Ionarts

Cunning Little Vixen at the Kennedy Center

2012-01-27T09:19:00.000-05:00

Monument of Bystrouška, from Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen, in Hukvaldy, the composer's hometown Sharp-Ears, otherwise known as the Cunning Little Vixen, has taken up residence with her mate at the Kennedy Center. Not, unfortunately, because Washington National Opera is staging Janáček's brilliant, loveable opera of that title (last produced there in 1993), but because an actual pair of

For Your Consideration: 'The Artist'

2012-01-26T09:57:00.000-05:00

One of my Christmas presents was Brian Kellow's biography of movie critic Pauline Kael, an enjoyable read. If Kael's critical voice represents the beginning of modern film reviewing, it is significant that she cut her critical teeth on the first talkies as a young woman in the 1930s. Kellow notes that Pauline was most taken with the independent spirit of the smart, fast-talking heroines of

Joshua Bell Does It Again

2012-01-25T00:13:00.000-05:00

French Impressions, J. Bell, J. Denk (released on January 10, 2012) Sony 88697820262 | 66'58" Joshua Bell is one of the regulars on the Washington Performing Arts Society roster, a celebrity performer virtually guaranteed to fill the hall every other year. The American violinist's popularity with Washington audiences continues unabated, even though his recitals here are remarkably similar from

Reviving Monsigny

2012-01-24T15:53:00.000-05:00

P.-A. Monsigny, Le Déserteur, Opera Lafayette, R. Brown (Naxos, 2010) Charles T. Downey, Monsigny’s “Le Roi” receives admirable revival from Opera Lafayette (The Classical Review, January 24) Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny (1729-1817) was a primary force in creating the genre of the opéra comique, in partnership with librettist Michel-Jean Sedaine. Monsigny did this in spite of deficits in his

More Than Just Bassoonery

2012-01-24T10:37:00.000-05:00

Mozart / Rossini / Kreutzer / Crusell, K. Geoghegan, BBC Philharmonic, G. Noseda (Chandos, 2010) French Bassoon Works, K. Geoghegan, P. Fisher (Chandos, 2009) Wolf-Ferrari, Orchestral Works, K. Geoghegan, BBC Philharmonic, G. Noseda (Chandos, 2009) This review is an Ionarts exclusive. Scottish bassoonist Karen Geoghegan had quite a time just getting to the Music Room of the Phillips

Fretwork's Anachronistic Goldberg Variations

2012-01-23T08:57:00.000-05:00

J. S. Bach, Goldberg Variations, Fretwork (released on November 8, 2011) HMU 907560 | 1h30 Charles T. Downey, Bach, Goldberg Variations The Classical Review, January 23 The sheer ingenuity of J. S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations has led to an incalculable number of adaptations of the work for other instruments. Music this good can certainly withstand the pulling and bending of transcription,

In Brief: Taste of Snow Edition

2012-01-22T12:47:00.000-05:00

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to good things in Blogville and Beyond. Tune in today for the live Internet streaming of Verdi's Don Carlo, from Munich, with René Pape, Jonas Kaufmann, and Anja Harteros in the cast. [Bayerische Staatsoper] One of the greats, Gustav Leonhardt, passed away this week. Listen to a compilation of some of his performances as harpsichordist and conductor

The 18th Street Singers

2012-01-21T00:52:00.000-05:00

Friday evening at Washington's First Trinity Lutheran Church, the 18th Street Singers offered a program called “In These, Our Darkest Hours” to a full house. Founded in 2004 by choral guru and Sen. Al Franken’s Legislative Director Benjamin Olinsky, the 44-voice choral ensemble brings many fresh faces to the Washington choral scene. Before plunging into the desolate wintry themes promised by the

Gaffigan Keeps It Nice

2012-01-20T10:56:00.002-05:00

Beethoven, Sonatas 8, 17, 23, I. Fliter S. Lindeman, Structural Novelty and Tradition in the Early Romantic Piano Concerto It is possible to enjoy a concert with no superlatives, a concert that is good, pleasing, entertaining -- just not extraordinary. Such was my reaction to last night's concert by the National Symphony Orchestra, a mostly solid performance that had little to challenge or

Latest from Trio Settecento

2012-01-20T08:55:00.001-05:00

A French Soirée, Trio Settecento (released on November 15, 2011) Cedille CDR 90000 129 | 78'55" Charles T. Downey, Trio Settecento: A French Soirée The Classical Review, January 20 Rachel Barton Pine has made a name for herself as a soloist in the big Romantic violin concertos, in concert and on disc, but she stands out from other violinists of her generation for her willingness to play music

Graham Johnson, Not Lost in Translation

2012-01-19T15:31:00.000-05:00

Leave it to the veteran pianist and vocal accompanist Graham Johnson, author of a brilliant lecture-performance of Schubert's Die Schöne Müllerin last year, to create yet another alluring recital of songs. As part of a Vocal Arts D.C. recital next Thursday, bringing together songs by Haydn, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Schumann, and Strauss with German soprano Lydia Teuscher in the Kennedy Center

Mariinsky Ballet Samples Fokine

2012-01-18T10:27:00.003-05:00

Chopiniana, choreography by Michel Fokine, Mariinsky Ballet The Mariinsky Ballet's annual visits to the Kennedy Center Opera House always warm up the winter months. The St. Petersburg company is in town again this week, sadly without its outstanding étoile Diana Vishneva, but with a sampler of one-act choreographies by Michel Fokine. Called Les Saisons Russes, the trilogy evokes the season of

Ten Years -- Then Party!

2012-01-18T00:23:00.000-05:00

It’s a good bet that your New Year started off well when, the following day, the recycling truck woke your neighbor, two blocks away, with a thundering crash of glass bottles. There is nothing better than a good party, especially a dance party. So my fair maiden and I made our way this past weekend to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for the opening reception for Zoe Strauss: Ten Years. The staid

Gustav Leonhardt Plays On... (1928 - 2012)

2012-01-17T14:30:00.004-05:00

A month ago, on December 12th, Dutch early-music giant Gustav Leonhardt gave his last recital at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris and all engagements for 2012 were cancelled. Yesterday, on January 16th, he died aged 83. A harpsichordist and organist, he formed and shaped the historically informed performance movement like few others, starting with his Leonhardt Baroque Ensemble (which

Pierre Henry, 'Paroxysms'

2012-01-17T11:07:00.003-05:00

As mentioned in Sunday's link round-up, French composer Pierre Henry, pioneer of musique concrète, has premiered a new work, Paroxysms. The concert happened in Tasmania, at the Mona Foma Festival in Hobart on Sunday, but Henry, now 84 years old, was not able to make the trip to Australia. With the help of Medici.tv, he would direct the concert by video hookup from his house, in the 12e

Fairfax Symphony Orchestra and Sergey Antonov

2012-01-16T12:40:00.001-05:00

Charles T. Downey, Cellist Sergey Antonov with Fairfax Symphony Orchestra Washington Post, January 16, 2012 Shostakovich, Symphony No. 11 ("The Year 1905"), WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, S. Bychkov Laurel Fay, Shostakovich: A Life “Life is short, so eat dessert first” is advice that cellist Sergey Antonov took to heart. In a concert with the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra on Saturday night at

Ionarts-at-Large: Schumann's "Ghost Concerto"

2012-01-15T16:00:00.008-05:00

When Christoph Eschenbach and Tzimon Barto came up with the idea to combine Schumann’s two single movement Introduction & Allegro pieces for piano and orchestra, joined by the haunting Geistervariationen as the slow middle movement, to a de-facto Piano Concerto, they hit upon a winner. The resulting recording was my highlight of 2010, and they’ve been successfully touring the program since. No

In Brief: MLK Edition

2012-01-15T15:25:00.000-05:00

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to good things in Blogville and Beyond. Some more 18th-century opera for your holiday weekend listening: Antoine Dauvergne's Hercule mourant (1761), from the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles. The cast includes Véronique Gens and others, with Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques. [France Musique] Rafał Blechacz plays Chopin's second

For Your Consideration: 'The Descendants'

2012-01-14T10:54:00.000-05:00

Life can sweep you along in its wake, as it does to Matt King, the wealthy land owner portrayed by George Clooney in The Descendants, a new film directed by Alexander Payne (Election, Sideways, About Schmidt). His family's trust holds the largest swath of undeveloped land in Hawaii, a wedding gift received by their ancestor, daughter of the island's last king. Adapted into a screenplay by Payne (

Second Opinion: Hannu Lintu & the NSO

2012-01-13T19:27:00.003-05:00

Many thanks to Robert R. Reilly for this review from the Kennedy Center. On Thursday evening, January 12, 2012, the National Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu, offered a very interesting program of five of Debussy’s Préludes in orchestrations by Colin Matthews, the Washington premiere of Stephen Mackey's Beautiful Passing, and Sibelius's Fifth Symphony.

Hannu Lintu Returns to the NSO

2012-01-13T10:16:00.004-05:00

We found Hannu Lintu's recent engagements in the area, with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2010 and the National Symphony Orchestra in 2009, to be exciting listening. The Finnish conductor, who will become principal conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2013, gave the same kind of edgy leadership with the NSO last night in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, a pairing of two

For Your Consideration: 'Carnage'

2012-01-13T08:52:00.002-05:00

To my great disappointment, my prediction that the Swiss government would extradite American film director Roman Polanski to face charges in California was incorrect. As I said then, one can like Polanski's movies and still want him to answer these questions in court, but it looks unlikely that it will ever happen, although opinion in France, where he lives, may be turning against him. Even so,

Listen What the Cat Dragged In: The Nightingale & The Well Tempered Clavier

2012-01-12T00:38:00.001-05:00

J.S.Bach, WTC Books 1 & 2, Christine Schornsheim Capriccio 7115  The atmosphere was Germanic-proper, cordial, and perhaps a touch cool when I met harpsichordist, fortepianist, continuo player Christine Schornsheim in her practice room at the Gasteig (Munich) some time mid-2010. It was just after she had finished recording the first book of Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier—her most

Joshua Bell: Unrepentant Romantic

2012-01-11T10:28:00.000-05:00

Joshua Bell is coming back to Washington this month, for a recital in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall sponsored by Washington Performing Arts Society (January 23, 8 pm). Bell is a regular visitor to the area, as both a recitalist and a concerto soloist, and his last WPAS recital was only two seasons ago. His performing partner in 2009, Jeremy Denk, is not on the program this year (although Denk

Barber, Barbieri, Barberillo, Barbiturates

2012-01-10T10:47:00.000-05:00

Charles T. Downey, Operas deal a few hands in life, love and double-entendre Washington Post, January 10, 2012 S. Barber, A Handful of Bridge (inter alia), Royal Scottish National Orchestra, M. AlsopAlthough the cold months of January and February are a prime opera-viewing time of year in some cities, the stage of the Washington National Opera is generally dark. A few smaller companies do