Right place, right time, right crowd

Anticipating today’s 100th anniversary of the premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s “Le sacre du printemps” (“The Rite of Spring”), retrospectives have focused on the great change that this 32-minute ballet score brought to music.

Yes, it was startlingly new. No, it was not the birth of modernism in music. But, it was a birth cry heard throughout the Western world.

Scriabin’s “Poem of Ecstasy,” Debussy’s “La Mer,” Ravel’s “Daphnis et Chloé,” Schoenberg’s “Pierrot Lunaire,” Richard Strauss’ “Salome” and “Elektra,” all predate “Le sacre.” In rhythmic complexity, harmonic language, employment of new and/or different instrumental timbres and textures, each of those scores is at least as “modern” as Stravinsky’s. (Harmonically, much of Wagner is more advanced.)

Nevertheless, “the impact of [‘Le sacre’] was incalculable,” Nicolas Slonimsky wrote in his “Lectionary of Music.” “[H]ardly a single composer anywhere in the world escaped its powerful influence.”

Why this score above all others?

The premiere of “Le sacre” was the most famous instance of modern music getting a rise out of an audience. Whether the opening-night riot at Paris’ Theatre de Champs Elysees was a spontaneous event or was engineered by Serge Diaghilev, the impresario whose Ballets Russe staged “Le sacre,” has been the subject of conflicting accounts over the years and probably never will be resolved.

Diaghilev, Stravinsky, choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky and conductor Pierre Monteux, all recognized the musical and choreographic provocations in “Le sacre” well before its premiere, Modris Eksteins wrote in “Rites of Spring: the Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age.” “There can be no doubt that a scandale of some sort was both intended and expected.”

Similar intentions and expectations may have preceded Strauss’ operas and Schoenberg’s song cycle. “Salome” and “Elektra,” however, were introduced in Dresden, and “Pierrot Lunaire” in Berlin. Both were centers of music; but they weren’t Paris, which at the time was the epicenter of Western culture.

The Ballets Russe was popular among cultural opinion leaders and maintained close ties with, and generated buzz among, artistic modernists in fields other than music and dance. Among those in the opening-night audience were Ravel, Carl Van Vechten, Gabriele D’Annunzio, André Gide, Guillaume Apollinaire and Jean Cocteau.

“Le sacre” was not the only 20th-century score to benefit from timing, location and cachet.

George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” is another famous example. It was not the first piece of art-music to be influenced by jazz – Darius Milhaud’s “La création du monde” (“The Creation of the World”), Stravinsky’s “Ragtime” and other jazz-tinged works predate the rhapsody; but its premiere by Gershwin and Paul Whiteman’s jazz orchestra, on Feb. 12, 1924 at Aeolian Hall in New York, was, like “Le sacre,” a keenly anticipated event drawing prominent musicians, including Sergei Rachmaninoff, John Philip Sousa, Willem Mengelberg, Fritz Kreisler, Moritz Rosenthal, Mary Garden and Leopold Stokowski.

An art work becomes influential not just because of artistic merit, especially not at first. Being introduced in the right place at the right time to the right people can be even more important.

What made “Le sacre” such an influential work – violent energy, rhythmic complexity, deceptively austere harmonic language, reference to ancient or folk cultures – almost surely would have become the lingua franca of modern music with or without this score. The uneasy Zeitgeist of the early 20th century, the fascination with “primitive” folk and non-Western art and the rise of viscerally expressive styles such as jazz and tango pointed music in the direction that Stravinsky took in “Le sacre.”

But would another composer have distilled the prevailing mood and new musical trends as effectively as Stravinsky, and would the musical world have responded as it did to “Le sacre?”

Review: Chamber Music Society

May 18, Richmond Public Library
May 20, Bon Air Presbyterian Church
May 22, Bon Air Presbyterian Church

The Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia, whose programs are devised and rotating casts recruited by cellist James Wilson, ventured chronologically and stylistically throughout the repertory in this spring's outing, "Revolutionary and Banned."

The banned mostly were works suppressed by the Nazis in Central Europe because their composers were Jewish or politically or aesthetically "degenerate." The revolutionary ranged from proto-operatic works by Handel to Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony (No. 3) and "Great Fugue" to John Cage's "4'33"."

Some of the performances were rough – notably, of the "Eroica" arranged as a piano quartet by Beethoven's not very gifted pupil, Ferdinand Ries; others were ready. Most were played with an urgency and sonic punch that one craves in live performances of any music, but especially chamber music.

In the three (of six) programs that I sampled, the standout performance was the closing selection of the festival, Mendelssohn's Octet (precocious, written at age 16, if not revolutionary), which had the very dickens played out of it by violinists Diane Pascal, Jesse Mills, June Huang and Nurit Pacht; violists Mark Holloway and Max Mandel; and cellists Wilson and Raman Ramakrishnan.

In the same final program, mezzo-soprano Tracy Cowart was the voice of a fiery rendition of Handel's cantata "Il Delirio amoroso," supported by the dramatically charged mini-orchestra of Huang, Pacht, Holloway, Wilson, recorder player Anne Timberlake and harpsichordist Carsten Schmidt.

Pascal, Mills, Holloway and Ramakrishnan gave a memorably angular and energetic account of the "Great Fugue," and flutist Mary Boodell was an atmospherically attuned and technically sophisticated protagonist in Benjamin Broening's "Twilight Shift," an electro-acoustic piece in which Boodell played along with manipulated recordings of her flute.

The potentially most crowd-pleasing of the programs – if only there had been more of a crowd to please – was "Renegades," the first half of which positioned 1920s and '30s Berlin German cabaret songs alongside contemporaneous instrumental works, most notably Erwin Schulhoff's Concertino for piano (Reiko Aizawa), flute (Boodell), viola (Holloway) and double-bass (Anthony Manzo).

Singing Kurt Weill's "Berlin im Licht," Friedrich Hollaender's "Falling in Love Again," Alexander von Zemlinsky's "Herr Bombardil" and Stepan Wolpe's "Hitler," Cowart was under some strain to maintain balance with Aizawa's piano accompaniment.

Pascal, Aizawa, Manzo and three wind players from the Richmond Symphony – clarinetist Jared Davis, bassoonist Thomas Schneider and French horn player James Ferree – gave a spirited and sonorous account of a reduction and truncation of Richard Strauss' "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks," arranged by Franz Hasenohrl.

In the first of a pair of free "Ear Concerts" in the Gellman Room of the Richmond Public Library, Pacht played the Saraband from Bach's Partita in D minor, BWV 1004, with fine technique and style on a period fiddle, while Mills dug into a quasi-minimalist Partita for solo violin by the contemporary Russian Valentin Martynovic.

Schmidt presided over the piano for "4'33"," Cage's (in)famous play on silence and ambient sound, and the trio of Pascal, Wilson and Aizawa got in the listener's face with "Revolucionario" from Astor Piazzolla's "Four Seasons of Buenos Aires."

Boston taps Nelsons

Andris Nelsons, the Latvian-born conductor who has led Britain’s City of Birmingham Symphony since 2008, has been named the new music director of the Boston Symphony.

Nelsons, who turns 35 in November, will conduct the Boston Symphony this summer at Tanglewood and in the coming fall and spring in Boston as music director-designate. He takes over the orchestra formally in the 2014-15 season.

The Boston post became vacant when James Levine, unable to conduct because of health problems, resigned in 2011.

Concert distractions

I’ve been prodded to comment – again – on coughing and other unwelcome noises at live classical events. OK, but the prodders may not get satisfaction this time around.

Extramusical distractions have been on the upswing in these parts since the first of the year. Turns out, though, that there may be sound medical reasons.

Over the winter, a doctor told me that “70 percent of the population has become allergic to Richmond,” thanks to an accumulation of pollen, mold and other environmental irritants over the past two or three years. The problem, this doctor said, is a succession of mild winters. Until we experience a long, hard freeze, preferably with a heavy snowfall, our respiratory woes will continue.

What I’ve been hearing in concert halls bears this out. There’s about as much sneezing as coughing, and I’ve heard a lot more of it coming from the stage. The people making music have the biggest stake in not disrupting performances with bronchial asides, so presumably their coughs and sneezes are involuntary.

More people seem to be bringing cough drops to concerts, and more are choosing the brands that are wrapped in wax paper rather than cellophane, so they can be unwrapped quietly. That eases the coughing problem. Sneezing comes on suddenly, and trying to suppress a sneeze can be noisier than the sneeze. So, that we’ll have to live with.

Not so very long ago, quite a few patrons did not consider the dimming of lights, or even the beginning of a performance, sufficient grounds for stopping a conversation. I’m hearing a lot less of that lately.

More people seem to be complying with requests to turn off cell phones and other electronic devices. Occasional bleeps and bloops still intrude, but not as many as I recall from five or 10 years ago – and no more around here than I keep reading about in supposedly more cultured places. (Cell-phone distractions apparently are endemic in New York, for example.)

I have noticed more squeaking seats and doors, random thuds and other hall noises this season. This is partly a maintenance issue. Attention, theater managers: Lubricate your moving parts! Also, remind your staff to keep quiet during performances. Theatergoers, meanwhile, should take care not to leave purses, umbrellas, drink cups, etc., where they may be noisily dropped.

And complainers, a little perspective, please. Coughing and other noises notwithstanding, there aren’t many public places quieter than a concert hall during a classical performance.

Grete Dollitz (1924-2013)

Grete Dollitz, whose “Hour With the Guitar” was a fixture of programming at Richmond’s public radio station WCVE-FM and its predecessor, WRFK-FM, for decades, has died at 88.

Dollitz, who emigrated with her family from Germany to the U.S. in the 1930s, was known not just for her classical-guitar program but also for imaginative and venturesome programs spanning a wide spectrum of classical music and for conducting insightful interviews with guitarists and other musicians.

Her deep, throaty, accented voice was one of the most recognizable on Richmond’s airwaves. The warm personality she projected through the microphone was not a broadcaster’s artifice – what you heard was who she was.

She retired from broadcasting last December.

WCVE’s Peter Solomon recalls Grete Dollitz:

http://ideastations.org/articles/long-time-public-radio-classical-music-host-grete-dollitz-dies-at-age-88-2013-05-13

Review: Richmond Symphony

Steven Smith conducting
May 11, Richmond CenterStage

A substantially augmented Richmond Symphony this weekend is celebrating the centenary of the 1913 premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s ballet score “Le sacre du printemps” (“The Rite of Spring”). The orchestra, which usually numbers about 70 for these mainstage programs, exceeds 100 in this one; most of the guest musicians enlarge the woodwind and brass sections – including nine French horns, which I believe is a record for the symphony.

For a regional orchestra and its conductor, those extra numbers compound the challenge of Stravinsky’s score. In pretty short order, the musicians have to create an ensemble from a group in which one in three players are newcomers or occasional participants. That’s in addition to playing the notes, rendering the distinctive colors and negotiating the tricky balances and famously complex rhythms of this piece.

Most of the pressure falls on the conductor. Steven Smith, the symphony’s music director, coped very well indeed in the first of two weekend performances. His traffic control was exemplary; rarely was any solo instrument or instrumental choir too assertive or too reticent, and only in the brassiest or most heavily percussive passages were the strings overbalanced (as they often are at such times even in the biggest and best bands).

Smith’s most impressive achievement was coloristic. This “Le sacre” was almost pointilistic, with tone color of such clarity and nuance that one could mistake the score for a work of Ravel or Debussy. Principal bassoonist Thomas Schneider set a standard for color, phrasing and atmospherics that most every other wind soloist matched throughout the performance. Principal French horn player James Ferree and clarinetist Jared Davis also distinguished themselves on this score.

Tumultuous and violent sections of the piece must make a powerfully visceral impact – the scenario of the ballet, after all, revolves around frenzied fertility rites and human sacrifice. Smith and the musicians did not hold back, but their violent music-making was as well-crafted and deftly colored as their work in subtler passages.

In this program, titled “Musical Revolutionaries,” the Stravinsky is preceded by the Toccata and Ritornelli from Monteverdi’s “Orfeo” (1607), generally considered to be the first modern opera, and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, one of the first orchestral scores to treat its themes cyclically, in addition to being one of the earliest and greatest examples of abstract music as drama in sound.

The Monteverdi is being played in a modern orchestration using full symphonic forces, but one that fairly faithfully reproduces the instrumental timbres and performance style of the early Italian baroque.

The Beethoven Fifth, like Smith’s previous performances of the Seventh and Ninth symphonies, was given romanticized “big band” treatment, focusing more on great arcs of structure and accumulations of tone than on the sharp, startling accenting characteristic of “classical” Beethoven. Grandeur tends to trump energy in romantic-style Beethoven, and did so here, despite tempos (especially in the first movement) that were quite brisk.

The Beethoven is being played with as full a string complement as the Stravinsky. The resulting rich string tone may have contributed to a collective sonority, notably among the cellos and basses, that smoothed away the edges of phrasing and accenting.

The program repeats at 3 p.m. May 12 at the Carpenter Theatre of Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets. Tickets: $10-$73 (widely discounted). Details: (800) 514-3849 (ETIX); www.richmondsymphony.com

Review: Tokyo String Quartet

May 4, Virginia Commonwealth University

The Tokyo String Quartet, calling it quits this summer after a 43-year career, is not going away gently. Its farewell tour is an international affair, and some of the stops on that tour are pretty demanding. The group’s appearance last weekend at Virginia Commonwealth University, for example, included a day’s worth of workshops with local string players, culminating in an evening program of Beethoven, Bartók and Mendelssohn.

The ensemble is disbanding as its two remaining Japanese members, second violinist Kikuei Ikeda and violist Kazuhide Isomura, retire. The Tokyo’s performances in the season finale of VCU’s Rennolds Chamber Concerts sounded like a celebration of Ikeda and Isomura, the quartet’s two “inside” men, charged with illuminating the inner details of much of the quartet literature.

Isomura, especially, was a consistently prominent voice in all three of the program’s selections, Beethoven’s Quartet in F minor, Op. 95 (known as the “Serioso”); Bartók’s Quartet No. 6; and Mendelssohn’s Quartet in E minor, Op. 44, No. 2. His rhythmic contributions were crisp and energetic in the Beethoven and Bartók; and he brought unusual warmth to the Mendelssohn.

The Beethoven suffered from odd balances, due in part to the rather reticent first violin of Martin Beaver, and in part to Clive Greensmith’s heavy, rather woolly sounding cello.

The Bartók, introduced in a richly moody viola solo by Isomura, received a finely detailed, expressively pointed reading, peaking in a highly concentrated burletta.

Collectively, the foursome was at its best in the Mendelssohn, balancing the work’s lyricism with its more turbulent expressive passages.

A prolonged ovation from a near-capacity crowd brought the Tokyo back for a brief encore, the menuetto from Mozart’s Quartet in D major, K. 499.

(Sorry for the lateness of this posting. I’ve been having computer issues.)

Janos Starker (1924-2013)

Janos Starker, the Hungarian-born cellist known for his crystalline technique and unindulgent interpretations, has died at the age 88. Starker, onetime principal cellist of the Dallas and Chicago symphonies and Metropolitan Opera, had taught at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University since 1958.

Starker was one of the few recording artists whose career spanned the eras of 78-rpm and vinyl discs and digital recordings.

He also was known for his blunt observations on music and musicians, famously describing artists who displayed high temperament onstage as “making love to themselves.”

An obituary by Margalit Fox in The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/30/arts/music/janos-starker-master-cellist-dies-at-88.html?ref=obituaries&_r=0

May 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

* In and around Richmond: Three Beethoven symphonies, or two and a fraction, depending on how you hear things: Erin R. Freeman conducts the Richmond Symphony in No. 6, the “Pastoral,” in part on May 2 at Richmond CenterStage’s Gottwald Playhouse (an added date in the symphony’s Rush Hour series of casual concerts), and in full on May 5 at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland; Steven Smith conducts Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, alongside Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” May 11-12 at Richmond CenterStage’s Carpenter Theatre; and the Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia, directed by cellist James Wilson, plays a chamber version of Beethoven’s Third Symphony, the “Eroica,” as arranged by Beethoven’s pupil, Ferdinand Ries, on May 20 at Bon Air Presbyterian Church. . . . The Chamber Music Society’s spring festival, “Revolutionary and Banned,” sampling works by Handel, Haydn, C.P.E. Bach, Mendelssohn, Richard Strauss, Erwin Schulhoff, George Anthiel and more, stages concerts on May 16, 20 and 22 at Bon Air Presbyterian and May 17 at Wilton House Museum, and free mini-concerts on May 18 and 21 at the Richmond Public Library’s main branch downtown. . . . The Tokyo String Quartet makes a Richmond stop on its farewell tour, playing Beethoven, Bartók and Mendelssohn, in a Rennolds Chamber Concerts program on May 4 at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Singleton Arts Center. . . . The Richmond Philharmonic is joined by another conductor candidate, Peter Wilson, and by the duo of vioilinist Wanchi Huang and violist Amadi Azikiwe, for a program of Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Wagner, May 5 at VCU’s Singleton Center.

* Noteworthy elsewhere: The Virginia Arts Festival continues with chamber-music performances by pianist André-Michel Schub, the Miami String Quartet and others, May 8-24 at venues in Norfolk, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach and Williamsburg. . . . Washington National Opera stages Jerome Kern’s classic “Show Boat” in 15 performances from May 4-26 at the Kennedy Center. . . . Virginia Opera presents Rodgers’ & Hammerstein’s “Carousel,” starring former Richmonder Matthew Worth, in eight performances from May 10-19 at the Harrison Opera House in Norfolk. . . .  Soprano Dawn Upshaw and Crash Ensemble, the Irish new-music group, sing and play works by Osvaldo Golijov and Donnacha Dennehy, May 14 at the Kennedy Center. . . . Soprano Kathleen Battle, pianist Cyrus Chestnut and the Heritage Signature Chorale present “Undergrounbd Railroad,” May 18 at Strathmore in the Maryland suburbs of DC. . . . John Adams conducts Orchestra 2001 in music of Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Adams and more, May 24 at the Library of Congress in Washington, and sticks around to conduct DC’s National Symphony with pianist Jeremy Denk in music of Respighi, Ravel and Adams, May 30-31 (and June 1) at the Kennedy Center.


May 1 (7:30 p.m.)
May 2 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Opera Lafayette
Ryan Brown conducting
Charpentier: “Actéon”
Aaron Sheehan (Actéon)
Yulia Van Doren (Diane)
Kelly Ballou (Arthébuze)
Laetita De Beck Spitzer (Daphne)
Seán Curran, stage director
in French, English captions
$55-$70
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 1 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Philadelphia Orchestra
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting
Korngold: Violin Concerto
Hilary Hahn, violin
Bruckner: Symphony No. 7
$35-$105
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org

May 2 (6:30 p.m.)
Gottwald Playhouse, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
May 5 (3 p.m.)
Blackwell Auditorium, Randolph-Macon College, 205 Henry St., Ashland
Richmond Symphony
Erin R. Freeman conducting
Vaughan Williams: “Three Shakespeare Songs”
Richmond Symphony Chamber Chorus
Vaughan Williams: “Flos Campi”
Molly Sharp, viola
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 (“Pastoral”) (excerpts on May 2, in full on May 5)
$20
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
www.richmondsymphony.com

May 2 (8 p.m.)
Phi Beta Kappa Hall, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg
May 4 (8 p.m.)
Regent University Theater, 1000 Regent Drive, Virginia Beach
Virginia Symphony
Daniel Hege conducting
Mozart: “Eine kleine Nachtmusik”
Astor Piazzolla: “The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires”
Vahn Armstrong, violin
Schumann: Symphony No. 1 (“Spring”)
$20-$50
(757) 892-6366
www.virginiasymphony.org

May 2 (7 p.m.)
May 4 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach conducting
Elgar: Cello Concerto
Alisa Weilerstein, cello
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5
$10-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 3 (8 p.m.)
Christ & St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 560 W. Olney Road, Norfolk
Virginia Arts Festival:
Christopher Houlihan, organ
program TBA
$25
(757) 282-2822
www.virginiaartsfestival.org

May 3 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach conducting
Shchedrin: “Slava, Slava”
Schnittke: Viola Concerto
David Aaron Carpenter, viola
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5
$10-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 3 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First Street at Independence Avenue S.E., Washington
Orchestra 2001
Ann Crumb, soprano
Patrick Mason, baritone
George Crumb: “Night of the Four Moons”
Chaya Czernowin: “”Slow Summer Stay II: Lakes” (premiere)
Crumb: “Voices from the Heartland” (“American Songbook” VII)
free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/1213-schedule.html

May 4 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Rennolds Chamber Concerts:
Tokyo String Quartet
Beethoven: Quartet in F minor, Op. 95 (“Serioso”)
Bartók: Quartet No. 6
Mendelssohn: Quartet in E minor, Op. 44, No. 2
$34
(804) 828-6776
www.vcumusic.org

May 4 (7 p.m.)
May 6 (7 p.m.)
May 7 (7:30 p.m.)
May 8 (7:30 p.m.)
May 10 (7:30 p.m.)
May 11 (7 p.m.)
May 12 (2 p.m.)
May 16 (7:30 p.m.)
May 17 (7:30 p.m.)
May 18 (7 p.m.)
May 19 (2 p.m.)
May 21 (7:30 p.m.)
May 24 (7:30 p.m.)
May 25 (7 p.m.)
May 26 (2 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Opera House, Washington
Washington National Opera
John DeMain conducting
Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein II: “Show Boat”
Michael Todd Simpson & Rod Gilfry (Gaylord Ravenal)
Jennifer Holloway & Andriana Chuchman (Magnolia)
Lara Teeter & Wynn Harmon (Captain Andy)
Alyson Cambridge & Talise Trevigne (Julie)
Morris Robinson & Soloman Howard (Joe)
Angela Renée & Gwendolyn Browne (Queenie)
Francesca Zambello, stage director
in English, English captions
$30-$270
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 4 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Carducci String Quartet
Haydn: Quartet in C major, Op. 76, No. 3 (“Emperor”)
Dvořák: Quartet in F major, Op. 96 (“American”)
Beethoven: Quartet in A minor, Op. 132
$35
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org

May 4 (8 p.m.)
May 5 (3 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
National Philharmonic
Piotr Gajewski conducting
Brahms: “Schicksalslied” (“Song of Destiny”)
Brahms: “Alto Rhapsody”
Denyce Graves, mezzo-soprano
National Philharmonic Chorale
Brahms: Symphony No. 4
$28-$84 
(301) 581-5100
www.strathmore.org

May 5 (4 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Richmond Philharmonic
Peter Wilson conducting
Wagner: “Die Meistersinger” Act 1 Prelude
Mozart: Sinfonia concertante in E flat major, K. 364
Wanchi Huang, violin
Amadi Azikiwe, viola
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4
$8 in advance, $10 at door
(804) 673-7400
www.richmondphilharmonic.org

May 5 (3 p.m.)
May 6 (8 p.m.)
Shaftman Performance Hall, Jefferson Center, 541 Luck Ave., Roanoke
Roanoke Symphony
David Stewart Wiley conducting
Copland: “Hoedown” from “Rodeo”
Copland: “Appalachian Spring”
$22-$52
(540) 343-9127
www.rso.com

May 5 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Kennedy Center Spring Gala:
Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra
James Moore conducting
Lerner & Loewe: “My Fair Lady” (concert performance)
Gregory Jbara (Alfred P. Doolittle)
Jonathan Pryce (Henry Higgins)
Laura Michelle Kelly (Eliza Doolittle)
Cloris Leachman (Mrs. Higgins)
Florence Lacey (Mrs. Pearce)
Max von Essen (Freddy Eynsford-Hill)
Michael York (Colonel Pickering)
Marcia Milgrom Dodge, choreographer & director
in English
$49-$175
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 8 (7:30 p.m.)
Hixon Theater, Barr Education Center, 440 Bank St., Norfolk
Virginia Arts Festival:
Jocelyn Adelman, violin
Amanda Halstead, piano
“And Their Music Lives On: Works of the Holocaust Generation”
works by Messiaen, Zemlinsky, Krenek 
$30-$75
(757) 282-2822
www.virginiaartsfestival.org

May 9 (7:30 p.m.)
John Paul Jones Arena, 295 Massie Road, Charlottesville
touring company
Leonard Bernstein: “West Side Story”
cast TBA
in English
$35-$55
(888) 575-8497
www.johnpauljonesarena.com

May 10 (7 p.m.)
Short Pump Town Center, Richmond
May 12 (3 p.m.)
Stony Point Fashion Mall, Richmond
Central Virginia Wind Symphony
Mike Goldberg directing
Al Regni, saxophone (May 10)
Jacob Mertz, saxophone (May 12)
Texidor: "Amparito Roca"
Mozart: "The Marriage of Figaro" Overture
Vaughan Williams: "English Folk Song Suite"
Ticheli: "An American Elegy"
Robert W. Smith: "Encanto"
Jerry Nowak: Rhapsody for alto saxophone and band
Anderson: "Clarinet Candy"
Schoenberg: "Les Miserables" (selections)
Gershwin: "Someone to Watch Over Me"
Shostakovich: Galop
free
(804) 342-8797
www.thewindsymphony.com

May 10 (8 p.m.)
May 11 (2:30 & 8 p.m.)
May 12 (2:30 p.m.)
May 17 (8 p.m.)
May 18 (2:30 & 8 p.m.)
May 19 (2:30 p.m.)
Harrison Opera House, 160 E. Virginia Beach Boulevard, Norfolk
Virginia Opera
Adam Turner conducting
Rodgers & Hammerstein: “Carousel”
Matthew Worth (Billy Bigelow)
Patricia Noonan (Julie Jordan)
Lora Lee Gayer (Carrie Pipperidge)
Greg Ganakis, stage director
in English
$35-$100
(757) 623-1223
www.vaopera.org

May 11 (8 p.m.)
May 12 (3 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony
Steven Smith conducting
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5
Stravinsky: “Le sacre du printemps” (“The Rite of Spring”)
$10-$73
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
www.richmondsymphony.com

May 11 (2 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Shai Wosner, piano
Schubert: 4 impromptus, D. 899
Schubert: Allegretto in C minor, D. 915
Schubert: Sonata in D major, D. 850
Widmann: “Idyll and Abyss: Six Schubert Remembrances” (2009)
$38
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org

May 11 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop conducting
“Modern Times,” Charlie Chaplin film with live orchestra accompaniment
$30-$90
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
www.strathmore.org

May 12 (5 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Choral Arts Society of Washington
Scott Tucker directing
Brian Stokes Mitchell, baritone
“Broadway’s Show-Stoppers”
program TBA
$29-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 13 (7:30 p.m.)
Hixon Theater, Barr Education Center, 440 Bank St., Norfolk
Virginia Arts Festival:
André-Michel Schub, Lydia Artymiw, Josu de Solaun & Anna Petrova, pianos
“Pianopalooza”
Mozart: Sonata in D major, K. 448, for two pianos
Schumann: Andante and Variations in B flat major, Op. 46, for two pianos
Scriabin: Fantasy in A minor for two pianos
Brahms: “Variations on a Theme by Haydn” for two pianos
Smetana: Rondo in C major
$30
(757) 282-2822
www.virginiaartsfestival.org

May 13 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Pro Musica Hebraica:
Apollo Ensemble
“Jewish Baroque Treasures from Italy & Amsterdam”
works by Salomon Rossi, Marco Uccellini, Giacobo Basevi Cervetto; 3 works from Ets-Chaim Library of Amsterdam
$38
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 14 (10:30 a.m.)
Miller Studio Theater, Sandler Arts Center, 201 S. Market St., Virginia Beach
Virginia Arts Festival Coffee Concerts:
André-Michel Schub, Lydia Artymiw, Josu de Solaun & Anna Prerova, pianos
Debussy: “Petite Suite”
Tchaikovsky: “Capriccio Italien” for piano four-hands
Ravel: “Mother Goose Suite” for piano four-hands
$20
(757) 282-2822
www.virginiaartsfestival.org

May 14 (7:30 p.m.)
Hixon Theater, Barr Education Center, 440 Bank St., Norfolk
Virginia Arts Festival:
Christopher Mooney, baritone
Debra Wendells Cross, flute
Barbara Chapman, harp
Michael Daniels, cello
Charles Woodward, piano
“Home Sweet Home: Treasures of the Moses Myers Collection”
chamber works, 19th-century popular songs and airs TBA
$30  
(757) 282-2822
www.virginiaartsfestival.org

May 14 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Dawn Upshaw, soprano
Crash Ensemble
Osvaldo Golijov: “Lua Descolorida”
Golijov: “How Slow the Wind”
Donnacha Dennehy: “Grá agus Bás”
Dennehy: “Aisling Gheal” for cello and electronics
Dennehy: “That the Night Come”
$45
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 16 (7:30 p.m.)
Bon Air Presbyterian Church, 9201 W. Huguenot Road, Richmond
Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia:
Rieko Aizawa & Carsten Schmidt, piano
Jesse Mills, Nurit Pacht, Diane Pascal, violins
James Wilson, cello
Mary Boodell, flute
Jared Davis, clarinet
James Ferree, French horn
Tracy Cowart, mezzo-soprano
“Visionaries”
Schumann: Piano Trio in D minor
Handel: “Lucretia” Cantata
Schoenberg-Webern: Chamber Symphony, Op. 9
$25
(804) 519-2098
www.cmscva.org

May 16 (7 p.m.)
May 17 (8 p.m.)
May 18 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra Pops
Steven Reineke conducting
Jennifer Laura Thompson, Julia Murney, Jeremy Jordan & Norm Lewis, vocalists
The Washington Chorus
“The Wizard and I: the Musical Journey of Steven Schwartz”
$20-$85
(800) 444-12324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 17 (7:30 p.m.)
Wilton House Museum, 215 S. Wilton Road, Richmond
Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia:
Nurit Pacht, baroque violin
James Wilson, baroque cello
Mary Boodell, flute
Tracy Cowart, mezzo-soprano
Carsten Schmidt, harpsichord
“(Pre)Revolutionary Music”
Couperin: “Les Barricades Mysterieuses”
Rameau: “Piece en concert” in A major
C.P.E. Bach: Sonata for solo flute
Couperin: Concert from “Les Gouts Reunits”
$35
(804) 519-2098
www.cmscva.org

May 18 (noon)
Gellman Room, Richmond Public Library, First and Franklin streets
Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia:
Jesse Mills & Nurit Pacht, violins
James Wilson, cello
Rieko Aizawa & Carsten Schmidt, piano
“Stretch Your Ears” 
Wagner: “Liebestod” from “Tristan und Isolde”
Webern: “Drei kleine Stücke”
John Cage: “4‘33” ”
Astor Piazzolla: “The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires” (excerpts)
free
(804) 519-2098
www.cmscva.org

May 18 (7 p.m.)
May 19 (2 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony
conductor TBA
“Pixar in Concert”
program TBA
$26.50-$56.50
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
www.richmondsymphony.com

May 18 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Kathleen Battle, soprano
Cyrus Chestnut, piano
Heritage Signature Chorale
“Underground Railroad: an Evening with Kathleen Battle”
$55-$95
(301) 581-5100
www.strathmore.org

May 20 (7:30 p.m.)
Bon Air Presbyterian Church, 9201 W. Huguenot Road, Richmond
Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia:
Max Mandel, Jesse Mills & Diane Pascal, violins
Mark Holloway, viola
James Wilson, cello
Anthony Manzo, double-bass
Mary Boodell, flute
Jared Davis, clarinet
James Ferree, French horn
Carsten Schmidt, piano
“Renegades” 
Richard Strauss: “Till Eulenspiegel” (chamber arr.)
Erwin Schulhoff: Concertino
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”) (chamber arr.)
$25
(804) 519-2098
www.cmscva.org

May 21 (5:30 p.m.)
Gellman Room, Richmond Public Library, First and Franklin streets
Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia:
Max Mandel, Jesse Mills & Nurit Pacht, violins
James Wilson, cello
Tracy Cowart, mezzo-soprano
Rieko Aizawa & Carsten Schmidt, piano
“Revolutionary and Banned”
Haydn: Quartet No. 1
George Anthiel: Violin Sonata No. 2
Britten: cabaret songs
free
(804) 519-2098
www.cmscva.org

May 21 (10:30 a.m.)
Hixon Theater, Barr Education Center, 440 Bank St., Norfolk
Virginia Arts Festivial Coffee Concerts:
Miami String Quartet
Beethoven: Quartet in C minor, Op. 18, No. 4
Mendelssohn: Quartet in F minor, Op. 80, No. 6
$20
(757) 282-2822
www.virginiaartsfestival.org

May 22 (7:30 p.m.)
Bon Air Presbyterian Church, 9201 W. Huguenot Road, Richmond
Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia:
Jesse Mills & Diane Pascal, violins
Mark Holloway & Max Mandel, violas
James Wilson, cello
Tracy Cowart, mezzo-soprano
other artists TBA
“The Start of Something Big”
Beethoven: “Grosse Fuge" (“Great Fugue”)
Handel: “Il Delirio Amoroso” Cantata
Benjamin Broening: work TBA
Mendelssohn: Octet
$25
(804) 519-2098
www.cmscva.org

May 22 (10:30 a.m.)
Trinity Episcopal Church, 500 Court St., Portsmouth
Virginia Arts Festival Coffee Concerts:
Miami String Quartet
Debra Wendells Cross, flute
Barbara Chapman, harp
Beverly Kane Baker, viola
Libby Larsen: “Trio in Four Movements”
Brahms: String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 111
$20
(757) 282-2822
www.virginiaartsfestival.org

May 22 (7:30 p.m.)
Hixon Theater, Barr Education Center, 440 Bank St., Norfolk
Virginia Arts Festival:
Anthony de Mare, piano
“Liasons: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano”
$30
(757) 282-2822
www.virginiaartsfestival.org

May 22 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First Street at Independence Avenue S.E., Washington
Attacca Quartet
Janáček: Quartet No. 2 (“Intimate Letters”)
Timothy Andres: “Early to Rise” (premiere)
Beethoven: Quartet in F major, Op. 18, No. 1
John Adams: Quartet
free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/1213-schedule.html

May 23 (6 p.m.)
Williamsburg Winery, Lake Powell Road, James City County
Virginia Arts Festival:
Miami String Quartet
André-Michel Schub, piano
Beverly Kane Baker, viola
“Classics at the Vineyard”
Brahms: Piano Quartet No. 2 in A major, Op. 26
Brahms: String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 111
$100
(757) 282-2822
www.virginiaartsfestival.org

May 23 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First Street at Independence Avenue S.E., Washington
Jennifer Koh, violin
Reiko Uchida, piano
Janáček: Violin Sonata
Essa-Pekka Salonen: “Lachen verlernt”
Schubert: Sonata in A major, D. 574
John Adams: “Road Movies” 
free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/1213-schedule.html

May 24 (11 a.m.)
Williamsburg Winery, Lake Powell Road, James City County
Virginia Arts Festival:
Miami String Quartet
André-Michel Schub, piano
“Music on the Menu”
Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 9
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 14 in E flat major, K. 449
$50
(757) 282-2822
www.virginiaartsfestival.org

May 24 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First Street at Independence Avenue S.E., Washington
International Contemporary Ensemble
John Adams conducting
Stravinsky: “L’histoire du soldat” (“The Soldier’s Tale”)
Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9
Adams: “Son of Chamber Symphony”
DiCastri: “Lo Forma della Spazio” 
free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/1213-schedule.html

May 25 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Carlos Kalmar conducting
Narong Prangcharoen: “Phenomenon”
Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 3
Jean-Philippe Collard, piano
Prokofiev: “Romeo and Juliet” (selections)
$31-$91
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
www.strathmore.org

May 26 (8 p.m.)
Filene Center, Wolf Trap, Trap Road, Vienna
U.S. Marine Band (“The President’s Own”)
Col. Michael J. Colburn directing
program TBA
with fireworks
free
(877) 965-3872 (Tickets.com)
www.wolftrap.org

May 26 (8 p.m.)
West Lawn, U.S. Capitol, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
conductor TBA
guest artists TBA
National Memorial Day Concert
program TBA
free
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 30 (7 p.m.)
May 31 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
John Adams conducting
Respighi: “The Fountains of Rome”
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major
Jeremy Denk, piano
Adams: “City noir”
$10-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 30 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckedrman Lane, North Betrhesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Pops
Jack Everly conducting
Spectrum, vocal group
Radiance, vocal group
“The Magic of Motown”
$31-$91
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
www.strathmore.org

May 31 (8 p.m.)
Filene Center, Wolf Trap, Trap Road, Vienna
New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players
Gilbert & Sullivan: “The Mikado”
cast TBA
in English
$12-$50
(877) 965-3872 (Tickets.com)
www.wolftrap.org