Baring (almost) all

Nathan Gunn, a onetime college athlete, now a leading "barihunk" (baritone + hunk), mulls the art of singing in public with your clothes off. "There's a shift in opera where physicality is very important – not only how you act but how you look," Gunn tells the Los Angeles Times' Irene Lacher:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-ca-gunn29-2009nov29,0,2702052.story

Review: 'Daughter of the Regiment'

Virginia Opera
Joseph Walsh conducting
Nov. 27, Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage

The Virginia Opera’s current production of Donizetti’s "La Fille du régiment" ("The Daughter of the Regiment") is Manon Strauss Evrard’s show. This company’s star voice in recent years, the soprano commands the stage and soars some distance above other voices; and when she’s absent, one awaits her return impatiently.

As Marie, a foundling adopted by the troops of Napoloeon’s 21st Regiment as their "daughter" (and laundress, barber and bootblack), Evrard is strappingly tomboyish, even in love scenes and laments. Her vitality is such that you wonder whether she’ll throw her beloved, Tonio, over her shoulder and march off to bliss at the end. (No such luck.)

In the first of two Richmond performances, Evrard handled her role’s abundant, often florid tessitura and its many big, high notes capably if not always in secure pitch. A few of her big finishes verged on shrieks. She also – involuntarily, it seemed – overbalanced the male principals, Gennard Lombardozzi (as Tonio) and Todd Robinson (Sulpice, the regimental sergeant). Robinson compensated with physical gesture; Lomardozzi never quite made it into the foreground.

Josepha Geyer (the Marquise of Berkenfeld) and Jenni Harrison (the Duchess of Krakenthorp) took on their overstuffed-dowager roles with good humor; Geyer and David Barron (Hortensius, the Marquise’s manservant) added some nice comic vocal touches.

This production is conducted by Joseph Walsh, the Virginia Opera’s associate artistic director and chorusmaster; so it wasn’t too surprising that the chorus, especially the men who populate the regiment, made a stronger than usual impression. So did the small pit orchestra of Virginia Symphony musicians, with excellent solos from French horn player David Wick, English horn player George Corbett and cellist Rebecca Gilmore.

Dorothy Danner, the stage director, opts for a physical production, but apportions the comic shtick unevenly, leaving a lot of choristers and supernumeraries taking up space to no particular effect for what seem to be long stretches. (If everyone were cavorting, chaos might ensue; but Danner might have taken a few more chances.)

The set appears to be recycled from spare parts – you might recognize the corduroy hillsides from Carlisle Floyd’s "Susannah" a couple of years ago – and other production elements are pretty basic.

A repeat performance begins at 2:30 p.m. Nov. 29 at the Carpenter Theatre. Tickets: $29-$99. Details: (866) 673-7282 (Ticketmaster). Fairfax performances are at 8 p.m. Dec. 4 and 2 p.m. Dec. 6 at the Center for the Arts, George Mason University. Tickets: $44-$98. Details: (888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com); www.vaopera.org

Rogé gives back

Pascal Rogé, the French pianist, will perform next week with the North Carolina Symphony for no fee after the financially struggling orchestra found it couldn't afford to pay him. His wife, pianist Ami Rogé, will join him in performances with the orchestra on Dec. 3 in Southern Pines and Dec. 4-5 in Raleigh.

"[I]deally, concerts are about love of the music and love for the audience. It's nice to be able, for once, to do a concert for the real reason," Rogé tells Rob Christensen of The News & Observer:

http://www.newsobserver.com/entertainment/arts/story/210106.html

'Emotional education'

David Brooks, The New York Times op-ed columnist, rarely writes about music. But he quite perceptively writes about the "emotional education" he received from the songs and concert performances of Bruce Springsteen. (I'm a little older than Brooks. My emotional education through music began with Otis Redding; and, thanks to my career path, has continued under the tutelage of a wide variety of composers and performers.)

Brooks' piece is well worth reading:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/27/opinion/27brooks.html?_r=1

Shopping list

This being "black Friday," the perversely named official starting day of the Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Winter Solstice shopping season, I thought I should suggest some of the best boxed sets of classical recordings for gift-giving (or, maybe more likely, treating yourself).

The most lavish set on the market this year is "Yo-Yo Ma – 30 Years Outside the Box" (Sony Classical 752307), a 90(!)-disc collection containing virtually every piece ever written for the cello, as well as a great deal that wasn’t originally (Paganini caprices, Cole Porter tunes), played by Yo-Yo Know Who with colleagues ranging from pianist Emanuel Ax to Yang Wei, the pipa (Chinese lute) player who recently performed with the Richmond Symphony. About two-thirds of the 400+ selections are classical, including a number of contemporary pieces that Ma commissioned and/or premiered; the rest chronicles his Silk Road Ensemble excursions into Asian music and his various crossover ventures. The set lists at $790; Arkiv Music is selling it "for a very limited time" for $500.

(I’m quoting, and rounding, prices from Arkiv Music – www.ArkivMusic.com – which, I’ve found, has the largest inventory and generally the lowest prices among online retailers of classical CDs. But Smokey Robinson’s mama told him he’d better shop around, and you might do the same.)

Nearly as big a box (55 discs), less lavishly priced ($150), is "111 Years of Deutsche Grammophon" (DG 001341002). These discs (sleeved with original cover art) sample the major names on the label’s roster, with some emphasis on currently working artists. Standard European repertory; nice mix of orchestral, vocal and chamber music. The earliest of these recordings date from the 1950s.

Now that we’ve stuffed Bigfoot’s stocking, on to more practical gift suggestions:

* The Beethoven symphony cycle of Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra (BIS 1825/6, five discs) has been praised to the heavens by every critic on the planet – yours truly included, although I could do without the over-enunciating chorus and rather militant quality of this "Ode to Joy" – and BIS’s high-definition recordings are state-of-the-art or Da Bomb or whatever superlative is favored these days by audiophiles. (They sound very good on little speakers, too.) Purchased one disc at a time, this cycle would run you close to $100. The boxed set goes for $37.

* DG has issued two "Martha Argerich Collections," one of solo-piano recordings (DG 001190702, eight discs, $33), the other of concertos (DG 001319202, seven discs, $37). Argerich is the greatest living pianist (really); so both collections are highly recommended, the solo set a couple or three notches above the concerto set. (Argerich has done her best chamber-music recordings for EMI Classics, which apparently hasn’t big-boxed them yet. Maybe next Christmas.)

* Yuja Wang, who may be the greatest living pianist when we check back around 2040, released her debut album, "Sonatas and Études" (DG 001253402, $11) earlier this year. Wang has dazzled audiences wherever she’s played – twice so far at the University of Richmond, to which she returns with the Shanghai Quartet on Feb. 14 – both with her virtuosity and a musicality that few performers in their 20s have developed. This disc is a genuine piano recital in its stylistic variety (Chopin, Liszt, Scriabin, Ligeti), and a journey of discovery both in its programming and in the ways that Wang treats these pieces. Her exceptionally clarified, almost Mozartian, treatment of Ravel’s "La Valse" can be heard and seen on the DVD "Verbier Festival Highlights 2008" (Euroarts 3078178, $20), alongside performances by Argerich, Menahem Pressler, Joshua Bell, Gaudier Capuçon and Salvatore Accardo, among others.

* Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic have just toured the U.S. playing Brahms, just as their Brahms symphony cycle (EMI Classics 67254, three discs, $27) hit the market. The concerts have received glowing reviews, the recordings less so. If I were buying a box of Brahms symphonies, it would be the Kurt Sanderling-Dresden Staatskapelle set (RCA 130367, three discs, $19), excellent interpretations, suitably burnished and properly paced, very listenable (re?)masterings of early 1970s analogue stereo recordings. I can highly recommend Rattle and the Berliners playing the Schoenberg orchestration of Brahms’ Piano Quartet in G minor and, with Daniel Barenboim, the Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, on a DVD, "Europa-Konzert at Athens" (Euroarts 2053658, $22), videotaped and digitally recorded in 2004 at the amphitheater at the foot of the Acropolis.

* While we’re on the subject of Europa-Konzerts, the Berliners’ annual trips to striking locales around the continent, I should mention the 2001 edition from Istanbul (Euroarts 2051229, $17.50), with Mariss Jansons conducting. The venue is the 6th-century Byzantine church of Hagia Eirene (St. Irene), a magically stark setting that makes one of the best available recordings of Berlioz’s "Symphonie fantastique" even more desirable. The program also includes very fine performances of Haydn’s "Surprise" Symphony (No. 94) and Mozart’s Flute Concerto in D major, with Emmanuel Pahud as soloist.

H.C. Robbins Landon (1926-2009)

As the 200th anniversary year of Joseph Haydn nears its end, the composer's premier modern advocate, H.C. (Howard Chandler) Robbins Landon, has died at the age of 83.

A Boston-born musicologist who spent his career mostly in Europe, Robbins Landon wrote several definitive books on Haydn (as well as countless articles and liner notes for recordings) and advised generations of artists about performing the composer's music. He also conducted research and wrote on other composers and music of the classical period.

He was a leading player in the historical forensic research that identified the likely cause of Mozart's death in 1791 (prognosis: kidney failure), and prepared new performing editions of a number of classical works, notably Mozart's "Idomeneo" and Requiem.

His obituary, in The Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/music-obituaries/6646024/HC-Robbins-Landon.html

Robbins Landon's "infectious enthusiasm for the subject under discussion, coupled with an encyclopedic memory and almost recklessly fluent delivery, allowed him to engage lay audiences in a way that few scholars are able," Barry Millington writes in The Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/nov/24/hc-robbins-landon-obituary

So you want to be a music critic?

All you need to know, in one easy gulp, from John Adams:

http://www.earbox.com/posts/40#post

(via Alex Ross)

POSTSCRIPT: Almost all. Adams forgot "intensity." Gotta have that.

Marsalis' symphony finished

Wynton Marsalis' "Blues Symphony," whose premiere by the Atlanta Symphony has been delayed several times, is indeed finished, says Jonathan Kelly, who works for Marsalis as a copyist. Kelly has "the full score of the Blues Symphony complete with all seven movements." In a January concert, "the piece is not being played in [its] entirety because of a lack of rehearsal time," the copyist tells Pierre Ruhe at artscriticATL:

http://artsatl.typepad.com/artscriticatl/2009/11/team-marsalis-strikes-back-what-is-the-status-of-wynton-marsalis-blues-symphony.html

CD, R.I.P. (con't.)

Charles Arthur, posting on The Guardian’s Technology Blog, reports that Linn, the Scottish audio manufacturer, has given up on CD players. Buyers of Linn’s pricey components "have moved, with alacrity, to hard drive-based systems – its DS ‘streaming players’ – that allow them to encode their entire CD collection in order to play any track at will" . . .

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/nov/20/linn-audio-streaming-cd-players

Martin Strother (1949-2009)

Martin Strother, the bass who has been one of the ubiquitous voices of Richmond for decades, has died at 60. He taught at Virginia Union University, Virginia State University and the University of Richmond, and sang in numerous concerts and music-theater productions, including one of the earliest revivals of Scott Joplin's "Treemonisha."

His obituary, by Ellen Robertson in the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/lifestyles/announcements/obituaries/article/MSOB20_20091119-222610/306885/

Rattle and Berlin, consummated

Simon Rattle, the onetime Wunderkind English conductor, builds a durable relationship with the "liberated" Berlin Philharmonic, Mark Swed writes in the Los Angeles Times:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-ca-berlin22-2009nov22,0,2433019.story

How was Sibelius on the accordion?

Britain's Independent reports on a newly unearthed letter revealing that Edward Elgar was a laughably bad trombone player:

www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/news/great-composer-shame-he-couldnt-play-1824125.html

Possibly related riddle:

Q: What is a gentleman?

A: Somebody who knows how to play the trombone, but doesn't.

Many more instrument jokes here: www.mit.edu/~jcb/jokes/

'Come & Play'

The Richmond Symphony's "Come & Play," in which community musicians play alongside members of the symphony, will be staged on Nov. 22 at Virginia Commonwealth University's Siegel Center, Broad and Harrison streets. A rehearsal will run from 2:30 to 5 p.m. with a public performance at 6 p.m.

Erin Freeman will conduct the gathered musicians in pops and light-classical selections, including excerpts of Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker" and Leonard Bernstein's "West Side Story."

Registration fees are $5 for students and participants 22 and younger, $10 for those over 22. There is no admission charge to hear the 6 p.m. concert.

Proceeds from the event will go toward instrument purchase and maintenance in the Richmond Public Schools through the Symphony @ School program.

For more information, call the symphony office at (804) 788-4717, or visit www.richmondsymphony.com

Festival in three parts

The Richmond Festival of Music, the chamber-music series devised and directed by cellist James Wilson, will preview its spring 2010 edition with events in December and February.

"Winter Baroque" programs, played on period instruments, will be staged on Dec. 8 and 10. Concerts on Feb. 25 and 26 will feature the Biava Quartet, winner of the Naumburg Chamber Music Award and active on the international concert and festival circuit.

The February events and the festival's three programs on April 18, 20 and 22 will focus on music of Brahms, Dvořák and their protégés and contemporaries.

Performers in the December concerts, in addition to Wilson, are violinist Christina Day Martinson, concertmaster of the Boston Baroque orchestra; Mary Boodell, principal flutist of the Richmond Symphony, playing a baroque-style traverse flute; Richmond-based viola da gamba player and baroque cellist Ulysses Kirksey; and harpsichordist Carsten Schmidt.

The Feb. 25 concert will feature the Biava Quartet and Wilson with Molly Sharp, principal violist of the Richmond Symphony; the Biava will perform on Feb. 26.

Performers in the April concerts include Wilson, Schmidt (playing piano), violinists Diane Pascal and Erin Keefe, violinist-violist Lily Francis, violist Roger Tapping, double-bassist Anthony Manzo and pianist Gabriel Dobner.

The Dec. 10 and Feb. 26 events are galas, with limited seating and tickets priced at $50. Single tickets for other concerts are $25. Series tickets for the three April concerts are $70. (Senior and student tickets are discounted, except those for the galas.)

Details: (804) 519-2098 (Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia); www.cmscva.org

Dates, places and programs for the winter concerts and spring festival:

Dec. 8 (7:30 p.m., First Unitarian Universalist Church, 1000 Blanton Ave. at the Carillon) – "Baroque by Candlelight: a Tale of Four Cities." Handel: Trio Sonata in B minor; Purcell: Fantazia No. 2 in three parts; Geminiani: Cello Sonata in D minor; Domenico Gabrielli: Ricercar No. 5 for solo cello; Vivaldi: Sonata in A major from "Il Pastor Fido;" Bach: Chaconne from Partita in D minor for solo violin; Telemann: Quartet in D major ("Paris").

Dec. 10 (7:30 p.m., Wilton House Museum, 215 S. Wilton Road) – "Baroque Français." Marin Marsais: "Sonnerie de Ste. Genevieve du Mont de Paris;" Couperin: "Concert Royal" No. 1; Michel Pinolet de Montéclair: Concert in A major for two treble instruments; Jean Baptiste Barrière: Cello Sonata in B minor; Telemann: Quartet in D major ("Paris"); harpsichord pieces TBA. (Repeated at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 11 at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 300 W. Frederick St., Staunton.)

Feb. 25 (7:30 p.m., First Unitarian Universalist Church) – Brahms: String Sextet No. 1 in B flat major, Op. 18; Dvořák: String Sextet in A major, Op. 48.

Feb. 26 (7:30 p.m., Ellen Glasgow House, 1 W. Main St.) – Haydn: Quartet in F minor, Op. 20, No. 5; Ginastera: Quartet No. 1; Brahms: Quartet in C minor, Op. 51, No. 1.

April 18 (4 p.m., First Unitarian Universalist Church) – "Master Pieces." Brahms: Piano Trio in C major, Op. 87; Heinrich von Herzogenburg: "Variations on a Theme of Brahms;" Henry T. Burleigh: "Southland Sketches;" Dvořák: Piano Quartet in E flat major, Op. 87.

April 20 (7:30 p.m., First Unitarian Universalist Church) – "Brahms Goes Dancing." Johann Strauss II: "On the Beautiful Blue Danube" (Wilson-Schmidt arr.); Brahms: Hungarian dances TBA; Bach: Klavier Concerto in F minor; Brahms: Viola Quintet in G major, Op. 111.

April 22 (7:30 p.m., First Unitarian Universalist Church) – "The Bohemian Soul." Dvořák: two waltzes; Josef Suk: "Meditation on the St. Wenceslas Hymn;" Vitezslav Novak: work TBA; Dvořák: Bass Quintet in G major, Op. 77.

The next maestro

So, 14 months after the auditions began, we’ve heard from all nine of the conductors seeking to become the fifth music director of the Richmond Symphony. Announcement of the choice is expected by the end of the year.

Whom would I choose? I’m not saying.

This is the third time I’ve observed a music-director search by this orchestra. During those that led to the appointments of George Manahan in 1987 and Mark Russell Smith in 1999, I was a full-time journalist following the process closely. I spent a lot of time interviewing candidates face-to-face, sitting in on their rehearsals and sounding out musicians and orchestra insiders, here and elsewhere, on their work.

This time, as a semi-retired blogger, I’ve limited my exposure to these conductors almost entirely to their work in concert. Here’s what I had to say about each after attending a performance:

MIKHAIL AGREST:
http://letterv.blogspot.com/2008/09/review-richmond-symphony.html

DANIEL MEYER:
http://letterv.blogspot.com/2008/10/review-richmond-symphony_11.html

STEVEN SMITH:
http://letterv.blogspot.com/2008/11/review-richmond-symphony.html

MARC TADDEI:
http://letterv.blogspot.com/2009/01/review-richmond-symphony.html

ARTHUR POST:
http://letterv.blogspot.com/2009/02/review-richmond-symphony_22.html

DORIAN WILSON:
http://letterv.blogspot.com/2009/03/review-richmond-symphony.html

ALASTAIR WILLIS:
http://letterv.blogspot.com/2009/10/review-richmond-symphony.html

CHRISTIAN KNAPP:
http://letterv.blogspot.com/2009/10/review-richmond-symphony_17.html

ARTHUR FAGEN:
http://letterv.blogspot.com/2009/11/review-richmond-symphony.html

As it happens, most of the big pieces they led don’t especially move me. (I think I know a good performance of Russian romantic music from a bad one, but I have to really work at it.) Most candidates made their most positive impressions on me in music that only obliquely hints at what they would make of the core symphonic repertory. I’ve gotten a sense of how they assemble programs, but not of what more than a couple of them might do with a Brahms Fourth or Beethoven Seventh, let alone a Verdi Requiem or "La Mer."

To a listener anticipating a steady diet of such music – and I don’t see this orchestra straying too far from standard rep – all nine remain mystery men.

Fortunately, it seems the right sleuths are on the case.

* * *

Of the 10 members of the committee that conducted the music-director search, and has interviewed the finalists and monitored their work in rehearsals and concerts – and whose recommendation the symphony board probably will ratify – five are musicians in the orchestra. (A sixth, David Fisk, the symphony’s executive director, is an active pianist.)

In this search, unlike the last two, the orchestra’s musicians enjoy numerical parity with the board and community members on the panel. Good: The people who have performed under the direction of these conductors have the most reliable impressions of their musicality, personality and leadership skills. Several of the "civilians" have indicated that they will defer to the musicians in assessing the conductors artistically. I hope the players’ views on personality and leadership are given added weight, too.

The other key qualifications for this job are the social and media skills required for fund-raising and outreach. I haven’t had a long conversation with any of the nine – we’ve exchanged sometimes lengthy e-mails; and, aside from a few phrases in those e-mails, I haven’t heard how any candidate would pitch the symphony to its patrons and the public.

Other factors that should count in the choice: How well-connected are these conductors? Have they developed close working relationships with soloists and composers – especially the young up-and-comers who are the most likely to perform with and have their compositions played by an orchestra of this size? And how are these conductors rated on the grapevine of orchestral musicians? Would those who have played for them recommend them to colleagues who might audition to fill vacancies in this orchestra?

Manahan is the template on these scores. He came to Richmond with a lot of positive buzz, having networked extensively and constructively with composers and orchestra players; and the Richmond Symphony basked in his reflected glow, attracting more notice in the wider musical world than regional orchestras typically do. The Virginia Symphony has reaped similar rewards with JoAnn Falletta as its music director.

There’s a flip side to connectedness, though, which could be seen during Manahan’s later years in Richmond and can be seen in Falletta’s ongoing tenure in Hampton Roads: As conductors in growing demand, he wasn’t, and she isn’t, solely focused on their Virginia orchestras. But the age of the one-orchestra maestro died with George Szell and Eugene Ormandy, decades ago.

I wouldn’t give too much extra credit to a conductor who commits to move his principal residence and relocate his family to Richmond. I would, however, consider the difficulties he might have in traveling between Richmond and other cities in which he lives and works. Air connections are better than they used to be, but this is still not the easiest place to fly into.

* * *

That’s a very full plate of considerations to weigh in choosing a music director. The decision is being made at a time when orchestras and other fine-arts institutions are under unprecedented financial stress, and must convince a new generation of listeners in a more culturally diverse climate that a symphony orchestra is still central to a community’s musical scene. The temptation to choose a conductor who connects with the public and is persuasive with donors, regardless of how he interacts with musicians out of public view, can be hard to resist.

The music director is an orchestra’s primary public face, and having an attractive face with an engaging – ideally, charismatic – personality is important, maybe crucial, in this environment. Definitely crucial, though, is the music director’s determinative role in producing the product that the orchestra sells: the music. However photogenic or articulate conductors may be, their success, and their orchestras’, ultimately hinge on the quality of music-making.

That’s why the musicians’ opinions are the ones that should count most. It looks as if they will this time, so I see no good reason to kibbitz the selection.

* * *

POSTSCRIPT: "Egalitarian" is not a word commonly used to describe symphony orchestras, or classical music generally; but the public auditions that smaller U.S. orchestras conduct in choosing music directors are remarkably open, almost democratic. The nitty gritty occurs out of public view; but the interested public knows that auditions are under way (and can listen and watch more critically if it chooses to), has opportunities to meet the conductors, and is invited to comment on them. If that public gravitates toward one or two contenders, its opinion may not be decisive, but certainly will count.

Is there are more open executive-recruitment process than the hiring of a music director by a regional or smaller American orchestra? I can't think of any, other than the election of public officials.

Review: Richmond Symphony

Arthur Fagen conducting
Nov. 14, Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage

None of the nine candidates for music director of the Richmond Symphony has faced tougher challenges in sonic choreography and direction of heavy traffic than Arthur Fagen takes on in conducting "Nanking! Nanking! A Threnody for Orchestra and Pipa" (2000) by the Chinese-American composer Bright Sheng.

The work, part-soundscape, part-contemplation, of the 1937 "rape of Nanking" – the sacking of the city, then China’s capital, and the slaughter of some 300,000 civilians by Japanese invaders – is scored for a very large orchestra, with augmented brass sections and an enormous battery of percussion employed in battle scenes of extraordinary violence and near-deafening volume.

Making music, rather than cataclysmic noise, of these sections requires tight control over orchestral forces, as well as a keen ear for instrumental balances and for the quantity and quality of sound that a concert hall can accommodate. A conductor also must effectively contrast the battle scenes with much quieter sections in which the leading voice is a pipa, or Chinese lute, played in these concerts by Yang Wei. Lutes generally are low-volume instruments, and the pipa is among the quietest and most subtle of lutes. (Even amplified, as it is in this piece, a solo pipa is rarely louder than a softly played harp.)

Fagen and the orchestra negotiated the battle scenes at an energy level suggesting abandon – deceptively so: lack of control is the last thing you want in performing music whose rhythms and voicings are so complex and crowded – yet not so relentlessly and not (quite) so deafeningly that the listener was left in a state of shock to absorb the lyrical, string-centered core of the work and the pipa’s bittersweet musings. The delicacy of the lute and its accompanists in the orchestra made as strong an impression as the brassy, percussive explosions in this performance.

Yang Wei’s virtuosity is tested maximally in "Nanking! Nanking!" but his ability to coax magical sounds from the pipa – and its way of imposing a deep quiet on an audience – was better showcased in a couple of solo encores. The first was another battle piece, the traditional Chinese tune (really, a fantasia) "Ashes of the Battlefield." The second was not what you would expect to hear played on a pipa. (In case he plays it again in the second concert, I won’t spoil the surprise.*)

Fagen framed the Bright Sheng work with 19th-century evergreens, Beethoven’s "Egmont" Overture and Franck’s Symphony in D minor. In both, as in Wagner’s "Siegfried Idyll" last weekend, the conductor obtained a big, warm romantic sonority without muddying colors or obscuring musical details.

The "Egmont" sounded warm but not quite focused, flabby in its accents. Fagen and the orchestra made the Franck an unusually (at least for me) engaging experience, sustaining momentum in tempos that threaten to plod and taking care to reveal Franck’s new wrinkles in repetitions and reappearances of the motifs around which this symphony is built. He also drew the fullest, warmest bass-string sound that the orchestra has produced since moving back into the Carpenter Theatre.

Weak bass has been the biggest flaw in orchestral sound in this acoustically renovated hall, and it was gratifying to hear that the problem is not insoluble. Winds and brasses are seated on risers for these concerts; that seems to produce a better blend.

The program repeats at 3 p.m. Nov. 15 at the Carpenter Theatre, Sixth and Grace streets. Tickets: $17-$72. Details: (800) 982-2787 (Ticketmaster); www.richmondsymphony.com

* Now it can be told: His second encore was "Home on the Range."

The gender factor

A musician's gender and sexual orientation don't count as much as they used to. Changing gender in mid-career, however, is another story, as Sara Davis (formerly David) Buechner tells The New York Times' Michael Winerip:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/fashion/15genb.html?pagewanted=1&hp

Gershwin-Grofé redux

One of the highlights of Marin Alsop's years as associate conductor of the Richmond Symphony came on Oct. 17, 1988, when she led George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" in its original jazz-band orchestration by Ferde Grofé and the Piano Concerto in F in the rarely heard version that Grofé prepared (against the composer's wishes) for Paul Whiteman. Alsop subsequently made an EMI Classics recording of Grofé's version of the concerto with pianist Leslie Stifelman, who had been the piano soloist in the Richmond concert.

Alsop is presenting much the same program this weekend with the Baltimore Symphony and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

The Baltimore Sun's Tim Smith reviews the first night:

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/classicalmusic/2009/11/marin_alsop_jeanyves_thibaudet.html#more

Subsequent performances are on Nov. 14 at Meyerhoff Hall in Baltimore, Nov. 15 at the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda, MD, near Washington.

Details: www.bsomusic.org

Take your time

Wynton Marsalis, the trumpeter, jazz bandleader and composer, again has postponed the premiere of his "Blues Symphony" with the Atlanta Symphony. The premiere, originally planned for last summer, was rescheduled twice, most recently for Nov. 19; but the piece remains unfinished.

The plan now is a January premiere of two completed movements (out of a planned seven), and perhaps one or two others now in draft form, Pierre Ruhe reports at artscriticATL (the collective website of former Atlanta Journal-Constitution critics):

http://artsatl.typepad.com/artscriticatl/2009/11/breaking-news-wynton-marsalis-blues-symphony-world-premiere-postponed-again-atlanta-symphony-will-pl.html

The history of art-music composition is littered with blown deadlines, stray movements of works that never came together, rewrites (sometimes wholesale) of pieces whose flaws were revealed in first performances – and, of course, that nice batch of unfinished opuses by brand-name composers (Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mussorgsky, Bruckner, Mahler, Puccini, Berg) that sustains a cottage industry of musicological "completers."

A less high-falutin, and larger, industry of composer's helpers employs the orchestrators who produce the finished versions of film soundtracks and musicals (at least those that still use orchestras). Composers are cagey about acknowledging such help; but much of the music you hear at the movies or in musicals was conceived by the composer and largely fleshed out by someone else.

I don't know whether Marsalis works with helpers. Presumably he has someone to do finished copies of parts and other mundane stuff; but I can only guess about hands-on collaboration with an arranger or orchestrator. My guess is, no.

What I've heard of Marsalis' concert music sonically mirrors the personality of the man: A jangly energy kept under fairly tight control, a mind and personality that thrive on multiple stimuli and overlapping lines of thought. There's a lot going on in there. His performances and his compositions tend to be exclamatory, brightly colored, often episodic and abruptly shifting in mood or atmospherics, sometimes almost baroque in their busyness. If some helper is producing the orchestrations, that person is channeling Marsalis' personality with uncanny exactness.

Reconciling this creative personality to the blues couldn't be easy. This is not necessarily a slow music, but it is unhurried. "Take your time," or words to that effect, can be heard in countless old recordings of blues; its sibling, gospel; and its offspring, rhythm and blues. Whatever its stated tempo, the tune needs time to ripen emotionally. Its voices must have space to be expressive. Rush it, and all you've got is a dance tune with a lot of flatted notes.

I hope Marsalis takes his time with the "Blues Symphony." If he's looking for help, I recommend Fletcher Henderson, Ferde Grofé, Thelonious Monk, Maurice Ravel and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

Wilkins makes the rounds

Thomas Wilkins, onetime associate conductor of the Richmond Symphony, currently music director of the Omaha Symphony and principal guest conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, is auditioning for music-director posts in Memphis and Chattanooga.

“I have two daughters who are both getting ready for college. I need one music director job for each daughter,” Wilkins tells the Omaha World-Herald's John Pitcher:

http://www.omaha.com/article/20091107/ENTERTAINMENT04/711079975

Bird-fancier's bequest

A charming story, with a multimillion-dollar happy ending for the Metropolitan Opera, by Daniel J. Wakin in The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/arts/music/11opera.html?ref=music

Facing the music, finding the money

Michael Kaiser, president of Washington's Kennedy Center, writes for The Huffington Post that the cost structures of American symphony orchestras – dominated by musicians' and conductors' salaries and guest artists' fees – chronically outweigh the orchestras' ability to generate revenue through ticket sales and fund-raising.

"[R]adical restructuring can be avoided if musicians and administrators embark on a reasonable, long-term planning process that addresses marketing strategies, fundraising approaches, and artistic initiatives. In other words, plans for activities that build revenue. But this rarely happens. . . . Without a more enlightened discussion, orchestras are going to continue to fail or to reduce their levels of art and education," Kaiser writes:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-kaiser/does-the-symphonic-orches_b_350464.html

The Washington Post's Anne Midgette likens the woes of classical-music institutions to those of daily newspapers. "The main problem is that both fields seem to be incapable of coming up with an actual new business model, in part because both fields are so deeply invested in their own traditions that they tend to confuse those traditions with their function," Midgette writes:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-classical-beat/2009/11/kaiser_orchestras_fail.html#more

I’ve long thought that orchestras, especially those outside major cities and cultural centers, should adopt a model not unlike that of the old Kapelle, the musical establishments of royal courts and municipalities in pre-modern Central Europe. Musicians employed by these institutions gave orchestral and chamber concerts, played for opera, ballet and church services, and were the principal music teachers of their towns. This multi-platform employment scheme still exists in Europe, and less formally in many American cities, including Richmond and Norfolk, where symphony players also teach and work as theater and church musicians.

A promising twist in this country would be to add jazz to the performance-instructional mix. Symphony orchestras have all the instruments of jazz orchestras (a.k.a. big bands) except saxophones; and many symphony brass, percussion and keyboard musicians, as well as some string and reed players, are well-schooled in jazz. Add saxes to the roster, and the orchestra is as capable of playing Ellington as it is of playing Beethoven.

Building a jazz orchestra within a symphonic ensemble also addresses two issues that orchestras have been grappling with, not very successfully, for decades: Reinventing the dated and artistically feeble format of the pops concert (Arthur Fiedler died 30 years ago; the audience for his kind of programming is now dying off pretty rapidly); and making the orchestra relevant and welcoming to African-American musicians and listeners.

Another likely alteration to the symphony business model is making orchestras now classified as "regional" (based on their budgets, typically in the mid-seven figures) truly regional, performing in and drawing support from several cities or a whole state.

For decades, the business model of business has been one of consolidation into larger entities with longer reach – regional, national, global. Most members of symphony, opera, ballet and theater boards have experienced such consolidation in their own businesses and professions. That experience should temper hometown pride and other factors that have made arts groups averse to mergers.

The more slowly the U.S. economy recovers from the 2007-08 crash – and quick recovery, especially in employment numbers and property values, looks highly unlikely – the more financial stress will be felt by cultural institutions, and by educational institutions that indirectly support the arts by employing artists. Kaiser is correct in anticipating that many professional troupes in smaller cities will go under because their local base of support is too small to sustain them.

Virginia has two regional-class orchestras, the Richmond Symphony and Hampton Roads’ Virginia Symphony; smaller professional orchestras in Williamsburg, Virginia Beach, Roanoke and Fairfax; and more than a dozen community and university-based orchestras. The state’s population is 7 million, the fraction of which that attends classical-music events and contributes to classical-music organizations is large enough to support a major orchestra – comparable, say, to those of Baltimore, Atlanta or Dallas.

I doubt that a truly statewide orchestra will materialize. The Northern Virginia ensembles are part of the Washington cultural scene, and the performing-arts groups of the Roanoke-Blacksburg area have built a kind of mountain redoubt in Western Virginia (though not an impregnable one – Roanoke’s Mill Mountain Theatre is the biggest arts organization in the state, to date, to have shut down in this recession).

Still, in the arc of communities from Fredericksburg through Central Virginia to Hampton Roads, there is a sufficient base of audience and money to support a major orchestra, or at least a well-endowed regional. And ample financial incentive to consolidate into one, sooner rather than later.

The Richmond and Virginia symphonies should be talking merger – they should have started talking years ago; and the younger orchestras of Williamsburg and Virginia Beach should join the discussion.

Review: LA Guitar Quartet

with Philip Proctor, narrator
Nov. 9, University of Richmond

"The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote," in which the LA Guitar Quartet plays music of 15th- and 16th-century Spain to accompany a reading of Cervantes’ classic tale, must have seemed an inspired idea when the foursome hatched the project with Monty Python alumnus John Cleese a couple of years ago; and by all accounts, its premiere in March was a great success.

This tour performance, however, was a frustrating pileup of words and music. The quartet's playing and the narration, by the Firesign Theatre’s Philip Proctor, were amplified at volume levels that gave precedence to neither. From my balcony seat, the guitars were too loud for Proctor to be heard clearly, and the music ran interference through a steady stream of words.

Proctor was an engaging storyteller, full of character in his voicings of Don Quixote, Sancho Panza and the unwilling participants in their misadventures. Props and projected illustrations added theatricality to the production. Edith Grossman's translation is in decorous but generally vernacular modern English, and was well-condensed for this concert presentation. The LAGQ’s William Kanengiser, drawing on advice from a group of early music specialists, assembled a period-authentic and nicely atmospheric set of pieces to accompany the narration.

But the show didn’t come together this time in this place. Camp Concert Hall at the University of Richmond’s Modlin Arts Center is a brightly resonant space in which sound amplification can easily be overdone. Even if it hadn’t been, Proctor’s animated and rather speedy delivery might have been hard to follow.

The four guitarists – Kanengiser, John Dearman, Matthew Greif and Scott Tennant – preceded "The Ingenious Gentleman" with two arrangements of classic Spanish-accented orchestral scores, the "Ritual Fire Dance" from Manuel de Falla’s "El amor brujo" and a suite from Georges Bizet’s "Carmen." The group convincingly projected the energy and color of these pieces, especially in moodier selections such as the Habanera and "Gypsy Dance" from "Carmen."

The LA Guitar Quartet will conduct a master class for University of Richmond students, open free to the public, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Nov. 10 at the Modlin Center. Details: (804) 289-8980.

Review: Richmond Symphony

Arthur Fagen conducting
Nov. 8, Randolph-Macon College, Ashland

Arthur Fagen, last of nine music-director candidates to audition with the Richmond Symphony over the past 14 months, pulled off at least a semi-miracle in the second of two Metro Collection chamber-orchestra concerts. He obtained fine sonorities, mostly proper balances, even a bloom to string sound, in Randolph-Macon College’s Blackwell Auditorium, which has the driest acoustic of any venue in which this orchestra plays.

Fagen also demonstrated mastery of Austro-German classical and romantic style, not surprising from a conductor who has spent much of the past decade working in Central Europe.

His handling of Wagner’s "Siegfried Idyll," with long-breathed phrasing and modest applications of portamento, was high-romantic without lapsing into mannerism. His brisk pacing and sharp accenting of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor accommodated the more assertive treatment that the "historically informed" movement has brought to music of the classical period – but, again, without quirky interpretive distractions, and without trying to make modern instruments sound antique.

Ralph Skiano, the symphony’s principal clarinetist, was animated and soulful in Weber’s Concerto No. 1 in F minor. While digging into the passion of the concerto’s opening movement and treating its finale with apt playfulness, Skiano was at his best in a songful and tonally refined reading of the central adagio. The conductor, meanwhile, emphasized the turbulence and moodiness of Weber’s orchestration, making clear this music’s kinship with minor-key works of Hummel, Schubert, Chopin and other contemporaneous early romantics.

The meticulous ensemble playing and well-phrased, expressive solo contributions that Fagen obtained were especially notable, since the orchestra was performing without its concertmaster, Karen Johnson, and several of its principal wind players. One never got the impression that the B-team was on the job.

The Mozart, in fact, was as stylish and focused as any performance of this composer's music that I can recall from this orchestra.

Shutdown in Honolulu

The Honolulu Symphony, facing a debt of $1 million and repeatedly failing to pay its musicians on time, has canceled its concerts for the rest of the year, plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and may (or may not) re-emerge as a downsized ensemble, Mary Adamski reports in Hawaii's Star-Bulletin:

http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20091107_Symphony_cancels_concerts_and_will_downsize.html

(I had not known that the Honolulu Symphony is one of this country's oldest orchestras. It was founded in 1900, earlier than the orchestras of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Cleveland, Detroit and Baltimore were organized.)

Review: Bálint Karosi

Nov. 6, Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Richmond

Bálint Karosi, the Hungarian-born, Boston-based winner of the 2008 Johann Sebastian Bach Competition for organists, came to call with an unusual program, “The Evolution of the North-German Chorale Variation,” for an unusual instrument, the baroque-style Taylor & Boody organ installed in 1983 at Bethlehem Lutheran Church.

As its title suggests, this was a program of early music: All selections were from the 17th century except the concluding Partita on “Sei gegrüsset Jesu gütig,” BWV 678, of Bach. And three pieces constituting the first half of the program were based on a single hymn tune, “Es ist das Heil uns kommen her” (in the modern Lutheran hymnal, “Salvation Unto Us Has Come”).

This 15th-century German chorale proved to be a sturdy foundation for variations – 10 in all, in Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck’s Toccata in C major and two variations on the hymn and in an epic seven-part fantasy by Matthias Weckmann. The Weckmann draws on a wide range of voicings and colorations and boasts a great deal of contrapuntal activity. The tune’s solemnity and slowish tempo, however, did not vary, even in the most florid, virtuosic sections of the Weckmann.

Sustaining momentum at a strolling andante pace over 40 minutes was as big a challenge to the organist as playing the notes (lots of them in Weckmann’s most dense counterpoint) and exploiting the resources of this instrument. Karosi’s performances were deeply engaged but sounded careful, at times tentative.

He sounded more spontaneous in Georg Böhm’s more extroverted Partita on “Herr Jesu Christ dich zu uns wend" and in the Bach, the only piece on the program with true dance tempos. Even in these livelier pieces, though, Karosi sounded to be feeling his way through the mechanical and sonic capacities of an instrument that he was still getting to know.

Virtuosity vs. musicality

In The Times of London, Igor Toronyi-Lalic sounds out pianists Marc-André Hamelin, Stephen Hough, Leon Fleisher and Murray Perahia on the challenges of making real music of fiendishly difficult pieces.

"A lot of people since Artur Schnabel feel that you have to make a choice, that if you start to play virtuoso things no one will take you seriously when you play Mozart and Beethoven. It isn’t true. [Virtuosity] is about having a sense of fun. It is part of enjoying the instrument," Hough comments:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/classical/article6904982.ece

(Read to the very end, and you'll find a nice one-liner from the elderly Pablo Casals anticipating his wedding night.)

Sound-checking at City Opera

Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times will be spending the fall conducting the same kind of sound checks of a restored venue – the David H. Koch Theater (formerly New York State Theater), home of the New York City Opera – that I'm undertaking with the Carpenter Theatre of Richmond CenterStage. And with the same acoustical consultants, JaffeeHolden, on the case.

The big difference: The acousticians removed amplification (mostly) in New York and added it in Richmond.

Tommasini's review of City Opera's reopening gala:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/07/arts/music/07voices.html?_r=1&ref=music

And his background piece on the theater's acoustical renovation:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/arts/music/05sound.html?ref=music

Adams blogs; Gordon games

Composer John Adams has launched a blog, "Hell Mouth," in which we're treated (so far) to a hellish transcontinental flight, a dog show, a pratfall and composition by outsourcing:

http://www.earbox.com/posts

And composer Michael Gordon (whom locals may recognize thanks to eighth blackbird's performances of several of his pieces) imagines a symphonic version of the "Guitar Hero" game:

http://thescore.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/orchestra-hero/

November 2009 calendar

Classical performances in and around Richmond, with selected events elsewhere in Virginia and the Washington area. Program information, provided by presenters, is updated as details become available. Adult single-ticket prices are listed; senior, student, group and other discounts may be offered.

SCOUTING REPORT

* In and around Richmond: Arthur Fagen, ninth of the candidates for music director of the Richmond Symphony, conducts the orchestra in Wagner, Mozart and Weber, with clarinetist Ralph Skiano, Nov. 6 at Bon Air Baptist Church and Nov. 8 at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland; and Beethoven, Franck and Bright Sheng, with pipa (Chinese lute) soloist Yang Wei, Nov. 14-15 at the Carpenter Theatre of Richmond CenterStage. . . . Bálint Karosi, winner of the 2008 J.S. Bach International Organ Competition, plays works of Bach and his predecessors, Nov. 6 at Bethlehem Lutheran Church. . . . The Pacifica Quartet, one of the most highly touted young string quartets, plays Schubert, Shostakovich and Haydn Nov. 7 at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Singleton Arts Center. . . . The James River Singers perform liturgical works of Handel and Lotti, Nov. 21 at Epiphany Lutheran Church and Nov. 22 at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. . . . The Virginia Opera presents Donizetti’s "The Daughter of the Regiment," featuring soprano Manon Strauss Evrard, one of the stars of the company in recent years, Nov. 27 and 29 at the Carpenter Theatre (following four performances, from Nov. 14 to 22, at Norfolk’s Harrison Opera House, and with early December dates at George Mason University in Fairfax).

* New and different: The Apollo Ensemble performs vocal and instrumental works by Salamone de Rossi and other Jewish composers of the baroque period, Nov. 5 at the Kennedy Center in Washington. . . . eighth blackbird and clarinetist Arthur Campbell are featured in the University of Richmond’s Third Practice Electroacoustic Music Festival, presenting six concerts Nov. 6-7 at the University of Richmond’s Modlin Arts Center. . . . The LA Guitar Quartet and narrator Phil Proctor present "The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote," with music from the time of Cervantes, Nov. 9 at UR’s Modlin Center. . . . The 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic perform on Nov. 10 at Strathmore in the Maryland suburbs of D.C. . . . Two uncommon takes on Mussorgsky’s "Pictures at an Exhibition:" Trio Solisti – pianist Jon Klibonoff, violinist Maria Bachmann and cellist Alexis Pia Gerlach – play their piano trio arrangement of the suite, Nov. 10 at the Williamsburg Library Theatre; pianist Leif Ove Andsnes and visual artist Robin Rhode present the multimedia "Pictures Reframed," Nov. 20 at the Kennedy Center. . . . Kayhan Kalhor, the Kurdish Iranian soloist of the kamacheh (spike fiddle), and the Brooklyn Rider quartet, both alumni of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project, perform on Nov. 14 at the Library of Congress in Washington. . . . The Vogler Quartet and guests play modern Jewish and Jewish-themed works, including Osvaldo Golijov’s "The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind," Nov. 19 at the Kennedy Center.

* Star turns: Vadim Repen plays the Brahms Violin Concerto with the National Symphony, Nov. 5, 6 and 8 at the Kennedy Center in Washington. . . . Pianist Emmanuel Ax plays Chopin and Schumann, Nov. 6 at The Paramount in Charlottesville. . . . The King’s Singers perform on Nov. 6 at George Mason University in Fairfax. . . . Haochen Zhang, gold medalist in the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, plays Beethoven, Liszt, Brahms, Ravel and "White Lies for Lomax" by the Richmond-bred composer Mason Bates, Nov. 13 at The Barns at Wolf Trap in Fairfax. . . . Lang Lang plays two piano concertos, Beethoven’s First and Prokofiev’s Third, with the National Symphony, Nov. 13 at the Kennedy Center. . . . Soprano Kiri Te Kanawa performs in what’s billed as her farewell recital in Washington, Nov. 14 at the Kennedy Center. . . . Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet plays two Strathmore dates with Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony, an all-Gershwin program on Nov. 14 and Liszt’s "Totentanz" on Nov. 19. . . . Violinist Joshua Bell joins the National Symphony for Lalo’s "Symphonie espagnole," Nov. 19, 21 and 22 at the Kennedy Center. . . . Violinist Pinchas Zukerman and his Zukerman Chamber Players essay Brahms And Kodaly, Nov. 17 at the Kennedy Center. . . . Riccardo Muti conducts the New York Philharmonic in Liszt, Elgar and Prokofiev, Nov. 21 at the Kennedy Center. . . . Chanticleer, the men’s vocal ensemble, visits with its Christmas program, Nov. 28 at George Mason University in Fairfax.

* Bargain of the month: Pianist Dmitri Shteinberg, Nov. 10 at VCU’s Singleton Center. ($5)

* My picks: The Apollo Ensemble’s Jewish baroque program, Nov. 5 at the Kennedy Center. . . . Bálint Karosi’s sampler of early organ music, Nov. 6 at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Richmond. . . . The Virginia Opera’s "Daughter of the Regiment," Nov. 14-22 at Harrison Opera House in Norfolk, Nov. 27 and 29 at the Carpenter Theatre in Richmond. . . . The Richmond Symphony and Yang Wei in Bright Sheng’s "Nanking! Nanking! A Threnody for Orchestra and Pipa," Nov. 14-15 at the Carpenter Theatre. . . . Malcolm Bilson playing Haydn, Dussek, Chopin and Schumann on an early 19th-century Broadwood piano, Nov. 19 at Strathmore.


Nov. 1 (4 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Nov. 2 (7 p.m.)
Robinson Theater Community Arts Center, 2903 Q St., Richmond
Richmond Philharmonic
Robert Mirakian conducting
Barber: "The School for Scandal" Overture
Haydn: Cello Concerto in D major
André Gaskins, cello
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 ("Pastoral")
$5 donation ($10 family) requested
(804) 673-7400
www.richmondphilharmonic.org

Nov. 1 (3:30 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Albemarle Ensemble
Mimi Tung, piano
Beethoven: Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op. 16
Ligeti: "Six Bagatelles" for wind quintet
August Klughardt: Wind Quintet, Op. 79
Piazzolla: tangos TBA
$20
(540) 924-3376
http://artsandsciences.virginia.edu/music/concertsevents/index.html

Nov. 1 (2:30 p.m.)
Sandler Arts Center, 201 S. Market St., Virginia Beach
Virginia Symphony
Matthew Kraemer conducting
Vivaldi: "The Four Seasons"
Philippe Quint, violin
Richard Strauss: "Don Juan"
Stravinsky: "The Firebird" Suite
$25-$85
(757) 892-6366
www.virginiasymphony.org

Nov. 2 (7 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Fall Choral Classic II
Central Virginia high-school choristers directed by VCU faculty
program TBA
Free
(804) 828-6776
www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept/events/index.html

Nov. 2 (7 p.m.)
Nov. 5 (7:30 p.m.)
Nov. 8 (2 p.m.)
Nov. 10 (7:30 p.m.)
Nov. 13 (7:30 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Opera House, Washington
Washington National Opera
Andreas Delfs conducting
Richard Strauss: "Ariadne auf Naxos"
Irène Theorin (Ariadne)
Pär Lindskog/Ian Storey (Bacchus)
Lyubov Petrova (Zerbinetta)
Kristine Jepson (The Composer)
Gidon Saks (Music Teacher)
Nathan Herfindahl (Harlequin)
Chris Alexander, stage director
in German, English captions
(800) 876-7372
www.dc-opera.org

Nov. 3 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First Street at Independence Avenue S.E., Washington
Zemlinsky Quartet
Mozart: Quartet in C major, K. 465 ("Dissonance")
Kalabis: Quartet No. 7
Zemlinsky: Quartet No. 1 in A major, Op. 4
Free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/0910-schedule.html

Nov. 4 (8 p.m.)
Williamsburg Library Theatre, 515 Scotland St.
Chamber Music Society of Williamsburg:
Trio Solisti
Ravel: Piano Trio in A minor
Piazzolla-Briaga: "The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires"
Mussorgsky: "Pictures at an Exhibition" (Trio Solisti arr.)
$15 (waiting list)
(757) 258-8555
www.chambermusicwilliamsburg.org

Nov. 4 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Avanti, the Orchestra of the Friday Morning Music Club
Pablo Saelzer conducting
Kodaly: "Dances of Marosszék"
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto
Andrea Segar, violin
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 ("Scottish")
Free; tickets required
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Nov. 5 (8 p.m.)
Salem Civic Center, Boulevard Roanoke, Salem
Roanoke Symphony Pops
David Stewart Wiley conducting
Natalie Cole, guest star
$19-$64
(866) 277-9127
www.rso.com

Nov. 5 (7 p.m.)
Nov. 6 (8 p.m.)
Nov. 8 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Alexander Vedernikov conducting
Brahms: Violin Concerto
Vadim Repin, violin
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Nov. 5 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy center, Washington
Pro Musica Hebraica:
Apollo Ensemble
"An Evening of Baroque Jewish Music"
Abraham Caceres: Cantata, "Le-el elim"
Benedetto Marcello: "Salmo Decimoquinto (Intonazione degli Ebrei Tedeschi)"
Salamone de Rossi: trio sonatas TBA
"Dio, Clemenza e Rigore" (Hoshana Rabbah in Casale Monferrato, 1733)
$38
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Nov. 6 (2 and 7:30 p.m.)
Nov. 7 (10 a.m.; 1, 4 and 7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall & Cousins Studio Theatre, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
Third Practice Electroacoustic Music Festival
Benjamin Broening directing
eighth blackbird
Arthur Campbell, clarinet
programs TBA
Free
(804) 289-8980
http://igor.richmond.edu/3p/

Nov. 6 (7:30 p.m.)
Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 1100 W. Grace St., Richmond
American Guild of Organists Repertoire Recital Series:
Bálint Karosi, organ
Sweelinck: Toccata in C major
Matthias Weckmann: "Es ist das Heil uns kommen her"
two variations on "Es ist das Heil uns kommen her"
Georg Böhm: Partita, "Her Jesu Christ dich zu uns wend"
Bach: Partita, "Sei gegrüsset, Jesu gütig"
Free
6 p.m. dinner, $10
(804) 254-8810, ext. 114
www.richmondago.org

Nov. 6 (8 p.m.)
Bon Air Baptist Church, Buford Road at Forest Hill Avenue, Richmond
Nov. 8 (3 p.m.)
Blackwell Auditorium, Randolph-Macon College, 205 Henry St., Ashland
Richmond Symphony
Arthur Fagen conducting
Wagner: "Siegfried Idyll"
Weber: Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in F minor
Ralph Skiano, clarinet
Mozart: Symphony No. 40
$20
(800) 982-2787 (Ticketmaster)
www.richmondsymphony.com

Nov. 6 (8 p.m.)
The Paramount, 215 E. Main St., Charlottesville
Emanuel Ax, piano
Chopin: "Polonaise-Fantasie," Op. 61
Chopin: mazurkas, Opp. 41 & 56
Chopin: "Andante spianato and Grand Polonaise," Op. 22
Schumann: Fantasy, Op. 17
Schumann: "Fantasiestücke"
$39.50-$54.50
(434) 979-1333
www.theparamount.net

Nov. 6 (8 p.m.)
Sandler Arts Center, 201 S. Market St., Virginia Beach
Virginia Symphony Pops
conductor TBA
Natalie Cole, guest star
$75
(757) 892-6366
www.virginiasymphony.org

Nov. 6 (8 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
The King’s Singers
program TBA
$22-$44
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
www.gmu.edu/cfa/calendar/month/2009/11/

Nov. 6 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First Street at Independence Avenue S.E., Washington
Szymanowski Quartet
Haydn: Quartet in C major, Op. 76, No. 3 ("Emperor")
Szymanowski: Quartet No. 3
Mendelssohn: Quartet in D major, Op. 44, No. 1
Free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/0910-schedule.html

Nov. 7 (2 p.m.)
Gellman Room, Richmond Public Library main branch, First and Franklin streets
Williamsburg Chamber Players
Shostakovich: Piano Trio, Op. 67
other works TBA
Free
(804) 646-7223
www.richmondpubliclibrary.org

Nov. 7 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Rennolds Chamber Concerts:
Pacifica Quartet
Haydn: Quartet in D major, Op. 64, No. 5 ("The Lark")
Shostakovich: Quartet No. 8, Op. 110
Schubert: Quartet in D minor ("Death and the Maiden")
$32
(804) 828-6776
www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept/events/index.html

Nov. 7 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Nov. 8 (3:30 p.m.)
Monticello High School, 1400 Independence Way, Charlottesville
Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra
Kate Tamarkin & Michael Slon conducting
Debussy: "Danses sacrée et profane"
Anastasia Jellison, harp
Debussy: "La Mer"
Duruflé: Requiem
Sumner Thompson, baritone
University Singers
$20-$35
(540) 924-3376
www.cvillesymphony.org

Nov. 7 (8 p.m.)
Chrysler Hall, 201 Brambleton Ave., Norfolk
Virginia Symphony Pops
conductor TBA
Michael Cavanaugh, guest star
$30-$88
(757) 892-6366
www.virginiasymphony.org

Nov. 7 (5 p.m.)
Nov. 15 (2 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Opera House, Washington
Washington National Opera
Philippe Auquin conducting
Wagner: "Götterdämmerung" (concert performance)
Jon Frederic West (Siegfried)
Irène Theorin (Brünnhilde)
Alan Held (Gunther)
Gidon Saks (Hagen)
Gordon Hawkins (Alberich)
Bernadette Flaitz (Gutrune)
Elizabeth Bishop (Waltraute)
in German, English captions
$25-$210
(800) 876-7372
www.dc-opera.org

Nov. 7 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
National Philharmonic
Predrag Gosta conducting
Haydn: "Nelson" Mass
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 2 ("Lobegesang")
Sherri Seiden, soprano
Magdalena Wór, mezzo-soprano
Leif Aruhn-Solén, tenor
Kevin Deas, bass
National Philharmonic Chorus
$29-$79
(301) 581-5100
www.strathmore.org

Nov. 8 (2 p.m.)
Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Laurel Street at Floyd Avenue, Richmond
Virginia Commonwealth University choral groups
"Songs in a Sacred Place"
works by Mendelssohn, Tallis, Palestrina, Hailstork, others
Donations benefit VCU Friends of Music Scholarship Fund
(804) 828-6776
www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept/events/index.html

Nov. 8 (3 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
UR Schola Cantorum & Women’s Chorale
Jeffrey Riehl conducting
Handel: "Messiah" (Part 1)
soloists TBA
Free
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu

Nov. 8 (3 p.m.)
Nov. 9 (8 p.m.)
Shaftman Performance Hall, Jefferson Center, 541 Luck Ave., Roanoke
Roanoke Symphony
David Stewart Wiley conducting
Ravel: "Le Tombeau de Couperin"
Debussy: "Berceuse héroique"
Dvořák: “Carnival” Overture
Johann Strauss II: "On the Beautiful Blue Danube"
Tchaikovsky: "Romeo and Juliet" Fantasy-Overture
$21-$41
(866) 277-9127
www.rso.com

Nov. 8 (3 p.m.)
Chrysler Hall, 201 Brambleton Ave., Norfolk
Virginia Symphony
Matthew Kraemer conducting
"Harry Potter’s Musical Muggle Tour"
$9-$22
(757) 892-6366
www.virginiasymphony.org

Nov. 8 (5 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
The Washington Chorus
Julian Wachner directing
Children’s Chorus of Washington
Joan Gregoryk directing
soloists TBA
"The Essential Puccini"
program TBA
$15-$60
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Nov. 9 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
LA Guitar Quartet
Phil Proctor, narrator
"The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote"
$32
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu

Nov. 9 (7:30 p.m.)
Mansion at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Paris Piano Trio
works by Ravel, Schumann, Rachmaninoff
$28
(301) 581-5100
www.strathmore.org

Nov. 10 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Dmitri Shteinberg, piano
program TBA
$5
(804) 828-6776
www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept/events/index.html

Nov. 10 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic
program TBA
$25-$65
(301) 581-5100
www.strathmore.org

Nov. 13 (7 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Percussion Ensemble
Peter Martin directing
program TBA
Free
(804) 828-6776
www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept/events/index.html

Nov. 13 (8 p.m.)
The Barns at Wolf Trap, Trap Road, Vienna
Haochen Zhang, piano
Beethoven: Sonata No. 31 in A flat major, Op. 110
Mason Bates: "White Lies for Lomax"
Ravel: "Gaspard de la nuit"
Brahms: "Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel"
Liszt: "Spanish Rhapsody"
$35
(703) 938-2404
www.wolftrap.org

Nov. 13 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Vocal Arts Society:
New York Festival of Song
Steven Blier, director & piano
"Great American Songwriting Teams"
songs by the Gershwins, Rodgers & Hart, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Lerner & Loewe, Bernstein, Comden & Green, others
$45
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Nov. 13 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Andrew Litton conducting
Glinka: "Russlan and Ludmilla" Overture
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1
Lang Lang, piano
Weber: "Euryanthe" Overture
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3
Lang Lang, piano
$30-$125
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Nov. 14 (8 p.m.)
Nov. 15 (3 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony
Arthur Fagen conducting
Beethoven: "Egmont" Overture
Bright Sheng: "Nanking! Nanking! A Threnody for Orchestra and Pipa"
Yang Wei, pipa
Franck: Symphony in D minor
$17-$72
(800) 982-2787 (Ticketmaster)
www.richmondsymphony.com

Nov. 14 (8 p.m.)
Nov. 18 (7:30 p.m.)
Nov. 20 (8 p.m.)
Nov. 22 (2:30 p.m.)
Harrison Opera House, 160 E. Virginia Beach Boulevard, Norfolk
Virginia Opera
Joseph Walsh conducting
Donizetti: "The Daughter of the Regiment"
Manon Strauss Evrard (Marie)
Gennard Lombardozzi (Tonio)
Todd Robinson (Sgt. Sulpice)
Josepha Gayer (Marquise de Birkenfeld)
David Barron (Hortensius)
Dorothy Danner, stage director
in French, English captions
$25-$114
(866) 673-7282
www.vaopera.org

Nov. 14 (7 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Kiri Te Kanawa, soprano
Brian Zeger, piano
arias and art-songs by Handel, Vivaldi, Liszt, Richard Strauss, Debussy, Fauré, Puccini, others
$35-$110
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org

Nov. 14 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First Street at Independence Avenue S.E., Washington
Kayhan Kalhor, kamacheh (spike fiddle)
Brooklyn Rider
trad: "The Ascending Bird" (arr. Colin Jacobsen & Siamak Aghaei)
Jacobsen: "Brooklesca"
Jacobsen: "Beloved, Do Not Let Me Be Discouraged"
Kalhor: "Silent City"
Kalhor: "Parvez"
Giovanni Sollima: "Viaggio in Italia" (excerpts)
Free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/0910-schedule.html

Nov. 14 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop conducting
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
Gershwin: "Rhapsody in Blue"
Gershwin: Piano Concerto in F major
Gershwin: " ‘I Got Rhythm’ Variations"
$30-$90
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony)
www.strathmore.org

Nov. 15 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
University Wind Ensemble
David Niethamer & Thom Ritter George directing
George: Suite No. 1 in F major
George: Suite No. 2 in C major
George: Flute Concerto
Katie Moyer, flute
Vaughan Williams: "Folk Song Suite"
other works TBA
Free
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu

Nov. 15 (7 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
Jeffrey Siegel, piano
"Keyboard Conversations: Chopin the Patriot"
Chopin: polonaises in G minor, C minor, A flat major
Chopin: mazurkas TBA
$19-$38
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
www.gmu.edu/cfa/calendar/month/2009/11/

Nov. 15 (2 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Kennedy Center Chamber Players
Fauré: Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 15
Tchaikovsky: Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 50
$35
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Nov. 15 (4 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Choral Arts Society of Washington
Norman Scribner directing
Washington Symphonic Brass
Phil Snedecor directing
"The Original Surround Sound: Antiphonal Glories Through the Ages"
program TBA
$15-$65
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Nov. 16 (7:30 p.m.)
Cannon Memorial Chapel, University of Richmond
Bruce Stevens, organ
Buxtehude: Praeludium in D Major
Walther: Partita on "Jesu, meine Freude"
Bach: Trio on "Allein Gott in der Höh sei Her"
Vivaldi-Bach: Concerto in A Minor
Mendelssohn: Prelude and Fugue in G Major, Op. 27, No. 2
Ginastera: "Toccata, Villancico y Fuga"
Bach: Chaconne in D Minor (Wilhelm Middelschulte trans.)
Free
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu

Nov. 16 (8 p.m.)
Nov. 17 (8 p.m.)
Kimball Theatre, Merchants Square, Williamsburg
Williamsburg Symphonia
Janna Hymes conducting
Rossini: "Tancredi" Overture
Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 2
Valentina Lisitsa, piano
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 ("Eroica")
$30-$42
(757) 229-9857
www.williamsburgsymphonia.org

Nov. 17 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Tuesday Evening Concerts:
Pavel Haas Quartet
Haydn: Quartet in D minor, Op. 76, No. 2 ("Quinten")
Ravel: Quartet in F major
Dvořák: Quartet in G major, Op. 106
$12-$28
(434) 924-3376
www.tecs.org

Nov. 17 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Zukerman Chamber Players
Brahms: Scherzo in C minor from "F.A.E." Sonata
Kodaly: Duo
Brahms: Piano Quartet No. 2 in A major, Op. 26
$38
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Nov. 19 (7 p.m.)
Nov. 21 (8 p.m.)
Nov. 22 (1:30 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Hugh Wolff conducting
James MacMillan: "Í (a Meditation on Iona)"
Lalo: "Symphonie espagnole"
Joshua Bell, violin
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 ("Scottish")
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Nov. 19 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Vogler String Quartet
Jascha Nemtsov, piano
Alexander Fiterstein, clarinet
Prokofiev: "Overture on Hebrew Themes"
Krejn: Prelude
Achron: "Children’s Suite" (excerpts)
Chajes: "Hebrew Suite"
Golijov: "Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind"
$32
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Nov. 19 (7:30 p.m.)
Mansion at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Malcolm Bilson, Broadwood piano
works by Haydn, Schumann, Chopin, Dussek
$28
(301) 581-5100
www.strathmore.org

Nov. 19 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop conducting
Michael Daugherty: "Red Cape Tango" from "Metropolis" Symphony
Liszt: "Totentanz"
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
Berlioz: "Symphonie fantastique"
$390-$90
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony)
www.strathmore.org

Nov. 20 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
U.Va. Chamber Singers
Michael Slon directing
songs by Barber, Copland, Randall Thompson, Judith Shatin, others
Free
(540) 924-3376
http://artsandsciences.virginia.edu/music/concertsevents/index.html

Nov. 20 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Leif Ove Andsnes, piano
Robin Rhode, visual artist
"Pictures Reframed," multimedia version of Mussorgsky’s "Pictures at an Exhibition"
$45
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org

Nov. 20 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Symphony Orchestra of Kurmangazy Kazakh National Conservatory
Christophe Mongou & Kanat Omarov conducting
Tchaikovsky: "Romeo and Juliet" Fantasy-Overture
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2
Jania Aubakirova, piano
Raimkulova: "Jamilya"
Bernstein: "Candide" Overture
trad.: "Baksy," "Kerogly"
Turan Ethnographical Folklore Ensemble
$20-$50
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Nov. 20 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First Street at Independence Avenue S.E., Washington
Haydn Trio Eisenstadt
Lorna Anderson, soprano
Jamie MacDougall, tenor
Haydn: Trio No. 27 in C major
Haydn: "Scottish Songs for George Thomson"
Schifrin: "Elegy and Meditation"
Haydn: Trio No. 29 in E flat major
Free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/0910-schedule.html

Nov. 21 (7 p.m.)
Epiphany Lutheran Church, Horsepen Road at Monument Avenue, Richmond
Nov. 22 (4 p.m.)
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 520 N. Boulevard, Richmond
James River Singers
Jeffrey Riehl directing
Handel: "Dixit Dominus"
Handel: "Nisi Dominus"
Lotti: "Crucifixus"
$15
www.jamesriversingers.org

Nov. 21 (7:30 p.m.)
Nov. 22 (4 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Opera Theatre
Melanie Kohn Day directing
"Brush Up Your Shakespeare: a Gala of Shakespeare-based Opera Scenes"
Free
(804) 828-6776
www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept/events/index.html

Nov. 21 (7:30 p.m.)
Epiphany Catholic Church, 11000 Smoketree Drive, Midlothian
Nov. 22 (5 p.m.)
All Saints Episcopal Church, 8787 River Road, Richmond
Richmond Concert Chorale
Grant Hellmers directing
"Welcome Yule!"
Hassler: Mass, "Dixit Maria"
motets by Hassler, Byrd, Palestrina, Rheinberger, Bruckner
Christmas carols TBA
Donation requested
(804) 353-5236

Nov. 21 (8 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
Fairfax Symphony
Christopher Zimmerman conducting
De Falla: "The Three-Cornered Hat" Suites Nos. 1-2
Gershwin: "Rhapsody in Blue"
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major
Chu-Fang Huang, piano
Ginastera: "Estancia"
$35-$55
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
www.gmu.edu/cfa/calendar/month/2009/11/

Nov. 21 (4 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
New York Philharmonic
Riccardo Muti conducting
Liszt: "Les Preludes"
Elgar: "In the South"
Prokofiev: "Romeo and Juliet" Suite
$35-$115
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org

Nov. 22 (4 p.m.)
Recital Hall, Black Music Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Grove Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Guitar Ensemble
VCU Community Guitar Ensemble
John Patykula directing
program TBA
Free
(804) 828-6776
www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept/events/index.html

Nov. 22 (3:30 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
U.Va. Wind Ensemble
Charlottesville Municipal Band
program TBA
$10
(540) 924-3376
http://artsandsciences.virginia.edu/music/concertsevents/index.html

Nov. 22 (7 p.m.)
The Forum at O-Hill, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Palladian Chamber Orchestra
J.C. Bach, Sinfonia, Op. 18, No. 2
Delius: "Two Pieces for Small Orchestra"
Mozart: Symphony No. 40
Free
(540) 924-3376
http://artsandsciences.virginia.edu/music/concertsevents/index.html

Nov. 22 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Tamaki Kawakubo, violin
program TBA
$40
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Nov. 22 (7 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Vienna Chamber Orchestra
Philippe Entremont conducting
Mozart: Symphony No. 35 ("Haffner")
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor
Philippe Entremont, piano
Haydn: Symphony No. 104 ("London")
$25-$75
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org

Nov. 24 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Viviane Hagner, violin
Shai Wosner, piano
Schubert: Sonata in A minor, D. 385
Turnage: "Four Chants"
Bartók: Rhapsody No. 1
Schumann: Sonata No. 2 in D minor
$35
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org

Nov. 27 (8 p.m.)
Nov. 29 (2:30 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Virginia Opera
Joseph Walsh conducting
Donizetti: "The Daughter of the Regiment"
Manon Strauss Evrard (Marie)
Gennard Lombardozzi (Tonio)
Todd Robinson (Sgt. Sulpice)
Josepha Gayer (Marquise de Birkenfeld)
David Barron (Hortensius)
Dorothy Danner, stage director
in French, English captions
$29-$99
(866) 673-7282
www.vaopera.org

Nov. 27 (1:30 and 8 p.m.)
Nov. 28 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Pops
Marvin Hamlisch conducting
Rebecca Luker, Patrick Cassidy & Shirley Jones, vocalists
"The Music of Meredith Wilson’s ‘The Music Man’ "
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Nov. 28 (8 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
Chanticleer
"A Chanticleer Christmas"
$24-$48
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
www.gmu.edu/cfa/calendar/month/2009/11/

Nov. 30 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
University Chamber Ensembles & Opera Scenes
Mozart: "Così fan tutte" (excerpts)
Free
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu