Review: Weilerstein & Barnatan

March 29, Virginia Commonwealth University

Cellist Alisa Weilerstein and pianist Inon Barnatan, who spend much of their time pursuing flourishing solo careers, proved to be sensitive and attentive duo partners as they performed in a Rennolds Chamber Concerts program at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Earlier in the day, Weilerstein conducted a master class during Cellopaloosa VI, VCU’s annual instructional event for student and avocational cellists.

In the evening concert, two standards of the cello-piano repertory, the sonatas of Debussy and Rachmaninoff, bracketed adaptations of works originally for other instrumentation: Schubert’s Fantasy in C major, D. 934, the composer’s greatest work for violin and piano; and Lera Auerbach’s arrangements of seven of the Op. 34 piano preludes of Shostakovich.

The Rachmaninoff sonata brought out the best of Weilerstein’s and Barnatan’s musicianship. The piece was a perfect vehicle for the cellist’s robust tone and rich lyricism, and for the pianist’s bright, assertive virtuosity. Barnatan was especially effective in the sonata’s dramatic scherzo, with its echoes of Schubert’s “Erlkönig,” while Weilerstein’s singing lines propelled the andante. An encore of that slow movement delved even more deeply into its dark lyricism.

The Debussy was less successful. One of the composer’s late works, written in 1915, the piece is more abstract than evocative, and calls for a French-style string tone – thinner and more tightly focused than that commonly produced by cellists from other nationalities and performance traditions. The warmly declarative style of Weilerstein and Barnatan was, literally, foreign to this music.

The Schubert fantasy, heard here in a cello-and-piano transcription by Weilerstein and Barnatan, is adaptable to lower strings (or, for that matter, to alto winds such as clarinet or English horn), just as the composer’s Lieder can be sung by voices of different register.

The fantasy concludes in a set of variations on the Lied “Sei mir gegrüsst,” and, not surprisingly, those variations provided the best outlet for Weilerstein’s singing tone, plus fast and fiery double-stopping in the coda to show off her virtuosity. Barnatan’s accompaniment sounded rather hard-edged – unintentionally so, perhaps, given the appearance of a piano technician just after the performance; but usefully, too, as the bright, almost brittle, piano tone left enough “air” for the cello to be heard more clearly.

Auerbach’s adaptations of the Shostakovich preludes do not alter the composer’s musical language, but italicize inflections and allusions that were more subtle in the original piano versions. The Prelude No. 10, for example, takes on a more romantically lyrical tone, while the Prelude No. 15 becomes a more fully fleshed-out waltz but loses some of its ironic wit. Weilerstein and Barnatan played the set with character and verve.

Sibelius repels yoots

After reading numerous accounts of classical music being used to prevent youths – or “yoots,” as Joe Pesci’s character terms them in “My Cousin Vinny” – from hanging out in public places, violinist Gil Shaham has produced “Music to Drive Away Loiterers,” a compilation of pieces from the catalogue of his record label, Canary Classics.

The collection, including the Sicilienne of Fauré, Pablo de Sarasate’s “Navarra,” the march from Prokofiev’s “Love for Three Oranges,” the finale of Sibelius’ Violin Concerto and 10 other sure-fire yoot repellents, will be released – when else? – on April 1.

Letter V Classical Radio this week

March 27
1-3 p.m. EDT
1700-1900 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Wagner: “Rienzi” Overture
MET Orchestra/James Levine (Deutsche Grammophon)

Elgar: Violin Sonata in E minor, Op. 82
Karen Johnson, violin; Joanne Kong, piano (Brioso)

Beethoven: “Choral Fantasy”
Yefim Bronfman, piano
Swiss Chamber Choir, Tonhalle Orchestra, Zürich/David Zinman (Arte Nova)

Past Masters:
Saint-Saëns: “Introduction and Rondo capriccioso”
David Oistrakh, violin
Boston Symphony Orchestra/Charles Munch (RCA Victor)
(recorded 1955)

Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga: String Quartet No. 2 in A major
Guarneri Quartet (Newton Classics)

Mozart: Serenade in C minor, K. 388
Harmonie of l’Orchestre des Champs Elysées/Philippe Herreweghe (Harmonia Mundi France)

Review: Oberon Quartet

March 24, St. Christopher’s School

The Oberon Quartet had planned to play the Bagatelles of Mason Bates about a month ago, when the Richmond-bred composer was revisiting his old school, St. Christopher’s, and having his Violin Concerto played by Anne Akiko Meyers and the Richmond Symphony. A snowstorm intervened, and the Oberon performance had to be rescheduled.

The ensemble, which maintains a residency at St. Christopher’s and St. Catherine’s schools, paired Bates’ work with the familiar String Quartet of Maurice Ravel. Violinists Alana Pritchard Carithers and Susy Yim and violist Molly Sharp were joined by cellist Ryan Lannan, with whom they play in the Richmond Symphony. The group’s regular cellist, Bill Comita, was absent because of a family emergency.

Performing in St. Christopher’s recently opened Playhouse, a room about the size of a 19th-century salon, the Oberon produced a vivid, ripe collective sonority – perhaps a bit much for the subtler, more sonically rarified sections of the Ravel, but just right for Bates’ extroverted Ballades.

In a video preview of the piece, the 37-year-old composer described the first of the three ballades, “Rough Math,” as “some of the most head-banging music I’ve written.” Not so much in volume or aggressiveness (the usual implications of “head-banging”), it turned out, as in rhythmic activity and a certain jaggedness produced by irregular (or, as Bates put it, “lopsided”) rhythms.

The basic pulse of “Rough Math” and the two subsequent bagatelles, “On a Wire: Mating Dance” and “Scrapyard Exotica” (played in reverse order from that in the score), alternate between one or more strings and electronic effects (from Todd Matthews, manning a laptop computer) created by manipulating recorded fiddle sounds (of the Del Sol Quartet, which introduced the piece in 2012).

“Rough Math” and “Scrapyard Exotica” maintain, for all their rhythmic intricacies, fairly consistent grooves; “On a Wire” sounds more free-form, both rhythmically and in its voicings.

The Oberon negoitiated Bates’ Bagatelles ably with a palpable sense of adventurousness.

Some of the same qualities came through in the Ravel quartet, especially in the pizzicato of the work’s second movement, which sounded more spontaneous and chancy (also, more roughly textured) than in the usual interpretation, and in the finale, which came across as less agité, more energetically festive.

Review: eighth blackbird

March 19, University of Richmond

The new-music sextet eighth blackbird – with a substitute percussionist, Doug Perkins, filling in for an ailing Matthew Duvall – presented “Still in Motion,” a vaguely ominous potpourri of recent works, to close out its performances in the 10th season of its residency at the University of Richmond.

The dark tones of “Murder Ballades” by Bryce Dessner (better known as guitarist of the rock band The National), the sextet “Old Kings in Exile” (2011) by Brett Dean and “Last Exit,” a piece by the ’birds’ flutist, Tim Munro, were offset by the productively zany “whirligig,” a four-hands piano work by the ensemble’s pianist, Lisa Kaplan, and by a post-concert “Musicircus” featuring the ’birds and UR faculty and student musicians in an hour-long homage to the all-bets-are-off/noise-is-good aesthetic of John Cage.

“Murder Ballades,” written last year for eighth blackbird, recasts a set of traditional ballads about what Dessner calls “romantically charged killings” (“Pretty Polly” and “Brushy Fork” are the most familiar) in a style that could be called neoclassical ragtime, filtered through the sonic and rhythmic prism of the 1920s works of Igor Stravinsky and the composers of France’s Les Six, and garnished with a couple of references-in-passing to the da-da-da-dum “fate” motif of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

Given the work’s plentiful syncopation and Anglo-American ballads as source material, you might expect echoes of bluegrass; but Dessner somehow avoids that, creating instead an interplay between “old-time” string-band harmonics and tonal hues and the jittery angularity of modernism.

Despite the murder theme – the composer says the piece was inspired in part by the Aurora and Newtown killing sprees – the haunting “Dark Hollow” is the only section that sounds truly bleak or frightening. (At least to me: Having been immersed in this kind of fatalistic folk music since childhood, I may scare less easily than folks from other places.)

The sextet by Dean, a onetime Berlin Philharmonic violist who has become perhaps the most prominent contemporary composer from Australia, occupies a darker and dreamier space. Its muted prelude and and more complex and expressive epilogue bracket a “double trio,” contrasting strings and winds, and providing quite a showcase of technique for flutist Munro and clarinetist Matthew J. Maccaferri. The central section’s frenzied pace and intricate, jagged voicings at times suggest a fireflies’ sabbath, at other times fairies dancing on broken glass.

Munro’s “Last Exit,” inspired by the poem of that name by the Australian Sam Wagan Watson, evokes what the flutist calls the “dark, dirty, dangerous” environment of Brisbane in the 1970s. (More recently, he noted, the coastal city has become “Miami down under.”) Scored for solo flute(s) with recorded manipulations of flute sounds (some barely recognizable as such), the piece is full of wind-and-water effects and is nocturnal in character, painting a mind’s-ear picture of a waterfront scene in an updated version of film noir.

Kaplan’s “whirligig,” written last year for a four-hands piano date with composer Nico Muhly, was played on this occasion by eight hands, Kaplan’s and those of violinist Yvonne Lam, percussionist Perkins and cellist Nicholas Photinos, each taking a turn in its three sections. Slapstick pervades the piece – its physical premise is the “invasion of each other’s space” by pianists scrunched together on a bench, crossing hands and otherwise “getting in the way.” Its style is predominantly a kind of prismatic boogie-woogie in the outer sections, with a subtler, more delicate central section. It’s fun to hear, and more fun to watch.

The ’birds rounded out the program with “Duo for Heart and Breath” (2012) by the Canadian Richard Parry, another composer coming out of indie-rock (he plays in the band Arcade Fire). The work can be heard as being quite literal – the violinist plays long notes while breathing audibly into a microphone, while the pianist (wearing a stethoscope) elaborates on a two-note, lub-dub motif. The collective effect of these sounds, however, is more ambiguous and stimulating to the imagination.

Denk ascends

Jeremy Denk, the cerebrally quirky pianist who is almost as well-known for his “Think Denk” blog (http://jeremydenk.net/blog/) and other writings as for his music-making, is on a recognition roll.

He has just received the Avery Fisher Prize (several years after scoring a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, aka “genius grant”). His recording of Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” seems destined to be the year’s biggest classical hit. He is the newly named “artistic partner” of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. And, as the new artistic director of the prestigious Ojai (CA) Music Festival, he will introduce with co-creator Steven Stucky “The Classical Style,” a comic opera (very) loosely based on Charles Rosen’s classic music-theory text.

Denk, who has performed in Richmond five times in the past decade (twice with the Richmond Symphony, once with the Shanghai Quartet and twice in solo recitals), followed up a 2007 appearance with “Liason,” a blog post – http://jeremydenk.net/blog/2007/10/29/liaison/ – celebrating his artist-liason person/driver-confessor, the now-legendary Prabir, and the city’s bar scene, anticipating by five or six years Richmond’s ascent on assorted hipster indices.

The New York Times’ Michael Cooper chronicles Denk’s recent coups:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/18/arts/music/pianist-jeremy-denk-to-receive-avery-fisher-prize.html?ref=music

Letter V Classical Radio this week

March 20
1-3 p.m. EDT
1700-1900 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Hamish MacCunn: “The Land of the Mountain and the Flood”
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic/Grant Llewellyn (Argo)

Past Masters:
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 in A minor (“Scottish”)
London Symphony Orchestra/Peter Maag (Decca)
(recorded 1960)

traditional: “Oh, the broom”
(original ballad and versions by John Playford and Gay & Pepusch [from “The Beggar’s Opera”])
Patrizia Kwella, soprano; Paul Elliott, tenor
The Broadside Band/Jeremy Barlow (Harmonia Mundi France)

Alexander Reinagle: “Occasional Overture” in D major (1794)
(reconstructed by Bertil van Boer)
Sinfonia Finlandia, Jyväskylä/Patrick Gallois (Naxos)

traditional: “A Scots Rant,” “A Trip to Killburn”
Baltimore Consort (Dorian)

Songs by Robert Burns:
“Auld Rob Morris” (arranged by Haydn)
“Robert Bruce’s March to Bannockburn” (arranged by Haydn)
“The bonny wee thing” (arranged by Haydn & Beethoven)
“Duncan Gray” (arranged by Beethoven)
“The lovely Lass o’Inverness” (arranged by Beethoven)
Lorna Anderson, soprano; Christine Cairns, mezzo-soprano; Harry Nicoll, tenor; Alan Watt, baritone
Scottish Early Music Consort/Warwick Edwards (Chandos Chaconne)

Beethoven: “Air and Variations on ‘O Kenmure’s on and awa, Willie’ ”
Utako Ikeda, flute; John Kitchen, fortepiano (Chandos Chaconne)

Malcolm Arnold: “Four Scottish Dances,” Op. 59
London Philharmonic/Malcolm Arnold (Phoenix)

Robert Burns: “Auld Lang Syne” (arranged by Leopold Anton Kozeluch)
Lorna Anderson, soprano; Christine Cairns, mezzo-soprano; Harry Nicoll, tenor; Alan Watt, baritone
Scottish Early Music Consort/Warwick Edwards (Chandos Chaconne)

Stephen Foster: “Hard Times Come Again No More”
Thomas Hampson, baritone
Molly Mason, Mark Rust & Garrison Keillor, vocal harmonies
Jay Ungar, violin; Molly Mason, guitar; Tony Trishka, banjo; David Alpher, piano (Angel)

Frühbeck hangs on

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, the veteran Spanish conductor, nearly collapses toward the end of a concert with the National Symphony Orchestra, but hangs on to complete Respighi’s “Pines of Rome.”

No word yet on what exactly happened, but the NSO says the 80-year-old Frühbeck intends to lead tonight’s concert as scheduled, Philip Kennicott reports in The Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/conductor-rafael-fruhbeck-de-burgos-finishes-concert-despite-apparent-health-issue/2014/03/14/a14670d4-abec-11e3-98f6-8e3c562f9996_story.html?hpid=z4

UPDATE (March 18): Norman Lebrecht reports that NSO Assistant Conductor Ankush Kumar Bahl stepped in on March 15 for Frühbeck, who showed symptoms of pneumonia:

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2014/03/sticken-spanish-conductor-may-have-pneumonia.html

Letter V Classical Radio this week

University of Richmond students are on spring break, so I get to do a long show . . .

March 13
noon-4 p.m. EDT
1600-2000 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Kodály: “Dances of Galánta”
Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Neeme Järvi (Chandos)

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 12 in A major, K. 414
Fazil Say, piano
Zürich Chamber Orchestra/Howard Griffiths (Naïve)

Jan Dismas Zelenka: Trio Sonata No. 4 in G minor
Maurice Bourgue & Heinz Holliger, oboes; Klaus Thunemann, bassoon; Klaus Stoll, double-bass; Jonathan Rubin, lute; Christiane Jacottet, harpsichord (ECM)

Past Masters:
Beethoven: “Coriolan” Overture
English Chamber Orchestra/Benjamin Britten (BBC Music)
(recorded 1966)

Bruch: Serenade, Op. 75
Salvatore Accardo, violin
Gewandhaus Orchestra, Leipzig/Kurt Masur (Philips)

Glinka: Spanish Overture No. 1 (“Jota aragonesa”)
BBC Philharmonic/Vasily Sinaisky (Chandos)

Ravel: “Shéhérazade”
Sylvia McNair, soprano
Boston Symphony Orchestra/Seiji Ozawa (Philips)

Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3
Terence Judd, piano
Moscow Philharmonic/Alexander Lazarev (Chandos)

Vaughan Williams: “Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis”
New Queen’s Hall Orchestra/Barry Wordsworth (Argo)

Debussy: “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun”
Cleveland Orchestra/Pierre Boulez (Deutsche Grammophon)

Benjamin Broening: “like dreams, statistics are a form of wish fulfillment”
eighth blackbird (Bridge)

Gottschalk: “A Night in the Tropics”
Hot Springs Festival Symphony Orchestra/Richard Rosenberg (Naxos)

Brahms: Viola Sonata in F minor, Op. 120, No. 1
Roberto Díaz, viola; Jeremy Denk, piano (Naxos)

Reviews from 'outsiders'

Neil Atkinson, a journalist whose beat is soccer (football, he would say), gets blown away by Vasily Petrenko, the Liverpool Philharmonic and Edward Elgar:

http://www.theanfieldwrap.com/2014/03/petrenkos-elgar-5314-review/

Parker Perry, an Ohio college student, is not blown away by a Cleveland Orchestra concert:

http://www.twinsburgbulletin.com/entertainment/2014/03/07/orchestra-may-face-uphill-battle-attracting-youth

(via ArtsJournal, www.artsjournal.com)

Cellopaloosa VI at VCU

Alisa Weilerstein, the acclaimed American cellist, headlines Cellopaloosa VI, Virginia Commonwealth University’s annual instructional event for cellists, March 29 at VCU’s Singleton Arts Center, Park Avenue at Harrison Street in Richmond’s Fan District.

The event, beginning with registration at 1 p.m., will culminate in an 8 p.m. performance by Weilerstein and pianist Inon Barnatan, part of VCU’s Rennolds Chamber Concerts series.

In addition to Weilerstein, instructors for Cellopalooza VI include VCU’s Dana and Jason McComb and guest artists Jorge and Erin Espinosa.

The fee for regular participants is $85, or $45 for observers. The deadline for participant registration is March 14.

For more information, call the VCU Music Department office at (804) 828-1166 or visit http://arts.vcu.edu/music/areas-of-study/strings/special-programs/cellopaloosa/

Gerard Mortier (1943-2014)

Gerard Mortier, the Belgian opera impresario best known in this country for his brief, troubled tenure as director of the now-defunct New York City Opera, has died at 70 of pancreatic cancer.

At the time of his death, he was artistic advisor to the Teatro Real in Madrid. A leading proponent of Regieoper (director’s opera), known for staging controversial and avant-garde productions, often of non-standard repertory, Mortier also had been director of the Paris Opera and Salzburg Festival.

An obituary by Zachary Woolfe for The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/10/arts/music/gerard-mortier-opera-visionary-dies-at-70.html?hp&_r=0

Tuesday Evening Concerts 2014-15

The Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet with the American pianist Jon Nakamatsu will open the
2014-15 season of Charlottesville’s Tuesday Evening Concerts chamber-music series.

The season also will feature performances by pianist Marc-André Hamelin with the Canadian string orchestra Les Violons du Roy, the English Concert Baroque Orchestra, the Prazak and Jerusalem string quartets, violinist Augustin Hadelich with pianist Joyce Yang and pianist Nikolai Demidenko.

All concerts will begin at 7:30 p.m. (a new time) in Old Cabell Hall at the University of Virginia.

Season subscriptions, $65-$195, are now on sale. For more information, call (434) 244-9505 or visit www.tecs.org

Dates, artists and programs for the coming season:

Oct. 14 – Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet with Jon Nakamatsu, piano. Mozart-Hasel: Fantasy, K. 608, for mechanical organ; Mozart: Quintet in E flat major, K. 452; Hindemith: “Kleine Kammermusik,” Op. 24, No. 2; Thuille: Sextet in B flat major, Op. 6.

Oct. 28 – English Concert Baroque Orchestra, Harry Bicket directing. J.S. Bach: Sinfonia, BWV 42 (“Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats”); Telemann: Suite in F major for two horns and strings; Graun: Concerto for horn and oboe d’amore; J.S. Bach: Suite in C major.

Nov. 11 – Prazak Quartet. Jakub Jan Ryba: String Quartet No. 2 in D minor; Janaček: Quartet No. 2 (“Intimate Letters”); Smetana: Quartet No. 1 in E minor (“From My Life”).

Feb. 17 – Jerusalem Quartet. Haydn: Quartet in G minor (“Rider”); Erwin Schulhoff: “Five Pieces;” Schubert: Quartet in D minor (“Death and the Maiden”).

March 17 – Les Violons du Roy with Marc-André Hamelin, piano. Mozart: Rondo in A major, K. 386; Haydn: Piano Concerto in D major; Haydn: Symphony No. 45 in F sharp minor (“Farewell”).

March 31 – Augustin Hadelich, violin, and Joyce Yang, piano. Stravinsky: “Suite Italianne;” Kurtág: “Tre Pezzi;” Schumann: Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105; Franck: Sonata in A Major; Sarasate: “Carmen Fantasy.”

April 21 – Nikolai Demidenko, piano. Schubert: Sonata in A Major, D. 664; Schubert: Sonata in A minor, D. 784; Chopin: “Polonaise-Fantasy;” Chopin: Barcarolle; Chopin: Sonata No. 3 in B minor.

Review: Emanuel Ax

March 5, University of Richmond

Emanuel Ax playing Brahms: For any classical concertgoer, that’s a no-brainer – witness the full house that greeted the eminent pianist.

Ax delivered, although not quite as expected.

The first surprise was the bright, at times almost glaring, tone he produced on the University of Richmond’s Steinway in the early (Op. 2) Sonata No. 2 in F sharp minor, vs. the more burnished sound heard in the later Op. 119 piano pieces and “Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel,” Op. 24.

The difference was not inappropriate. In its first movement and sections of subsequent ones, Op. 2 is far from “autumnal” Brahms, and not much like the music of his mentors, Robert and Clara Schumann. In a blindfold test, even some knowledgeable listeners might mistake these sections for music by some piano virtuoso of the mid-19th century. A more recognizeable Brahms emerges in time, especially in the scherzo’s central section and the sonata’s finale. Ax traced this evolution brilliantly.

The second surprise was the mixture of the three intermezzos and concluding Rhapsody in E flat major of the Op. 119 set with three short pieces forming “Hommage à Brahms” by the Australian violist-composer Brett Dean. Dean’s harmonic language is not too far removed from that of Brahms in Op. 119, his last solo-piano works; and Ax’s phrasing and dynamic treatment of the contemporary pieces linked them even more audibly to the old master. The one really jarring transition was between the last of Dean’s pieces, sounding like an otherworldly nocturne, and the Brahms Rhapsody, which tonally and rhetorically is an echo of the high-romantic composer.

Another contemporary nod to Brahms, Missy Mazzoli’s “Bolts of Loving Thunder” (great title!), which Ax described as being inspired by Mazzoli’s practicing Brahms on the piano, could be called “Brahms through the looking (or listening) glass” – Brahmsian in structure, gesture and expressive arc, much less so in tone and harmonic language.

The “Handel Variations,” concluding the program, was the Brahms the audience came to hear, a canny balance of warm lyricism, grand rhetoric and understated playfulness, played by a musician whose mastery was such that it sounded almost like improvisation.

That would have sent everyone home happy. A bit of Schumann as an encore gave extra pleasure.

VCU books Josefowicz

Violinist Leila Josefowicz will perform in the April 12 Rennolds Chamber Concerts program at Virginia Commonwealth University, replacing the trio of violinist Pamela Frank, violist Nobuko Imai and cellist Clemens Hagen. Hagen cannot tour because of a medical condition.

Josefowicz, accompanied by pianist John Novacek, will play works by Schubert, Stravinsky and György Kurtág.

Tickets already issued for the Frank-Imai-Hagen trio will be honored at the Josefowicz concert, 8 p.m. April 12 in VCU's Singleton Arts Center, Park Avenue at Harrison Street in Richmond’s Fan District.

For more information, call the VCU Music Department box office at (804) 828-1166 or visit http://arts.vcu.edu/music/

Letter V Classical Radio this week

March 6
1-3 p.m. ET
1800-2000 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

trad. Carpathian: “Seremoj és Románca”
Apollo Ensemble (Navona)

Schubert: Quartet in A minor, D. 804 (“Rosamunde”)
Takács Quartet (Hyperion)

Leclair: Sonata in C major, Op. 3, No. 3
Florian Deuter & Monica Waisman, violins (Eloquentia)

Milhaud: “Suite provençale”
Lille National Orchestra/Jean-Claude Casadesus (Naxos)

Past Masters:
Richard Strauss: Horn Concerto No. 1 in E flat major
Dennis Brain, French horn
Philharmonia Orchestra/Wolfgang Sawallisch (EMI Classics)
(recorded 1956)

Haydn: Symphony No. 86 in D major
Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra/Dennis Russell Davies (Sony Classical)

Score survives fire and water

In 1898, the Spanish composer Enrique Granados introduced his opera “Maria del Carmen” to high praise in Madrid. In 1916, he took the score to New York, hoping to interest the Metropolitan Opera, without success.

Returning to Europe on an English ship, Granados and his wife died when the vessel was torpedoed by a German submarine. The score of “Maria del Carmen” survived.

Two decades later, it returned to New York, sold by the composer’s son to help finance Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War. Other members of the family wanted the score returned, and the question of ownership wound up in the courts. The legal battle ended in 1970, when the manuscript was believed lost in a fire.

Enter Walter Clark, a music professor at the University of California, Riverside, and biographer of Granados. Not convinced that the score had been destroyed, Clark commenced a hunt for the lost work. The manuscript was found in 2009, and acquired by the university. Now, it is being prepared for publication and a recording.

The remarkable tale is told in this report from Science Daily:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140303143255.htm

(via ArtsJournal, www.artsjournal.com)

In addition to boasting one of the great mustaches of music history, Granados (or his copyist) had splendid penmanship, a sample of which can be seen in the linked article.

Review: Richmond Symphony

Steven Smith conducting
with Anne Akiko Meyers, violin
March 1, Richmond CenterStage

Who knew dinosaurs could tango?

Mason Bates . . . well, sort of. The Richmond-bred composer’s Violin Concerto, which evokes the evolution of the bird-like dinosaur Archeopteryx into birds as we know them, is built on a musical cell of three notes – long-short-long – that, with a bit of swing, sounds quite like a tango rhythm, even more so as it is fleshed out into a five-note motif.

If that seems like a pretty thin basis for a concerto lasting nearly half an hour, recall what Beethoven made of da-da-da-dumm.

This piece, however, is not about epic classicism, nor really about paleontology. Bates wrote it to showcase the musicianship and temperament of Anne Akiko Meyers, a violinist who balances sizzling technique with a lyrical voice that reminds the composer of bird song. Meyers introduced the concerto in 2012 with the Pittsburgh Symphony, and played what Bates calls a “tweaked” revision late last year with the Detroit Symphony. (The latter performance can be seen and heard on the composer’s website: www.masonbates.com)

Unlike many of Bates’ orchestral works, the concerto does not employ electronic sounds; but many of the rhythmic and/or nature-inspired effects he uses electronica to produce are present here, coming from a busy percussion section, augmented at times by string players percussively patting the bodies of their fiddles, as well as generous coloristic effects apportioned throughout the orchestra.

Meyers’ playing in the first of two weekend concerts was technically assured – she all but romped through the challenges that Bates poses, especially in the final section, “The rise of birds” – and generally silvery in tone and playful in spirit. Her exchanges with orchestral sections and soloists were sensitively voiced, at times conversational.

Her stamina was almost as impressive as her technique. The concerto’s three sections segue into one another, and the soloist gets only a couple of real rests.

Bates’ Violin Concerto proved to be as tunefully, rhythmically listener-friendly as any piece of his that I’ve heard.

It shares the program with music of ominous portent and explosive expression: Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 in E minor, completed in 1953, the year of the death of Josef Stalin, the most sinister and bloody of the Soviet dictators. Its brutally energetic second-movement scherzo is said to be a sound-portrait of Stalin. The composer’s own four-note tonal autograph also figures prominently, as the hopeful motif that ultimately overcomes the earlier brutality.

Steven Smith, the Richmond Symphony’s music director, burnished his already well-established credentials as a Shostakovich interpreter. (His performance of the Fifth Symphony four years ago musically sealed the deal on his Richmond appointment.) From the dark opening measures, played by the low strings, to the work’s triumphant finale, the conductor showed unerring judgment in tempos, dynamics and tone coloration, as well as sensitivity to the deep moodiness pervading this symphony.

The orchestra delivered an assured and assertive account, even in the symphony’s most fevered or rarified passages. Violas, cellos and double-basses produced a sound of authentically Slavic darkness; violins sounded with extraordinary intensity. Among many solo cameos, the most striking came from bassoonist Tom Schneider and flutist Mary Boodell. And, as in the Bates concerto, the percussionists made a powerful impression.

It’s purely coincidental, but chillingly timely, that this echo from the depths of the old Soviet Union is being performed as the military of the neo-Soviet Russian regime of Vladimir Putin is seizing territory from neighboring Ukraine.

The program opens with “The Enchanted Lake” by Anatoli Liadov, a Russian composer of the late-19th and early 20th centuries. This moody little miniature, which garnishes a rather understated Russian romantic style with impressionistic effects (imagine a reticent Scriabin), received a deft performance from Smith and the orchestra.

The program repeats at 3 p.m. March 2 at the Carpenter Theatre of Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets. Tickets: $10-$76. Details: (800) 514-3849 (ETIX); www.richmondsymphony.com

March 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: The Richmond Symphony opens the month with its music director, Steven Smith, conducting performances of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 and the Violin Concerto of Richmond-bred Mason Bates, with Anne Akiko Meyers as the soloist, March 1-2 at Richmond CenterStage. . . . The Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra, joined by violinist Delaney Turner, plays Vaughan Williams, Shostakovich, Bach and more in a free concert on March 2 at Richmond CenterStage. . . . Pianist Emanuel Ax returns for a program of Brahms, garnished with recent works by Missy Mazzoli and Brett Dean, March 5 at the University of Richmond’s Modlin Arts Center. . . .  Cirque de la Symphonie joins Erin R. Freeman and the Richmond Symphony Pops, March 8 at Richmond CenterStage. . . . The Richmond Philharmonic and its new music director, Peter Wilson, perform works of Beethoven, Brahms and Richard Strauss, March 9 at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Singleton Center. . . . Lyric Opera Virginia presents a 90-minute condensation of Puccini’s “La Bohème,” March 15 at UR’s Modlin Center (more dates in Williamsburg, Virginia Beach and Hampton). . . . Steven Smith conducts the finale of this season’s Richmond Symphony LolliPops series, “The Remarkable Farkle McBride,” featuring Scott Wichmann as narrator, March 15 at Richmond CenterStage. . . . The Murray-Lohuis Duo and members of the Richmond chapter of the American Guild of Organists perform in a “J.S. Bach Birthday Marathon,” March 16 at Bethlehem Lutheran Church. . . . The new-music sextet eighth blackbird plays new and recent works by Brett Dean, Bryce Dessner, David Little, Steve Mackey and Richard Reed Parry, March 19 at UR’s Modlin Center. . . . Pianist Charles Staples is joined by tenor Tracey Welborn and French horn player Rachel Velvikis in a program of Chopin, Britten and more, March 20 at VCU’s Singleton Arts Center. . . . The combined choirs of St. James’s, St. Paul’s and St. Stephen’s Episcopal churches perform Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms” and Ola Vjeilo’s “Sunrise” Mass, March 22 at St. James’s. . . . The Greater Richmond Children’s Choir, Capitol Opera Richmond and River Road Church, Baptist, present free performances of Benjamin Britten’s “Noye’s Fludde,” March 22-23 at the church. . . . The Richmond Choral Society sings works by Handel, Dvořák, Morten Lauridsen and others, March 23 at Trinity Lutheran Church. . . . The Garth Newel Piano Quartet performs works of Fauré, Louise Héritte-Viardot and Paul Moravec, March 24 at UR’s Modlin Center. . . . Cellist Alisa Weilerstein visits the area for two concert dates with pianist Inon Barnatan, March 25 at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and March 29 at VCU’s Singleton Center, as well as headlining VCU’s “Cellopalooza 6” day-long instructional event on March 29. . . . Julia Brown performs in the American Guild of Organists’ Repertoire Recital Series, March 30 at St. Benedict Catholic Church.

* Noteworthy elsewhere: The piano duo Anderson & Roe performs at Virginia Tech’s Center for the Arts on March 2. . . . Pianist Murray Perahia plays Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and Schumann, March 4 at Strathmore in the Maryland suburbs of DC. . . . Violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg joins Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony for a program of Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich, March 6 at Strathmore. . . . Soprano Renée Fleming stars in a concert presentation of Richard Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier” with Christoph Eschenbach conducting the National Symphony, March 8 at Washington’s Kennedy Center. . . . Norfolk native Thomas Wilkins conducts the Virginia Symphony in Bernstein, Sibelius and more, March 14 at Christopher Newport University’s Ferguson Arts Center in Newport News, March 15 at Chrysler Hall in Norfolk. . . . David Stewart Wiley conducts the Roanoke Symphony in the premiere of Scott Brown’s “Blue Ridge Rhapsody,” as well as works of Stravinsky and Prokofiev, March 17 at the Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre. . . . Gustavo Dudamel conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic in works by Tchaikovsky and Corigliano, March 18 at the Kennedy Center. . . . Virginia Opera stages Bizet’s “Carmen” on March 21, 23 and 25 at Norfolk’s Harrison Opera House and March 28-29 at the Sandler Arts Center in Virginia Beach (additional dates in April in Richmond and Fairfax). . . . Opera Roanoke presents Handel’s “Julius Caesar,” March 21 and 23 at the Jefferson Center. . . . The Charlottesville & University Symphony, Kate Tamarkin conducting, is joined by trombonist Nathan Dishman for the premiere of Richmond composer Antonio Garcia’s “London Town Fantasy,” on a program also featuring music of Haydn, Brahms and Launy Grondahl, March 22 at UVa, March 23 at Monticello High School. . . . Gianandrea Noseda conducts the Israel Philharmonic in an all-French program, March 30 at the Kennedy Center.


March 1 (8 p.m.)
March 2 (3 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony
Steven Smith conducting
Liadov: “The Enchanted Lake”
Mason Bates: Violin Concerto
Anne Akiko Meyers, violin
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10
$10-$76
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
www.richmondsymphony.com

March 1 (8 p.m.)
Regent University Theater, 1000 Regent University Drive, Virginia Beach
Virginia Symphony
Benjamin Rous conducting
Beethoven: “Leonore” Overture No. 3
Rodrigo: “Concierto de Aranjuez”
Artryom Dervoed, guitar
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 1
$22-$67
(757) 892-6366
www.virginiasymphony.org

March 1 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach conducting
Beethoven: Symphony No. 1
Widmann: Violin Concerto
Christian Tetzlaff, violin
Beethoven: Symphony No. 2
$10-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

March 2 (7 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra
Peter C. Jacobson conducting
Rimsky-Korsakov: “Capriccio espagnol”
Vaughan Williams: “The Lark Ascending”
Delaney Turner, violin
J.S. Bach: Fugue in G minor (“Little”)
Elgar: “Nimrod” from “Enigma Variations”
Johann Strauss II: “Die Fledermaus” Overture
free
(804) 788-1212
www.richmondsymphony.com

March 2 (3 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg
Anderson & Roe piano duo
J.S. Bach-Reger: “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 3
Stravinsky: “The Adoration of the Earth” from “The Rite of Spring”
J.S. Bach-Anderson & Roe: “Erbarme dich” from “St. Matthew Passion”
Radiohead-Anderson & Roe: “Paranoid Android” from “OK Computer”
Mozart-Anderson & Roe: “Papageno! Fantasy on Airs from ‘The Magic Flute’ ”
Mozart-Anderson & Roe: ”Soave sia il vento” from “Cosí fan tutte”
Mozart-Anderson & Roe: “Ragtime alla turca” (after “Rondo alla turca”)
Rachmaninoff: Vocalise
Bizet-Anderson & Roe: “Carmen Fantasy”
$20-$30
(540) 231-5300
www.artscenter.vt.edu

March 2 (2 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Julia Bullock, soprano
Renate Rohlfing, piano
program TBA
$35
(202) 985-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org

March 2 (5 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
The Washington Chorus
Julian Wachner directing
“The Essential Verdi”
excerpts from “Aïda,” “La Traviata,” “Il Trovatore,” “Nabucco”
Corinne Winters & Othalie Graham, sopranos
Ola Rafalo, mezzo-soprano
Issachah Savage, tenor
Peter Volpe, bass
$15-$70
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

March 3 (8 p.m.)
St. Patrick Catholic School, 1000 Bolling Ave., Norfolk
Feldman Chamber Music Society:
Minetti String Quartet
Beethoven: Quartet in G major, Op. 18, No. 2
Pärt: “Fratres I”
Mendelssohn: Quartet in E minor, Op. 44, No. 2
$25
(757) 552-1630
www.feldmanchambermusic.org

March 3 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Peter Spaar, double-bass
pianist TBA
Eccles: Sonata in G minor
Hindemith: Sonata for double-bass and piano
Bottesini: Elegy
Spaar: original works TBA
Burtner: “Falls”
$15
(434) 924-3376
www.music.virginia.edu/events

March 4 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Murray Perahia, piano
Bach: “French Suite” No. 4
Beethoven: Sonata in F minor, Op. 57 (“Appassionata”)
Schumann: “Papillons,” Op. 2
Chopin: Nocturne in B major, Op. 62, No. 1
Chopin: études, Op. 25, Nos. 1, 5
Chopin: Étude in E flat major, Op. 10, No. 4
Chopin: Scherzo in B flat minor, Op. 31
$35-$105
(202) 985-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org

March 4 (8 p.m.)
Williamsburg Library Theatre, 515 Scotland St.
Chamber Music Society of Williamsburg:
Minetti String Quartet
Beethoven: Quartet in G major, Op. 18, No. 2
Pärt: “Fratres I”
Mendelssohn: Quartet in E minor, Op. 44, No. 2
$15 (waiting list)
(757) 229-0385
www.chambermusicwilliamsburg.org

March 5 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
Emanuel Ax, piano
Brahms: “Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel,” Op. 24
Missy Mazzoli: new work TBA
Brahms: Sonata in F sharp minor, Op. 2
Brahms: “Klavierstücke,” Op. 118
Brett Dean: new work TBA
Brahms: Variations from Sextet in B flat major, Op. 18
$36
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu

March 6 (7:30 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Symphony
Daniel Myssyk conducting
Franz Josef Strauss: Horn Concerto
Kevin Newton, French horn
Bottesini: Concerto for double-bass (first movement)
Vasilije Gagovic, double-bass
works TBA by Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky
$7 in advance, $10 day of event
(804) 828-6776
http://arts.vcu.edu/music/events

March 6 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop conducting
Rachmaninoff: Vocalise
Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin
Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances
$31-$94
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
www.strathmore.org

March 8 (8 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony Pops
Erin R. Freeman conducting
Cirque de la Symphonie
works by Shostakovich, Brahms, Bernstein, Saint-Saëns, Tchaikovsky, others
$10-$58
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
www.richmondsymphony.com

March 8 (8 p.m.)
Chrysler Hall, 215 St. Paul’s Boulevard, Norfolk
March 9 (2:30 p.m.)
Sandler Arts Center, 201 Market St., Virginia Beach
Virginia Symphony Pops
Benjamin Rous conducting
“VSO Pops Salutes Broadway”
program TBA
$22-$90
(757) 892-6366
www.virginiasymphony.org

March 8 (6 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach conducting
Richard Strauss: “Der Rosenkavalier” (concert presentation)
Renée Fleming (Marschallin)
Sarah Connolly (Octavian)
Marisol Montalvo (Sophie)
Frank Hawlata (Ochs)
Adrian Eröd (Faninal)
in German, English captions
$30-$250
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

March 8 (8 p.m.)
March 9 (3 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
National Philharmonic
Michal Dworzynski conducting
Stanislaw Moniuszko: “Bajka (Fairy Tale)” Overture
Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1
Brian Ganz, piano
Mozart: Symphony No. 39
$28-$84
(301) 581-5100
www.strathmore.org

March 9 (4 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Richmond Philharmonic
Peter Wilson conducting
Beethoven: “Leonore” Overture No. 3
Richard Strauss: “Death and Transfiguration”
Brahms: Symphony No. 2
$8 in advance, $10 at door
(804) 673-7400
www.richmondphilharmonic.org

March 9 (3:30 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Virginia Consort
Judith Gray conducting
Mozart: Mass in C minor (“Great”)
soloists TBA
$35
(434) 924-3376
www.music.virginia.edu/events

March 9 (2 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Kennedy Center Chamber Players
Glinka: “Trio Pathétique”
Colgrass: Variations for four drums and viola
Brahms: Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34
$35
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

March 13 (7 p.m.)
March 14 (8 p.m.)
March 15 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos conducting
Debussy: Nocturnes Nos. 1-2
Rachmaninoff: “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini”
Daniil Trifonov, piano
De Falla: “El amor brujo”
Kelley O’Connor, mezzo-soprano
Respighi: “The Pines of Rome”
$10-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

March 14 (8 p.m.)
Kimball Theatre, Merchants Square, Williamsburg
March 15 (8 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
March 16 (2:30 p.m.)
Price Auditorium, Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, 2200 Parks Ave., Virginia Beach
March 18 (8 p.m.)
Ogden Hall, Hampton University, Hampton
Lyric Opera Virginia
Joseph Walsh conducting
Puccini: “La Bohème” (condensed version)
Melissa Shippen (Mimi)
Won Whi Choi (Rodolfo)
Michael Wyandt (Marcello)
Kristina Bachrach (Musetta)
Chase Peak (Shaunard)
Adam Richardson (Colline)
LOV Children’s Chorus
Stephanie Vlahos, stage director
$35
(757) 446-6666
www.lyricoperavirginia.org

March 14 (8 p.m.)
Ferguson Arts Center, Christopher Newport University, Newport News
March 15 (8 p.m.)
Chrysler Hall, 215 St. Paul’s Boulevard, Norfolk
Virginia Symphony
Thomas Wilkins conducting
Bernstein: “Candide” Overture
Barber: Essay No. 1
Roberto Sierra: Concerto for saxophones
James Carter, saxophones
Sibelius: Symphony No. 2
$22-$105
(757) 892-6366
www.virginiasymphony.org

March 15 (11 a.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony LolliPops
Steven Smith conducting
Scott Wichmann, narrator
Sterling Elliott, cello
John Lithgow’s “The Remarkable Farkle McBride”
$10
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
www.richmondsymphony.com

March 15 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Jonathan Carney & Madeline Adkins, violins & leaders
J.S. Bach: “Brandenburg” concertos Nos. 1-6
$36-$99
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
www.strathmore.org

March 16 (3 p.m.)
Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Grace and Ryland streets, Richmond
Murray-Lohuis Duo
members of Richmond chapter, American Guild of Organists
“J.S. Bach Birthday Marathon”
works TBA
free
(804) 814-6677
www.richmondago.org

March 16 (7 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Festival Chorus 2014
Z. Randall Stroope directing
works TBA by Telemann, Stroope, Paulus
$49-$79
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

March 16 (3 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Escolania de Montserrat boys choir
program TBA
$25-$35
(301) 581-5100
www.strathmore.org

March 17 (8 p.m.)
Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre, Orange Avenue at Williamson Road
Roanoke Symphony
David Stewart Wiley conducting
Scott Brown: “Blue Ridge Rhapsody” (premiere)
Stravinsky: “The Firebird” Suite
Prokofiev: “Alexander Nevsky”
Tara Bouknight, mezzo-soprano
Roanoke Symphony Chorus
guest choruses TBA
$29-$43
(540) 343-9127
www.rso.com

March 18 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Oni Buchanan, piano
Jon Woodward, reciter
John Gibson & Jon Woodward: “Uncanny Valley”
free
(434) 924-3376
www.music.virginia.edu/events

March 18 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Gustavo Dudamel conducting
Corigliano: Symphony No. 1
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5
$55-$175
(202) 985-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org

March 19 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
eighth blackbird
“Still in Motion”
Brett Dean: Sextet (“Old Kings in Exile”) (2010)
Bryce Dessner: “Murder Ballades” (2013)
David Little: “and the sky was still there” (2010)
Steve Mackey: “Slide” Suite (2012)
Richard Reed Parry: “Duet for Heart and Breath” (2012)
$20
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu

March 20 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Charles Staples, piano
Tracey Welborn, tenor
Rachel Velvikis, French horn
Chopin: Ballade in F minor, Op. 52
Chopin: Sonata in B flat minor, Op. 35 (“Funeral March”)
Britten: “Still Falls the Rain”
songs TBA by Richard Hageman, Louis Campbell-Tipton, Vittorio Giannini, Edward Horsman
free
(804) 828-6776
http://arts.vcu.edu/music/events

March 20 (7:30 p.m.)
American Theatre, 125 E. Mellen St., Hampton
Trio Valtorna
Schumann: Adagio and Allegro for horn and piano
Brahms: Sonata in G major, Op. 78
Brahms: Horn Trio in E flat major, Op. 40
$25-$30
(757) 722-2787
www.hamptonarts.net/american-theatre/purchase-tickets

March 20 (7 p.m.)
March 21 (8 p.m.)
March 22 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach conducting
Richard Strauss: “Don Juan”
Richard Strauss: “Recognition Scene” from “Elektra”
Richard Strauss: “Dance of the Seven Veils” and final scene from “Salome”
Iréne Theorin, soprano
John Relyea, bass-baritone
$10-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

March 20 (7:30 p.m.)
March 22 (7 p.m.)
March 23 (2 p.m.)
March 24 (7 p.m.)
March 25 (7:30 p.m.)
March 26 (7:30 p.m.)
March 28 (7:30 p.m.)
March 29 (7 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Opera House, Washington
Washington National Opera
Ward Stare conducting
Donizetti: “The Elixir of Love”
Ailyn Pérez/Sarah Coburn (Adina)
Stephen Costello/Daniel Montenegro (Nemorino)
Simone Alberghini/Aleksey Bogdanov (Belcore)
Nicola Ulivieri/Peixin Chen (Dulcamara)
Stephen Lawless, stage director
in Italian, English captions
$25-$300
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

March 21 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Novus Percutere Percussion Duo
works TBA by Steve Reich, Philip Glass, others
free
(804) 828-6776
http://arts.vcu.edu/music/events

March 21 (8 p.m.)
March 23 (2:30 p.m.)
March 25 (7:30 p.m.)
Harrison Opera House, 160 E. Virginia Beach Boulevard, Norfolk
Virginia Opera
John DeMain conducting
Bizet: “Carmen”
Ginger Costa-Jackson (Carmen)
Dinyar Vania (Don José)
Ryan Kuster (Escamillio)
Corrine Winters (Micaela)
Matthew Scollin (Zuniga)
Hunter Enoch (Morales)
Jeni Houser (Frasquita)
Courtney Miller (Mercedes)
Tazewell Thompson, stage director
in French, English captions
$29-$114
(866) 673-7282
www.vaopera.org

March 21 (8 p.m.)
March 23 (2:30 p.m.)
Shaftman Performance Hall, Jefferson Center, 541 Luck Ave. SW, Roanoke
Opera Roanoke
Scott Williamson conducting
Handel: “Julius Caesar”
Amy Cofield Williamson (Cleopatra)
Teresa Bucholz (Caesar)
Carla Dirlikov (Cornelia)
Toby Newman (Sesto)
$32-$106
(540) 345-2550
www.operaroanoke.org

March 22 (4 p.m.)
March 23 (4 p.m.)
River Road Church, Baptist, River and Ridge roads, Richmond
Greater Richmond Children’s Choir
Capitol Opera Richmond
orchestra
conductor TBA
Britten: “Noye’s Fludde”
cast TBA
free
(804) 288-1131
www.grcchoir.org

March 22 (8 p.m.)
St. James’s Episcopal Church, 1205 W. Franklin St., Richmond
Combined choirs of St. James’s, St. Paul’s & St. Stephen’s Episcopal churches
director TBA
Bernstein: “Chichester Psalms”
Ola Vjeilo: “Sunrise” Mass
donation requested
(804) 355-1779
www.doers.org/music/music-schedule

March 22 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
March 23 (3:30 p.m.)
Monticello High School, 1000 Independence Way, Charlottesville
Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra
Kate Tamarkin conducting
Brahms: “Variations on a Theme by Haydn”
Launy Grondahl: Trombone Concerto
Antonio Garcia: “London Town Fantasy” for trombone and orchestra (premiere)
Nathan Dishman, trombone
Haydn: Symphony No. 104 (“London”)
$10-$40
(434) 924-3376
www.music.virginia.edu/events

March 22 (8 p.m.)
March 23 (2 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
Fairfax Symphony
Christopher Zimmerman conducting
Varèse: “Octandre”
Britten: Nocturne, Op. 60, for tenor, seven obligato instruments and strings
William Hite, tenor
Shostakovich-Barshai: Chamber Symphony in D major, Op. 83a
Mozart: Symphony No. 27
$25-$60
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
www.fairfaxsymphony.org

March 22 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
John Storgårds conducting
Vaughan Williams: “Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis”
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor
Baiba Skride, violin
Sibelius: Symphony No. 1
$36-$99
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
www.strathmore.org

March 23 (4 p.m.)
Trinity Lutheran Church, 2315 N. Parham Road, Richmond
Richmond Choral Society
Markus Compton directing
“Great Choral Masterpieces”
works TBA by Handel, Dvořák, Morten Lauridsen, others
$20
(804) 353-9582
www.richmondchoralsociety.org

March 23 (4 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Richmond Guitar Quartet
program TBA
$10-$15
(804) 828-6776
http://arts.vcu.edu/music/events

March 23 (3 p.m.)
Washington Street United Methodist Church, 22 E. Washington St., Petersburg
Andrew Scanlon, organ
works TBA by Bach, Mendelssohn, Langlais, William Bolcom, others
free
(804) 733-7041

March 24 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
Garth Newel Piano Quartet
Louise Héritte-Viardot: “Spanish” Quartet
Paul Moravec: Piano Quartet
Fauré: Piano Quartet No. 2 in G minor
free
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu

March 24 (7:30 p.m.)
Playhouse Theatre, Luck Leadership Center, St. Christopher’s School, 711 St. Christopher’s Road, Richmond
Oberon Quartet
works TBA by Ravel, Mason Bates
free
(804) 282-3185
www.stchristophers.com

March 24 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Seung-Hye Kim, piano
Jon Bellona: “Youngman/Overholt”
Kevin Davis: “Five Enactive Studies”
Erik Deluca: “Six Days”
Ryan Maguire: “Felt”
Maxwell Tfirn: “Shifting Spaces”
Paul Turowski: “Movement”
Kristina Warren: “Circles”
Judith Shatin: “To Keep the Dark Away”
Seung-Hye Kim: “Junctions and Parallels”
free
(434) 924-3376
www.music.virginia.edu/events

March 25 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Tuesday Evening Concerts:
Alisa Weilerstein, cello
Inon Barnatan, piano
Debussy: Sonata for cello and piano
Schubert-Weilerstein-Barnatan: Fantasia in C major, D. 934
Auerbach: “Seven Preludes” (after Shostakovich: 24 preludes, Op. 34)
Rachmaninoff: Cello Sonata in G minor
$12-$33
(434) 924-3376
www.tecs.org

March 26 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Yin Zheng, piano
Bin Huang, violin
Mozart: sonatas TBA for piano and violin
free
(804) 828-6776
http://arts.vcu.edu/music/events

March 28 (8 p.m.)
March 29 (2:30 p.m.)
Sandler Arts Center, 201 Market St., Virginia Beach
Virginia Opera
John DeMain conducting
Bizet: “Carmen”
Ginger Costa-Jackson (Carmen)
Dinyar Vania (Don José)
Ryan Kuster (Escamillio)
Corrine Winters (Micaela)
Matthew Scollin (Zuniga)
Hunter Enoch (Morales)
Jeni Houser (Frasquita)
Courtney Miller (Mercedes)
Tazewell Thompson, stage director
in French, English captions
$37-$110
(866) 673-7282
www.vaopera.org

March 28 (8 p.m.)
March 29 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra Pops
Steven Reineke conducting
Nas, guest artist
“One Mic”
program TBA
$20-$110
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

March 29 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Rennolds Chamber Concerts:
Alisa Weilerstein, cello
Inon Barnatan, piano
program TBA
$34
(804) 828-6776
http://arts.vcu.edu/music/events

March 29 (3:30 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Virginia Women’s Chorus
director TBA
program TBA
ticket prices TBA
(434) 924-3376
www.music.virginia.edu/events

March 29 (8 p.m.)
University Baptist Church, 1223 W. Main St., Charlottesville
Virginia Glee Club
Wellesley College Choir
Frank Albinder directing
Vaughan Williams: “Dona nobis pacem”
other works TBA
$15
(434) 924-3376
www.music.virginia.edu/events

March 30 (3 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
Richard Becker & Doris Wylee-Becker, piano duo
program TBA
free
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu

March 30 (8 p.m.)
St. Benedict Catholic Church, 300 N. Sheppard St., Richmond
American Guild of Organists Repertoire Recital Series:
Julia Brown, organ
works TBA by Buxtehude, Sweelinck, J.S. Bach, others
donation requested
(804) 254-8810
www.richmondago.org

March 30 (7 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
Jeffrey Siegel, piano
“Keyboard Conversations: The Romantic Music of Chopin”
Chopin: Polonaise in A flat major, Op. 53
Chopin: Scherzo in B flat minor, Op. 31
Chopin: waltzes, nocturnes, études TBA
$19-$38
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
www.cfa.gmu.edu

March 30 (7 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Israel Philharmonic
Gianandrea Noseda conducting
Fauré: “Pelléas et Mélisande” Suite
Ravel: “Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose)” Suite
Ravel: “Daphnis et Chloé” Suite No. 2
Berlioz: “Symphonie fantastique”
$55-$175
(202) 985-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org

March 31 (7 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
UVa New Music Ensemble
University Chamber Singers
Mobile Interactive Computer Ensemble
“Ode to Glass”
Philip Glass: works TBA
free
(434) 924-3376
www.music.virginia.edu/events