Extension proposed for Mark

A proposal to extend Peter Mark’s tenure as artistic director of the Virginia Opera for an extra season will be presented to the opera board on Oct. 30. Under its terms, Mark would remain artistic director through the 2012-13 season, conducting one production in 2011-12 and one in 2012-13, thereafter taking the title artistic director emeritus. Mark reportedly has agreed to the plan, writes Teresa Annas of The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk):

http://hamptonroads.com/2010/10/proposal-submitted-extend-opera-directors-job?cid=ltst

The opera board’s executive committee has decided not to renew Mark’s contract when it expires at the end of the
2011-12 season. A group of dissenting board members, led by Edythe C. Harrison, the company’s founding president, has been campaigning to keep Mark, who has been in artistic charge of the company since 1975.

OCT. 31 UPDATE: The Pilot's Annas reports that the board discussed but did not vote on the extension proposal:

http://hamptonroads.com/2010/10/virginia-opera-board-discusses-directors-contract

Tuba (abbreviated?)

Taylor Brizendine, blogging for NewMusicBox on the 2010 Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, reports on a score-editing session with master engraver and copyist Bill Holab. "Never abbreviate the word 'tuba,' " Holab advises:

http://www.newmusicbox.org/chatter/chatter.nmbx?id=6636

Which begs the question: How would you abbreviate "tuba?"

Lullabies in birdland

The Australian composer John Levine, creator of "Alphamusic," or sound that affects brainwaves and brings on a calming "alpha state" that enables the listener to sleep, is demonstrating the effect this weekend at a music festival. His subjects are budgies, Amanda Greaves reports in the Bradford (UK) Telegraph & Argus:

http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/8464799.Healing_music_is_not_just_for_birds/

(For those of you who don't watch enough British TV, a budgie is a pet bird.)

* * *

And a survey by a hotel chain of 6,000 Britons found that 20 percent used classical music to help get to sleep. The three most sleep-inducing composers were Beethoven, Mozart and Bach, BBC Music Magazine reports:

http://www.bbcmusicmagazine.com/news/classical-music-makes-sleep-inducing-top-ten

Review: 'Rigoletto'

Virginia Opera, Peter Mark conducting
Oct. 24, Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage

The Virginia Opera’s production of Verdi’s "Rigoletto," which concluded its run over the weekend, proved to be one of its best in recent years in terms of vocal casting and orchestral performance. Visually, it was drab.

The South African baritone Fikile Mvinjelwa, in the title role, was a commanding presence with a powerful yet nuanced voice; and the Korean soprano Sang-Eun Lee, as Gilda, combined bell-like and focused tone with affecting characterization, especially in Gilda’s great aria, "Caro nome."

Tenor Aurelio Domínguez, a onetime cover singer with this company, brought to the role of the Duke of Mantua a fine if still somewhat young voice, and delivered the goods in "La donna è mobile," this opera’s most familiar number and Verdi’s greatest hit tune. In characterization and stance, Domínguez came across more as a languid preppy than an aristocratic roué, not a critical shortcoming as the duke is a rather passive villain – no need for him to exude menace.

The menace was provided, with bracing chilliness, by bass Nathan Stark as the assassin Sparafucile. Stark and mezzo-soprano Audrey Babcock, who produced big tone and acted with delicious raunchiness as Maddalena, cooked up the most volatile emotional chemistry of the show in Act 3. No such vibes, alas, in the interactions of the duke’s courtiers and Mantuan damsels in Act 1.

Bass Evan Brummel was in good voice, but brought too much youthful vigor to the role of Count Monterone, an elderly man cursing the duke for debauching his daughter and the jester Rigoletto for making light of the outrage.

Peter Mark conducted an orchestra drawn from Hampton Roads’ Virginia Symphony in accompaniment that was dramatically charged but never overtaxing to the voices; several of the orchestra’s soloists delivered memorably sensitive support.

With the exceptions of Rigoletto’s gold jester’s garb and assorted bits of lingerie, costumes were predominantly black, garnished with grays and dark earth tones. The set, divided between a revolving tower and tri-level scaffolding, was similarly dark. The lighting shed not enough light on this tunnel.

Review: Charles Rosen

with Christoph Genz, tenor
Oct. 23, Virginia Commonwealth University

When we think of musicological research's transformations of musical performance, we generally think of pre-19th century music; but a goodly number of romantic, even some modern, works are commonly heard in versions reflecting second thoughts of their composers and revisions, truncations and other tinkering by editors and publishers, and so could stand some re-examination. Robert Schumann's music, certainly: He had a lot of second thoughts, and much of his music has been put through the editorial mill.

Enter Charles Rosen, the eminent pianist and musicologist, who is marking the 200th anniversary of Schumann’s birth by taking on tour the rarely heard original versions of two familiar titles, the Fantasy in C major, Op. 17, for solo piano and the song cycle "Dichterliebe."

In the case of "Dichterliebe," Schumann’s settings of poems by Heinrich Heine, the collection grows from 16 to 20 songs, and the restored titles (all published posthumously, and separately, by Clara Schumann) bring more intimacy and emotional edge, not to mention a couple of the most hummable tunes, back to the cycle. The original fantasy, meanwhile, is even grander in scale and more integrated in content, thanks to the restoration of a more ambitious final movement.

On this Schumann tour, Rosen is joined in "Dichterliebe" by Christoph Genz, a German tenor whose substantial operatic experience is put to excellent use. His performance at VCU was intimate in delivery, as art-song should be; but he latched onto the drama, even theatricality, of songs such as "Und Wüsstens die Blumen" and "Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube," and put heart, as well as clean, refined tone, into the set’s many romantic reveries.

His diction also was spotless, which the audience's probably few German-speakers appreciated. Other listeners, not provided with translations of the texts, were doubtless more gratified by Genz’s expressive and communicative skills.

Rosen’s accompaniment was beautifully phrased and colored, and he made the piano into a true alternate voice in the cycle’s solo passages. The instrumental postlude to the final song, "Die alten, bösen Lieder," had special emotional resonance.

In the fantasy and the Intermezzo from "Faschingsschwank aus Wien," the 83-year-old pianist’s technical shortcomings were mostly offset by his mastery of Schumann’s musical grammar and expressive rhetoric. A younger Rosen with a more reliable technique could not have made more of "Constellation," the remarkable nocturne-cum-anthem that concludes the original Fantasy in C.

Most pianists will continue to play the "standard" fantasy, with its more lightweight finale. Now, every time they do, I’ll crave the missing magic, as conjured by Rosen.

Review: Richmond Symphony

Steven Smith conducting
with Joanne Kong, prepared piano & harpsichord
Oct. 22, University of Richmond

Composer Michael Colgrass likes to tailor his music to the sound and personality of an individual musician. In Joanne Kong he found an unusually versatile subject, equally adept at piano and harpsichord. The work that Colgrass wrote for her, a
quasi-concerto called "Side by Side," is believed to be the first for a single soloist playing both keyboards, at times simultaneously.

Kong's performance of "Side by Side" with the Richmond Symphony was the last of three that she has given with the groups that commissioned the piece. (She previously played it with the Esprit Orchestra of Toronto and Boston Modern Orchestra Project, both in 2007.) She may be the work’s sole exponent for a while, simply because there aren’t many professional pianist-harpsichordists around – and probably fewer who are inclined toward contemporary music. Once more musicians cross the keyboard and chronology divides, though, they are likely to dote on this piece.

A compact work, about the length of a Bach or Haydn concerto, "Side by Side" explores two themes, one lyrical, the other reminiscent of baroque music in its skittish ornamentation, as if through a prism, or perhaps a conversation of exclamations and interrupted phrases.

The piano is prepared, à la John Cage, with mutes and objects such as screws on its strings, to produce what the composer calls a "barroom piano" sound, and to bring its sound presence and texture closer to those of a French-style two-manual harpsichord. Amplification is also employed to bring their sounds into parity.

The expected roles of the instruments are reversed: The piano sounds more percussive, the harpsichord more tuneful (if not lyrical). The keyboards’ duets are echoed by pairs of instruments – flute and viola, oboe and cello, trombone and double-bass, violin and the combined tones of harp and celesta – throughout the orchestration.

"Side by Side" is unusual not just in its double-barreled soloist, but also in its combination of busy playfulness and luminous sound; the glow, emanating largely from a big percussion section, warms up music that otherwise might strike many listeners as spiky or chilly.

Kong, conductor Steven Smith and the orchestra delivered an alert, crisply detailed and generally cheerful account of a piece that deserves, and will prove rewarding in, repeated hearings.

Heather Stebbins’ "Traces," originally written in 2008 while the composer was a student at UR, reworked here to conform to the orchestration of the Colgrass, has a similarly prismatic or fragmentary quality in its sound and organization.

Stebbins describes the piece as "a musical response to the notion of an event or object leaving behind remnants of existence." Those remnants are more like sharp-edged, solid objects than hazy or idealized memories, and they form a rather dense mass in the work’s several big climaxes.

To precede the new music by Colgrass and Stebbins, Smith chose the "Danses concertantes" of Igor Stravinsky, a late (1942) example of Stravinsky’s neoclassical style that is propelled by drolly off-kilter rhythms and wry, animated wind solos and ensembles. The orchestra’s wind players sparkled and/or frolicked through this witty piece.

This concert was one of the increasingly rare occasions when a showcase performance by a prominent local musician brings out colleagues in force. A wide cross-section of Richmond's keyboard artists and composers attended – a testimony to the high regard in which Kong is held. Further testimony: the long list of local patrons supporting the Richmond commission.

Mediator for the opera?

"We get a distinct whiff of Götterdämmerung-style singed eyebrows — our own — as we peer into the scene," an editorial in The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk) says of the controversy over the Virginia Opera's decision to let Artistic Director Peter Mark's contract expire in 2012. "It’s like a homeowners’ association meeting, with viking helmets."

The editorial suggests reorganizing the opera board, which currently has about 100 members, 19 of them on its executive committee, which made the decision on Mark's contract. And The Pilot calls for bringing in a mediator to deal with the affair:

http://hamptonroads.com/2010/10/melodrama-virginia-opera

Viking helmet optional, breastplate recommended.

Review: Richmond Symphony

Steven Smith conducting
with Dmitri Shteinberg, piano
Oct. 16, Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage

Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto is music freighted with back stories. "Rach 3" was the musical and technical challenge that sent the psychologically fragile young pianist David Helfgott into a decades-long breakdown, a story recounted in the 1996 film "Shine." In the 1920s this was the piece that the young Russian émigré Vladimir Horowitz used to introduce himself to the West; Rachmaninoff, who wrote the concerto to showcase his own virtuosity, supposedly conceded that the new kid outplayed him.

What with those and other tales, the accumulated wisdom/folklore about this piece is that it's the ultimate highwire-without-a-net act for concert pianists, pushing performers to their limits of technique, stamina and nerve. Audiences are conditioned to expect performances of great nervous energy, with vivid displays of speed and brilliance, plus the frisson of risk.

Dmitri Shteinberg, the Russian-American pianist based at Virginia Commonwealth University, offered none of the extramusical melodramatics of Rach 3 in the first of two weekend performances with the Richmond Symphony. He played the piece for what it is: a pianistically busy, expressively rich slice of late-romantic music, the destination of the journey begun by Chopin.

The echoes of Chopin in this concerto are clearest in its central intermezzo; Shteinberg emphasized the wistful calm, intimacy and uncrowded sonority of this music, heightening its contrast with the sonic pyrotechnics of the surging opening movement and galloping finale. In these bigger, busier sections the pianist displayed a finely honed technique, but more gratifyingly conveyed a thorough understanding of romantic piano rhetoric and a gift for shaping musical phrases.

I've heard three piano concertos – Beethoven's "Emperor," Prokofiev's Third and now Rach 3 – since the acoustical refit of the Carpenter Theatre, and I'm about ready to conclude that a piano sounds underpowered alongside an orchestra when the instrument is positioned front and center of a stage extended into the house, the usual setup for symphony concerts. The imbalance is especially pronounced in more densely or loudly orchestrated romantic concertos such as the Rachmaninoff; I wouldn't be surprised to hear it again in the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1, which Awadagin Pratt is scheduled to play with the orchestra in February. Pratt willing, the symphony might use those concerts to try experimenting with piano placement to achieve stronger projection and better balance with the orchestra.

Steven Smith, the symphony's new music director, conducting his second pair of Masterworks concerts, pairs the Rachmaninoff concerto with Stravinsky’s "Firebird" Suite. The works are contemporaneous – the concerto was introduced in 1909, "The Firebird" in 1910 – and, perhaps surprisingly, complementary; heard together, they remind the listener of how rich, varied and often startling new compositions were 100 years ago, in the Indian summer of romanticism and early spring of modernism. (We're living through a comparable transitional time, with comparable crosscurrents and surprises, in music right now.)

Smith led the orchestra in a briskly paced, generally brightly colored reading of the Stravinsky, obtaining plenty of heft from low strings, brass and percussion, finely threaded string playing and well-detailed, generally well-balanced wind choirs.

The program opened with a brass ensemble lining the front of the stage for the fanfare from Paul Dukas’ ballet "La Péri," followed by Ravel’s orchestrations of a Sarabande and Danse from piano scores of Debussy. In all three pieces, Smith showed once again that he and the symphony’s musicians create especially good chemistry in French music.

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

Bates summons 'dockers'

Mason Bates, the Richmond-bred composer who introduced the fanfare "Sonic Panoply" and reprised his "Ode" in the Richmond Symphony's September season-opener and whose Toccata for organ will receive its premiere on Oct. 17 at Richmond's Centenary United Methodist Church, has written a new piece, "Mothership," for the second incarnation of the YouTube Symphony, an ensemble whose members are selected via online video auditions.

In his new score for orchestra and electronica, Bates is including four soloists who improvise their parts, musically "docking" with the "Mothership." The composer explains the concept, which isn't as radical as you might think, and may not be as Star Trekky as you might expect:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYyO0bFioZs&feature=featured

The 2011 YouTube Symphony, again conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, is open for auditions. It will gather for five days in March in Sydney, Australia. Details:

http://www.youtube.com/user/symphony

Virginia Opera's Mark out in 2012

UPDATED OCT. 16

Alan D. Albert, president-elect of the Virginia Opera, confirms that Peter Mark, the company's longtime artistic director, will not have his contract renewed after the 2011-12 season, reports Teresa Annas of The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk):

http://hamptonroads.com/2010/10/opera-board-members-decry-plot-fire-artistic-director

Albert was responding to a charge made by Edythe C. Harrison, the Virginia Opera's founding president, that the board's executive committee was plotting "secretly" to oust Mark, who has been in artistic charge of the company since 1975.

"Albert said he thought it was generally understood among the full board that Mark's contract would not be renewed in 2012," Annas writes.

Annas quotes an Oct. 8 letter to board members from Albert, current opera president Joan B. Miller and past president Mark T. Cox IV, stating that the executive committee, which has control over senior personnel appointments, decided in 2008 to renew Mark's contract after debating "whether to renew the contract at all, given Peter's history of difficulties in working relations with staff, musicians and board leadership."

Mark responded in an Oct. 11 e-mail: "[T]here have been no complaints pursued against me in my 36 years with Virginia Opera because there has been no basis to pursue any complaints - and to suggest otherwise is slander."

In an Oct. 16 article in the Virginian-Pilot, Annas quotes Mark further on the winding down of his tenure at the Virginia Opera: "All I want to do – especially as the opera is under so much financial pressure – is identify and assure – in open discussion with the board – the safest and smoothest date for transition which will protect the artistic legacy I have created here."

Mark, a onetime boy chorister with the Metropolitan Opera, later a solo and orchestral violinist and violist, drew international notice to the Virginia Opera with productions of operas by the Scottish-American composer Thea Musgrave, Mark's wife. He has cast a number of young singers - Renée Fleming, John Aler, Rockwell Blake, Lawrence Brownlee - who have gone on to stardom. In programming, Mark has emphasized Mozart and the Rossini-to-Puccini Italianate repertory, although he also has led operas by Handel, Gluck, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Britten and Menotti.

"Albert said that after Mark leaves his position, the artistic staff likely will be restructed to have several directors with varying expertise rather than 'a single impresario,' " Annas writes.

More on the back-and-forth between Mark and opera board leaders, from David Nicholson of The Daily Press (Newport News):

http://www.dailypress.com/entertainment/dp-nws-opera-fight-20101011,0,580708.story

An advertisement in the Norfolk paper supporting Mark's retention by the opera has drawn about 100 supportive e-mails, Harrison tells Annas:

http://hamptonroads.com/2010/10/supporters-virginia-operas-director-hope-spark-public-outcry

Joan Sutherland (1926-2010)

Joan Sutherland, dubbed "La Stupenda" ("the stupendous one") in the 1960s, the Australian soprano who played a leading role in the revival of bel canto singing and repertory in a career spanning more than 40 years, has died at the age of 83 at her home in Switzerland.

An obituary by The New York Times' Anthony Tommasini:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/arts/music/12sutherland.html?ref=music

An appreciation/obituary written by Alan Blyth (who died in 2007) for The Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/oct/11/dame-joan-sutherland-obituary

An appreciation, with video clips appended, by The Washington Post's Anne Midgette:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-classical-beat/2010/10/joan_sutherland_addio_stupenda.html#more

'Musical bug spray'

The Canadian composer-musicologist Colin Eatock surveys the "weaponization" of classical music: Playing it as "musical bug spray" to repel people. Growing numbers of businesses and public facilities – transit stations, convenience stores, libraries, shopping malls – pipe Bach and Mozart through loudspeakers to send the message, "Move along quickly and peacefully, people; this is not your cultural space," Eatock writes:

http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2010/10/whats-wrong-with-classical-music.html#more

He goes on to outline the socio-aesthetic "dead white European male" critique of classical music. I wish he instead had given more and broader consideration to using music as a cultural marker.

Music is employed/deployed this way in all kinds of places, mostly commercial spaces. Stroll through the nearest shopping center and you're sure to pass by stores piping some kind of music, which (1) may lure you in and make you more inclined to buy something, or (2) let you know that this place is not for you.

This practice doesn't just separate highbrows from lowbrows, but also lays down markers within popular culture. Piping bluegrass into a crowd of minority youths says "move along quickly" more vividly than opera. Playing hip-hop on a store's sound system will keep the good ol' boys away. Some retailers figure that playing baroque music conditions customers to expect higher prices.

Such use of music is so pervasive that the music industry had to come up with a style that would be vaguely attractive, or at least not repellent, to people of differing ages, ethnicities and lifestyles. This music is played by radio stations that use "lite" or "mix" in their names. I hear it for about an hour twice a year, at my dentist's office. It's amazing how many styles are absorbed and homogenized – sampling it last week, I heard bits of Afro-pop. I may have heard an accordion at one point. No banjos yet, though.

I deplore using music as a cultural marker. I presume Eatock does, too.

I'm delighted that the Richmond Folk Festival, now playing on the downtown riverfront, is my town's best-attended musical event. (Between 150,000 and 200,000 people are expected over this weekend.) This festival, and others like it, send the message that all kinds of music are "for you."

Castleton Festival 2011

New productions of Puccini's "La Bohème," Ravel's "L’Enfant et les Sortilèges" and Kurt Weill's "The Seven Deadly Sins," and revivals of Stravinsky's "L'Histoire du Soldat" ("The Soldier's Tale") and Manuel de Falla's "Master Pedro's Puppet Show," will be staged during the 2011 Castleton Festival at Castleton Farms, the Rappahannock County estate of Lorin Maazel and Dietlinde Turban Maazel.

The 2011 festival will run from June 25 to July 24.

Next summer's festival also will expand into the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, with performances of The Gershwins' "Porgy and Bess," a double-bill of "Il Tabarro" and "Gianni Schicchi" from Puccini's "Il Trittico," and a concert with mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves marking the 150th anniversary of the Civil War's First Battle of Bull Run, all at the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas.

The festival brings more than 200 young artists to Castleton Farms to work under the tutelage of Maazel and other established musicians and theatrical figures.

In late July, Maazel will lead two concerts with festival performers at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, China. In November, a new Castleton production of Rossini's "The Barber of Seville" will be introduced in Beijing; the production will open the 2012 festival in Virginia.

For more information about the Castleton Festival, visit www.castletonfestival.org

The 2011 Castleton schedule:

June 25 (6 p.m.)
July 1 (7:30 p.m.)
July 10 (7 p.m.)
July 16 (7 p.m.)
Festival Tent
Puccini: "La Bohème"
Lorin Maazel conducting

June 26 (2 p.m.)
July 9 (7 p.m.)
July 16 (2 p.m.)
Theatre House
Stravinsky: "L'Histoire du Soldat" ("The Soldier's Tale")
Maazel conducting
De Falla: "Master Pedro's Puppet Show"
Han-Na Chang conducting
The Puppet Kitchen

June 26 (7 p.m.)
Festival Tent
Castleton Festival Orchestra
Maazel conducting
Denyce Graves, mezzo-soprano
All-Bizet program

July 2 (2 p.m.)
Theatre House
De Falla: "Master Pedro's Puppet Show"
Chang conducting
The Puppet Kitchen
(puppet workshop for children at 3 p.m.)

July 2 (5 p.m.)
Castleton Café
cabaret show
artists TBA

July 2 (7 p.m.)
Festival Tent
bluegrass concert & dance
artists TBA

July 3 (7 p.m.)
Festival Tent
Castleton Festival Orchestra
Maazel conducting
All-Gershwin program

July 7 (8 p.m.)
Hylton Arts Center, Manassas
Maazel conducting
The Gershwins: "Porgy and Bess" (concert presentation)

July 8 (7:30 p.m.)
July 15 (7:30 p.m.)
July 23 (2 p.m.)
Theatre House
Weill: "The Seven Deadly Sins"
Levi Hammer conducting
Ravel: "L’Enfant et les Sortilèges"
Maazel conducting

July 11 (7 p.m.)
The Theatre at Little Washington
artists TBA
recital program TBA

July 14 (8 p.m.)
Hylton Arts Center, Manassas
Puccini: "Il Tabarro," "Gianni Schicchi"
Maazel conducting

July 17 (7 p.m.)
Festival Tent
Castleton Festival Orchestra
Maazel conducting
Jennifer Koh, violin
program TBA

July 18 (7 p.m.)
The Theatre at Little Washington
artists TBA
recital program TBA

July 21 (8 p.m.)
Hylton Arts Center, Manassas
Castleton Festival Orchestra
Maazel conducting
Denyce Graves, mezzo-soprano
program TBA, marking 150th anniversary of First Battle of Bull Run

July 24 (7 p.m.)
Festival Tent
Castleton Festival Orchestra
Maazel conducting
Marouan Benabdallah, piano
program TBA

Wish I'd said that

"The Romantics tried to put their finger on just what it was that was so awesome about music, only to discover that what was so awesome about music was that you can't put your finger on it."

– Matthew Guerrieri, from "Complexity Wars," posted on NewMusicBox:

http://www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx?id=6548

Review: Richmond Symphony

Erin R. Freeman conducting
Oct. 3, Randolph-Macon College, Ashland

The Richmond Symphony opened its 2010-11 season of Metro Collection chamber-orchestra concerts in suburban venues with a pair of romantic serenades, Dvořák’s Serenade in D minor, Op. 44, for winds with cello and double-bass, and Tchaikovsky’s Serenade in C major, Op. 48, for string orchestra, preceded by a quasi-serenade, "Pastorale d’été" by the early 20th-century Swiss-French composer Arthur Honegger.

The symphony’s associate conductor, Erin R. Freeman, obtained mellow, sonorous performances, with a smallish string ensemble (6-6-4-4-2) sounding more plush than its numbers might promise in the Tchaikovsky and Honegger works. Occasionally flabby ensemble in the violins lent a bit of unwelcome wooziness to the first movement of the Tchaikovsky, but their playing firmed up in the rest of the piece.

The program’s highlight, though, was the Dvořák, a romantic echo of the Harmonie (wind-band) music popular in central Europe in the classical period. Oboist Gustav Highstein and clarinetist Ralph Skiano were brightly detailed yet lyrical solo voices in an ensemble that performed with animation, clarity and stylishness. Cellist Neal Cary’s fast-fingered elaboration on the bass line of the finale was an extra treat.

Freeman introduced the Honegger as a sound picture of "a perfect summer vacation." The composer's interlude in the Swiss Alps was a leisurely and laid-back affair, to judge from this performance, a pleasant reminder that vacations did not always buzz to the sounds of skateboards and outboard motors.

Balzac and burritos

Those who heard pianist Jeremy Denk pair Bach's "Goldberg Variations" with Charles Ives' First Sonata last spring at the University of Richmond will experience a kind of prose postscript in Vivien Schweitzer's profile of this literate, quirky, seriously funny cultural omnivore, in The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/arts/music/03denk.html?ref=music

On his latest recording, Denk plays Ives' First and "Concord" sonatas. You can access a downloadable (i-Tunes) version via "Think Denk," the pianist's blog:

http://jeremydenk.net/blog/

Review: Shanghai Quartet

with Michel Lethiec, clarinet
Oct. 1, University of Richmond

The highlight of the Shanghai Quartet’s concert with the French clarinetist Michel Lethiec was supposed to be the Brahms Clarinet Quintet, the reigning heavyweight of chamber music with clarinet. Lethiec’s assertive technique, exuberance and big sound presence, however, were better showcased in Franck Villard’s Suite on Gershwin’s "Porgy and Bess."

Villard's suite is not the usual greatest-hits medley, but a five-movement piece for clarinet and string orchestra (here reduced to a string quintet) that quotes the dramatic instrumental and choral music from the opera as prominently as it does the familiar songs. The "Jassbo Brown Blues" prelude and the storm and mourning sequences are on equal footings with "Summertime" and "Bess, you is my woman now" in what amounts to a jazz tone poem for classical instruments.

The tonal character and inflections of the solo clarinet, at least as projected by Lethiec, evoke the sly, playful Sportin’ Life more than the opera’s lyrical and romantic voices. The clarinetist played his role broadly, with bluesy slides and hot-jazz exclamations and elaborations, and generated a few chuckles from the audience with his visual gestures.

The string players – Shanghai violinists Weigang Li and Yi-Wen Jiang, violist Honggang Li and cellist Nicholas Tzavaras, joined by double-bassist Fred Dole – played with unexpected fluency in this un-homogenized Gershwin (few classical fiddlers get much practice in blues idiom), producing a persuasively earthy, swinging collective sound.

In the very different sound world of Brahms, Lethiec was a bit slow to blend into the ensemble, or perhaps slow to realize how bright wind instruments sound in Camp Concert Hall. Over-prominent and tonally rather glassy in the moody first movement, the clarinetist subsequently reined in his projection and warmed his tone, to especially fine lyrical and atmospheric effect in the adagio. The Shanghai and Lethiec successfully eluded an all-too-common trap in Brahms, emphasizing warmth and lyricism without robbing the performance of forward momentum.

The program opened with the Shanghai revisiting Beethoven in the Quartet in D major, Op. 18, No. 3. The foursome achieved a happy mean of lightness and weight, classical animation and playfulness and romantic portent and soulfulness.

October 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/youth, group and other discounts may be offered.

SCOUTING REPORT

Embarassment of riches: Presumably to kick-start the season, classical performers and presenters in these parts tend to pack October with big-name artists and performances of showpieces. This month follows the norm. Among the guest stars: cellist Yo-Yo Ma (Oct. 21 at Washington's Kennedy Center), pianist András Schiff (Oct. 20 at Strathmore), the Talich Quartet (Oct. 21 at the Library of Congress in Washington), soprano Deborah Voigt starring in the Washington National Opera's season-opening production of Richard Strauss’ "Salome" (Oct. 7-23 at the Kennedy Center), Valery Gergiev conducting Mahler’s "Symphony of a Thousand" (Oct. 19 at the Kennedy Center); new music from the Ahn Trio (Oct. 2 at the American Theatre in Hampton), the Kronos Quartet (Oct. 6 at the Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg) and the string quartet Ethel (Oct. 23 at the American Theatre); early music from the REBEL Baroque Ensemble of musicians and dancers (Oct. 5 at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville), Ensemble 415 (Oct. 8 at the Library of Congress) and The English Concert (Oct. 14 at the Library of Congress). Two revered elders visit the region: Menahem Pressler, longtime pianist of the Beaux Arts Trio (Oct. 22 at The Barns of Wolf Trap), and the pianist and musicologist Charles Rosen (Oct. 23 at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond).

In and around Richmond: The Richmond Symphony and its new music director, Steven Smith, perform Stravinsky and Rachmaninoff, with Virginia Commonwealth University pianist Dmitri Shteinberg playing the latter’s Third Concerto
(Oct. 16-17 at the Carpenter Theatre of Richmond CenterStage), introduce Michael Colgrass’ "Side by Side" Concerto for harpsichord and prepared piano with the University of Richmond’s Joanne Kong as soloist (Oct. 22 at UR's Modlin Arts Center), and open the pops season with the theatrical troupe Cirque de la Symphonie (Oct. 9 at the Carpenter Theatre); Erin R. Freeman conducts the orchestra in the opening concerts of the Metro Collection suburban series (Oct. 1 at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Goochland, Oct. 3 at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland) and launches the LolliPops family series with the Magic Circle Mime Company (Oct. 30 at the Carpenter Theatre). . . . The Virginia Opera stages Verdi’s "Rigoletto" (Oct. 22 and 24 at the Carpenter Theatre, with earlier dates in Norfolk and Fairfax). . . . At VCU, Rosen plays an all-Schumann program, with tenor Christoph Genz in the song cycle "Dichterliebe" (Oct. 23). . . . At UR, the Shanghai Quartet plays Brahms with clarinetist Michel Lethiec (Oct. 1 in Camp Concert Hall) and sarod player Rajeev Taranath and tabla player Samir Chatterjee perform North Indian classical ragas (Oct. 21 in Perkinson Recital Hall).


Oct. 1 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
Shanghai Quartet
Michel Lethiec, clarinet
Brahms: Clarinet Quintet
other works TBA
$34
(804) 289-8980
http://www.modlin.richmond.edu/

Oct. 1 (8 p.m.)
St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, 12291 River Road, Goochland
Oct. 3 (3 p.m.)
Blackwell Auditorium, Randolph-Macon College, 205 Henry St., Ashland
Richmond Symphony
Erin R. Freeman conducting
Honegger: "Pastorale d’été"
Dvořák: Serenade in D minor, Op. 44
Tchaikovsky: Serenade in C major, Op. 48
$20
(800) 982-2787 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.richmondsymphony.com/

Oct. 1 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Oct. 3 (3:30 p.m.)
Monticello High School, 1400 Independence Way, Charlottesville
Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra
Kate Tamarkin conducting
Ravel: "Le Tombeau de Couperin"
Dvořák: Romance in F minor
Ravel: "Tzigane"
David Sarti, violin
Brahms: Symphony No. 1
$10-$35
(434) 924-3376
http://artsandsciences.virginia.edu/music/concertsevents/index.html

Oct. 1 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 2 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach conducting
Pintscher: "Hérodiade-Fragmente"
Marisol Montalvo, soprano
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 ("Choral")
Marisol Montalvo, soprano
Yvonne Naef, mezzo-soprano
Nikolai Schukoff, tenor
John Relyea, bass-baritone
Choral Arts Society of Washington
Norman Scribner directing
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Oct. 2 (8 p.m.)
American Theatre, 125 E. Mellen St., Hampton
Ahn Trio
Latin American works TBA
$25-$30
(757) 722-2787
http://www.hamptonarts.net/

Oct. 2 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 6 (7:30 p.m.)
Oct. 8 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 10 (2:30 p.m.)
Harrison Opera House, 160 E. Virginia Beach Boulevard, Norfolk
Virginia Opera
Peter Mark conducting
Verdi: "Rigoletto"
Aurelio Dominguez (Duke of Mantua)
Fikile Mvinjelwa (Rigoletto)
Sang-Eun Lee (Gilda)
Nathan Stark (Sparafucile)
Audrey Babcock (Maddelena)
Kevin Moreno (Marullo)
Marc Astafan, stage director
in Italian, English captions
$25-$114
(866) 673-7282
http://www.vaopera.org/

Oct. 2 (7:30 p.m.)
Trinity Episcopal Church, 214 W. Beverly St., Staunton
Staunton Music Festival:
artists TBA
“Australia!"
works by Percy Grainger, Peter Sculthorpe, David Pope, Chuck Dotas
$20
(540) 569-0267
http://www.stauntonmusicfestival.com/

Oct. 3 (4 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Sonia Vlahcevic, piano
program TBA
$5
(804) 828-6776
http://www.vcumusic.org/

Oct. 4 (8 p.m.)
Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre, Orange Avenue at Williamson Road
Roanoke Symphony
David Stewart Wiley conducting
Tchaikovsky: "Marche slave"
Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1
Rimsky-Korsakov: "Flight of the Bumblebee"
Natasha Korsakova, violin
Elgar: "Enigma" Variations
$21-$49
(540) 343-9127
http://www.rso.com/

Oct. 5 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Tuesday Evening Concerts:
REBEL Baroque Ensemble
Telemann: "Ouverture Burlesque" in B flat Major
Vivaldi: Concerto in F major, Op. 10, No. 5
Gluck: "Reigen seliger Geister" from "Orphée ed Eurydice"
Charpentier: Chaconne
Campra: Chaconne, "Air pour les Masques," "Premier Air Comique"
Vivaldi: Concerto in D Major
Biber: Pars V in E Major from "Mensa Sonora"
Schmelzer: "Serenata con altre arie"
$28-$30
(434) 924-3376
http://www.tecs.org/

Oct. 6 (8 p.m.)
Lyric Theatre, 135 College Ave., Blacksburg
Kronos Quartet
Bryce Dessner: "Aheym (Homeward)"
Ram Narayan: "Raga Mishra Bhairavi"
John Zorn: "The Dead Man" (excerpts)
Ben Johnston: String Quartet No. 4 ("Amazing Grace")
Café Tacuba: "12/12" (Osvaldo Golijov arr.)
Missy Mazzoli: "Harp and Altar"
Hamza El Din: "Escalay (Water Wheel)"
Aleksandra Vrebalov: "...hold me, neighbor, in this storm..."
$30-$35
(540) 951-4771
http://www.thelyric.com/

Oct. 7 (7 p.m.)
Oct. 8 (1:30 p.m.)
Oct. 9 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach conducting
Beethoven: Violin Concerto
Christian Tetzlaff, violin
Bruckner: Symphony No. 6
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Oct. 7 (7:30 p.m.)
Oct. 10 (2 p.m.)
Oct. 12 (7:30 p.m.)
Oct. 15 (7:30 p.m.)
Oct. 18 (7 p.m.)
Oct. 20 (7:30 p.m.)
Oct. 23 (7 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Opera House, Washington
Washington National Opera
Philippe Auguin conducting
Richard Strauss: "Salome"
Deborah Voigt (Salome)
Richard Berkeley-Steele (Herod)
Daniel Sumegi (Jokanaan)
Doris Soffel (Herodias)
Sean Panikkar (Narraboth)
Francesca Zambello, stage director
in German, English captions
$55-$300
(202) 295-2400
http://www.dc-opera.org/

Oct. 7 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Yuriy Menenko, countertenor
pianist TBA
program TBA
$45
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Oct. 8 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Orrett Rhoden, piano
Galuppi: Sonata No. 5 in C major
Beethoven: Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 ("Pathétique")
Mendelssohn: "Introduction and Rondo capriccioso"
Granados: "Allegro de concierto," Op. 46
Chopin: "Grand Valse brilliante" in E flat major, Op. 18
Chopin: Waltz in A flat major, Op. 69 ("L’Adieu")
Chopin: Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23
$60
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Oct. 8 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First and Independence streets SE, Washington
Ensemble 415
Chiara Banchini directing
Albinoni: Sinfonia à 5 in C major, op. 2, no. 2
Muffat: Sonata no. 2 in G minor from "Armonico Tributo"
Bach: Violin Concerto in G minor, BWV1056
Eva Bohri, violin
Vivaldi: Trio Sonata in D minor, op. 1, no. 12 ("La Follia")
Albicastro: Concerto à 4, op. 7, no. 2
Albinoni: Sonatao à 5 in B-flat Major, op. 2, no. 5
Free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/1011-schedule.html

Oct. 9 (2 p.m.)
Gellman Room, Richmond Public Library, First and Franklin streets
Audrey Tillack & Stephanie Auld, sopranos
Russell Wilson, piano
art-songs and arias TBA
Free
(804) 646-7223
http://www.richmondpubliclibrary.org/

Oct. 9 (8 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony Pops
Steven Smith conducting
Cirque de la Symphonie
$17-$75
(800) 982-2787 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.richmondsymphony.com/

Oct. 9 (8 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
American Festival Pops Orchestra
Anthony Maiello conducting
"Salutes!" works by Bernstein, Ellington, Sousa, Cole Porter, John Williams, Morton Gould
$23-$46
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
http://www.cfa.gmu.edu/

Oct. 9 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
National Philharmonic
Piotr Gajewski conducting
Makris: "Aegean Festival" Overture
Karlowicz: "A Sorrowful Tale"
Mahler: Symphony No. 2 ("Resurrection")
Iwona Sobotka, soprano
Magdalena Wór, mezzo-soprano
National Philharmonic Chorus
(301) 581-5100
http://www.strathmore.org/

Oct. 11 (6 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU BrassFest:
Stephanie Ycaza, tuba
Aponi Brunson, harp
program TBA
Free
(804) 828-6776
http://www.vcumusic.org/

Oct. 11 (7:30 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU BrassFest:
U.S. Army Band (“Pershing's Own") Trumpet Ensemble
program TBA
Free
(804) 828-6776
http://www.vcumusic.org/

Oct. 12 (7:30 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU BrassFest:
Richmond Brass and Percussion Consort
program TBA
Free
(804) 828-6776
http://www.vcumusic.org/

Oct. 13 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First and Independence streets SE, Washington
Arcanto Quartet
Mozart: Quartet in D minor, K. 421
Ravel: Quartet in F major
Bartók: Quartet No. 5
Free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/1011-schedule.html

Oct. 14 (7 p.m.)
Oct. 15 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 16 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach conducting
Mozart: Symphony No. 34
Mahler: Symphony No. 5
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Oct. 14 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Chee-Yun, violin
Andrew Staupe, piano
Beethoven: Sonata in A major, Op. 47 ("Kreutzer")
Bach: Chaconne in D minor
Messiaen: "Louange à l'immortalité de Jésus"
Saint-Saëns: "Introduction and Rondo capriccioso," Op. 28
$38
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Oct. 14 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First and Independence streets SE, Washington
The English Concert
Harry Bicket, harpsichord & director
Vivaldi: Trio Sonata in D minor, op. 1, no. 12 ("La Follia")
Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in D Major, RV 208 ("Il Grosso Mogul")
Rachel Podger, violin
Monteverdi: "Lamento d’Arianna"
Handel: Cantata, "O nume eterni," HWV 145, ("La Lucrezia")
Dowland: "Come again, sweet love doth now invite," "Weep you no more, sad fountains," "If my complaints could passions move," "Lachrimae Pavan," "In darkness let me dwell"
Alice Coote, mezzo-soprano
William Carter, lute
Vivaldi: Flute Concerto in C minor, RV 401
flutist TBA
Free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/1011-schedule.html

Oct. 14 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Ithaca College Choir & Orchestra
Lawrence Doebler conducting
Bach: Mass in B minor
Carol McAmis & Patrice Pastore, sopranos
Deborah Montgomery-Cove & Jennifer Kay, mezzo-sopranos
David Parks, tenor
$10 in advance, $20 at door
(301) 581-5100
http://www.strathmore.org/

Oct. 15 (8:30 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU BrassFest:
American Saxophone Quartet
Al Regni, saxophone
Jim Pugh, trombone
program TBA
Free
(804) 828-6776
http://www.vcumusic.org/

Oct. 15 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 17 (2 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
Virginia Opera
Peter Mark conducting
Verdi: "Rigoletto"
Aurelio Dominguez (Duke of Mantua)
Fikile Mvinjelwa (Rigoletto)
Sang-Eun Lee (Gilda)
Nathan Stark (Sparafucile)
Audrey Babcock (Maddelena)
Kevin Moreno (Marullo)
Marc Astafan, stage director
in Italian, English captions
$44-$98
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
http://www.vaopera.org/

Oct. 16 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 17 (3 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony
Steven Smith conducting
Dukas: "La Peri" Fanfare
Debussy-Ravel: Sarabande, Danse
Stravinsky: "The Firebird" Suite
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3
Dmitri Shteinberg, piano
$17-$72
(800) 982-2787 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.richmondsymphony.com/

Oct. 16 (8 p.m.)
Shaftman Performance Hall, Jefferson Center, 541 Luck Ave., Roanoke
Opera Roanoke
Steven White conducting
"Faust and Furious: a Ride with the Devil"
excerpts from Gounod’s "Faust," Boito’s "Mefistofele," Berlioz’s "The Damnation of Faust"
Barbara Shirvis, soprano
Dinyar Vania, tenor
Jeffrey Tucker, bass
Roanoke Symphony & Chorus
Virginia Chorale
Roanoke College Children’s Choir
$20-$90
(540) 982-2742
http://www.operaroanoke.org/

Oct. 16 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Ran Dank, piano
Boulez: "Douze Notations"
Beethoven: Sonata in E flat major, Op. 27, No. 1 ("quasi una fantasia")
Bellini-Liszt: "Reminiscences of 'Norma' "
Schumann: Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 14 ("Concerto without Orchestra")
$38
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
http://www.wpas.org/

Oct. 16 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Ilyich Rivas conducting
Brahms: "Academic Festival" Overture
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2
Markus Groh, piano
Mahler: "Blumine"
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 1
$28-$88
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony)
http://www.strathmore.org/

Oct. 17 (2 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Kennedy Center Chamber Players
Haydn: Piano Trio in E major
André Previn: Piano Trio
Schumann: Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op. 44
$35
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Oct. 19 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Symphony Orchestra
Daniel Myssyk conducting
program TBA
$5
(804) 828-6776
http://www.vcumusic.org/

Oct. 19 (8 p.m.)
Williamsburg Library Theatre, 515 Scotland St.
Chamber Music Society of Williamsburg:
Vienna Piano Trio
program TBA
$15 (waiting list)
(757) 258-8555
http://www.chambermusicwilliamsburg.org/

Oct. 19 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
The Mariinsky Orchestra
Valery Gergiev conducting
Mahler: Symphony No. 8 ("Symphony of a Thousand")
Choral Arts Society of Washington
Norman Scribner directing
Orfeón Pamplonés
Igor Ijurra Fernández directing
Children's Chorus of Washington
Joan Gregoryk directing
soloists TBA
$45-$105
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
http://www.wpas.org/

Oct. 20 (noon)
Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Michael Colgrass, composer
lecture on Colgrass’ “Side by Side" for harpsichord and prepared piano
Free
(804) 788-4717
http://www.richmondsymphony.com/

Oct. 20 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
András Schiff, piano
Schumann: "Waldszenen"
Schumann: "Davidsbündlertänze"
Schumann: "Kinderszenen"
Schumann: "Symphonic Etudes"
$28-$80
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
http://www.wpas.org/

Oct. 21 (7:30 p.m.)
Perkinson Recital Hall, North Court, University of Richmond
Rajeev Taranath, sarod
Samir Chatterjee, tabla
North Indian ragas TBA
Free
(804) 289-8980
http://www.modlin.richmond.edu/

Oct. 21 (7:30 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Kathryn Stott, piano
Enrico Morricone: "Gabriel’s Oboe" from "The Mission"
Gershwin: Prelude No. 2 in C sharp minor
Cesar Camargo Mariano: "Cristal"
Brahms: Cello Sonata No. 1 in E minor, Op. 38
Rachmaninoff: Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 19
$25-$125
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
http://www.wpas.org/

Oct. 21 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First and Independence streets SE, Washington
Talich Quartet
Beethoven: Quartet in B flat major, Op. 18, No. 6
Janáček: Quartet No. 1 ("Kreutzer Sonata")
Dvořák: Quartet in G major, Op. 106
Free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/1011-schedule.html

Oct. 22 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
Richmond Symphony
Steven Smith conducting
Michael Colgrass: "Side by Side"
Joanne Kong, harpsichord & prepared piano
Heather Stebbins: "Traces"
other works TBA
Free; tickets required
(804) 289-8980
http://www.modlin.richmond.edu/

Oct. 22 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 24 (2:30 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Virginia Opera
Peter Mark conducting
Verdi: "Rigoletto"
Aurelio Dominguez (Duke of Mantua)
Fikile Mvinjelwa (Rigoletto)
Sang-Eun Lee (Gilda)
Nathan Stark (Sparafucile)
Audrey Babcock (Maddelena)
Kevin Moreno (Marullo)
Marc Astafan, stage director
in Italian, English captions
$29-$99
(866) 673-7282
http://www.vaopera.org/

Oct. 22 (8 p.m.)
The Barns at Wolf Trap, Trap Road, Vienna
American String Quartet
Menahem Pressler, piano
Mozart: Quartet in B flat major, K. 458 ("Hunt")
Ravel: Quartet in F major
Dvořák: Piano Quintet
$40
(877) 965-3872 (Tickets.com)
http://www.wolftrap.org/

Oct. 22 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Caroline Goulding, violin
Shuai Wang, piano
John Corigliano: "Red Violin Caprices"
Beethoven: Violin Sonata No. 1 in D major, Op. 12
Tartini: Violin Sonata in G minor ("The Devil’s Trill")
Respighi: Violin Sonata in B minor
Stravinsky: Tango for violin and piano
Stravinsky: Scherzo from "The Firebird"
$35
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
http://www.wpas.org/

Oct. 23 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Rennolds Chamber Concerts:
Charles Rosen, piano
Christoph Genz, tenor
Schumann: Fantasy in C major, Op. 17
Schumann: Intermezzo from "Faschingsschwank aus Wien"
Schumann: "Dichterliebe"
$32
(804) 828-6776
http://www.vcumusic.org/

Oct. 23 (8 p.m.)
American Theatre, 125 E. Mellen St., Hampton
Ethel
Philip Glass: "The Hours" (Ethel arr.)
other works TBA
$25-$30
(757) 722-2787
http://www.hamptonarts.net/

Oct. 23 (8 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
Fairfax Symphony Orchestra
Christopher Zimmerman conducting
Sibelius: "Pohjola’s Daughter"
Mozart: Sinfonia concertante in E flat major, K. 364
David Salness, violin
Gregory Rupert, viola
Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra
$25-$55
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
http://www.fairfaxsymphony.org/

Oct. 23 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 24 (3 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
National Philharmonic
Piotr Gajewski conducting
Dvořák: Cello Concerto
Zuill Bailey, cello
Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 ("From the New World")
$32-$79
(301) 581-5100
http://www.strathmore.org/

Oct. 24 (3 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
UR Schola Cantorum & Women’s Chorale
Jeffrey Riehl & David Pedersen directing
program TBA
Free
(804) 289-8980
http://www.modlin.richmond.edu/

Oct. 24 (2 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
New York Festival of Song:
Steven Blier, director & piano
Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano
Peter Appleby, tenor
program TBA
$45
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Oct. 24 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
KBS Symphony Orchestra
Shinik Hahm conducting
Puccini: arias TBA
Hei-Kyung Hong, soprano
Berlioz: "Symphonie fantastique"
other works TBA
Free; tickets required
(732) 325-9555 (Christine J. Productions)
http://www.cjpny.com/

Oct. 25 (7 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Russell Wilson, piano
program TBA
$5
(804) 828-6776
http://www.vcumusic.org/

Oct. 26 (7:30 p.m.)
Upper School Chapel, St. Christopher’s School, 711 St. Christopher’s Road, Richmond
Oberon Quartet
"Exploring America"
Ben Franklin: String Quartet
Dwight Gustafson: "Songs of the Kings"
Barber: String Quartet, Op. 11
Duke Ellington: "Three Pieces for String Quartet" (arr. Thomas-Mifune)
Free
(804) 282-3185
http://www.stchristophers.com/

Oct. 26 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Tuesday Evening Concerts:
Aviv Quartet
Robert Kulek, piano
Beethoven: Quartet in E flat major, Op. 74 ("Harp")
Shostakovich: Quartet No. 9
Brahms: Piano Quintet
$28-$30
(434) 924-3376
http://www.tecs.org/

Oct. 28 (8 p.m.)
Ferguson Arts Center, Christopher Newport University, Newport News
Oct. 30 (8 p.m.)
Chrysler Hall, 215 St. Paul’s Boulevard, Norfolk
Oct. 31 (2:30 p.m.)
Sandler Arts Center, 201 Market St., Virginia Beach
Virginia Symphony
JoAnn Falleta conducting
Jennifer Higdon: Percussion Concerto
Colin Currie, percussion
Saint-Saëns: "Danse macabre"
Rachmaninoff: "The Isle of the Dead"
Boito: "Prologue in Heaven" from "Mefistofele"
$20-$85
(757) 892-6366
http://www.virginiasymphony.org/

Oct. 28 (7 p.m.)
Oct. 29 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 30 (8 p.m.)
National Symphony Orchestra Pops
Marvin Hamlisch conducting
Idina Menzel, guest star
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Oct. 28 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First and Independence streets SE, Washington
Thomas Hampson, baritone
Craig Rutenberg, piano
works TBA by Mahler, Barber, others
Free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/1011-schedule.html

Oct. 28 (8 p.m.)
Mansion at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Borealis String Quartet
Haydn: Quartet in G major, Op. 76, No. 1
Shostakovich: Quartet No. 8
Grieg: Quartet in G minor
$28
(301) 581-5100
http://www.strathmore.org/

Oct. 29 (7:30 p.m.)
Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Charlottesville
Waynesboro Symphony Orchestra
Peter Wilson conducting
"Rhapsody for America"
Carl Roskott: "Overture to a Summer Night"
Barber: Adagio for strings
Copland: "Appalachian Spring"
Gershwin: "Rhapsody in Blue"
AnnaMaria Mottola, piano
$45-$75
(434) 979-1333
http://www.theparamount.net/

Oct. 29 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
University Singers
Michael Slon directing
works TBA by Eric Whitacre, Morten Lauridsen, Biebl, Britten, Kodály
$15
(434) 924-3376
http://artsandsciences.virginia.edu/music/concertsevents/index.html

Oct. 30 (11 a.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony LolliPops
Erin R. Freeman conducting
Magic Circle Mime Company
"Phantoms of the Orchestra"
$17
(800) 982-2787 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.richmondsymphony.com/

Oct. 30 (2 p.m.)
Gellman Room, Richmond Public Library, First and Franklin streets
Wen-Yu Chan, piano
all-Chopin program
Free
(804) 646-7223
www.richmondpubliclibrary.org

Oct. 30 (4 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Ruta Smedina-Starke, piano
program TBA
$5
(804) 828-6776
http://www.vcumusic.org/

Oct. 30 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First and Independence streets SE, Washington
Helsinki Baroque
Aapo Häkkinen, harpsichord & director
Teppo Lampela, countertenor
Förster: "Laudate Dominum"
Buxtehude: "Jubilate Domino"
Bach: Sonata in G Major, BWV 1027, for viola da gamba
Tunder: "Salve mi Jesu"
Bach: "Wie starb die Heldin so vergnügt," BWV 198
Bach: "Italian Concerto," BWV 971
Meder: "Ach, Herr, strafe mich nicht"
Kirchoff: Suite à 4
Buxtehude: "Jesu, meine Freud und Lust"
Free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/1011-schedule.html