahler parody. It may represent the hero’s first glimpse of death or maybe Mahler’s own recollection of a youthful encounter with the death of a loved one. The movement has long been one of the Mahler’s most controversial, with audiences still debating just what the composer was up to. Then, in the finale, Mahler conveys the panic “of a deeply wounded heart,” as his central figure faces the suffering of life and fate. Still, Mahler was a spiritual optimist and wanted Man to triumph in the end. In the final twenty minutes or so, Mahler pulls out all the stops and puts the orchestra into full swing, making it an audiophile favorite for home playback.

Maestro Eschenbach has proved himself a sturdy conductor. Expect no idiosyncratic or revelatory performance here but a good, solid, serious-minded, highly refined one. Of course, I suppose a person could question the need for yet another straightforward interpretation of Mahler’s score with so many emotionally charged recordings already available from the likes of Mackerras (EMI), Horenstein (Unicorn), Solti (Decca), Kubelik (DG), Bernstein (DG), Walter (Sony), Haitink (Philips), Tennstedt (EMI), Luisi (WS), and others. There is, however, something one can say for a performance that is all Mahler, with few excesses or exaggerations, and a recording that sounds as good as this one.

In the first movement Eschenbach takes his time with the morning mists and the coming of spring. Mahler marked the opening “slowly, sluggish or dragging,” and while “sluggish” and “dragging” can seem somewhat derogatory, I’m sure the composer didn’t mean them that way, nor does Eschenbach “drag” anything out. But, yes, Eschenbach’s account of the music does appear more leisurely than most other accounts. When the main theme enters some five or six minutes in, it has an appropriately youthful bounce. Eschenbach also shows a propensity for emphasizing contrasts by bringing the orchestra down to a whisper in quieter passages, making those big Mahlerian outbursts appear all the more earthshaking. So, even though Eschenbach may be a tad more relaxed than many other conductors here, you can’t say the performance lacks requisite thrills.

In the second movement the conductor moves implacably forward, not too quickly yet with enough momentum to keep listeners on their toes, so to speak. Then he introduces some heady tempo changes to keep everyone just a little off balance. Even so, the music is lovely in the Landler section especially.

The third-movement funeral march could have advanced at a little faster pace, and this is the only part of the performance where I thought Eschenbach’s reading seemed a touch undernourished and under characterized. Be that as it may, the music comes off as bizarre as ever, particularly in the second half.

In the finale, Mahler appears to ask if life’s upheavals truly come to a resolution in the hero’s victory over life’s tribulations, or if the triumph is illusory, a temporary conquest, as ironic as the earlier funeral march. You’ll hear nothing undernourished about Eschenbach’s reading here. He unleashes his Houston players in a flurry of power and excitement. Mahler wanted a stormily agitated and energetic feeling from the music, and the conductor provides it in aces, aided by a bass drum that sounds as though it could do some serious woofer damage if played too carelessly loud.

In all, Eschenbach offers up a more cultured, more lyrical Mahler First than we often hear. Although he lets the music speak eloquently for itself, there is much refined beauty in the conductor’s rendition of this familiar score.

HDTT transferred the music from an original 16-bit Betamax master, using a Sony PCM501ES digital processor feeding an Antelope Audio Eclipse converter and transformed to 24/96 resolution. With minimal miking (two Neumann KM83 microphones across the front of the orchestra), the recordist made the Betamax tape live at Jones Hall, Houston, Texas, in 1987.

Betamax?, I hear some of you asking yourselves. Yes, Betamax, which was quite a good recording format, even if it didn’t yield the bit rates of today’s digital masters. Regardless, the folks at HDTT do such a good job transferring it for today’s home use, it doesn’t matter where they got it. Believe me, it will satisfy most demanding audiophiles. The giant bass whacks alone will please most listeners; then add in a wide dynamic range, a very smooth, very extended frequency range, sharp transient attacks, and a broad stereo spread, and you get some pleasing effects. What’s more, the recording exhibits a good sense of orchestral depth and a fine, natural-sounding midrange transparency, making it all the more lifelike and attractive. But it is a live recording, so expect an inevitable outburst of applause at the end. That said, the audience is generally quiet during the performance, even when the music fades into almost silent intervals. In all, excellent sound.

For further information about the various formats, configurations, and prices of HDTT products, you can visit their Web site at http://www.highdeftapetransfers.com/storefront.php.

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

JJP

Chavez: Piano Concerto (CD review)

2013-05-20T00:04:00.002-07:00

Also, Meditacion; Moncayo: Muros Verdes; Zyman: Variations on an Original Theme. Jorge Federico Osorio, piano; Miguel Prieto, Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Mexico. Cedille CDR 90000 140.

So, who is Carlos Chavez, whose Piano Concerto is the centerpiece of this Cedille disc? Regrettably, I must admit that I had never heard of him before now, which only demonstrates how little I know. Carlos Antonio de Padua Chávez y Ramírez (1899-1978) was a Mexican composer, conductor, educator, and journalist, the founder and director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, the very group who perform on this album. Chavez wrote symphonies, quartets, sonatas, incidental music, and concertos, and he was among the most influential composers of his day.

Fortunately, I can say I have heard of pianist Jorge Federico Osorio, who performs the Piano Concerto along with several solo pieces on the disc. Osorio is a piano virtuoso of international fame, and in my experience he has never demonstrated anything but sensitive, immaculate, committed, passionate playing in his work. It was a pleasure listening to him on the Cedille disc, and even though I had never heard any of the music before, he made it appear vibrant and entertaining.

As I say, the centerpiece is Chavez’s Piano Concerto, written in 1940. Now, here’s the thing: If you’re looking for something Latin-inflected, this may not be what you want. While the booklet note says that Chavez adhered to local tradition and borrowed from indiginous native culture, I could hardly detect it. The fact is, there is more Stravinsky here than anything Hispanic or Native American; however, as Chavez’s style is to create constantly shifting dissonances, it’s hard to tell what might be buried in all the notes.

Anyway, there seemed to me to be as many Asian-oriented passages as anything else, at least in the first few minutes. Now, here’s the thing: You may find it as complex and scintillating as critics did at the premiere or as cacophonous as audiences did, which may explain why the piece has gotten so little attention since. Nevertheless, as a modernist, Chavez used cacophony as a part of his technique, so you live with it.

Although I had no other recording of the Concerto with which to compare this one, I can’t imagine another surpassing Osorio’s way with it. His playing is full of intense, nervous energy, which no doubt the Chavez work requires. There is nothing Romantic or sentimental, either, not in Chavez’s music and not in Osorio’s performance.

What we get here is an abundance of sharp contrasts and vibrant rhythms, with a good deal of percussion and flute backing up Osorio’s piano. But it’s always Osorio’s piano that is front and center in the music, with Osorio mining a seemingly inexhaustible fund of accents, textures, nuances, and brief flurries of melody.

Chavez follows the momentous first movement with a rather outgoing slow one, largely scored for piano, harp, and reeds. Again, it’s Osorio who rightly dominates, his playing always keeping the listener intently aware that this is music of an original kind, strongly characterful, but, again, never romanticized or nostalgic. Then, with the finale, we’re back to the cacophony of the first movement, where Osorio dazzles with his gymnastic finger work. It’s quite a bravura piece of music with a performance by Osorio, Maestro Miguel Prieto, and the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Mexico to match. Whether you’ll like it or not is another question.

Also on the program are three solo piano pieces, the first of which is Chavez’s Meditacion, an early work from 1918. As the name implies, it’s contemplative, sounding rather Debussy-like in its quiet, dreamy way. Osorio makes sure, though, that we don’t dismiss it out of hand as lightweight, and his alternating dynamism brings out the work’s more-creative development.

Next, there is Muros Verdes (“Green Wall,” 1951) by Jose Pablo Moncayo (1912-1958), a Mexican pianist, percussionist, music teacher, composer, and conductor. As with Meditacion, Muros Verdes comes across with an easygoing stillness. Then, the album ends with Variations on an Original Theme (2007) by the contemporary Mexican composer Samuel Zyman (b. 1956). It exhibits a remarkable variety of fast, slow, agitated, relaxed, and vibrant characteristics. Needless to say, Osorio puts his heart into it, and while it can sound somewhat as cacophonous as Chavez’s Concerto, it also sounds richly expressive.

Producer and engineer Bogdan Zawistowski and engineer Humberto Teran recorded the Concerto in 2011 at Sala Nezahualcoyotl, Centro Cultural Universitario UNAM, Mexico; and producer James Ginsburg and engineer Bill Maylone recorded the additional solo pieces in 2012 at the Fay and Daniel Levin Performance Studio at 98.7 WFMT, Chicago. The miking in the Concerto ideally integrates the piano and orchestra, even if the modest distance employed can result in a slightly recessed sound if played back too softly. The midrange is smooth and natural, without losing too much detail, the hall imparting a faint, pleasant glow to the music. At an appropriate playback level the sound is nigh-well perfect, with wonderful percussion effects. In the solo pieces, we hear a slightly closer, more-dynamic piano sound, near ideal.

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

JJP

Classical Music News of the Week, May 19, 2013

2013-05-19T00:05:00.005-07:00

Twenty-nine Artists from Six Countries to Participate in Twelve-Week Intensive Merola Opera Program

Conductors Mark Morash, Kevin Murphy, Xian Zhang and John DeMain lead performances this summer including Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, Schwabacher Summer Concert, Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, and Merola Grand Finale.

Twenty-three singers, five apprentice coaches and one apprentice stage director, representing six different countries, will participate in the 56th season of the Merola Opera Program from May 28 to August 17, 2013. More than 1000 artists vied for the 29 coveted spots in the 2013 summer festival, which is offered free of charge for all participants. Selected through an extensive world-wide audition and application process, nearly one third of this season’s artists come from countries outside the United States, representing six countries: United States, Canada, Iran, Ireland, New Zealand and Latvia. This year, the program will have four returning Merola participants: Aviva Fortunata, Jacqueline Piccolino and Joseph Lattanzi--participants in the 2012 Merola Opera Program--and Timothy Cheung who participated in the program in 2011.

The 2013 Merola summer artists will participate in an intensive 11-week training program--12 weeks for the apprentice coaches and the apprentice stage director--which will include master classes with opera luminaries such as Warren Jones, Jane Eaglen, Martin Katz, John DeMain and Neil Shicoff along with San Francisco Opera Center Director of Musical Studies Mark Morash (Merola ’87). Guest teachers such as Steven Blier, Patrick Carfizzi, Kevin Murphy and Eric Weimer provide training in voice, foreign languages, operatic repertory, diction, acting and stage movement. Merola members will enjoy the opportunity to sit in on select master classes for a behind-the-scenes look at the training process.

Performance is a key element of the program throughout the summer and participants will appear in public performances during the Merola Opera Program summer festival, which includes two staged operas and two scenes concerts. The 2013 festival will open with Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, directed by Peter Kazaras and conducted by Mark Morash. Performances are 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 11 and 2 p.m. Saturday, July 13 at Everett Auditorium. The season continues with the Schwabacher Summer Concert, conducted by Kevin Murphy and directed by Roy Rallo. The concert will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 18 at Everett Auditorium and 2 p.m. Saturday, July 20 in a free outdoor concert at Yerba Buena Gardens. W.A. Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, directed by Robin Guarino and conducted by Xian Zhang, will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, August 1 and 2 p.m. Saturday August 3 at Everett Auditorium. The festival concludes with the annual Merola Grand Finale, conducted by John DeMain and directed by apprentice stage director George Cederquist, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, August 17 on the main stage in the magnificent War Memorial Opera House.

One of the world’s most prestigious young artist training programs, the Merola Opera Program was founded in 1957 and has since served as a proving ground for thousands of artists, including nine internationally acclaimed singers and one stage director appearing with the San Francisco Opera this summer and fall: Meredith Arwady (Merola ’02 & ’03), Susannah Biller (’09), William Burden (’91), Jose Maria Condemi (’99 & ‘00), Catherine Cook (’90), Daniela Mack (’07), Lucas Meachem (’03), Patricia Racette (’88), Alek Shrader (’07) and Dolora Zajick (’83).

For more information about Merola, please visit www.merola.org or phone (415) 551-6299.

--Karen Ames Communications

AOP’s Sensual Songbook Beauty Intolerable Premieres with Soprano Lauren Flanigan, An Intimate Evening of Songs and Poetry

AOP (American Opera Projects), The Edna St. Vincent Millay Society, ClaverackLanding, and Symphony Space co-present a world premiere performance of Beauty Intolerable, a collection of love songs composed by Sheila Silver based on the poetry of iconoclast and libertine Edna St. Vincent Millay and performed by a trio of operatic chanteuses. The songs are accompanied with poetry recitations by actresses Tyne Daly (June 8) and Tandy Cronyn (June 13). The song cycle will be presented on June 8 at 6 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church: 4th & Warren Streets, Hudson, NY 12534. A Manhattan premiere follows on June 13 at 7:30 PM at Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space. Tickets will be available through the venues' Web sites. A limited number of tickets to the Symphony Space performance which include VIP seating and a reception with the artists are available for $75 at AOP's website.

The concert will feature soprano Lauren Flanigan (La Scala, Santa Fe, Metropolitan and New York City Operas), mezzo-soprano Deanne Meek (Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu, Metropolitan Opera), and soprano Risa Renae Harman (New York City Opera, Glimmerglass Opera), with Kelly Horsted and Christopher Cooley on piano. Each performance is accompanied with poetry recitations by guest actresses Tyne Daly (Cagney & Lacey and Judging Amy), and Tandy Cronyn (Once Upon a Time in America and The Story Lady).

For more information: www.operaprojects.org, http://claveracklanding.org, and http://symphonyspace.org

--American Opera Projects

From May 29th on YouTube: Experience Anderson & Roe’s Breathtaking New Film of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring for Piano Duo

Boundary-breaking pianists mark the centenary of Stravinsky’s epoch-defining work with their most ambitious music video yet.

Classical pianists Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Joy Roe are different. A piano duo who have attracted legions of new fans with their virtuosic and acclaimed arrangements of popular hits (such as their “Billie Jean” cover or their Star Wars Fantasy), they are musicians who bring the care and stunning imagination of brilliant indie filmmakers to their YouTube music videos, pushing the form forward. Case in point: their Schubert Lied-turned-horror-film Der Erlkönig – which, as we go to press, has just been nominated for an Emmy Award.

If they attract full houses across the U.S. and internationally with their live shows, they have made an art of presenting classical music on YouTube, producing and directing videos that have been viewed by millions. “We cater our performances to the venue, whether it be a concert hall or online, and as such, we design our YouTube videos to potently deliver the spirit of the music in a bustling graphic environment,” says Anderson. But even they have never previously attempted anything on the scale of The Rite Of Spring.

To be released in segments (as it is composed), one every two weeks starting from the date of the work’s centenary, Anderson and Roe’s Rite takes the viewer on an epic journey but one that finally mirrors the primeval nature of the work itself. Starting in traditional concert trappings, the performers become gradually sucked into a ritualistic spiral that sets them immersed in a troupe of dancers, crawled on by insects, lost in a hallucinatory world, naked in the ocean, or alongside an antique instrument ablaze in the desert. What is real? What is imaginary? One thing is for sure - theirs is a striking, strident view of music that ripped apart the culture of its time, and this film proves it can still unsettle and thrill us today. In this year of the Rite’s centenary, this interpretation will leave a mark--a scar?--and, perhaps, help to redefine it.

The Rite of Spring will be free to view on YouTube at Anderson & Roe’s channel from May 2. Watch Anderson & Roe’s Emmy-nominated video Der Erlkönig here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xH4uKPDAEE

--Inverne Price Music

Berkeley Symphony Receives National Endowment for the Arts Grant to Support Music in the Schools Program

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Acting Chairman Joan Shigekawa announced today that Berkeley Symphony is one of 817 nonprofit organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Art Works grant. Berkeley Symphony is recommended for a $12,500 grant to support their 2013-2014 Music in the Schools program.

Since 1992, Berkeley Symphony’s Music in the Schools program, in partnership with the Berkeley Unified School District, has provided a comprehensive, hands-on and age-appropriate music curriculum to elementary school students in Berkeley. This award-winning program includes more than 20 interactive in-school concerts and hundreds of classroom musician visits. In addition, Berkeley Symphony will continue to present its Family Concerts: “Meet the Symphony” on Saturday, November 2, 2013, and “I’m a Performer” on Saturday, April 12, 2014. The latter concert is a community collaboration in which both adults and children are invited to perform with the Orchestra under the baton of Education Director and Conductor Ming Luke.

Acting Chairman Shigekawa said, "The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support these exciting and diverse arts projects that will take place throughout the United States. Whether it is through a focus on education, engagement, or innovation, these projects all contribute to vibrant communities and memorable opportunities for the public to engage with the arts."

“I am delighted that our Music in the Schools program has been recognized for its importance and benefit to the local arts community,” said Berkeley Symphony Executive Director René Mandel . “I want to thank the National Endowment for the Arts for their generous support which enables us to continue our commitment to providing the highest quality of musical education and exposure to thousands of children and their families.”

In August 2012, the NEA received 1,547 eligible applications for Art Works grants requesting more than $80 million in funding. Art Works grants support the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and the strengthening of communities through the arts. The 817 recommended NEA grants total $26.3 million and span 13 artistic disciplines and fields. Applications were reviewed by panels of outside experts convened by NEA staff and each project was judged on its artistic excellence and artistic merit.

For a complete listing of projects recommended for Art Works grant support, please visit the NEA Web site at arts.gov.

--Karen Ames Communications

Seattle Symphony Board of Directors and Musicians Approve New Contract

Balanced Budget for 2011–2012 Financial Year, Including Record Fundraising Results

The Seattle Symphony announced today that its Board of Directors and its Musicians have ratified a new collective bargaining agreement through August 31, 2015. The agreement, reached after 15 months of negotiations, will enable the organization to continue its journey of artistic growth under Music Director Ludovic Morlot, expand its engagement with young people and communities, increase the size of its digital footprint, and set a path for long-term financial stability.

The financial terms include concessions in musicians’ salaries for the remainder of the 2012–2013 season, a move to a more economical healthcare plan, and a temporary reduction in the size of the orchestra. This will be followed by salary and pension increases in subsequent years and the gradual restoration of vacant positions. The new contract includes a significant new electronic media agreement that will allow the launch of a new series of live recordings online and on CD, and provide unprecedented audio and audio visual access, via the Internet, to rehearsals and concerts for public engagement, promotional, educational and community purposes. Additionally, the new contract provides for flexibility in operating procedures that will aid in scheduling rehearsals and performances as the Symphony continues to experiment with concert formats and times of day. It will also enable the organization to reach increased numbers of students for next season’s launch of the major new education program Link Up: Seattle Symphony, in which students play and sing along with the Symphony from their seats in Benaroya Hall, following preparatory in-school sessions led by teaching artists and based on a specifically developed curriculum from Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute.

Seattle Symphony Board of Directors Chair Leslie Jackson Chihuly stated, “We express our deep gratitude to the entire orchestra for its willingness to work creatively with us on this agreement, and for again agreeing to make concessions. Settling the contract is a great step forward and allows the entire organization to move toward our shared goals, both artistically and financially. I want to acknowledge and share our deep appreciation for the hard work on the part of so many involved in the negotiations over many months. This agreement provides the strength and impetus needed for us to advance toward ever greater achievements.”

--Ashlyn Damm

Washington National Opera Premieres D.J. Sparr’s Vibrant New Opera, Approaching Ali, Saturday, June 8 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 9 at 2:00 p.m. at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater

Eclectic composer D.J. Sparr teams up with celebrated sportswriter and memoirist Davis Miller, crackerjack librettist Mark Campbell and the Washington National Opera for this compelling new one-hour opera that tells the true story of how Muhammad Ali inspires one young man to turn his life around. The two premiere performances will take place at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater on Saturday, June 8 at 7:30pm and Sunday, June 9 at 2pm. Tickets are $30.

This June, Washington National Opera presents the first fully-staged opera commission created for its American Opera Initiative: Approaching Ali from the composer D.J. Sparr, whose mellifluous music “spouts streams of color” (San Jose Mercury News) and embodies “the boundary-erasing spirit of today’s new-music world” (New York Times).

When WNO announced this ambitious new program to build a repertoire of original American-themed operas, Sparr didn’t hesitate to contact the man that had sublet his Richmond home the previous summer. That man was Davis Miller, author of the famous memoir The Tao of Muhammad Ali, which recounts how Miller transcended his past traumas with the help of Ali, his childhood hero and one of our most revered athletes.

The pair won the inaugural WNO commission and hooked up with superlative librettist Mark Campbell (whose credits include Kevin Puts’s 2012 Pulitzer-winning opera Silent Night) to create the hour-long opera, Approaching Ali. Cutting from the transformative meeting between Ali and Miller, then a wayward adult, to difficult memories of Miller’s boyhood in North Carolina, the story explores the themes of parents and children, loss, bullying, hero-worship, friendship and redemption.

Musically, Approaching Ali draws on myriad influences, with Sparr citing works as wide-ranging as Orff’s Der Mond, Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, Britten, Tom Petty, dharma drumming, and Appalachian fiddle music. Clearly, Sparr’s pop-Romantic aesthetic, shaped as much by his rock roots as his conservatory rigor, is in full bloom. His iconoclastic style, in which a vital, shimmering quality propels his undeniable lyricism from the tangible to the magical, is a perfect match for this uplifting story.

For more information, click here: http://www.kennedy-center.org/events/?event=ONOMA

--Amanda Sweet, BuckleSweet Media

Andris Nelsons Appointed Music Director Designate of the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Andris Nelsons has been appointed as Music Director Designate for the Boston Symphony Orchestra from the start of the 2013/14 season and will officially take up the position of Music Director in 2014/15.

Andris Nelsons is currently Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, where he was appointed in 2008 as a relatively unknown young conductor. Since then he has delighted audiences in Birmingham and built a global reputation as one of the world’s most exciting conductors.

Stephen Maddock, Chief Executive of the CBSO, said: “This appointment to one of the world’s most distinguished orchestras is a real accolade for Andris, and we are delighted for him. During his time at the CBSO, he has proved himself to be amongst the very best conductors in the world, and it is testament to his extraordinary talent that he has secured this major role at such a young age. Of course, we also believe this is a reflection of Birmingham’s continued excellent taste in Music Directors!

“Andris’s rolling contract with the CBSO is currently in place until the end of the 2014/15 season, and there will be no change to his commitment to Birmingham during this time. It is not unusual for a conductor of Andris’s stature to hold more than one position, and we will make an announcement about future seasons beyond 2015 later this year. In the meantime, we all congratulate him on his success and look forward to our next concerts with him in May and June, including an eight-concert European tour.”

Andris Nelsons said: “I am very proud to be appointed to this great orchestra, and I also look forward to lots more wonderful concerts with my beloved CBSO.”

--Ruth Green, CBSO

Application Deadline Extended for Composers & the Voice 2013-2014

Due to overwhelming demand, the deadline for applications to AOP's Composers & the Voice program has been extended.

New Application Deadline: May 24, 2013 (postmarked)

Composers Notified of Acceptance: June 28, 2013

Workshop Sessions: September 2013 through April 2014

Applications and info: www.operaprojects.org/composers_voice

C&V Artistic Director Steven Osgood w composer Hannah Lash The Composers & the Voice Workshop Series is a competitive biannual fellowship offered to composers & composer/librettist teams. Created and led by Composers & the Voice Artistic Director Steven Osgood, six composers or composer/librettist teams will be selected for a year-long fellowship, working with the company's Resident Ensemble of Singers and Artistic Team. The primary focus of Composers & the Voice is to give composers and librettists experience working collaboratively with singers on writing for the voice and opera stage.

C&V fellows

Compose solo works and opera scenes in closed workshop sessions with the AOP Resident Ensemble of Singers

Participate in "Skill-Building Sessions" in acting, improv games, and libretto development

Gain in-depth and firsthand knowledge of how singers build characters, act in scenes and sing text.

Have their compositions featured in two public performances: First Glimpse, a concert of songs in spring 2014, and Six Scenes, an evening of short opera scenes in Fall 2014.

--AOP

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (CD review)

2013-05-17T00:01:00.003-07:00

Also, Petrouchka. Jon Kimura Parker, solo piano. Jon Kimura Parker FP 0907.

Over the years there have been a number of piano transcriptions of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, including several that Stravinsky himself wrote for two hands and four. The former the composer used to preview the work for producers and conductors and the latter he used for rehearsals. So, the new transcription for solo piano we get here from noted Canadian pianist Jon Kimura Parker is nothing innovative. It’s just something better, being more complex, more detailed, more demanding than any piano transcription we’ve yet heard of the Rite, and probably better played in this world-premiere recording.

Explaining his reasons for the new piano arrangements of old orchestral scores we hear on the present disc, Mr. Parker says in a liner note, “When I discovered Stravinsky’s piano duet version, my obsession with playing this music at the piano began in earnest. I noticed that Stravinsky, having arranged the duet primarily to facilitate ballet rehearsal, was less fastidious with details than I had expected. I became engrossed in adding instrumental lines that had been left out. From there, it was a natural evolution to try to manage it all myself. The Rite of Spring has been transcribed for solo piano before, in versions so bare as to be unsatisfying, or so inclusive as to be unplayable. However, it is well known that Stravinsky often composed at the piano, and many sections in The Rite bear this out. Petrouchka (1911) presented a different challenge, in that Stravinsky had already created a virtuoso solo piano suite from selected moments of the ballet. Upon reflection I chose to honor the tragic conclusion of the story by transcribing the ballet in its original and complete form.”

Listening to any transcription of a familiar work may take a little getting used to, and these adaptions of Stravinsky for the keyboard may be an acquired taste. Personally, I miss the vibrant percussion of a full orchestra. However, there is no denying that in Mr. Parker’s hands, The Rite, especially, reveals new depths of clarity and detail without losing much of its rhythmic pulse. This is no doubt a tribute not only to Parker’s fine piano arrangement but to his dynamic piano playing.

Russian-born American composer Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) wrote The Rite of Spring for the 1913 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, where the music scandalized the country. To be fair, it had probably as much to do with Vaslav Nijinsky’s choreography as with the music. Anyway, Mr. Parker’s piano score brings out all the primitive strains in the piece as well as its quiet lyricism.

Parker manages to capture all of Stravinsky’s rowdy, sensual, rhythmic vitality in his piano rendition. Going in, I had some minor reservations about whether or not he really could pull it off. But the man is amazing. His virtuosity is dazzling and his expressive technique remarkable. You won’t be more than five minutes into the album before you forget there’s no orchestra involved. It’s almost uncanny how Parker is able to recreate the orchestral textures and harmonic nuances of the music. If you are fond of The Rite but have grown tired of all the new recordings of it sounding alike, you owe it to yourself to try this one; it’s like nothing you’ve probably heard before.

Stravinsky composed his ballet Petrouchka in 1910–11 and revised it in 1947. It tells the story of a traditional Russian puppet, Petrouchka, made of straw and sawdust, who comes to life and develops a life of his own, complete with emotions. The composer wrote it just a year after The Firebird and two years before The Rite, so he was flying high.

Petrouchka benefits a little less from Parker’s new transcription, probably because the music itself, while exceptionally melodious, is less innovative than The Rite and because the composer himself wrote a really good piano suite of the music with which many people are already familiar. Nevertheless, Parker’s complete piano rendering contains a good deal of color and excitement, and with the performer’s brilliant finger work the tale comes to life with passion and pathos.

Stravinsky wrote some spectacular ballet music, and Jon Kimura Parker’s piano transcriptions and his playing of them do both scores justice.

Mr. Parker recorded The Rite and Petrouchka for his own recording label in 2009 and 2012 at Stude Concert Hall, The Shephard School of Music, Rice University, Houston, Texas. The piano sound is rich, warm, mellifluous, and resonant. Its mellow bloom accompanies a strong impact from the keys, well caught by the audio engineer. Highs ring out vividly, and low notes make their presence known. It’s the kind of big, brawny, yet intimate piano sound that fits the music perfectly. It lights up the room.

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

JJP

Haydn: Symphonies Nos. 99-104 (CD review)

2013-05-16T00:07:00.002-07:00

Sir Thomas Beecham, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. EMI 7243 5 85513-2 (2-disc set).

Time was, you couldn’t consider recordings of the late Haydn symphonies without mentioning Sir Thomas Beecham. The symphonies were among his treasures, and he spent a lifetime playing and perfecting them before recording them in stereo late in his career in 1959. The maestro’s experience showed, and for most of the late Fifties and Sixties, the Beecham records held sway.

By the late Sixties and mid Seventies, however, other conductors had come along to provide Beecham some competition, Otto Klemperer and Eugen Jochum in particular. Then came Colin Davis, Leonard Slatkin, Charles Mackerras, Sigiswald Kuijken, Roy Goodman, Christopher Hogwood, and others. But now that I’ve returned to these recordings, I see little reason to question their authority as some of the overall best of the lot.

Oh, there are individual favorites I still retain, like Klemperer in “The Clock” and Jochum in the “Military” Symphony, but as a set, these final six of Haydn’s twelve “London” Symphonies from Beecham are hard to beat. They got the nickname “London” Symphonies, of course, because Haydn wrote them while he was temporarily living in London. Four of the final six have descriptive nicknames that call them easily to mind: No. 100, the “Military” because of its march and the martial sound of its percussive instrumentation; No. 101, the “Clock” because of its second movement imitation of a clock’s second hand ticking; No. 103, the “Drum Roll” because of its...wait for it...drum roll; and No. 104, the “London” simply because it was the last symphony Haydn would write in London. Or anywhere, for that matter.

Beecham brings to the performances his usual joyous, cheerful mood plus a touch so light you can feel the music wafting out of the speakers, floating out the window, and into the breeze. Yet in the culminating “London” Symphony there is a nobility and grandeur to match Mozart’s “Jupiter.” The playing is felicitous throughout, the atmosphere always loving, always caring. Nothing about the performances seems anything but perfect. They simply remain head and shoulders above most of their rivals.

When I first heard Beecham’s Haydn symphonies on compact disc, unfortunately early in the CD era, I didn’t care much for the sound; they had not made a good transition to silver disc and sounded hard, edgy, and exceptionally noisy. It was one of my biggest disappointments not to have Beecham’s Haydn included in my then-new CD music collection. But a few years ago EMI remastered the symphonies, and in the present two-disc set they sound fine. There is still a touch of background noise if played loudly, but who plays Haydn that loudly? And the sound is still a tad thin in the bass. But a smoother net effect now graces the ear, warmer and less brittle. The midrange is perhaps not as transparent as it could be, but there is nothing, really, that should deter a listener from appreciating the performances to their fullest. A wonderful investment.

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

JJP

Bach: Violin Concertos (XRCD review)

2013-05-14T00:03:00.002-07:00

Concerto in A minor; Double Concerto in D minor; Concerto in E major. Yehudi Menuhin, violin; Christian Ferras, violin; Bath Festival Orchestra. Hi-Q HIQXRCD9.

This recording by violinist Yehudi Menuhin from the late Fifties is probably my earliest encounter with Bach’s violin concertos, and it was fortuitous because Menuhin played them so well. After buying the EMI LP in the late Sixties, I had it until the advent of the compact disc era in the early Eighties, at which point it became a casualty of the transition. After giving the vinyl away, I had always meant to replace it with a CD copy, but it never happened. I suppose by then I had become rather fond of Baroque music played on period instruments (or “historically informed performances” as folks call them today), and I probably thought Menuhin too old fashioned for my taste. Listening to the recording again, however, newly remastered to audiophile standards by JVC and distributed by Hi-Q Records, was something of a revelation. I can see now why I liked it so much all those many years ago.

The album begins with Bach’s Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041, which may have been the last of the three violin concertos the composer wrote, despite the catalogue number. Menuhin plays it with a flowing grace--Romantic by today’s standards, to be sure--but still lively. Unlike the practices of artists using period or modern instruments who try to emphasize the fast-slow contrasts they believe are most authentic by playing them ultra fast or ultra slowly, Menuhin sounds more cultured and refined for any of that, all the while providing the needed excitement in the music. Although we hear some of the dynamic variety we expect from a Baroque concerto, Menuhin doesn’t go to the extremes that some other violinists and groups currently favor.

Menuhin takes the first movement in a spirited manner; the slow middle movement in a serious, almost grave way; and the finale in a cheerful, fluid mode that skips along lightly and eloquently. All the time, the accompaniment by the strings and continuo offer him the utmost care and sympathy.

Next, we hear the Concerto for 2 Violins in D minor, BWV 1043, the “Double Concerto,” which Bach probably wrote somewhere between 1717-1723 and has long been a favorite of the public. Here, violinist Christian Ferras joins Menuhin in a fine pairing, their violin parts intertwining as a whole. They handle the opening Vivace movement in commendably animated style; the Largo is as lovely as any I’ve heard; and even with their relaxed speeds, the closing Allegro sounds energetic, echoing some of the composer’s Brandenburg work. Interestingly, the ensemble accompaniment more or less fades into the background on this one, practically disappearing from our notice.

The Violin Concerto in E major, BWV 1042, has long been my own personal favorite among the three violin concertos, and I’d quite forgotten how charming it sounded in Menuhin’s hands. Again, with its well-known Brandenburg connections, there is a more gentle touch throughout than I’ve heard in most other renditions, and Menuhin appears more expressive than I remember; the Adagio more somber, thoughtful, and contemplative; and the final Allegro happier and more content. In all, it’s a splendid disc.

Incidentally, the album lists the accompanying ensemble as both the Robert Masters Chamber Orchestra as well as the Bath Festival Orchestra. To clear things up, I went to the Web site of the Royal Academy of Music, where we learn that violinist Robert Masters was a “keen observer of the career path followed by the legendary Yehudi Menuhin and recognised by the late 1950’s that what Menuhin needed most was a grouping of exceptional musicians to accompany him on recordings, on concert tours, and in festivals. Yehudi greeted the proposal with typical enthusiasm, and by mid 1958 Robert had brought together the players--all drawn from the foremost chamber music ensembles including the Aeolian and Allegri Quartets--for their first concerts at the Festival Hall and recording sessions in the studios of EMI. It became known over the next 20 years as the Bath Festival Orchestra and the Menuhin Festival Orchestra.” And, apparently, EMI sometimes listed it as the Robert Masters Chambers Orchestra.

Two of EMI’s top people--producer Peter Andry and engineer Robert Gooch--recorded the music in 1958 and 1959 at London’s Kingsway Hall, the venue EMI, Decca, and other companies used for any number of fine recordings over the years. Here, they captured the solo violin pieces a little brightly but extremely clearly and cleanly; and JVC, using their XRCD and K2 remastering and manufacturing processes, replicate it on disc about as well as I would imagine possible. They also got a wide stereo spread, yet without stretching the image too far beyond the speakers. It’s a natural, transparent sound, the violin nicely integrated into the orchestral setting, with a modicum of depth, air, and ambient hall bloom adding to the feeling of realism. The second of solo concertos, BWV 1042, actually sounds a tad smoother to me than the first, and the Double Concerto appears a touch darker.

The packaging from Hi-Q continues to look quite lavish, the disc fastened to a slick, hard-cardboard Digipak case with notes bound inside. Sure, the whole affair is expensive, and it’s not the kind of recording for which everyone would be willing to shell out; yet there’s no denying how good it is, interpretively and sonically.

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

JJP

Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (HQCD review)

2013-05-13T00:02:00.001-07:00

Calvin Hampton, organ. HDTT HQCD281.

Originally, Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881) wrote his Pictures at an Exhibition in 1874 as a collection of piano pieces, each of the short movements describing a different painting or drawing by his friend, Viktor Hartmann. The composer’s idea was to create a series of tone poems as a tribute to the artist by depicting impressions of ten of Hartmann’s paintings hanging in a gallery and being viewed by passersby. All the same, Mussorgsky’s piano music never really impressed the public; then, many years later, Maurice Ravel orchestrated the music, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Over the years, we’ve had any number of good piano recordings of the work, but it wasn’t until the early Seventies that church organist Calvin Hampton transcribed the piano pieces for organ and recorded them for Musical Heritage Society. Since then, we have gotten a number of organ recordings. Still, it was Hampton’s controversial organ recording that people probably knew best, a recording as highly praised for its sound as criticized for its interpretation. Then, in 1982, recording engineer John Profitt heard that Hampton was performing the Mussorgsky piece on the organ in Rochester, NY, and figured he and his team could perhaps, in his words, “do Hampton’s masterful transcription better justice” than the earlier recording had. Thus, the impetus for the present recording, remastered here by HDTT (High Definition Tape Transfers).

I suspect that listeners may react to this HDTT remaster much as they did to Mr. Hampton’s earlier MHS recording, that is, with as much admiration as disdain. Let’s begin with Hampton’s organ transcription and his performance of it. On the plus side, Hampton’s transcription is very straightforward and unadorned, and that’s the way he plays it. You won’t find any ornamentation or flourishes here, just the notes of Mussorgsky’s music plain and simple. On the minus side, Hampton’s transcription is very straightforward and unadorned, and that’s the way he plays it. You won’t find any ornamentation or flourishes here, just the notes of Mussorgsky’s music plain and simple. In other words, everyone who hears the performance will respond to it differently. Those who like their music simple and unmannered will probably find great comfort in what Hampton provides. Those who prefer more character, more passion, a more individualized interpretation will probably find Hampton’s rending rather sterile.

Personally, I found Hampton’s realization of Mussorgsky’s tone poems somewhat lacking in color, in the drama behind the pictures. The organist appears more interested in what the music sounds like than in what the music represents. As a consequence, the performance seems to me too uncompromising for its own good, too devoid of life. Mussorgsky created little works of art, after all, to depict, well, little works of art. I’d have preferred the musician playing them to have brought those works of art more vividly to life. But, who knows, maybe I just don’t have enough imagination; for other listeners, Hampton’s readings may reveal a wealth of imagery.

By the time the second “Promenade” rolls around, however, Hampton has warmed more to his subject. “The Old Castle” is appropriately eerie, “Tuileres” sounds charming, and “Bydlo” lumber along satisfactorily. “The Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks” comes to life more than almost anything else on the program, “Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle” argue convincingly, and “The Market at Limoges” seems lively enough. So, while Hampton doesn’t exactly light up the house with his playing, he is more than competent. It’s in the final four movements that I thought he lost some enthusiasm. “The Catacombs” and “Con mortuis mortua” seemed fairly perfunctory, and the big finish with “The Hut on Fowl’s Legs” and “The Great Gate of Kiev” haven’t the impact or splendor I expected, the former seeming rushed and the latter a bit shaky.

HDTT transferred the music from a 15ips 2-track master tape, recorded live in 1982 at the Ashbury First Methodist Church, Rochester, NY. Here, too, in the matter of sound quality we may find contention among listeners, with audiophiles perhaps loving it best of all and ordinary listeners bewildered at what the fuss is all about. Let me explain.

The remastering sounds quite clean and quite clear transferred to an HQCD as I heard it. Transient response is outstanding, with every note exceptionally taut, beginning and ending in a thoroughly well-defined manner. The mikes pick up very few hall reflections, so the organ notes have a kind of clinical precision about them. There is good depth in the hall, though, and we appear to be hearing the organ from a comfortable distance. There are some very deep lows involved, again very well controlled. Nevertheless, without out much hall reverberation, the bass may not seem as superficially impressive as the woolly low end we too often encounter in these affairs. More important, absent a severe mid-bass rise in the response, the rest of the frequency spectrum appears all the more transparent

Two things did annoy me slightly, however: Hampton’s arrangement and playing style occasionally elicit what I can only describe as a few squawks from the organ; they strike an odd note I did not find particularly attractive. Then there is the matter of the minor but noticeable audience noise, especially conspicuous between movements and during quieter passages. I could have done without it, along with the inevitable burst of applause at the end.

For further information about the various formats, configurations, and prices of HDTT products, you can visit their Web site at http://www.highdeftapetransfers.com/storefront.php.

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

JJP

Classical Music News of the Week, May 12, 2013

2013-05-12T00:12:00.002-07:00

Cal Performances Announces 2013-14 Season

Highlights of Cal Performances’ 2013/14 season, announced today by Director Matías Tarnopolsky, include the world premiere of a new, fully staged opera production of Mozart’s arrangement of Handel’s Acis and Galatea choreographed and directed by Mark Morris; 40th birthday celebrations for the Kronos Quartet, including A Meditation on the Great War, a world premiere commission from composer Aleksandra Vrebalov and filmmaker Bill Morrison; more than a dozen multiperformance residencies, including the return of the legendary Vienna Philharmonic for three concerts with three stellar conductors; Emanuel Ax’s personal journey into the music of Johannes Brahms with colleagues Yo-Yo Ma and Anne Sophie von Otter; John Malkovich exploring the legend of Casanova; Jeremy Denk curating the fourth season of Ojai North!; seven of the finest early music ensembles and musicians, including Jordi Savall and Hespèrion XXI and Stephanie Blythe with Les Violons du Roy; the Bay Area’s Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra in a salute to Duke Ellington; and the otherworldly vocals of the Barefoot Divas bringing alive the indigenous music of Australia, New Zealand, and New Guinea. A commitment to new work and collaborations remains a hallmark of Tarnopolsky’s tenure, with two major world premieres anchoring a season that brings more than 20 new works to the Bay Area from prestigious commissioning partners, including Carnegie Hall, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Ojai Music Festival.

The Kronos Quartet, Cal Performances’ Artists-in-Residence and arguably the most well-known contemporary string quartet in the world, celebrates 40 years of innovation and adventure with two concerts in Berkeley. The first concert brings the ensemble full circle, featuring the work that inspired its founding: George Crumb’s astonishing Black Angels, a haunting work evocative of the Vietnam War and its aftermath. The concert also features music by Terry Riley and the extraordinary pipa virtuoso Wu Man (featured in two concerts this season) in a Bay Area premiere by Philip Glass. Later in the season, Cal Performances presents Kronos in the world premiere of A Meditation on the Great War—a multimedia commission from Serbian composer Aleksandra Vrebalov, filmmaker Bill Morrison, and Iraq War veteran-turned-visual artist Drew Cameron of the Combat Paper Project. Kronos continues its exploration into works that offer reflection and solace in the wake of profound events in modern history with this new work centered on war and its consequences. Morrison, known for his artistic signature collages of rare archival footage, will draw on seldom seen World War I film from the Library of Congress.

The 2013/14 season launches on September 29, 2013, with Fall Free for All—a free, daylong festival initiated by Tarnopolsky to introduce new audiences to Cal Performances’ impressive range of music, dance, and theater presentations. Since its inception in 2010, Fall Free for All has featured more than 500 artists and ensembles performing for audiences totaling more than 30,000 people. Highlights of the 2013 Fall Free for All include the New Century Chamber Orchestra, La Tania Baile Flamenco, Theatre of Yugen, Los Cenzontles, Pete Escovedo Latin Jazz, a family stage with percussionist Keith Terry, and much more.

Tickets and other information:

Making arts and culture accessible to the broadest possible audience is a cornerstone of Cal Performances’ mission. There are several ways to purchase tickets and take advantage of significant savings. Subscription packages, priced from $52.00 to $450.00, go on sale for the 2013/14 season at 12:00 p.m. on Monday, April 29. Series subscribers save up to 25% off single ticket prices and a 10% discount on additional single tickets purchased throughout the season. For Families series offers 50% off single ticket prices for children 16 and younger (see page 16). Orders may be placed online at calperformances.org, mailed, faxed to 510.643.2359, or phoned in to 510.642.9988. Single tickets go on sale to the general public on Tuesday, August 20, and range from $18.00 to $200.00. UCB students receive a 50% discount on single tickets. For more information, call the Ticket Office at 510.642.9988, email tickets@calperformances.org, or visit our website at calperformances.org.

--Joe Yang, Cal Performances

WFMT Radio Network Launch ‘Exploring Music’ Web Site

Subscribers can search and stream more than 500 hours of syndicated classical music and commentary hosted by Bill McGlaughlin.

Broadcast archive configured for online music education at ExploringMusic.org.

The WFMT Radio Network launched a subscription Web site on May 6 where classical music enthusiasts can search and stream hundreds of archived hours of the network’s internationally syndicated “Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin,” a daily music-appreciation show that airs on 55 stations to a weekly audience of more than 400,000 listeners.

The new streaming website, ExploringMusic.org, will advance the show’s mission of classical music education, according to Steve Robinson, general manager of the WFMT Radio Network and WFMT 98.7 FM. “The Web site, like the show, is unique,” Robinson says. “There’s no place else to hear thoroughly researched commentary, thoughtfully curated music, and Bill McGlaughlin’s engaging manner of demystifying classical music.”

The show, which celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2013, devotes a week or more of daily, one-hour weekday broadcasts to a single topic. Themes have ranged from “Artists in Exile,” “Czech Out Those Bohemians,” and “Nobody Ever Builds a Statue to a Critic” to general topics such as “Piano Concertos,” “Tone Poems,” and “Ninth Symphonies.” The show has devoted multi-week series to composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Fauré, Gershwin, and others.

On the day of the Web site’s launch, about 500 hours of “Exploring Music” were available for streaming. About 850 hours have been produced to date. More will be added to the Web site each week, according to the radio network.

The new site represents an inventive mix of old and new media with its musical selections, educational content, and Web technology, Robinson says. Like the show itself, ExploringMusic.org is for listeners and music students at all levels of musical sophistication.

“Bill is a natural conversationalist with a talent for painting pictures with words. Listeners get drawn into the musical worlds he evokes,” Robinson says. “They share his sense of wonder and discovery. And the music he plays is so enjoyable that even listeners who use classical radio for background music stay tuned during his show.” The original impetus for the Web site came from listeners who have long lamented not being able to hear shows they missed on the air — an issue voiced in many of the 7,000 emails the show has received since it went on the air in 2003, Robinson says. “It’s astonishing to look back and see the body of work we’ve explored in our ten years on the air,” McGlaughlin says. “It’s the answer to a dream for our fans and for everyone who works on the show.”

McGlaughlin describes ExploringMusic.org as an audio “treasure trove” of the sort he would have liked to have had as an inquisitive, music-loving youngster in his native Philadelphia, where he was a frequent visitor to the public library. In developing ExploringMusic.org, the radio network decided to do more than offer a chronological online archive of shows; it decided to offer a search capability to satisfy listeners’ curiosity and the needs of students and other researchers.

“Call it, Music appreciation, $2 a week,” Robinson says. Two dollars is the cost of subscribing to one week's worth of five hour-long shows. This entitles the visitor to return to the site and re-listen to those five installments as many times as they want, with no expiration date.

For those who buy a $50 annual subscription, there's no limit to the number of shows they can stream during the 12-month period. Monthly subscriptions are $7. For a limited time, those purchasing a $50 yearly subscription will become charter members, entitled to unlimited streaming for two years. Institutional subscriptions are available for schools and colleges, Robinson says.

Nonsubscribers will be able to search the archives and listen to the first seven minutes of any hour-long show at no charge. Subscription revenues will help fund the website and the production of new episodes, Robinson says. Initial funding for the site came from private donations.

--Nat Silverman

Violinist Chad Hoopes Wins Emerging Artist Award from the Cleveland Arts Prize

Violinist Chad Hoopes has been honored by the Cleveland Arts Prize by receiving the 2013 Emerging Artist Award. The Emerging Artist prize is awarded to artists who have received national recognition in addition to regional and local acclaim and have resided in Northeast Ohio. Chad is the only classical musicians recognize this year by the Cleveland Arts Prize.

The winners of the 53rd annual Cleveland Arts Prize will be honored on June 27th at 5:30 pm in the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium (Cleveland Museum of Art, 11150 East Blvd.) Tickets ($75 to $225) can be purchased by visiting clevelandartsprize.org or call 440-523-9889.

Chad performs this Saturday, May 4 with the Battle Creek Symphony in Battle Creek, MI and on May 26 with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra at the Winspear Centre in Edmonton, Alberta. Now a senior in high school, Chad’s virtuosic talent has impressed audiences around the world. The Cleveland Arts Prize honors Chad’s both burgeoning and highly established career; he is an emerging artist to keep your eye on.

--Amanda Sweet, BuckleSweet Media

Music Institute Establishes Campus in Downtown Chicago

Lake Forest campus expands programming, the Music Institute of Chicago announcing the strategic expansion and restructuring of its campus system, which currently serves more than 3,000 students.

The 83-year-old institution has entered into a partnership with Fourth Presbyterian Church to open a campus within the Gratz Center, the church’s new addition on Chestnut Street, just west of North Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. Nationally known for its commitment to music excellence in worship and also as host to more than 70 concerts a year, Fourth Church is a natural partner in this downtown expansion. The new Music Institute campus, opening in September, will provide high-quality music lessons and classes for children and adults, amplifying the Music Institute’s already-strong presence in the city through its programs in the Chicago Public Schools.

Savitri Pai, a Music Institute Trustee, alumna, and Chicago resident, said, “Downtown residents have clamored for access to the Music Institute’s excellent programs for many years. Now people can benefit from the Music Institute’s programs without having to drive to the northern suburbs.”

In addition to the new Chicago campus, the Music Institute will expand its facilities at the Grove Cultural Campus, 40 East Old Mill Road in Lake Forest. With the closure of its Highland Park campus this summer, the Lake Forest campus will now serve as a dynamic center for lessons, classes, chamber music, and performance for students of all ages.

The Music Institute previously announced the relocation and consolidation of its headquarters, Institute for Therapy through the Arts, Musical Theater, and World Music programs to 1702 Sherman Avenue in the heart of downtown Evanston. Each campus hub—in Lake Forest, Winnetka, Evanston, and Chicago—will offer a full range of education programming, including private lessons, Suzuki education, early childhood education, chamber music, jazz studies, and adult education classes. Satellite facilities in Lincolnshire and Downers Grove will continue to offer lessons and select programming.

“The Music Institute of Chicago is dedicated to providing the highest quality music education in a supportive and nurturing musical environment,” said President and CEO Mark George. “Concentrating our resources at campus hubs allows us to enrich and expand our programming and foster a vibrant and engaging musical community. The new campus structure creates a nexus of teachers and students, from Chicago to Lake Forest.”

--Jill Chukerman, JAC Communications

One World Symphony Presents “American Affairs: Great * Atomic * Desire,” May 19-20

Featuring the One World Symphony, Sung Jin Hong, Artistic Director and Conductor, and One World Symphony Vocal Artists

John Adams: from Doctor Atomic (2007)

John Harbison: from The Great Gatsby (1999)

André Previn: from A Streetcar Named Desire (1998)

Samuel Barber: Promiscuity and W. H. Auden songs (1953)

Sung Jin Hong: Edge (2013, world premiere) - monodrama for vocalist and symphony inspired by Sylvia Plath's final poem

Two Performances:

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Monday, May 20, 2013

8:00 p.m.

Holy Apostles Church

296 Ninth Avenue at West 28th Street

Manhattan, NY

$30 students/seniors with ID; $40 general admission

Voluptuously flavored with New Orleans jazz and ripe with the threat of violence, André Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire soars as a lyrical opera centered on Blanche's inevitable savage collision course with fate. Super-charged and unwavering musical intensity floods John Adams's Doctor Atomic as it dissects the personal and moral struggles of J. Robert Oppenheimer and his fellow scientists as they worked on creating the first atomic bomb. The infatuation that motivates Jay Gatsby become a paragon of wealth and sophistication also drives him to his eventual demise. John Harbison's elegant and alluring score to The Great Gatsby includes popular songs and jazz depicting the glamorous and enigmatic protagonist while evoking the novel's age of decadence. Sylvia Plath's final poem, Edge, is both a cri du coeur and a cold accusation, filled with passion, anger, and regret. Hong's world premiere monodrama translates Plath's black fire for a volatile vocalist and orchestral accomplices.

For more information: http://www.oneworldsymphony.org/concerts1213_AmericanAffairs.shtml

--Adrienne Metzinger, One World Symphony

Music Institute of Chicago Presents Acclaimed Violinist Rachel Barton Pine and Pianist Matthew Hagle May 18 at Nichols Concert Hall

The Music Institute of Chicago, celebrating its 10th anniversary season at Nichols Concert Hall, presents acclaimed violinist Rachel Barton Pine, hailed as “an exciting, boundary-defying performer” by The Washington Post, and pianist and Music Institute faculty member Matthew Hagle. The performance takes place Saturday, May 18 at 7:30 p.m. at Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Avenue, Evanston.

The program includes

Beethoven’s Sonata No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 12, No. 3

A set of lullabies, including Brahms’ “Wiegenlied” (Cradle Song), No. 4 from Fünf Lieder, Op. 49, arranged by Albert Spaulding; Ysaÿe’s Rêve d’Enfant (Child’s Dream), Op. 14; Clarke’s Lullaby (1918); and Still’s Mother and Child, No. 2 from Suite (1943)

Liszt’s Grand Duo concertant sur la romance de M. Lafont Le Marin

Rebikov’s Berceuse

Gershwin’s “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess, arranged by Frolov

Strauss’s Wiegenlied (Cradle Song)

Strauss’s Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 1

Barton Pine and Hagle are alumni of the Music Institute of Chicago, beginning their studies with the school’s most famous pedagogues: Roland and Almita Vamos and Emilio del Rosario, respectively.

Rachel Barton Pine and Matthew Hagle perform Saturday, May 18 at 7:30 p.m. at Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Avenue, Evanston. Tickets are $30 for adults, $20 for seniors and $10 for students, available online or 847.905.1500 ext. 108. All programming is subject to change. For more information, click here: https://www.musicinst.org/

Also at this concert, the Music Institute will present its annual Distinguished Alumni Awards, which recognize individuals who embody the school's belief that excellent music education is a powerful contributor to long-term quality of life for performers, listeners, and lifelong learners. There is more info here: https://www.musicinst.org/alumni-awards

The Distinguished Alumni in Music award winner is Ralph Neiweem, co-founder and co-director of the Chicago Duo Piano Festival (celebrating 25 years this summer) and a member of the Music Institute's piano faculty. More about him here: https://www.musicinst.org/ralph-neiweem-0

The Distinguished Alumni in a Field other than Music award winner is Elizabeth Olsen Geraghty, executive director of the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation. More about her here: https://www.musicinst.org/elisabeth-olsen-geraghty

Finally, as a special honor at this concert, Music Institute clarinet/saxophone instructor Stanley Davis will be honored as the longest-serving Music Institute faculty member, reaching 50 years. More information about Stanley here: https://www.musicinst.org/stanley-davis

--Jill Chukerman, JAC Communications

Composers and the Voice 2013-2014 Call for Applications

Application Deadline: May 17, 2013

Composers Notified of Acceptance: June 28, 2013

Workshop Sessions: September 2013 through April 2014

All sessions will be at AOP's home base in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, NY.

Applications and Info: www.operaprojects.org/composers_voice

The Composers and the Voice Workshop Series is a competitive biannual fellowship offered to composers and composer/librettist teams. Created and led by Composers and the Voice Artistic Director Steven Osgood, six composers or composer/librettist teams will be selected for a year-long fellowship, working with the company's Resident Ensemble of Singers and Artistic Team. The primary focus of Composers and the Voice is to give composers and librettists experience working collaboratively with singers on writing for the voice and opera stage.

C&V fellows compose solo works and opera scenes in closed workshop sessions with the AOP Resident Ensemble of Singers participate in "Skill-Building Sessions" in acting, improv games, and libretto development; gain in-depth and firsthand knowledge of how singers build characters; act in scenes and sing text; and have their compositions featured in two public performances - First Glimpse, a concert of songs in Spring 2014, and Six Scenes, an evening of short opera scenes in Fall 2014.

One of the Six Scenes operas-in-progress will be selected to receive a staged reading at Manhattan School of Music in Spring 2015.

Since launching in 2002, C&V has fostered the development of 37 composers & librettists. Alumni works that went through AOP's opera development program and continued to a world premiere include Love/Hate (ODC/San Francisco Opera 2012, Jack Perla), Paul's Case (UrbanArias 2013, Gregory Spears), and the Off-Broadway and European tour of Darkling (2006-07, Stefan Weisman). Additional AOP-developed works from C&V alumni include Decoration (Mikael Karlsson), The Summer King (Daniel Sonenberg), The Golden Gate (Conrad Cummings), Dream President (Jennifer Griffith), Henry's Wife (Randall Eng), and Semmelweis (Raymond J. Lustig).

--AOP News

Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 7 (CD review)

2013-05-10T00:06:00.000-07:00

Nicholas McGegan, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. Philharmonia Baroque Productions PBP-06.

To begin, let me admit a bias: I’ve been attending performances of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra almost since the day they first started offering concerts in the San Francisco Bay Area over thirty years ago. They are, in my opinion, one of the best period-instruments ensembles in the country; nay, in the world. Needless to say, their present recording of Beethoven’s Fourth and Seventh Symphonies did not disappoint me. If you think my highly positive predisposition toward the orchestra colors my judgment, so be it.

First up, we get the Symphony No. 4 in B flat, Op. 60 (1806), the piece that often gets lost between the bigger and more popular Third and Fifth Symphonies. Compared to them, the Fourth Symphony may appear lightweight and something of a letdown for a lot of listeners. Fortunately, Maestro Nicholas McGegan and the PBO provide the Fourth such a vigorous and spirited presentation that it sounds better than ever. Their performance reminded me of Hector Berlioz’s description of the Fourth as “lively, nimble, joyous, or of a heavenly sweetness.” Like a recent recording by Joshua Bell and the ASMF, McGegan and the PBO take Berlioz’s depiction of the work to heart.

After an appropriately slow, sedate introduction (Adagio), the main Allegro vivace takes over, the tempo as vivacious and “vivace” as one could want, with hints of the Pastoral Symphony to come. You can almost see McGegan gleefully dancing through the movement (as is his wont; he’s a very animated conductor).

The second-movement Largo (one of Beethoven’s most relaxed) flows gracefully and sweetly along. The Scherzo takes us through genuine Presto territory and leads to a finale that inevitably reminds us of the first movement, if at a slightly less-heightened step. McGegan forces the listener to reevaluate the symphony’s worth.

Beethoven wrote his Symphony No. 7 in A, Op. 92 in 1812, about half a dozen years after he wrote the Fourth. Critics sometimes identify it with characteristics of the dance (“The apotheosis of the dance,” as Wagner remarked), and it should certainly radiate a sprightly charm. Like the Fourth Symphony, the Seventh begins with a lengthy preface, this time bigger and grander, before the entrance of the main theme, again in a Vivace tempo. And again McGegan and his players reward us with well-judged speeds and rhythms, all of them springing to life with the utmost lyricism. McGegan does it up most heartily.

The conductor next takes the Allegretto at a healthy but not extravagant walking pace, this “processional in the catacombs” never turning into the full-fledged funeral march we often hear. Beethoven marked the body of the third movement “Assai meno presto” (very much less fast), which has led conductors to puzzle over it ever since. McGegan takes a middle course, and the whole thing winds up less hectic than some period conductors have played.

Then we come to the finale, which should sound wild and swirling without going all crazy and breathless. You can hear a snippet of it below, where McGegan shapes it perfectly: fast, energetic, and exciting, yet refined and cultured, too. The PBO’s account of the Seventh Symphony stands with the best, most-thrilling versions on record, on period or modern instruments.

The orchestra made the recording live during performances in 2012 (No. 4) and 2009 (No. 7) at First Congressional Church in Berkeley, California. I’ve listened to many a concert over the years at First Congregational, and I can attest to the recording sounding pretty much as I’ve always found the hall sounding. Which is to say, pretty good. However, by “pretty good” I don’t mean to imply that the recording is better than the PBO’s best non-live productions, like their Handel Water Music, Mozart Horn Concertos, or, especially, their Vivaldi Four Seasons, which are clearer, tauter, airier, more dynamic, and better focused. Nevertheless, as I say, both Beethoven recordings sound lifelike enough, with almost no audience noise. What’s more, the engineers edited out the applause after the first work, leaving only a burst of applause after the final piece, the Seventh Symphony. Perhaps in their next live production, they’ll eliminate the applause altogether. Or, who knows, since the applause is admittedly a minor detail, maybe I’m the only one in the world who disapproves of it interrupting my appreciation of recorded music. Of course, we expect applause at live events, and I have no objection; but a recording played in my living room is a different experience. Yeah, I know, picky, picky, picky.

Anyway, the present recording sounds warm and resonant, clearly a condition of the venue. There is a wide stereo spread, a quality of the microphone placement, no doubt, which needs to be relatively close in order to minimize audience noise. Inner detailing suffers a little from the natural reverberation of the church setting, and the high end seems a tad limited, perhaps because of the absorptive properties of the listeners themselves. Otherwise, the sound opens up nicely, with plenty of ambient bloom and at least a modicum of orchestral depth.

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

JJP

Elgar: Violin Concerto (CD review)

2013-05-09T00:02:00.001-07:00

Also, Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending. Hillary Hahn, violin; Sir Colin Davis, London Symphony Orchestra. DG B00003026-02.

I have to admit that it’s hard for me to remain attentive through music I don’t particularly enjoy. The Elgar Violin Concerto has been popular among the public for nearly a century, so there’s no doubting its quality, but I have never found it entirely compelling, especially not the first movement, which seems to me to drift from one place to another. There is a sweet second movement, true, and things do finally come together in the last movement, but it seems a long time coming.

Anyway, this is meant as no disrespect to Ms. Hahn’s violin playing, for which I have the utmost respect and admiration. I just don’t know that there is a lot she can do, even with her beautiful performance of the second movement, with something that other artists haven’t done better before her. The “better” in this case would be Zukerman’s recording (Sony), Menuhin’s (EMI), Perlman’s (DG), and, especially, either of Nigel Kennedy’s (EMI) recordings, in which Kennedy’s violin almost literally “sings” through the music. It is Kennedy’s greater expressive quality that almost (I say “almost”) makes me appreciate the work for the intimate, biographical outpouring of personal spirit it contains. Nevertheless, Ms. Hahn gives it her all, and while her tempos may seem a bit hurried in places and she misses some of the darker aspects of the score, she does convey much of the composer’s soul, as well, perhaps, of her own. Without a doubt, if you love the music, you’ll love Ms. Hahn’s way with it, especially with the late Sir Colin Davis leading the LSO in sympathetic support.

As a companion work with the Concerto we find Ralph Vaughan Williams’s “The Lark Ascending,” a piece for which I have a most heartfelt affection. It is one of the loveliest pieces of music ever written, and one of the staples of the repertoire for calming the frayed nerves of the weary traveler at the end of a long day. Ms. Hahn conveys the beauty of the lark’s upward flight with dignity and compassion, but, like the Elgar, it didn’t quite touch me the way another artist’s does, Hugh Bean’s celebrated performance with Sir Adrian Boult and the Philharmonia Orchestra (EMI, 1967).

In all, I’d say if you’re looking for this particular coupling on a single disc, or if you’ve got a yearning to hear Elgar’s violin piece for the first time, Ms. Hahn’s recording is one to consider. There is no questioning her artistry.

As to the audio quality, time was when I thought DG’s sound was too hard, bright, and edgy, but with this release it appears their sound is a little too warm and smooth. Maybe I’m just hard to please. A quick comparison of both the EMI discs mentioned above with this DG release makes the point. The EMI recordings have greater transparency, greater dynamic impact, and greater depth to the stereo image. No one is likely to find DG’s sound lacking, mind you, except dedicated audiophiles, who will probably not care for the sound of the EMI’s, either, so it may be a moot point.

A final note on the packaging: If you count the back cover picture of Ms. Hahn, the inside cover picture, the outside booklet cover, the back booklet cover, and the seven additional pictures of the artist inside the booklet, you will find eleven pictures of her in all. Now, I don’t deny she is a lovely lady and pleasant to look at, but it does seem like overkill, a certain waste of space that might otherwise have gone to more informational text about the composers, the artists, or the works involved. Oh, well; I suppose marketing is marketing.

To hear a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

JJP

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (CD review)

2013-05-07T00:03:00.000-07:00

Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic. Sony 88765469152 (remastered).

When I first started seriously collecting classical records back in the Sixties and Seventies, I always admired the performances of Columbia (CBS) recording artists like Leonard Bernstein, George Szell, Bruno Walter, and Eugene Ormandy. But the sound of their recordings always disappointed me, most often being thin, bright, shrill, and devoid of anything resembling deep bass. Then along came the digital age in the early Eighties, and I sent away for a Japanese remastered CD of Ormandy’s Holiday for Orchestra, originally an LP from the Sixties. What a revelation; the engineers had opened up the frequency response and dynamic range, creating a whole new sonic world I’d never heard before from a Columbia/CBS product. Then when Sony took over the CBS catalogue in the late Eighties and began remastering many of the old titles themselves, I found a new wealth of material to enjoy. So, perhaps you can understand my delight when the folks at Sony told me they had completely remastered Leonard Bernstein’s 1958 recording of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, a recording they had already transferred to CD years before but this time have done up even better.

While Bernstein would go on to record The Rite of Spring two more times in stereo, a second for CBS and then one for DG, this first stereo version remains my favorite. It may have been the composer’s favorite, too, because when annotating different recordings of it, Stravinsky wrote one word beside Bernstein’s: “Wow!”

Wow, indeed.

Bernstein described The Rite saying, “Only one of your everyday volcanic masterpieces...a miraculous new creation of such originality and power that still today it shocks and overwhelms us.” I’d say “Volcanic,” “miraculous,” “originality,” and “power” are words that might well describe Bernstein’s 1958 recording, too. Bernstein at the time was just taking over the reins of the New York Philharmonic and about to shape it back into the best ensemble it had ever been. The Rite was only the beginning.

The thing with The Rite is that at the ballet’s Paris premiere in 1913, it (and, to be fair, the choreography) so shocked audiences that many of them booed and headed for the doors. By 1958 when Bernstein had his chance at it, the world had pretty much begun to take it for granted. So, the question was how to shock the world all over again. Bernstein did it through sheer energy, the power of excitement, producing a performance that continues to thrill us to this day.

Bernstein doesn’t take as much time as many other conductors do in building up the opening atmosphere, which Stravinsky called “a profound mystic sensation which comes to all things at the hour when nature seeks to renew its various forms of life.” Instead, Bernstein seems eager to get on with it, to get to the core of the work, shaping and releasing the tensions and ever increasing the rhythmic pulse like no one before or since. In other words, he begins turning up the heat from the very beginning and never lets it drop.

The conductor further described the music as “a kind of prehistoric jazz,” and because Bernstein was a master of the jazz idiom (just listen to his Rhapsody in Blue), he must have found The Rite ideally suited to his temperament. Under Bernstein, you really do get savage, primitive outbursts of sound and fury, with emphases on huge dynamic contrasts and a surprisingly flexible rubato.

In the opening movements of Part Two, Bernstein does take his time to establish the atmospherics of the piece, yet even here we can sense the pent-up energy impatiently waiting to burst forth. When it does, all hell breaks loose. Those highly palpable timpani attacks are downright electrifying, the conductor particularly consumed by the forward momentum of the piece. Adding icing to the cake, the Philharmonic play their hearts out for their new conductor, the precision of their playing remarkable.

Yes, I still like the recorded Rite performances of Georg Solti (Decca or Decca/JVC), Riccardo Muti (EMI), Pierre Boulez (Sony), Stravinsky himself (Sony), and others, but for a sheer adrenaline rush, this newly remastered Bernstein recording must go to the head of the list.

Columbia Records recorded the music in a single session at the Hotel St. George, Brooklyn, New York, in 1958. Now, in celebration of the one-hundredth anniversary of the work’s premiere, the engineers at Sony have gone back to the original analogue master tapes of the Bernstein performance and remastered it for the present disc. What they got for their trouble, foremost, is a wonderful sense of presence. The sessions took place in the hotel’s massive Colorama Ballroom, an enormous room, which sounds every bit as large as it is in this spacious recording, even though the miking is fairly close. The sound is clean and clear, with plenty of orchestral depth and width. The midrange is as transparent as you would want, the highs are sparkling and extended, and only the deepest bass seems a tad wanting at times. A strong, taut impact and a sharp transient attack also help to make the music come alive. Still, it’s that sense of space, of ambience, that carries the day. It’s a terrific-sounding recording, with a raw sonic vitality that perfectly suits the music.

To top off a good thing, Sony’s production values are generally excellent, including their use of the original LP album cover art by Gray Foy and informative booklet notes and pictures. About my only concerns are the fact that Sony included only The Rite of Spring on the disc, about thirty-four minutes long under Bernstein’s astonishing direction; and that they packaged the disc in a three-section cardboard foldout, with the disc fitting into one end sleeve and the booklet into the other. In order to get the disc out or put it back in requires you slide it along the cardboard, not something I like to do with a quality CD; and trying to get the booklet out is a chore, too. In both cases I found the easiest method of extraction was to turn the package upside down and let the disc and then the booklet simply drop out. Nevertheless, these are minor distractions in an otherwise superlative product, which the folks at Sony are offering at a remarkably reasonable price.

To hear a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

JJP

Espana! (CD review)

2013-05-06T00:03:00.004-07:00

Music of Albeniz, Falla, Mompou, Ravel, and Rodrigo. Various artists and orchestras. Harmonia Mundi 2908530.34 (5-disc set).

The one thing you won’t find in this five-disc set of Spanish and Spanish-inspired music is Chabrier’s Espana. What you will find are recordings selected from the past twenty-odd years of Harmonia Mundi’s back catalogue, and a whole lot of really well-performed and well-recorded music. The price is right, too, with HM marking down the set at much less than the individual discs would cost. Of course, if it’s only one or two items that interest you, you can still find the HM albums available separately.

Disc one contains a suite of twelve selections from the opera Pepita Jimenez (1896) by Spanish composer and pianist Isaac Albeniz (1860-1909). Here, we find performances by Susan Chilcott, soprano, and Francesc Garrogosa, tenor, with the Choeur d’enfants de la maitrise de Badalona directed by Montserrat Pi and the Orquestra de Cambra Teatre Lliure conducted by Josep Pons. I’m not sure why Harmonia Mundi chose to start the set with this particular music except that they arranged the composers alphabetically; the opera never became a hit for Albeniz, and there are only a few moments in it that seem very interesting. In fact, if the tracks HM include here are any indication, it’s no surprise why audiences never warmed to it. The orchestral introduction is the best part of the show.

Certainly, one cannot fault Ms. Chilcott or tenor Garrogosa, however, who give it their best; nor HM’s engineering team who recorded it in 1994. The sound is warm and expansive, with good detailing and dynamics. Voices are nicely round and natural, too, never bright or forward, and they are well integrated into the sound field.

With disc two we’re on more stable ground. It contains two pieces by Spanish composer Manuel de Falla (1876-1946): El amor brujo (“Love the Magician,” the 1915 stage version, sung and spoken) and El retablo de Maese Pedro (1919, adapted from an episode in Cervantes’s Don Quixote). In the first piece, we find cantaora (flamenco singer) Ginesa Ortega, joined by soprano Joan Martin, baritone Inaki Fresan, and tenor Joan Cabero, supported again by Maestro Josep Pons and the Orquestra de Cambra Teatre Lliure.

The singing and performances in both Falla works sound committed and passionate, with a most-sympathetic orchestral support from Pons and his players. HM recorded the music in 1990, and while it is not as vivid as some other recordings I’ve heard, it is quite realistic. The playback level is slightly higher than on the first disc, the upper midrange is a tad brighter, and voices are a bit more recessed. Otherwise, we again get a warm, natural-sounding acoustic.

The Harmonia Mundi producers devote disc three to violin and piano works by French composer Maurice Ravel (1875-1937). The soloists are Regis Pasquier, violin, and Brigitte Engerer, piano. The two primary works on the disc are the Sonate posthume pour violon et piano (1897) and the Sonate pour violon et piano (1927). Also on the program we find Kaddish, Tzigane, Habanera, and Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Faure.

Needless to say, the Ravel music is not really Spanish but Spanish-inflected. Close enough, I guess. The soloists play all of it beautifully, but their way with the sonatas is especially haunting, occasionally jazzy in a bluesy sort of way, and a touch melancholy. The sound, recorded in 1990, balances the two instruments quite well and adds a lifelike resonance to the proceedings.

On disc four we find two pieces for solo piano by Spanish composer and pianist Frederic Mompou (1893-1987). The most important of the two pieces is Musica callada (“Silent Music” or “Voices of Silence”), a series of twenty-eight movements Mompou wrote between 1959-1967 and played by pianist Javier Perianes. Debussy and Satie probably influenced the composer most, yet Mompou’s work is highly original on its own. It’s mostly quiet, contemplative music, with certain mystic overtones about it.

The Mompou music is, as I say, very quiet, sometimes almost silent, and always fascinating. Perianes plays the pieces with great sensitivity, making them appear ethereal, gossamer, otherworldly. While the piano sound, which Harmonia Mundi recorded in 2006, can be a mite soft and distant, it always seems appropriate to the gentle nature of the material.

Finally, on disc five we get what for me is the best music in the set, four guitar works by Spanish composer and pianist Joaquin Rodrigo (1901-1999), performed by guitarist Marco Socias, Maestro Josep Pons, and the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada.

Among my favorites is the popular Concierto de Aranjuez, and even though there are tons of good recordings of it, this one should rank high on anyone’s list. Socias’s playing sounds relaxed, unhurried, unforced, and purely entertaining. He communicates a vibrant tone and a gentle heart in all the music. Other works include the Fantasia para un gentilhombre, Musica para un jardin, and Tre viejos aires de danza.

Harmonia Mundi recorded the Rodrigo disc in 2001, with somewhat mixed results. The Concierto displays good orchestral depth, realistic imaging, a balanced frequency response, an extended high and low end, and a pleasant ambient glow. The guitar appears well integrated within the orchestral context. The other tracks, though, seem louder and brighter, not always to their benefit.

HM package the set in a sturdy slipcase, with each disc afforded its own cardboard sleeve. An accompanying booklet in both French and English complements the box.

To hear a brief excerpt from this set, click here:

JJP

Classical Music News of the Week, May 5, 2013

2013-05-05T00:03:00.002-07:00

Cal Performances Presents Ojai North!

The World Premiere of Mark Morris’s The Rite of Spring, along with eight other concerts, including two free outdoor events, film screenings, and pre-concert talks are offered.

Works by Lou Harrison, John Cage, Henry Cowell, Charles Ives, and John Luther Adams with the Bad Plus, Colin Fowler, red fish blue fish, and the American String Quartet on Wednesday-Saturday, June 12-15, at Hertz Hall, Berkeley, California.

Cal Performances’ third annual Ojai North!, a multi-year partnership with the esteemed Ojai Music Festival, opens with a double bill on Wednesday, June 12, at 6:00 p.m. John Luther Adams’s Strange and Sacred Noise with red fish blue fish will be performed at the Faculty Glade in a free and open to the public concert. The festival then moves indoors to Hertz Hall where the world premiere of new choreography to Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring by the 2013 Ojai Music Director and choreographer Mark Morris will be given at 8:00 p.m. Set to The Bad Plus’s re-scoring of the explosive masterpiece for piano, bass, and drums, The Rite of Spring will be performed by the jazz trio and the Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG). Highlighted by works that Morris champions, the festival programming also includes compositions by Lou Harrison, John Cage, Henry Cowell, and Charles Ives. In addition to The Bad Plus, recognized by Rolling Stone magazine as “about as badass as highbrow can get,” joining Morris will be his MMDG Music Ensemble, pianist/organist Colin Fowler, the American String Quartet, percussion ensemble red fish blue fish, and Gamelan Sari Raras from the University of California, Berkeley. All performances will be at Hertz Hall unless otherwise noted.

A series of Discover, Engage! education and community events to compliment Ojai North! Programming has been planned. Two free and open to the public concerts of works by John Luther Adams and performed by percussion ensemble red fish blue fish will be held at the Faculty Glade. In addition to Strange and Sacred Noise kicking off Ojai North!, Adams’s Songbirdsongs will be performed on Friday, June 14, at 10:00 p.m. Cultural critic Wendy Lesser leads a series of pre-concert conversations with Mark Morris and composer John Luther Adams. On Thursday, June 13, at 6:30 p.m. and on Saturday, June 15, at 6:00 p.m., Lesser speaks with Morris; on Friday, June 14, at 6:30 p.m. she interviews Adams. Two films will be offered at Wheeler Auditorium. Salomé (1923; Director Charles Bryant), a silent film starring Russian actress Alla Nazimove, will be screened on Thursday, June 13, at 10:00 p.m. The film is an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s play and will be accompanied live by The Bad Plus. On Saturday, June 16, at 4:00 p.m., film director Eva Solte will introduce her 2012 documentary Lou Harrison: A World of Music.

Each summer the Ojai Music Festival (June 6-9, 2013), explores the musical interests of its Music Director, a position that is held for the first time this year by a choreographer. “The Bay Area understands the genius of Mark Morris and his talents as a dancer, choreographer and musician, perhaps better than anywhere else in the world,” said Cal Performances’ Director Matías Tarnopolsky. “We are proud to support Mark as Music Director of Ojai North! and introduce his fans here to this new endeavor.” Morris, who considers Cal Performances his West Coast home, has partnered with the institution since 1987, presenting numerous World, United States, and West Coast premieres.

The Ojai Music Festival continue in Berkeley at the end of every annual music festival in Ojai Valley. This collaborative effort makes possible annual reprises of Ojai concerts in Berkeley, as well as co-commissions and co-productions. More than just a sharing of resources, Ojai North! represents a joining of artistic ideals and aspirations. The combined efforts of Ojai’s legacy of artistic innovation and Cal Performances’ tradition of groundbreaking productions create a joint force that allows artists to achieve more than would be possible by each organization separately.

Tickets range from $20.00-$110.00, are subject to change, and are available through the Cal Performances Ticket Office at Zellerbach Hall; at (510) 642-9988 to charge by phone; at www.calperformances.org; and at the door.

--Joe Yang, Cal Performances

Music Accord Announces Launch of First Web Site

Also, they have announced upcoming premieres of five commissioned works by Mark Adamo, Brad Mehldau, Sebastian Currier, Shulamit Ran, and Lowell Liebermann.

Music Accord, a consortium of ten presenting organizations across the United States dedicated to supporting the cultivation of American chamber music, announces the upcoming premieres of five commissioned works by Mark Adamo, Shulamit Ran, Sebastian Currier, Lowell Liebermann and Brad Mehldau. Launched in 1998 with world premiere compositions from Jake Heggie and Elliott Carter, Music Accord has quietly been commissioning chamber and recital works from leading composers for nearly fifteen years, with the primary goal of both perpetuating the creation of new American works as well as presenting them in leading concert halls across the United States and abroad.

At this time, Music Accord is proud to announce the inauguration of their Web site: www.musicaccord.org, which will gather and provide a comprehensive list of commissions, composers, performing artists, presenting organizations, video and audio samples, and publication information.

Ed Yim, who serves as consultant and administrator for the consortium, says of the group, "It is truly a remarkable and enlightened group of presenters who have banded together with the sole motivation to encourage American composers and American artists to create chamber music. The most recent commissions represent support for five of the finest musicians working today, adding to the already rich body of work this partnership has supported."

Music Accord was founded by Zarin Mehta, working with administrator Frederick Noonan. As Mr. Mehta explains, “The original idea in creating Music Accord was to add rich new works to the chamber music and recital genres, as well as provide numerous performances of those works by major presenters throughout the United States.”

Music Accord is currently comprised of ten performing arts organizations throughout the country:

Celebrity Series of Boston

Boston Symphony Orchestra

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York City

Concerts from the Library of Congress in Washington, DC

Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State

UMS at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Hancher Auditorium at the University of Iowa

Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts at University of California, Davis

San Francisco Performances

--Ashlyn Damm, Kirshbaum Demler & Associates

Bang on a Can Beyond Borders in May

The Bang on a Can All-Stars perform in Brugge, Belgium; London & Norwich, England; Uppsala, Sweden; and Reykjavik, Iceland from May 7-17, 2013. The tour features European premieres of Julia Wolfe’s Steel Hammer with Trio Medieval and the All-Stars’ Icelandic debut performing Field Recordings; plus Bang on a Can Performs in China at the Beijing Modern Music Festival on May 18 & 20, 2013.

Bang on a Can goes beyond borders in May, with the Bang on a Can All-Stars on tour performing in Brugge, Belgium (Concertgebouw, May 7 and 9); London, England (Barbican Centre, May 11); Uppsala, Sweden (Uppsala Konsert and Kongress, May 13); Norwich, England (Norfolk-Norwich Festival, May 15); and in their Icelandic debut in Reykjavik (Reykjavik Arts Festival, May 17). In addition, Bang on a Can brings its polyrhythmic virtuosity and versatility to the Beijing Modern Music Festival in China, celebrating the breadth of the genre-busting Bang on a Can sound with two concerts of music by Bang on a Can co-founders Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe: May 18 (China National Center for the Performing Arts) and May 20 (Central Conservatory of Music), performed by the Bang on a Can Festival Ensemble - cutting-edge performers on the New York new music scene from the annual Bang on a Can Summer Festival at MASS MoCA.

This May, Bang on a Can is producing three simultaneous international touring programs: in Europe featuring the renowned Bang on a Can All-Stars; in Beijing, China featuring the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra combined with a Festival Ensemble of musicians culled from its annual Summer Festival at Mass MoCA, and in Mexico featuring its renegade mobile ensemble Asphalt Orchestra.

Over the last 25 years, Bang on a Can has been a leading international producer of American contemporary music. Since shortly after its inception in 1987 Bang on a Can has been producing international events annually, bringing the spirit of its renowned Marathon programs abroad to festivals and venues worldwide. The Bang on a Can All-Stars, formed in 1992, were designed in part as a way of delivering Bang on a Can’s curatorial vision to audiences far from its New York shores. Over the last 20 years, the All-Stars have appeared annually throughout Europe’s most prestigious concert halls and festivals, as well as in Australia and Asia, and have toured three times to Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan.

The extent of Bang on a Can’s international activities is not only rooted in Bang on a Can All-Stars’ performances. Bang on a Can’s acclaimed staged productions also have international roots. Highlights include the Gordon/Lang/Wolfe collaboration The Carbon Copy Building, which was commissioned by and premiered at the Settembre Musica Festival in Turin, Italy in 1999; Lost Objects which was commissioned by and premiered at the Dresden Music Festival in 2001; and Field Recordings which was co-commissioned by and premiered at the Barbican Centre, London in 2012.

For more information: www.bangonacan.org

--Christina Jensen PR

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Announces 2013/14 Birmingham Concert Season

Sixth season with acclaimed music director Andris Nelsons

Mendelssohn symphony cycle in Birmingham’s Town Hall with principal guest conductor Edward Gardner

Three complete concert operas: Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, Bartok’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle and Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial by Jury

Five premieres from Charlotte Bray, Brett Dean, Gerald Barry, Francisco Coll and Hans Abrahamsen

Strauss and Britten anniversaries, plus CBSO 20:20--continuing the countdown to the CBSO’s centenary with a focus on 1913 and 1914

Guest appearances by Anne-Sophie Mutter, Håkan Hardenberger and Thomas Adès, plus debuts by Benjamin Grosvenor and Rafael Payare

Broadest-ever programme, featuring music for audiences of all ages and musical tastes

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra announced its 2013-14 Birmingham concert season, with an ambitious and wide ranging series, and a host of internationally acclaimed performers and artists taking centre stage. For more information, click here: www.cbso.co.uk

--Ruth Green, CBSO

Beethoven: Triple Concerto (XRCD review)

2013-05-03T00:10:00.001-07:00

David Oistrakh, violin; Mstislav Rostropovich, cello; Sviatoslav Richter, piano; Herbert von Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Hi-Q HIQXRCD6.

Sometimes, maybe once in a decade, maybe once in a lifetime, a confluence of great solo artists, a great conductor, and a great orchestra produces a genuinely instant classic. Such was the case when violinist David Oistrakh, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, and pianist Sviatoslav Richter performed Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in 1969 with Maestro Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic. It’s hard to imagine this performance of the Triple Concerto ever being topped, given of the sheer magnitude of the talent involved. What’s more, it continues to be one of the best-recorded versions of the music you’ll find, and this Hi-Q XRCD release remastered and manufactured by JVC makes it just that much better.

Although Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in C major for piano, violin, cello and orchestra, Op. 56 (1804), never impressed critics as much as his violin and piano concertos did, concertgoers have long enjoyed it for its delicious melodies and memorable tunes, especially its soaring first movement and sweet Largo. In an impassioned reading from three of the twentieth-century’s greatest musicians and one of its most-celebrated conductors, the piece couldn’t fail. The music is, as you probably know, actually a kind of orchestrated chamber trio, a sinfonia concertante where the several instruments oppose the orchestra and each other, a style that had passed out of vogue by Beethoven’s time but one into which Beethoven injected new life.

The Berlin Philharmonic sounds, as always, magnificent, and Karajan avoids glamorizing or over-romanticizing the score. When the cello, the violin, and then the piano make their entrance in the first movement, we can see immediately this going to be a gentle, relaxed Triple Concerto, with no want of beauty or expression. The performance is responsive and spacious, yet we can still appreciate the full force of the great orchestra making itself known, reminding us that no matter how easygoing the interpretation may be, it’s still an interpretation on the grandest scale. You’re not going to get this kind of sound from a chamber ensemble or a period-instruments group.

As to the soloists, remarkably, they play as though they had worked together for years. None of the three men attempts to upstage the others, and their instruments complement one another perfectly, almost producing three variations of the same instrument (or four if you count the orchestra, which also blends in flawlessly). Naturally, the cello most often takes the lead, yet Rostropovich never actually dominates; it’s a genuinely shared experience.

The second-movement Largo is as meltingly beautiful as any you’ll hear, big and bold yet brief, hushed, and to the point. The fluidity of the playing seems almost magical. This movement flows seamlessly into the finale, which is as lively, rhythmic, and graceful as you could want. It’s a recording that at the end you want to stand up and applaud, even cheer, it’s that good.

In terms of sound, you would expect it to be good or JVC would not have remastered and manufactured it, EMI would not have licensed it to Resonance Recordings, and Hi-Q would not be distributing it. Although it still won’t satisfy the needs of every audiophile, it does, indeed, sound good. It sounded good in its original EMI form, and it sounds good newly remastered.

EMI producer Peter Andry and audio engineer Allen Stagg made the recording at Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin, in 1969. They captured a wide dynamic range, so wide, in fact, that the opening passage may tempt you to turn up the gain. Don’t. The volume soon rises startlingly, along with some solid transient impact. Instrument separation is excellent, transparency in the somewhat robustly thick midrange is nevertheless quite good, and depth and air are more than adequate.

Obviously, I compared the new Hi-Q/JVC XRCD24/K2 24-bit super-analog remaster to EMI’s own remastering in their mid-priced “Great Recordings of the Century” series. Switching out the two discs between separate CD players (Sony and Yamaha), matching their volume, and playing them simultaneously for instant comparisons, I found in each instance that the Hi-Q disc sounded a touch warmer and smoother, while also being a bit more crisply detailed, tauter, and better focused. While the differences were not, however, as dramatic as I’ve heard on some other XRCD’s, on good playback equipment the differences are at least a noticeable improvement. Then, too, Hi-Q/JVC package the disc in a slick, attractive Digipak container with bound inner note pages.

The question, of course, is whether the Hi-Q disc is worth its considerably higher asking price. Is it really that much better than the regular EMI release? It is, after all, the very same performance you can buy much cheaper on EMI, and no amount of sonic improvement is going to change that. What’s more, the EMI disc adds the Brahms Double Concerto for good measure, making it an even greater value. No, anyone interested in spending over a dollar per minute on the Hi-Q disc has to own playback equipment worthy of doing it justice and, of course, really has to like the Beethoven piece to begin with. Then, like everything in life, one has to weigh the merits of the product. If you want the very best and are willing (and able) to pay for it, you go for the best. If you are a person of more modest means or with a modest playback system, you may want to stick with the regular EMI product, which is still plenty good.

To hear a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

JJP

Antheil: Symphony No. 3 “American” (CD review)

2013-05-02T00:05:00.000-07:00

Tom Sawyer; Hot-Time Dance; McKonkey’s Ferry; Capital of the World. Hugh Wolff, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. CPO 777 040-2.

In the 1940’s a survey indicated that the four American composers whose works orchestras most often performed at the time were George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, and George Antheil. Remarkable, considering that now, some seventy years on, the first three composers are still immensely popular and the fourth, Antheil, is practically unknown.

American composer George Antheil (1900-1959) was a self-proclaimed “Bad Boy of Music” (the title of his 1945 autobiography) in the 1920’s, going forth to Europe to set the world on fire in the manner of his hero, Igor Stravinsky. There was a difference, of course: Stravinsky wrote music that backed up his revolutionary convictions. Antheil’s music, on the other hand, sounds more like the Hollywood film scores he eventually wrote to earn him and his family money.

Antheil’s Third Symphony (1939) carries the subtitle “American,” and while it is certainly quite American in its themes and reflections on American life, it is hardly a “symphony” at all. It is more like a series of tone poems, each section a description of a different part of the country. I found a lot of it noisy and not a little of it derivative, despite Maestro Hugh Wolff and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony’s best efforts to the contrary. Nevertheless, there is also much to entertain one here, and Wolff’s refined yet lively interpretation seems beyond dispute. I doubt that many other conductors could have pulled it off as well as Wolff does. The performance is expansive, stimulating, and certainly colorful.

The shorter works on the disc find names aptly suited to their content: “Tom Sawyer,” “Hot-Time Dance,” “McKonkey’s Ferry,” and named for a Hemingway short story, “Capital of the World.” The latter, a suite from his ballet, is for me the best thing in the present collection, vibrant and characterful, which Wolff fills with vitality rather than mere notes.

Also among the best things about the disc are its sound and its informational booklet. The CPO engineers do a fine job capturing the clear, open, lively sound of an orchestra going full bore, with wide dynamic contrasts, strong bass, clean highs, and a reasonably transparent midrange. The accompanying booklet note contains an extensive biographical essay on the composer by musicologist and author Eckhardt van den Hoogen. The essay’s only drawback is that it’s presented in three languages, and in order to fit all of it into one little booklet, the typeface is so small you almost need a magnifying glass to read it.

I hope now that Hugh Wolff and his Frankfurt players have finished up their project with Antheil’s symphonic works, they will tackle some of the man’s lighter (and possibly better) pieces, the ones he composed for film: things like The Plainsman, Union Pacific, The Buccaneer, Along the Oregon Trail, Tokyo Joe, and The Pride and the Passion.

To hear a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

JJP

Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 3 & 5 “Emperor” (CD review)

2013-04-30T00:05:00.001-07:00

Christoph Eschenbach, piano; Hans Werner Henze, London Symphony Orchestra; Seiji Ozawa, Boston Symphony Orchestra. Brilliant Classics 94602.

As of this writing, it was forty-odd years ago that “young” Christoph Eschenbach recorded the two Beethoven piano concertos that Brilliant Classics have re-released on the present disc. They were fine performances in their day, and they remain fine performances today. Like Master Beethoven’s works, things of beauty are joys forever.

Although I can’t recall much about Eschenbach’s recording of the Third Piano Concerto (I may never have heard it before now), I have fond memories of his Fifth. I used to own it on Deutsche Grammophon back in the old LP days but never got around to replacing it on CD. Still, it maintained a high place in my collection for many years, so it’s good to have it back where it belongs. Eschenbach combines brilliant technique and careful thought in equal measure to produce what remains one of the best “Emperor” Concerto recordings you can find.

As you probably know, Beethoven (1770-1827) composed his Piano Concerto No. 5 in E Flat, Op. 73, “Emperor,” in 1809, premiering it in 1811 and dedicating it to the Archduke Rudolf, his patron and student at the time. It would be Beethoven’s final piano concerto, and it would go on to become one of the man’s most-popular pieces of music. However, the work’s epithet, “Emperor,” was not of Beethoven’s doing. In fact, he might not have liked it, given his disillusionment with the Emperor Napoleon. It was most likely Beethoven’s publisher who nicknamed the piece “Emperor” or possibly the fact that Beethoven premiered it in Vienna at a celebration of the Austrian Emperor's birthday. Who knows.

Anyway, any rendition of the “Emperor” must provide a big, bold, imposing opening Allegro, and Eschenbach does just that, the whole performance full of youthful energy, virtuosity, and daring skill. That first movement is as grand as you’d want. Yet Eschenbach offers much poetry; energetic, to be sure, but lyrical as well. Maestro Ozawa keeps the tempos brisk, yet they are never fast or rushed. So both the piano playing and the orchestral accompaniment are in accord, being enthusiastic and entirely within the Romantic tradition. The interpretation is never fierce, while always maintaining that belligerent attitude the composer was famous for.

Eschenbach and Ozawa take the slow movement even slower than usual, reinforcing the romanticism of the piece. Certainly, Eschenbach captures the melancholy of the music as well as anyone ever has. Then the team produce a rousingly heroic finale to cap off a wholly satisfying reading, which never wanders off into extrovert showmanship for its own sake.

Interestingly, DG released this recording of the Fifth Piano Concerto the same year Decca released their own version with Ashkenazy, Solti, and the Chicago Symphony, which tended to overshadow Eschenbach and company. Both recordings are in the same class, though, with Decca’s sound slightly more transparent, if a tad more hard-edged. Interestingly, too, both Eschenbach and Ashkenazy went on to successful conducting careers along with their piano playing.

The accompanying work, the Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 (which opens the program), is not as successful under Eschenbach, Maestro Hans Henze, and the London Symphony Orchestra, although DG’s more-robust recorded sound might make it seem so. It’s not a matter of tempos so much--these are moderate--but contrasts and emphases. In any case, it’s at least a distinctive interpretation, the performers more than willing to stamp the music with the force of their own wills. I’m not sure, though, that it’s all that playful, imaginative, or charming as it is lyrically expressive. Henze seems more intent simply on making us like the music than in allowing us to like it.

DG originally recorded the Fifth Piano Concerto in 1973 at Symphony Hall, Boston, and the Third Piano Concerto in 1971 at Fairfield Hall, Croydon, London. The Fifth seems a little closer than I remembered, yet it’s also a little clearer. I recall the LP sounding somewhat soft and reverberant. So the transfer engineers appear to have cleaned things up a bit. The orchestra could stretch deeper behind the soloist, too; it’s pretty much in the same plane. That aside, the sound comes across naturally enough, warm, a trifle dark, with a strong dynamic presence. The disc also displays a realistic piano sound, crisply articulated.

While in the Third Concerto we find the LSO a bit more clearly recorded than the Boston Symphony, we also find a small, bright edge. Again we get little depth to the image but a very wide stereo spread and an even more forward piano sound than in Boston.

To hear a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

JJP

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (HDCD review)

2013-04-29T00:04:00.002-07:00

Also, Messiaen: L’Ascension. Christoph Eschenbach; Erich Bergel; Houston Symphony Orchestra. HDTT HDCD261.

About a month before listening to this live recording of Stravinsky’s Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring), I reviewed another, newer live recording from an even more glamorous orchestra and conductor, the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle, which I liked largely for its lyrical grace. Here, in this HDTT (High Definition Tape Transfers) remastering of a 1987 recording, we find the Houston Symphony under Maestro Christoph Eschenbach. While the Houston players do not match the Berlin ensemble for sheer virtuosity, Eschenbach and his Houston players turn in a splendid performance, and one can hardly beat the realism of the sound.

As you are aware, The Rite of Spring rightfully takes its place among the most influential and controversial works of the twentieth century. I recall an interview with the composer reminiscing about its premiere: He said people booed him out of the concert hall, and he had to leave by a side door, the music so outraged the audience. Today, of course, we accept the ballet as one of the staples of the classical repertoire. Theatergoers at the premiere, apparently used to elegant, refined dance music in their ballets, had no idea what Stravinsky was up to with his savage, often ferocious beats describing some kind of ancient fertility rite. Nor did they understand the choreography of the first performance. The composer subtitled his work “Pictures from Pagan Russia,” and one can understand why.

The score’s driving rhythms helped shape the path of subsequent twentieth-century music, making Stravinsky not only controversial but genuinely revolutionary. The question these days is how to approach it in the twenty-first century when practically every conductor on Earth, including Stravinsky himself, has already had his or her way with it. Certainly, the music’s combination of lyrical charm, fire, and passion need to come into the equation, and on balance I’d say the composer had things just right (Sony) in his own recording. Other renditions have emphasised the power of the work, like Sir Georg Solti’s recording with the Chicago Symphony (Decca or JVC); or the fierceness of it, like Riccardo Muti’s performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra (EMI) or Leonard Bernstein’s with the New York Philharmonic (Sony); or the analytical aspects, like Boulez’s recording with the Cleveland Orchestra.

With Maestro Eschenbach we get a well-proportioned approach, making it a good all-around performance choice; when you add in the beautifully remastered sound, it comes close to being a top-of-the-line choice. If it only weren’t for the slight audience noise and applause, that is. You do have to like the “sound” of a live recording, and I recognize that many people do.

Anyway, in Part One: The Adoration of the Earth, Eschenbach offers up an atmospheric Introduction and Augurs of Spring, with well-developed rhythms that never seem merely like a series of starts and stops. Although the aforementioned Rattle performance has the upper hand in matters of outright beauty and skill, Eschenbach more than compensates with evenly rising tensions and monumental crescendos. This is a ballet one can easily see dancers being able to handle without breaking their necks. When the big, rambunctious moments arrive, the Houston brass and percussion sections rise to the occasion, and Eschenbach delivers the needed excitement.

In Part Two: The Exalted Sacrifice, Eschenbach continues to show his understanding of Stravinsky by never pressing forward too fast but quietly building the atmospheric suspense. Still, he never loses the pulse of the music. Indeed, it is the score’s interludes of near silence that point up the extensive outbursts all the better. It’s a fine, spontaneous, well-thought-out interpretation that bears repetition.

French composer Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) was in addition an organist and ornithologist, that last pursuit somewhat relevant to the disc’s coupling, L’Ascension (1933). Messiaen admired Stravinsky’s Rite for its rhythms and color, and although he worked largely in a religious context, he combined some of Stravinsky’s technique with his own methods, along with the occasional sounds of birds. Conductor Erich Bergel conducts the Houston Symphony in this one, and the piece makes a fascinating comparison and contrast with Stravinsky’s music, sharing some of its pictorial bearing.

The folks at HDTT transferred the Stravinsky piece (recorded at Jones Hall, Houston, Texas, in 1987) from a 16-bit Betamax master converted using a Sony PCM501ES digital processor feeding a Digital Audio Denmark analog-to-digital converter at 24/192 resolution. HDTT remastered the Messiaen piece from a 1979 recording on analog half-track tape, 15 ips, with dbx type 1 encoding (the transfer made from an archival 16-bit Betamax backup) converted as before. So, interestingly, the source material is not particularly “audiophile”; it is HDTT’s meticulous remastering and careful disc transfer that make all the difference.

The results sound superb. You will hear a realistic sense of dimensionality, width, depth, and air, with a lifelike hall ambience. You will also hear good midrange transparency, well-extended highs, and thundering lows. Moreover, you’ll find a strong impact within a context of wide dynamics, further emphasizing the feeling of reality. However, the softest notes almost diminish into silence, tempting one to turn up the gain. I advise against it. The bass whacks in track ten, for instance, sound as though they could do some serious woofer damage. Yet there is an exceptional smoothness about the sound, which is remarkable given the amount of detail involved. Overall, we find a very natural-sounding response without being in-your-face about its focus and clarity. A small degree of audience noise from time to time is the only minor fly in the ointment, along with an unwelcome (at least, by me) burst of applause at the end.

For further information about the various formats, configurations, and prices of HDTT products, you can visit their Web site at http://www.highdeftapetransfers.com/storefront.php.

To hear a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

JJP

Classical Music News of the Week, April 28, 2013

2013-04-28T00:12:00.000-07:00

The Attacca Quartet Performs Quartets by Bartók, Dvorak, and Haydn in 20th Annual Lisa Arnhold Memorial Recital, Tuesday, May 7 at 8 p.m. in Alice Tully Hall

The Attacca Quartet performs quartets by Bartok, Dvorak, and Haydn on the 20th annual Lisa Arnhold Memorial Recital on Tuesday, May 7 at 8 PM in Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York City, NY. The program features Haydn’s String Quartet No. 55 in D Major, Op. 71, No. 2; Bartok’s String Quartet No. 6, Sz. 114; and Dvorak’s String Quartet No. 13 in G Major, Op. 106. The Quartet completes its two-year residency at Juilliard’s graduate resident quartet this semester.

Free tickets will be available beginning April 23 at the Janet and Leonard Kramer Box Office at Juilliard. Box Office hours are Monday through Friday from 11 AM to 6 PM. For further information, call (212)769-7406.

Following their Alice Tully Hall recital, the Attacca Quartet has been invited to perform at the Library of Congress, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music School and Festival, and Buffalo Chamber Music Society.

--Amanda Sweet, BuckleSweet Media

YPC Joins Stephen Petronio Company in Seven World Premiere Performances of Like Lazarus Did at the Joyce Theater, New York City, April 30-May 5, 2013

Like Lazarus Did marks the third Joyce Theater collaboration between the Stephen Petronio Company and the Young People's Chorus of New York City with seven world premiere performances of Mr. Petronio's newest work,

Like Lazarus Did, with music by Son Lux and a "living set" by Janine Antoni. YPC performed an excerpt from Like Lazarus Did with the Stephen Petronio Company and composer Son Lux at its recent Carnegie Hall gala.

In 2006, The New York Times wrote that "Mr. Petronio is trying something different: adding the Young People's Chorus of New York City to a list of high-profile collaborators that in the past has included the photographer Cindy Sherman, the rocker Lou Reed, and the fashion designer Tara Subkoff." That year the Petronio Company commissioned Rufus Wainwright to compose Bloom, which YPC premiered not only with the Petronio Company in its acclaimed Joyce Theater engagement, but also in its Transient Glory new music series. The two companies collaborated again at the Joyce in the 2009 in the world premiere performances of Nico Muhly's I Drink the Air Before Me, the title of which came from Shakespeare's The Tempest. The New Yorker wrote that "the energy from a relentless score by Nico Muhly [was] leavened by the sweet voices of the Young People's Chorus of New York City."

Before each performance of Like Lazarus Did several choristers, together with Son Lux and musicians C. J. Camerieri and Rob Moose, will form a ceremonial procession moving down 19th Street from Ninth Avenue to the Joyce. Prior to the first two performances (April 30 and May 1), in addition to the procession, 70 YPC singers will perform with the musicians in front of the Joyce Theater on Eighth Avenue.

Click here for ticket information: http://stephenpetronio.com/home/

--K. Gibson, Young People’s Chorus of New York

92Y Announce their May Performances

92nd Street Y of New York City is a world-class nonprofit community and cultural center that connects people at every stage of life to the worlds of education, the arts, health and wellness, and Jewish life. Through the breadth and depth of 92Y’s extraordinary programs, we enrich lives, create community and elevate humanity. More than 300,000 people visit 92Y’s New York City venues, and millions more join us through the Internet, satellite broadcasts and other digital media. A proudly Jewish organization since its founding in 1874, 92Y embraces its heritage and enthusiastically welcomes people of all backgrounds and perspectives.

Wednesday, May 8, 7:30 p.m. and Thursday, May 9, 12 p.m.:

Jaime Laredo, Susie Park,

Ida Kavafian, Sharon Robinson,

David Shifrin, André Watts

Saturday, May 11, 8 p.m.:

Tokyo String Quartet and Lynn Harrell, cello

Thursday, May 23, 7:30 p.m.:

Benjamin Verdery, guitar

Customers are now able to Select Your Own Seat for reserved events in Kaufman Concert Hall. Product pages have been improved to allow for easier ordering on tablet devices, more prominance for social media sharing and a cleaner layout in keeping with our recently redesigned homepage. Customers with special needs are now able to reserve wheelchair seating and wheelchair companion seats online without having to call the Box Office.

--Ashlyn Damm, Kirshbaum Demler & Associates

Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and the New Century Chamber Orchestra Present a World Premiere by Featured Composer Lera Auerbach May 23-26

Music Director Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and the New Century Chamber Orchestra conclude their 2012-2013 season May 23-26 with the world premiere of String Symphony “Memoria de la Luz” by Featured Composer Lera Auerbach. An abstract exploration of past memories, String Symphony is a six movement work that blurs the boundaries between the secular and sacred. Each movement incorporates extended techniques and effects for the ensemble serving as a soul searching “prayer” connecting the listener with distant memories of the primordial light. Discussing the themes of her work, Ms. Auerbach states, “I believe that music is about connection – it’s about emotional connection on the strongest emotional level that transcends our intellect, our reason.” Also featured on the program is Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll and Haydn’s Symphony No. 45.

The only purely instrumental work in Wagner’s compositional output, Siegfried Idyll was written expressly as an offering to his wife Cosima Liszt on her first birthday of their marriage.

Haydn’s Symphony No. 45 “Farewell” serves as an insight into the composer’s exploration into the symphonic genre as he sought new compositionally creative directions.

The program will be given on four evenings in different locations around the Bay Area: Thursday, May 23 at 8 p.m., First Congregational Church, Berkeley, CA; Friday, May 24 at 8 p.m., First United Methodist Church, Palo Alto, CA; Saturday, May 25 at 8 p.m., SF Conservatory of Music, San Francisco, CA; and Sunday, May 26 at 5 p.m., Osher Marin JCC, San Rafael, CA. New Century offers an Open Rehearsal Tuesday, May 21 at 10 a.m., SF Conservatory of Music, San Francisco for a price of only $8. The Open Rehearsal will offer a sneak preview of the concert repertoire, while allowing audiences to experience the musical democracy of a rehearsal without a conductor.

The concerts will also feature a From the Stage video presentation, serving as a short, dynamic visual program note to provide insight about the world premiere from Lera Auerbach and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg.

Lera Auerbach is the Featured Composer for the 2012-2013 Season, a program established by Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg in her first season as music director to commission new works for the chamber ensemble. Ms. Auerbach is the orchestra’s fifth Featured Composer, following Clarice Assad, William Bolcom, Mark O’Connor, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. Lera Auerbach’s Featured Composer Residency is made possible in part by the Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation.

Single tickets range in price from $29 to $59 and are on sale through City Box Office: www.cityboxoffice.com or at (415) 392-4400. Open rehearsal tickets are priced at $8.

For further information on New Century, please visit www.ncco.org.

--Karen Ames Communications

World Renowned Cellist Janos Starker Dies at 88
Cellist Janos Starker, a renowned concert soloist and a Grammy Award-winning recording artist, died Sunday morning at age 88.

Starker was a child prodigy. He began playing the cello in the early 1930s in Hungary at age six, and by the time he was 8 years old he had his first student.

"I played in public at 11, 12, 13, 14, and 14 was the big, dramatic break-through for me because a colleague of mine was supposed to play with a student orchestra, Dvorak Concerto," Starker remembered. "I, as a student, was in the orchestra, as a cellist. At noon the phone rang in our apartment and my teacher called and said, 'Would you like to play Dvorak Concerto?' I said 'When?' 'This afternoon.' And I said, "May I use the music?" They said, "Sure." And I played and that was supposedly one of the big dramatic successes of childhood prodigies," he says.

At age 14, Starker's teachers encouraged him to quit school so he would have more time to practice. A year later his teacher retired so Starker took over and began teaching a number of the students.

Starker says his big break came in 1939, when he performed Zoltan Kodaly's Sonata for Solo Cello--a piece known for being unplayable.

--Indiana Public Media

Conductor Nicola Luisotti Returns with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra on Friday, May 17, to Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley, CA

Nicola Luisotti and the San Francisco Opera Orchestra step out of the pit and into the bright lights of center stage at Zellerbach Hall on Friday, May 17 at 8:00 p.m. The concert begins with Giacomo Puccini’s Capriccio sinfonico. Written during his time as a student at the Milan Conservatory, this was the last orchestral piece that Puccini ever wrote and expresses a musical style like that of the preambles of his famous operas. Next comes a more modern piece, Nino Rota’s Piano Concerto in C major (1959-1962). Rota was a contemporary Italian composer most famous for writing film scores for The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, the latter of which received an Academy Award. Johannes Brahms’ passionate and lyrical Symphony No. 3 in F major completes the program. The San Francisco Chronicle praised the orchestra’s last appearance at Cal Performances in 2011 for its “robust and finely colored ensemble sound, [and] powerful sense of dramatic momentum.”

Mastro Nicola Luisotti has led the San Francisco Opera Orchestra since 2009. Luisotti has conducted with nearly every major opera company in the world, including La Scala, Paris Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera Covent Garden, and the Vienna State Opera. He has also worked with many of the world’s great orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonik, London Philharmonia, NHK Symphony, Russian National Orchestra, and the San Francisco Symphony. He was also previously the principal guest conductor of the Tokyo Symphony for three years. In 2012, Luisotti was named the music director of Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Italy. In this position, he has led a performance of Verdi’s rarely performed Masnadieri and a concert of Puccini’s Messa di Gloria. This season, he also produced a new production of Verdi’s Nabucco at Milan’s La Scala and Covent Garden. Praised by Opera Magazine for being “both an original thinker and a great respecter of tradition,” he is currently a finalist of their prestigious Conductor Award. To learn more about Luisotti, visit his official page at http://nicolaluisotti.com.

The San Francisco Opera Orchestra was founded in 1923. Today, the orchestra has nearly 70 professional musicians and plays a full season of opera and concert performances. In addition to performing with the opera orchestra, the orchestra’s members play in numerous Bay Area ensembles including the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra and San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. Artists also teach at local institutions, including the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, UC Berkeley, San Francisco State University and St. Mary’s College. Members also maintain active studio recording careers, are featured in music festivals and run private teaching studios. To learn more about the orchestra, visit their official page at http://sfopera.com/About/People/Orchestra.

Tickets for the San Francisco Opera Orchestra on May 17 at 8:00 p.m. in Zellerbach Hall range from $20.00-$80.00 and are subject to change. Tickets are available through the Ticket Office at Zellerbach Hall; at (510) 642-9988; at www.calperformances.org; and at the door. Half-price tickets are available for UC Berkeley students. UC faculty and staff, senior citizens, other students and UC Alumni Association members receive a $5.00 discount (Special Events excluded). For select performances, Cal Performances offers UCB student, faculty and staff, senior, and community rush tickets. For more information about discounts, go to http://calperformances.org/buy/discounts.php or call (510) 642-9988.

Friday, May 17, at 8:00 p.m.

Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus

Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave., Berkeley

Program:

Puccini: Capriccio sinfonico

Rota: Piano Concerto in C major

Brahms: Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90

Tickets: Range from $20.00-$80.00, subject to change, and are available through the Cal Performances Ticket Office at Zellerbach Hall; at (510) 642-9988; at calperformances.org; and at the door.

--Joe Yang, Cal Performances

The Bach Sinfonia Presents ¡Nuevo Mundo Barroco!: Latin Flair meets Baroque Music Majesty on Cinco de Mayo

On Cinco de Mayo, The Bach Sinfonia will present rarely-heard South American Baroque music, including the first hearing in the USA of works by 18th-Century Cuban composer Esteban Salas, on Sunday, May 5 at 3 p.m. at the Cultural Arts Center at Silver Spring, Montgomery College,7995 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring, MD 20910.

2012 Grammy nominees for their album The Kingdoms of Castille, soprano Jennifer Ellis Kampani and Baroque guitarist and lutenist Richard Savino are featured soloists. Highlights of the performance include Padillas Mass for Double Choir as well as selections from the Beatus Vir and Misa a San Ignacio from the Paraguaian/Bolivian composer Domenico Zipoli.

Throughout the late 16th and 17th centuries South America and Mexico experienced a great rise in wealth as gold-fueled Spanish colonialism and Spanish missionaries established a distinctive musical culture. At first based on European models, the compositions created in the “other Americas” became more influenced by local musical forms, creole languages and newly trained indigenous composers. When Spanish power waned in the early 18th century, the relaxing of European training for cathedral directors led to a new generation of baroque composers with even stronger national identities, and a rich independent musical tradition throughout South America and Central America.

Program:

Ignazio Balbi (1720-1775) [Italy/Bolivia]: Trio Sonata

Francisco López Capillas (c. 1608-1674) [Mexico]: Cui Luna, Sol Et Omnia

Capillas: Alleluia—Dic Nobis Maria

Rafael Castellanos (c.1725-1791) [Guatemala]: Oygan una Xacarilla

Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla (c.1590-1664) [Mexico]: Misa Ego Flos Campi

Juan de Araujo (1646–1712) [Peru]: Los coflades de la estleya

Esteban Salas (1725-1803) [Cuba]: Vayan unas especies

Domenico Zipoli (1688-1726) [Paraguay/Bolivia]: Beatus vir

Zipoli: Misa a San Ignacio

Antonio de Salazar (c.1650–1715) [Mexico]: Tarara tarara qui yo soy Antonyio

Tomas de Torrejon (1644-1728) [Peru]: A este sol peregrino

Juan Garcia de Zespedes (c.1616-1678) [Mexico]: Convidando está la noche

--Jennifer Buzzell

Lara Downes Launches The Artist Sessions, Progressive Classical Music Series at Yoshi’s Jazz Bar

The iconic San Francisco venue is the location for Downes’s series, blending musical innovation with intriguing themes and fascinating conversation (and cocktails).

California-based Lara Downes, widely acknowledged as a trailblazer in reinventing the solo and chamber piano show, will present the first in her new concert series, The Artist Sessions at the famous Yoshi’s Jazz Bar in San Francisco. The monthly series will present some of the world’s leading classical musicians in innovative contexts – in short, every concert will have its ‘story’.

First up is Lara herself, alongside guests the San Francisco Quartet and Rik Malone, host of Classical KDFC. The evening will be based around music of exile and Lara’s own new album Exiles Café (on the Steinway label) – the album was CD of the Week simultaneously on WQXR and WFMT and shortly afterwards on Classical KDFC. Downes is in the midst of an extensive North America tour of Exiles Café.

Also on the bill for later in the series are Christopher O’Riley (May 29), Gabriel Kahane (Sept 5), Awadagin Pratt (Oct 17), Theo Bleckmann (Nov 14), Dan Tepfer with Lara Downes (Dec 12), Alexandre Da Costa (Jan 16), Mohammed Fairouz (Feb 27), Zuill Bailey with Lara Downes (March 11), Anthony de Mare (March 25) and Matt Haimovitz (April 6). Cocktails and supper will be offered during the performances, as will full dinners in the adjacent award-winning new-style Japanese restaurant.

Yoshi's is one of the foremost venues for music in the U.S. Originally opened by Yoshie Akiba, her husband Kaz Kajimura, and chef Hiroyuki Hori as a restaurant, it soon became as well-known for its jazz. What started as a sideline to entertain diners became the main event. Showcasing international stars such as Chick Corea, Ravi Coltrane and Jack DeJohnette, it has become a pacesetter on the US jazz scene. The Artist Sessions aims to do the same from the classical music standpoint for Yoshi's San Francisco.

Watch Lara Downes's new music video, Tango from the Exiles Cafe - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy7-CJmtN3U

--Inverne Price Music

The Cunning Little Vixen

Sunday, April 28 at 2 p.m.; Tuesday, Apr 30 at 8 p.m.; and Thursday, May 2 at 8 p.m. at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, 60 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York City, NY.

“An opera about Walt Disney by Philip Glass recently had its premiere, and any year now we might see Les contes de Tintin or Fledermaus und Robin. But for now, the only major operatic work to be based on a cartoon is The Cunning Little Vixen, a 1924 piece by quirky Czech master Leoš Janác(ek, that debuted in Brno. The composer was no callow hipster courting cool. He was 70, with two more incredibly innovative stage works to come, when he turned a daily newspaper strip dealing with forest-animal adventures into a funny, racy, rueful meditation on life’s brevity and transcendence—and, obliquely, his own love for a younger woman. The titular Vixen wreaks barnyard havoc, becomes a squatter and discovers the joys of sex. The humans around her go through life and love travails, and a frog gets the last word.

New York City Opera used to showcase Vixen in spiffy Maurice Sendak sets. Now, Juilliard Opera’s Anne Manson, who’s conducted almost all of Janácek’s orchestral works, leads a promising cast. ‘Half the piece is orchestral music—its emotional content drives the action forward,’ says Manson. ‘What’s so extraordinary is this human/animal borderline zone, pointedly not differentiated musically. But the animals know they’re living in the present, whereas the humans—until that extraordinary surge at the end—are guys sitting around in bars, bemoaning the past.’” --David Shengold, Time Out

--Schwalbe and Partners

8-15 Full-Time String/Orchestra Positions Needed in Las Vegas for Fall

Clark County School District in Las Vegas Nevada will be hiring 8-15 full-time string/orchestra specialists for the 2013-2014 school year. All MS positions are full time, one school, no travel positions. Most high school positions are also full-time, one-school positions (with very few two school exceptions). All positions are certified teaching placements.

CCSD is the fifth largest school district in the country, and one of the largest Fine Arts departments in the USA. The Clark County Schools have been recognized for 14 consecutive years as "A Best Community for Music Education." If interested, please visit www.ccsd.net and explore the Web site. If CCSD looks like a good fit for you, the on-line application process can be started from this page.

If after you visit the website you have questions please contact Dr. Rick McEnaney, Coordinator at: rmcenaney@interact.ccsd.net

--Clark County School District

Bach: The English Suites (CD review)

2013-04-26T00:05:00.001-07:00

Richard Egarr, harpsichord. Harmonia Mundi HMU 907591.92 (2-CD set).

The fact is, nobody is quite sure how or why these keyboard pieces got the nickname “English.” Bach probably wrote them early on in his career, maybe around 1715-1723, and they’re among the composer’s earliest keyboard suites. Bach didn’t even call them the “English Suites,” and they didn’t acquire the name until the nineteenth century when one of Bach’s biographers, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, declared that Bach had written them for an English nobleman. However, Forkel never backed up his claim, so who knows. The funny thing is that these suites have more in common with French suites of the period than English, particularly in their preludes.

Anyway, the German organist and composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) wrote his six keyboard suites, BWV 806–811, for harpsichord, which Richard Egarr plays on this splendid two-disc set from Harmonia Mundi. Egarr has been the conductor of the Academy of Ancient Music for most of the past decade, but he also continues making solo recordings like this one.

If you've heard any of Egarr’s past work, whether conducting, playing solo, or in accompaniment, you know he favors lively rhythms and expressive phrasing. There is nothing genteel, sedate, or old fashioned about his Bach. The Suites bounce along with maximum zest, yet they never betray their essentially aristocratic origins. Egarr shows great imagination in his interpretations, which in the hands of a few other musicians I’ve heard can seem a lot alike.

Each suite begins with a substantial prelude (becoming longer and more complex as the suites go on), followed by six or seven dance movements--allemandes, courantes, gavottes, gigues, minuets, passepieds, and bourrees. While the melodies pour forth graciously from all the suites, it’s the final three I favor most for their smoother, more-flowing lines. And it’s No. 5 in E minor I like best of all for its noble heart and No. 6 in D minor for its sheer grandness and drama.

Most of all, though, it’s Egarr’s spirited presentations that make it all come alive. The performances and recording sparkle.

A number of years ago, it was 1978 to be exact, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi released one of the best-sounding harpsichord albums I had ever heard, Bach’s Goldberg Variations with Gustav Leonhardt. Since then, the album has been my standard of comparison for other harpsichord recordings. Richard Egarr recorded this Bach program in 2011 at Potton Hall, Suffolk, England, and it holds up pretty well next to Leonhardt’s disc. Both recordings have a reach-out-and-touch-it quality, although the older Leonhardt recording sounds a tad richer, perhaps because of the miking and engineering involved, perhaps just because of the nature of the different harpsichords used. In any case, the sound of Egarr’s disc is vibrant and clear, miked at an ideal distance for realistic listening.

However, be aware that a harpsichord is a fairly bright instrument compared to the mellowness of a modern piano. So, yes, the instrument can appear little zingy. Frankly, when played too loudly, the sound got on my nerves. But, then, that’s just me; I’ve never cared overmuch for solo harpsichord playing, period. Heard at a normal, natural playback level for the instrument, though, Egarr’s harpsichord sounds quite lifelike, with a glowing high end and plenty of snap in its transient response.

In the booklet insert Egarr writes an informative little essay on the Suites, and the folks at Harmonia Mundi provide the jewel case with a light-cardboard slipcover.

To hear a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

JJP

The Bolshoi Experience: Highlights from Russian Operas (SACD review)

2013-04-25T00:01:00.002-07:00

Alexander Vedernikov, soloists, chorus, and orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow. PentaTone Classics SACD 5186 089.

I would never think of recommending a disc of music I didn’t much care for just because it sounded good, but in the case of The Bolshoi Experience, I admit I didn’t care for much of the content, yet the sound was so good, it was hard to resist.

The album contains selections from Glinka’s A Life for the Czar; Alexander Dargomyszki’s Russalka; Tchaikovsky’s Lolanthe, Queen of Spades, and Mazeppa; Rachmaninov’s Aleko; and Borodin’s Prince Igor. While the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra perform the pieces well, of course, with robust and spirited renditions by the Bolshoi singers and musicians, the arias and such themselves tend to be a little offbeat and even downbeat, with the exception of the familiar Prince Igor Polovtsian Dances that conclude the program. I’d say it’s a collection for the opera connoisseur rather than the casual listener like myself.

Ah, but the sound is splendid. The 2005 hybrid SACD release delivers regular two-channel stereo, SACD two-channel, and SACD five-channel sound. I confess I couldn’t hear much difference between the regular stereo and SACD two-channel stereo layers, to which I listened, although there did appear to be what may have been a touch more dynamic impact in the SACD version. However, that aside, the recording in both formats is splendid.

Not only is the audio balance nigh-well perfect, the imaging and dimensionality are quite convincing. We get genuine depth in this recording, with the orchestra slightly in front of the soloists, and the soloists slightly in front of the chorus. I hope I don’t sound too clichéd in saying you’ll feel as though you’re in the concert hall listening to this one. Moreover, I’m sure the five-channel version, which I did not hear, would give a listener an even greater sense of reality with a little surround ambience. So, nice sound, even if I found the music a bit tiring.

To hear a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

JJP

Monteverdi: Selva morale e spirituale, Volume III (CD review)

2013-04-23T00:03:00.003-07:00

Harry Christophers, The Sixteen. CORO COR16109.

If you don’t know by now, The Sixteen is the name of a United Kingdom-based choir and period instruments orchestra, founded by Harry Christophers in 1979, that has been making records and winning awards for over three decades. Since 2001 The Sixteen have been releasing their material under their own record label, CORO.

On the present recording, a choir of about twenty individuals joins about half as many instrumental players to perform the third volume of Selve morale e spirituale by Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643). The title translates to something like “a moral and spiritual forest,” and it contains a collection of liturgical works the composer wrote late in his career, around 1641. This third program in The Sixteen’s series includes twelve selections, including some with full choir, some with a doubling of strings, and one solo number. It’s a varied and, as always from this source, enjoyable anthology.

As we would expect, The Sixteen execute each of the numbers superbly, their singing clearly articulated, their phrasing precise, and their musical expression uniquely strong. They begin the program with the second Laudate Dominum, two psalms for eight voices, two violins, and organ. It exemplifies Monteverdi’s dictum: “recitar cantando” (“speak through singing”), meaning it’s essential for the singers to interpret the words intuitively, giving them more freedom of expression. Thus, a given set of words might have different inflections each time the singers perform them.

The first and second of Monteverdi’s settings for the Magnificat, the hymn of the Virgin Mary in Luke, 1:46–55, beginning “My soul doth magnify the Lord,” used as a canticle at evensong or vespers, are especially impressive. This is so even though the composer left the parts for altos and bass out of the first section when he sent it to the printers. Here, the voices of The Sixteen typify their blending together as one, producing the effect of a single instrument. It’s not accidental that Monteverdi spent the last thirty years of his life as choirmaster of St. Mark’s in Venice, the center of much of the ceremonial and liturgical life of the city. One can hear in the music how the Church must have used the piece on special occasions.

In the middle of the program we find the solo Pianto della Madonna “Iam moriar, mi fili,” sung by soprano Grace Davidson. It is something of a showstopper, exquisitely beautiful.

And so it goes through over seventy-six minutes of music. The singing is creative, dramatic, perfectly attuned to the needs of each selection, and precisely executed without sounding academic or stuffy. Favorites? Certainly, the first Magnificat that closes the show in a grand, formal manner; but also Beatus vir (Secondo) and E questa vita un lampo for their vitality and imagination; and Fonfitebor tibi Dominine (Secondo) for the simple, straightforward expressiveness of its three voices in solo and combination.

The CORO producers made the album at St. Silas the Martyr, Kentish Town, London, in May and November of 2011. The sound they obtained there is quite lovely, the voices a trifle forward but smooth and natural, while remaining clear and detailed. The limited orchestral support is likewise realistic, and the two groups appear well integrated, neither totally dominating the aural setting. A light, agreeable hall resonance reminds one that the music is liturgical in nature, after all.

To hear a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

JJP

Noah (CD review)

2013-04-22T00:04:00.001-07:00

Noah Stewart, tenor. Various orchestras and conductors. Decca 2775385.

Let me begin, unfairly or not, with a few minor quibbles. First, the American tenor Noah Stewart may have a fine voice, but it seems rather presumptuous of the album’s producers to call this, his very first recording, simply Noah, as though they expected everyone to know exactly who Noah Stewart was and how important he had become. I mean, not even the Beatles released the “White Album” with just their name on the cover until well into their career as a group. Second, while, as I say, Mr. Stewart possesses a fine operatic singing voice, the album doesn’t really give him much of a chance to display it, the album being composed mainly of pop material. Third, the songs seem almost randomly assembled, willy-nilly, from gospel to popular to folk to stage to classical. And, fourth, the fourteen numbers on the disc only amount to some forty-six minutes, about right for a pop album but hardly what we expect from a classical album, even if it is a crossover release. There, now that I’ve gotten that off my mind, I can continue in a more positive vein.

Stewart, born in Harlem, NY, in 1978, attended the Juilliard School before rising to prominence in the 2011 production of Madama Butterfly. According to his biography, in 2012 his album Noah, the one reviewed here, reached number fourteen on the UK Albums Chart and number one on the UK Classical Album Chart. I can understand it’s rise on the pop chart, but I’m not at all sure why it rose so high on the classical chart, as it contains only two selections that could one could even vaguely consider “classical.” Oh, well, it’s the music that counts, and he does a nice job with it.

Stewart possesses a big, strong, firm, well-controlled voice. The opening number, “Without a Song,” demonstrates the clarity of his singing. The traditional “Deep River” shows his versatility as a popular entertainer. Puccini’s “Recondita Armonia” finds him in more vocally gymnastic form, and he negotiates the hurdles pretty well, if perhaps with a few too many trills. Nevertheless, he keeps the thrills intact, despite the reverb the sound engineers apply to the proceedings.

And so it goes. With a number of different orchestras, choruses, and small ensembles accompanying him from one selection to another, we get perhaps a more-varied assortment of material on the program than one can easily digest. It’s almost like a “greatest hits” album, if one could say the man has greatest hits. Among other tunes are “Camps de Oro,” a lovely “Cara Mia,” and effecting renditions of “Hallelujah,” “Nearer My God to Thee,” and Shenandoah.”

The jury is probably still out on Mr. Stewart. It’s hard to find anything seriously to fault, yet he doesn’t give us nearly enough to work with. The closing “Amazing Grace” and “Silent Night” close the show in quiet yet powerful fashion. While it’s all quite pleasant, don’t we have Andrea Bocelli for these kinds of things?

To compound the eccentricity of the disc’s somewhat scattershot collection of tunes, Decca recorded the album all over the place: MG Sound, Vienna; Sarm Studio, London; Germano Studios, NY; The Johann Strauss Hall, Vienna; GOSH! Studios, Vienna; Hit Galaxy Studio 2, Vienna; Air Studios, London, and The Pool Studio, London, the company releasing the product in England in 2012 and in America in 2013. The sonic results vary from one track to the next but sound typically “pop,” meaning the voice is always front and center, with various accompaniments busy in the background. The highest, loudest notes can get a touch bright, fuzzy, and raspy on some tracks, and there is a very wide dynamic range with which to contend, so keep an eye on the volume control. The overall sound is OK but nowhere near what we have come to expect from Decca’s opera recordings over the years.

To hear a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

JJP

Classical Music News of the Week, April 20, 2013

2013-04-20T07:48:00.000-07:00

British Maestro Sir Colin Davis Dies at 85

Sir Colin Davis, the great British maestro and the London Symphony Orchestra's longest-serving conductor, died last Sunday at age 85 after a short illness. "He was internationally renowned for his interpretations of Mozart, Sibelius, and Berlioz, and music lovers across the world have been inspired by his performances and recordings," read a statement on the London Symphony's Web site. "He will be remembered with huge affection and admiration by the LSO, and our thoughts are with his family at this time."

Mr. Davis' career began as a clarinetist, then as a freelance conductor, before taking positions at the BBC Scottish Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. He was the LSO's principal conductor from 1995 to 2006, when he became its president, and maintained close relationships with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Dresden Staatskapelle, and Royal Opera House.

His discography is extensive, but he is especially known for his Philips recordings of operas by Mozart, Britten, Verdi, and Puccini and complete symphonies of Brahms, Sibelius, and Schubert on the RCA label. He was knighted in 1980 and received awards from the governments of Italy, Germany, France, Finland, and Bavaria.

--Michael Huebner, the Birmingham News

Two Sensational Vocal Soloists Headline American Bach Soloist’s Apollo & Dafne, May 3-6

Jeffrey Thomas leads Handel’s Apollo & Dafne with soprano Mary Wilson and baritone Mischa Bouvier in the title roles. The program will also include Handel’s Silete venti and a collection of arias from Bach Cantatas.

American Bach Soloists’ 2013 subscription series closes May 3-6 with a thrilling vocal showcase featuring soprano Mary Wilson and baritone Mischa Bouvier singing works by Handel and Bach. Central to the program is Handel's dramatic cantata Apollo & Dafne. Written in Venice when the composer was 24 years old, the cantata tells the story of Apollo, who in his vanity suggests that even Cupid’s bow is no match for his own. Challenging Apollo’s boastfulness, Cupid shoots his arrows and Apollo falls prey to rapturous yearnings for the unsuspecting Dafne. To escape the amorous god’s advances, she transforms herself into a laurel tree and, to some of Handel’s most expressive and exquisite music, the chastened Apollo declares that his tears will water Dafne’s leaves and her branches will crown the heads of great heroes. Though Apollo & Dafne predates most of the composer’s operas and oratorios, the cantata’s central conflict is operatic in scope and it is a superb vehicle for two charismatic vocal soloists. ABS music director Jeffrey Thomas will conduct Wilson, Bouvier, and the American Bach Soloists—“the best American specialists in early music” (The Washington Post)—in this rarely performed, yet formidable Handelian masterwork.

Following her ABS December performances of Handel’s Messiah and Laudate pueri—which were nothing less than phenomenal—ABS is proud to present coloratura soprano Mary Wilson again in this program. Wilson, who has been hailed by the Arizona Daily Star as “simply amazing, with a voice that induces goose bumps and a stage presence that is mesmerizing,” will also sing Handel’s motet for soprano soloist and orchestra, Silete venti. The work calls for a vocalist of great virtuosity who is capable of both long, soaring lines and intricate passagework; Handel wrote for precisely the kind of extraordinary artist we find in Mary Wilson.

Baritone Mischa Bouvier, recently praised by San Francisco Classical Voice for his “immensely sympathetic, soulful voice” and “rare vocal and interpretive gifts,” was discovered by ABS during the 2010 American Bach Soloists Festival & Academy. In addition to singing the title role in Apollo & Dafne, Bouvier will also perform a trio of bravura arias by J. S. Bach, including the buoyant and charming “Doch weichet, ihr tollen, vergeblichen Sorgen!” (“So yield now, ye foolish and purposeless sorrows!”) from Cantata 8. ABS flutist Sandra Miller, 'cellist William Skeen, violone player Steven Lehning, and organist Corey Jamason will also be featured in these arias.

Handel: Apollo & Dafne, HWV 122

Handel: Silete venti, HWV 242

J.S. Bach: Arias for Bass

“Laß, o Welt, mich aus Verachtung” from Cantata 123

“Das Brausen von den rauhen Winden” from Cantata 92

“Doch weichet, ihr tollen, vergeblichen Sorgen!” from Cantata 8

Mary Wilson, soprano

Mischa Bouvier, baritone

Jeffrey Thomas, conductor

American Bach Soloists

Friday, May 3, 2013, 8:00 p.m.

St. Stephen’s Church, 3 Bayview Avenue at Golden Gate, Belvedere, CA

Saturday, May 4, 2013, 8:00 p.m.

First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way at Dana, Berkeley, CA

Sunday, May 5, 2013, 4:00 p.m.

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 1111 O’Farrell Street at Franklin, San Francisco, CA

Monday, May 6, 2013, 7:00 p.m.

Davis Community Church, 412 C Street at Fourth, Davis, CA

--American Bach Soloists

Conrad Tao to Curate Three-Day Festival and Release Full-Length Debut Album in June

UNPLAY Festival planned for June 11-13, Voyages album to be released June 11.

On June 11th, 2013, Conrad Tao will celebrate his nineteenth birthday by kicking off the UNPLAY Festival, a three-day event conceived and curated by the pianist/composer. He will also release his debut full-length album on EMI Classics, entitled Voyages, featuring works by Ravel, Rachmaninov, and Meredith Monk, as well as Conrad’s own compositions vestiges, for solo piano, and iridescence, for piano and iPad.

The three intimate evenings of the UNPLAY Festival (June 11-13, http://unplayfestival.com/), held in Brooklyn’s powerHouse arena, will broadly examine the musician’s changing role in contemporary culture. Themes will include the ephemeral nature of performance, the places where the past and the present collide and conflict, and the historical narratives surrounding classical music (including which works are considered “standard repertoire” and why). Performers will include Conrad himself, Face the Music, Iktus Percussion, Sideband, thingNY, Todd Reynolds, and more.

Voyages, Conrad’s full-length debut album on EMI Classics (following his 2012 Juilliard Sessions EP) continues to develop the festival’s themes of change and progression, examining the shifting and unpredictable nature of movement in our lives. Says Conrad: “whether it be the surreal dream images of Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit or my own vestiges, the restless motion of Meredith Monk’s Railroad (Travel Song), or the various moods of Rachmaninov’s preludes, the most interesting transformations of our lives come about not so much in getting from point A to point B, but rather in what happens between the two points.”

At eighteen years old, Conrad Tao has already accomplished more than most musicians do in a lifetime. The Illinois native maintains a full international concert schedule, performing with the world’s great orchestras and in concert halls from New York to Moscow to Hong Kong to Sao Paolo. He has been named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts and a Gilmore Young Artist, was the only classical musician on Forbes' 2011 30 Under 30 list, and last year received an Avery Fisher Career Grant. His compositions have won him eight consecutive ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, as well as a commission from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Conrad currently attends the Columbia University/Juilliard School joint degree program in New York.

For more information: www.conradtao.com

--Andrew Ousley, EMI Classics

The National Philharmonic Presents Wagner Celebration at Strathmore

The National Philharmonic, led by Music Director and Conductor Piotr Gajewski, will present an all-Wagner concert to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the German composer on Saturday, June 1 at 8 pm at the Music Center at Strathmore, North Bethesda, MD. In addition, Maestro Gajewski will give a free talk as an introduction to the all-Wagner concert on Thursday, May 16 at 7:30 pm at the Goethe-Institute in Washington, DC.

Wagner novices and aficionados alike can enjoy the June 1 concert of selections from each of the composer’s 10 best-known operas. Highlights include the Prelude to The Flying Dutchman, an opera about redemption through love; “Ride of the Valkyries” from Die Walküre, heard in many popular movies such as Apocalypse Now and commercials; the stirring curtain-raiser Prelude to Die Meistersinger; and the intense Prelude and Liebestod (“Love-Death”) from Wagner’s vaunted music-drama about the immortal lovers, Tristan and Isolde.

The program will also include the following excerpts: the Prelude to Act III from the romatic opera Lohengrin; the Prelude from Tannhäuser; “Entry of the Gods into Valhalla” from Das Rheingold; “Forest Murmurs” from Siegfried; “Siegfried’s Funeral Music” from Götterdämmerung that is used as a musical theme in the movie Excalibur, a retelling of the legend of King Arthur; and “Good Friday Spell” from Parsifal.

Maestro Gajewski’s talk on May 16 at the Goethe-Institut at 812 7th Street, NW, Washington, DC, will explain the role of the orchestra in Wagner’s operas and the musical themes that drive the drama. For more information on this lecture, presented by the Wagner Society of Washington, DC in partnership with the Goethe-Institute, please visit http://www.wagner-dc.org.

--Deborah Birnbaum, National Philharmonic

Sousa: Music Wind Band, Vol. 11 (CD review)

2013-04-19T00:01:00.002-07:00

Keith Brion, The Royal Swedish Navy Band. Naxos 8.559690.

The folks at Naxos continue their relentless march toward recording every march that American “March King” John Philip Sousa (1854-1932) ever wrote with this eleventh volume in their series of Sousa discs. Again it’s bandmaster Keith Brion leading the charge, this time with the Royal Swedish Navy Band. The music may be less familiar this time out, but Brion’s performances are as vigorous and authoritative as ever.

Maestro Brion has been doing this sort of thing for a very long time as a frequent conductor of concerts throughout the world and as the leader of his own New Sousa Band. And speaking of a very long time, a booklet note tells us that the “Royal Swedish Navy Band has its roots in the 1680’s and has operated uninterruptedly since then.” Now, that’s old.

Anyway, given that Naxos are pretty far along in their Sousa series, most listeners will probably find a lot of the material in Volume 11 unfamiliar. Nevertheless, there are some pleasing things here, not the least of which is the number that opens the show, the Mother Hubbard March. Sousa based it on a selection of nursery rhymes, and it sounds entirely delightful. You can hear a snippet of it below.

The program proceeds through twelve more items, most of them marches like Keeping Step with the Union, Wolverine, Globe and Eagle, On Parade, Liberty Loan, and Guide Right. Yet along the way we also hear several fantasies, settings for popular tunes, like In Parlor and Street (the longest piece on the disc at over eighteen minutes), In Pulpit and Pew, and Sweet Adeline. They are a bit unusual for Sousa and all the more charming for it.

As always, Maestro Brion’s conducting seems impeccable. He imbues each work with vitality, excitement, and full-throated military flair. What’s more, the Royal Swedish Navy Band, which employs thirty full-time professional musicians, play the music with polish, dexterity, and enthusiasm. Let’s just say they’re darned good at what they do.

Favorites? Well, as opposed to hearing just marches, I found it refreshing to hear the fantasies. In addition, there’s a pleasant little overture called Tally Ho that is quite melodious, and there’s Bonnie Annie Laurie, built around the old Scottish ballad, which closes the show in high style. Probably the most rousing march, though, is We Are Coming, one that will definitely get the blood to racing.

I also found Brion’s booklet notes on each selection worth reading. They reveal his personal involvement with the tunes.

Although I often find recordings of wind bands sounding overly warm and veiled, shrouded in resonance, it’s not so here. Naxos recorded the music at the Admiralty Church (Ulrica Pia), Karlskrona, Sweden, in 2010, and they obtained excellent results. The band sounds beautifully open and airy, with remarkably good midrange transparency for such an ensemble. Transient response and dynamic impact also sound good, making for a lifelike sonic presentation.

To hear a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

JJP