$148,000 to plant poppies

In the ongoing skirmishing between the Metropolitan Opera and its employee unions over labor costs, the company has “pulled back the curtain” to detail costs of staging its $4.3 million production of Borodin’s “Prince Igor.” The Wall Street Journal’s Jennifer Maloney crunches some numbers:

http://online.wsj.com/articles/new-yorks-metropolitan-opera-opens-its-budget-curtain-1401416711

(via www.artsjournal.com)

Verboten no more

Linz, Austria, which Adolf Hitler claimed as his hometown (his birthplace was Braunau am Inn, a town on the Austrian-Bavarian border), celebrates music that Hitler’s Nazis banned as “degenerate:”

http://slippedisc.com/2014/05/hitlers-birthplace-plans-week-of-decadent-dancing/

(via Norman Lebrecht)

Freeman takes VCU-symphony post

Erin R. Freeman, outgoing associate conductor of the Richmond Symphony, has been appointed to a new joint position as director of choral activities at Virginia Commonwealth University and director of the Richmond Symphony Chorus. She has led the chorus since 2007.

The new post is being “piloted” as a one-year,
non-tenure faculty appointment at VCU for the 2014-15 academic year.

Freeman’s future with the Symphony Chorus had been uncertain since her appointment last July as director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus.

Taking the new Richmond post means that she “will be continuing her exceptionally fine work with the [Symphony] Chorus, as well as becoming a leader in this heightened collaboration with VCU,” Steven Smith, the symphony’s music director, said in a prepared statement.

“We are delighted that Dr. Freeman will be lending her formidable talents to the VCU community, and we are excited about the potential of this new collaboration” with the symphony, said Daryl V. Harper, chair of the VCU Music Department.

In addition to new responsibilities at VCU, Freeman faces a busy 2014-15 season of performances. The Richmond Symphony Chorus will sing in Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony (No. 2), Handel’s “Messiah,” Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms,” the “Let It Snow!” holiday pops program and a Duke Ellington program with church and community choirs. The Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus schedule includes Rachmaninoff’s “The Bells,” Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, a Martin Luther King Jr. commemorative concert and several Christmas and pops engagements.

A native of Atlanta, Freeman sang in the Atlanta Symphony Chorus under Robert Shaw’s direction, and later became a member of his chamber chorus, the Robert Shaw Singers. She came to Richmond in 2004 to conduct the Richmond Philharmonic. She was hired as the Richmond Symphony’s assistant conductor in 2006, and subsequently was promoted to associate conductor. She also led the American University Symphony Orchestra in Washington, and has guest-conducted a number of ensembles.

Freeman has degrees from Northwestern University and Boston University and a doctorate in orchestral conducting from the Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University.

Letter V Classical Radio this week

May 29
noon-4 p.m. EDT
1600-2000 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Glinka: “Jota aragonesa”
BBC Philharmonic/Vassily Sinaisky (Chandos)

Albéniz: “Iberia” – “El Corpus in Sevilla,”
“Málaga,” “Eritaña”
Marc-André Hamelin, piano (Hyperion)

Ginastera: “Variaciones concertantes”
Richmond Sinfonia/George Manahan (Elan)

Haydn: Symphony No. 86 in D major
Orchestra of the 18th Century/Frans Brüggen (Philips)

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466
Leif Ove Andsnes, piano & director
Norwegian Chamber Orchestra (EMI Classics)

Beethoven: “Eroica Variations,” Op. 35
Ronald Brautigam, fortepiano (Bis)

Ravel: “Valses nobles et sentimentales”
Alexandre Tharaud, piano (Harmonia Mundi France)

Schubert: Fantasy in C major, D. 934
Jennifer Koh, violin; Reiko Uchida, piano (Cedille)

Stravinsky: “Suite Italienne”
Leonidas Kavakos, violin; Péter Nagy, piano (ECM)

Past Masters:
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto
in D major
Leonid Kogan, violin
Paris Conservatoire Orchestra/Constantin Silvestri (EMI Classics)
(recorded 1959)

Rachmaninoff: “Étude-tableau” in E flat minor,
Op. 39, No. 5
Yuja Wang, piano (Deutsche Grammophon)

Clueless tour guides

The Dallas Morning News’ Scott Cantrell writes that young American conductors, while technically adept and attractive to audiences, too often lack a sense of phrasing, fail to understand tension and release, and otherwise don’t let music breathe:

http://www.dallasnews.com/entertainment/columnists/scott-cantrell/20140510-conductor-or-automaton-the-machining-of-american-orchestra-conductors.ece

Cantrell suggests that conducting students receive more grounding in song and dance, approximating the old European practice of putting young conductors through apprenticeships in opera and ballet.

I would add more teaching of history, and not just for young conductors. In my experience, most musicians are clueless about the societies and social currents that informed the music they play.

If you don’t know about a society’s manners and mores, aspirations and priorities, patterns of speech, pace of life, you’ll be at a great disadvantage when trying to grasp the style and subtleties of its music.

Take something as basic as tempo: Brahms, Tchaikovsky and other late-romantics frequently used the tempo indication allegro ma non troppo – fast, but not too fast. Their understanding of that pace almost certainly would differ from the way an early 21st-century composer would perceive it.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I, an ordeal that radically transformed politics, society and culture in Europe and elsewhere. From our perspective, the world before that war might as well be a different planet. Classical musicians constantly take listeners to that place, but have no idea about what it was like to inhabit it. That shows in their performances.

Letter V Classical Radio this week

May 22
noon-4 p.m. EDT
1600-2000 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Mason Bates: “Mothership”
Alex Burgoyne, saxophone; David Gonzalez Jr., trombone; Kelsey Patterson, flute;
Caleb Miller, piano
Ohio University Wind Symphony/Andrew Trachsel (John Mark Records)

Rameau: Suite from
“Les Boréades”
Orchestra of the 18th Century/Frans Brüggen (Philips)

Anna Clyne: “Prince of Clouds”
Jennifer Koh & Jaime Laredo, violins
Curtis 20/21 Ensemble/Vinay Parameswaran (Cedille)

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 16 in D major, K. 451
Robert Levin, fortepiano
Academy of Ancient Music/Christopher Hogwood (L’Oiseau Lyre)

C.P.E. Bach: Cello Concerto in A minor, Wq 170
Peter Bruns, cello
Akademie für alte Musik, Berlin/Stephan Mai (Harmonia Mundi France)

Stravinsky: Concertino
Boston Symphony Chamber Players (Eloquence)

Johann David Heinichen: Concerto in F major, S. 235
Musica Antiqua Köln/Reinhard Goebel (DG Archiv)

Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic/Vasily Petrenko (Avie)

Past Masters:
Dukas: Villanelle
Dennis Brain, French horn; Wilfrid Parry, piano (BBC Music)
(recorded 1957)

J.S. Bach: “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 2 in F major, BWV 1047
Maurice André, trumpet; Janos Rolla, violin & director; Maxence Larrieu, flute; Bernard Schenkel, oboe
Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra (EMI Classics)

Brahms: Serenade in D major, Op. 11
(reconstruction of original version)
Czech Nonet (Praga)

San Diego Opera comes back to life

Good news on the troubled-arts-troupe front: The San Diego Opera, whose board decided in March to shut down the company, has been revived after a “crowd-funding” campaign raised $1.6 million and activated a $500,000 matching grant. It will stage three productions next season, The New York Times’ Michael Cooper reports:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/20/arts/music/san-diego-opera-raises-money-to-remain-open.html?ref=music&_r=0

A less grand, more streamlined opera company is not such a bad idea, opines The Washington Post’s Anne Midgette:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style/wp/2014/05/19/opera-today-san-diego-rides-again-the-fat-lady-wont-go-away/

Noisy in New York

The New York Times’ reviewers have begun to tally the disruptions-by-cell-phone that seem to have become a fixture of concerts in the city. The latest instances, in performances by Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, as reported by James R. Oestreich (scroll down in the review):

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/19/arts/music/mariss-jansons-leads-the-bavarian-in-berlioz-and-shostakovich.html?ref=music

More pointed comments on the subject, written earlier in the month by Anthony Tommasini:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/05/arts/music/philadelphia-orchestra-performs-at-carnegie-hall.html

I briefly carried a cell phone, but got rid of it because I could barely hear callers and never could figure out how to turn off the thing. A clearly visible on-off switch apparently was too low-tech for the manufacturer. Could that be the problem in New York?

ADDENDUM: Even noisier in Berlin, a member of the audience at a Claudio Abbado memorial concert tells Norman Lebrecht:

http://slippedisc.com/2014/05/disturbances-at-berlins-abbado-memorial-concert/

Review: Richmond Symphony

with soloists,
Richmond Symphony Chorus,
Virginia Symphony Chorus members
Steven Smith conducting
May 17, Richmond CenterStage

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s “Faust” is a drama meant to be read, not staged – imagined rather than seen. That being the case, Hector Berlioz’s “The Damnation of Faust,” an opera meant to be performed without costumes and sets, could be the most faithful of the many musical adaptations of Goethe’s masterwork.

The Richmond Symphony’s concert production, concluding the orchestra’s 2013-14 season, is as dramatically potent as any staged opera seen and heard here in recent years.

As he did two years ago with another Goethe-derived unstaged drama, Mendelssohn’s “Die erste Walpurgisnacht,” conductor Steven Smith shows a real gift for delivering a theatrical punch without theatrical trappings, by turning the orchestra and Richmond Symphony Chorus – this time, supplemented with singers from the Virginia Symphony Chorus – into tonal scene-painters and actors.

With a lot of help from Berlioz, of course: No composer of the 19th century, not even Wagner, was as expert in spinning story lines and creating mood and atmosphere in orchestrations, and few were Berlioz’s equal in fleshing out character and emotion in vocal lines.

Berlioz’s mastery poses formidable challenges to performers. Instrumentalists must be so fully engaged that the composer’s volatile expressive and sound effects seem to erupt spontaneously. Singers must be prepared to emote without inhibition, and often to extend their voices into extremes of volume and register – the tenor portraying Faust has to climb to countertenor elevation; the female choristers are called upon to shriek, then to join a heavenly choir a few moments later.

In the first of two weekend performances, tenor Vale Rideout proved to be a stellar Faust, tirelessly producing the stentorian yet lyrical vocal lines that Berlioz inherited from the French baroque and enhanced with romantic expressiveness. Soprano Elizabeth Bishop, as Faust’s beloved, Marguerite, was comparably expressive, if a bit plummier vocally.

Bass Andrew Gangestad started out voicing little of the insinuating quality one wants to hear in Mephistophele, but turned up the heat and intensity markedly as the character turned more overtly devilish in the later sections of the work. Bass Jason Hardy reveled in the cameo role of Brender, the coarse barroom tale-spinner in Part 2.

The chorus, prepared by Richmond’s Erin R. Freeman and Hampton Roads’ Robert Shoup, was consistently characterful and dramatically charged. The male forces sounded somewhat recessed as a chorus of rowdy boozers, but grew in volume and forcefulness in portraying demons. The women’s projection and ensemble were excellent throughout.

The orchestra, with enhanced wind, brass and percussion sections, produced torrents of sound when appropriate (as in the familiar “Rákóczy March” and the “Pandemonium” scene), but also played subtler sections, such as “Dance of the Sylphides” and “Wills-o-the-Wisp Minuet,” with gratifying deftness. Standout instrumental solos were principal violist Molly Sharp’s duet with Bishop in Marguerite’s “King of the Thule,” principal oboist Gustav Highstein’s accompaniment of the Faust-Marguerite duet and English horn player Grace Shryock’s accompaniment in the Romance.

With so many performers on the stage in this production, the string sections are pushed out from under the theater’s proscenium arch. That costs them some heft and tonal brilliance, and noticeably reduces the projection of lower-string sound.

“The Damnation of Faust,” sung in French with English captions, repeats at 3 p.m. May 18 at the Carpenter Theatre of Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets. Tickets: $10-$76. Details: (800) 514-3849 (ETIX); www.richmondsymphony.com

Letter V Classical Radio this week

Richard Wagner and his sound world . . .

May 15
noon-4 p.m. EDT
1600-2000 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Wagner: “Tannhäuser” – Overture and “Venusberg Bacchanale”
Berlin Philharmonic/ Lorin Maazel (RCA Victor)

Mendelssohn: “Die erste Walpurgisnacht”
Annelies Burmeister, contralto; Eberhard Buchner, tenor; Siegfried Lorenz, baritone; Siegfried Vogel, bass; Leipzig Radio Chorus
Gewandhaus Orchestra, Leipzig/Kurt Masur (Berlin Classics)

Past Masters:
Wagner: “Die Meistersinger” – Act 1 Prelude
Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Fritz Reiner (RCA Victor)
(recorded 1959)

Past Masters:
Chausson: “Poème de l’amour et de la mer”
Victoria de los Angeles, soprano
Orchestre de l’Association des Concerts Lamoureux/ Jean-Pierre Jacquillat (EMI Classics)
(recorded 1969)

Wagner: “Tristan und Isolde” – Prelude and “Liebestod”
Jessye Norman, soprano
London Philharmonic/ Klaus Tennstedt (EMI Classics)

Bruckner: Symphony No. 7
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra/Paavo
Järvi (RCA Victor)

Liszt: Sonata in B minor
Garrick Ohlsson, piano (Bridge)

Past Masters:
Wagner: “Götterdämmerung” – Brünnhilde’s immolation
Kirsten Flagstad, soprano
Philharmonia Orchestra/ Wilhelm Furtwängler (EMI Classics)
(recorded 1952)

Anonymous 4: 30 years and out

Anonymous 4, the female vocal quartet who paced the revival of medieval music in the US, will retire at the end of the 2015-16 season.

The group, whose current members are Marsha Genensky, Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, Susan Hellauer and Ruth Cunningham, formed in 1986; they cut back their activities in 2004.

Tom Huizenga, on NPR’s Deceptive Cadence blog, reports on the singers’ future plans:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2014/05/13/311087203/anonymous-4-breaking-up-is-hard-to-do-but-theyre-doing-it

Rocky Mountain highbrow

Marijuana, you’ll have heard, is legal in Colorado. People like to listen to music when they’re high, so I’m told. What’s the Colorado Symphony to do? (Other than Scriabin, ASAP.)

The Denver Post’s Ray Mark Rinaldi reports:

http://www.denverpost.com/entertainment/ci_25656494/colorado-symphony-cannabis-industry-find-harmony-concert-series#ixzz30IRySTDn

UPDATE 1: Second thoughts:

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_25723815/denver-asks-colorado-symphony-call-off-bring-your

UPDATE 2: Yet another twist:

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_25753862/colorado-symphony-cannabis-concerts-will-go-by-invitation

UPDATE 3: Joel Warner reports on the concert for Slate:
 
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2014/05/classically_cannabis_concert_review_colorado_symphony_orchestra_s_high_note.html

(Read the fine print: That’s a photo illustration.)

Letter V Classical Radio this week

Four fruitful years for classical music . . .

May 8
noon-4 p.m. EDT
1600-2000 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org


Hour 1: 1837

Schumann: “Kinderszenen”
Radu Lupu, piano (Decca)

Mendelssohn: Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 49
Emanuel Ax, piano; Itzhak Perlman, violin; Yo-Yo Ma, cello (Sony Classical)

Chopin: Nocturne in G minor, Op. 37, No. 1
Ivan Moravec, piano (Nonesuch)


Hour 2: 1880

Brahms: “Academic Festival” Overture
Scottish Chamber Orchestra/Charles Mackerras (Telarc)

Saint-Saëns: Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor
Philippe Gaudin, violin
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/ Martyn Brabbins (Hyperion)

Past Masters:
Tchaikovsky: “Romeo and Juliet” Fantasy-Overture
English Chamber Orchestra/Benjamin Britten (BBC Music)
(recorded 1968)


Hour 3: 1908

Past Masters:
Stravinsky: “Scherzo fantastique”
CBC Symphony Orchestra/Igor Stravinsky (Sony Classical)
(recorded 1962)

Past Masters:
Mahler: “Das Lied von der Erde” – “Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde”
James King, tenor
Vienna Philharmonic/ Leonard Bernstein (Decca)
(recorded 1966)

Webern: Passacaglia
Cleveland Orchestra/ Christoph von Dohnányi (London)

Ravel: “Gaspard de la nuit”
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano (London)

Ives: “The Unanswered Question”
Cleveland Orchestra/Christoph von Dohnányi (London)


Hour 4: 1944

Hindemith: “Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber”
Philadelphia Orchestra/Wolfgang Sawallisch (EMI Classics)

Past Masters:
Copland: “Appalachian Spring” Suite
Boston Symphony Orchestra/Aaron Copland (RCA Victor)
(recorded 1959)

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 – IV: Allegro giocoso
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra/Leonard Slatkin (RCA Victor)

The avian virtuoso

Turns out the consensus of songwriters is correct: The nightingale is the most musical of birds. At least it has, by far, the most extensive repertory of birdcalls.

Researchers at the University of Bath and Cornell University, studying 49 species of songbirds from the US, Europe and South Africa, found that the common nightingale produces 1,160 “syllables,” compared with 341 for the Eurasian skylark and 108 for the common blackbird. (Condolences to Johnny Mercer and Paul McCartney.)

Jamie Doward and Amy Moore of The Guardian report on the study:

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/may/04/nightingale-best-birdsong-brain-research

Green Bay Symphony going under

The Green Bay (WI) Symphony looks to be the latest casualty in the latest round of closures of fine-arts troupes.

The century-old organization has been running operating deficits of $30,000 to $50,000 on annual budgets of $500,000 to $600,000, its chief administrator says, and has seen concert attendance shrink in recent years. The orchestra also has lost its music director, Donato Cabrera, who is taking over the Las Vegas Philharmonic.

A final 2014-15 season of four or five concerts will be led by guest conductors, Paul Srubas of the Green Bay Press-Gazette reports:

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20140502/GPG0101/305020248/?gcheck=1&nclick_check=1

Of the orchestra’s budgetary shortfalls, one commenter remarks, “$30,000 is the change found under some of the [Green Bay] Packers’ sofa cushions.”

(via www.artsjournal.com)

Review: American String Quartet

with Roberto Díaz, viola
and Andrés Díaz, cello
May 3, Virginia Commonwealth University

Performances of string sextets are pretty rare outside major cultural centers and music festivals, so the visit by the American String Quartet – violinists Peter Winograd and Laurie Carney, violist Daniel Avshalomov and cellist Wolfram Koessel – joined by violist Roberto Díaz and cellist Andrés Díaz, concluding this season’s Rennolds Chamber Concerts series at Virginia Commonwealth University, was keenly anticipated.

For the most part, the six fiddlers’ program lived up to expectations. Their robust, high-relief sound filled the space of VCU’s 500-seat Vlahcevic Concert Hall, and their sharply defined, rhetorically dramatic interpretations were stirring enough to provoke spontaneous verbal reactions from listeners (for example, the “whoo!” emanating from the balcony after the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s “Souvenir de Florence”).

Energy often trumped refinement, predictably in the Tchaikovsky, a work of headlong expressiveness, sprawling structure and not fully integrated voicings that sounds far more Russian than Florentine (“Souvenir de Novosibirsk” would be a more accurate title, especially for the last two movements) and more orchestral than chamber in scale.

The clean, singing tones of the violinist Winograd, seconded by cellist Koessel, in the slow movement, and the sharply accented, idiomatically Russian tones of the full ensemble in the scherzo, highlighted the Tchaikovsky.

The program’s other full-length offering, Brahms’ Sextet in G major, Op. 36, also received big, verging on orchestral, treatment from the six musicians. The piece can take it – it has, in fact, been arranged for full orchestra – and its unusually (for Brahms) sunny, outgoing expressiveness and brightly colored tonal palette nudge interpreters away from the conventional rich, bronzed Brahms sonority.

The ensemble avoided the most common pitfalls of Brahms performance, playing too slowly (allegro non troppo means “fast, but not too fast,” not “fast, but not really”) and with overly thick sound textures, and produced useful contrasts of bright and dusky tonality – enriching collective string sound, for example, as the adagio movement progressed.

The program opened with the string sextet that opens Richard Strauss’ opera “Capriccio,” a masterful condensation of the composer’s yearning, nostalgic brand of late romanticism and his most effective piece of chamber music. The six musicians, paced by violinist Winograd, produced a clean, bright sound that neither over- nor underplayed the expression and spirit of the piece.

VCU Rennolds Concerts 2014-15

Performances by the esteemed American pianist Richard Goode with the young soprano Sarah Shafer, the popular violinist Rachel Barton Pine and the St. Lawrence and Pacifica string quartets highlight the 2014-15 season of the Mary Anne Rennolds Chamber Concerts at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Concerts will be staged at 8 p.m. Saturdays in Vlahcevic Concert Hall of the Singleton Arts Center, Park Avenue at Harrison Street on VCU’s academic campus in Richmond’s Fan District.

Ticket subscriptions are $135 for all six concerts in the series, $90 for three concerts, with free valet parking provided. Discounts are offered for seniors (60 and older) and VCU employees. Single tickets, $34, will go on sale later.

For a season brochure or more information, call the VCU music department box office at (804) 828-6776 or visit www.vcumusic.showclix.com

Programs for the concerts will be announced later.

Dates and artists for next season’s Rennolds series:

Sept. 13 – Pacifica Quartet.

Oct. 25 – New York Brass Arts Trio (Joe Burgstaller, trumpet; David Jolley, French horn; Haim Avitsur, trombone).

Nov. 15 – St. Lawrence String Quartet.

Jan. 24 – Rachel Barton Pine, violin; pianist TBA.

Feb. 28 – Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (Wu Han, piano; Daniel Hope, violin; Paul Neubauer, viola; David Finckel, cello).

May 2 – Richard Goode, piano; Sarah Shafer, soprano.

All of Bach, in daily installments

The Netherlands Bach Society, led by Jos van Veldhoven, is the troupe that performed Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in B minor five times in six days during an April 2007 US tour that concluded, with no visible or audible wear and tear, at the University of Richmond. (My review of the UR performance can be read here: http://letterv.blogspot.com/2007/04/review-netherlands-bach-society.html)

Further reinforcing the perception that Bach is a kind of endurance sport in the Netherlands, the society now has launched a project to post daily video performances of each of the composer’s 1,080 extant compositions.

As of today, it’s six down (that is, up), 1,074 to go. Completion of the series is expected in eight years.

Here’s the project’s home page:

http://allofbach.com/nl/

(via Norman Lebrecht: http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/)

Review: Richmond Symphony

Steven Smith conducting
with Daisuke Yamamoto, violin
May 1, Richmond CenterStage

The Richmond Symphony’s final Rush Hour concert of the season played to a sparser-than-usual turnout, probably the result of worries about traffic in downtown Richmond ahead of the weekend’s cycling extravaganza, also maybe reflecting the audience diminution that typically hits indoor classical events when warm weather arrives. (Here, as elsewhere, a so-so concert in the fall, like as not, will outdraw a blockbuster in the spring.)

Lack of musical appeal shouldn’t have been a factor. Music Director Steven Smith led a program of French music, repertory in which he and the symphony consistently click. And the orchestra’s concertmaster, Daisuke Yamamoto, was featured in two of the most popular violin showpieces, the “Tzigane” of Maurice Ravel and the “Introduction and Rondo capriccioso” of Camille Saint-Saëns.

Both are primary sources for some of the most spectacular effects in the violin virtuoso’s bag of tricks. Ravel’s gypsy fantasy is wildly colorful, swooningly rhetorical and packed with technical razzle-dazzle, most of which Yamamoto produced with flair and not too much visible or audible effort. His comfort level and fluency seemed greater in the Saint-Saëns, which is also flashy but more elegantly playful and less volatile in its expressiveness.

Framing the fiddle fireworks were two suites, “Masques et Bergamasques” by Gabriel Fauré (excerpted in this one-hour casual concert) and Ravel’s familiar “Le Tombeau de Couperin.” In both, Smith and the chamber orchestra nicely balanced distinctively French color and dynamic nuance with the antique, quasi-baroque structure and stance of the suites.

The woodwind section, paced by oboist Gustav Highstein, English horn player Shawn Welk and bassoonist Thomas Schneider, paced the performance of “Tombeau.” Harpist Lynette Wardle contributed both color and rhythmic underpinning in both Ravel selections. String sound was well-differentiated between romantic warmth in the Fauré and more pointed articulation in the Ravel suite.

Spoken introductions by Smith and Yamamoto were personable and pertinent.

The program repeats, with Fauré’s “Masques et Bergamasques” played in full, at 3 p.m. May 4 at Blackwell Auditorium, Randolph-Macon College, 205 Henry St. in Ashland. Tickets: $20. Details: (800) 514-3849 (ETIX); www.richmondsymphony.com

A summer of Brahms

A cycle of Johannes Brahms’ sonatas for violin, cello and clarinet will be performed on eight successive Thursdays in July and August in Summer at CenterStage, a collaborative venture by the Richmond Symphony, CenterStage and the University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University music departments.

Following the casual-concert format of the symphony’s Rush Hour Concerts, the summer series will present one-hour programs beginning at 6:30 p.m. in CenterStage’s Gottwald Playhouse.

The ticket price, $20, will include a beverage voucher. Discounts will be offered for full and partial series-ticket packages. Single-ticket discounts are available for children and students.

For ticket purchases and more information, call (800) 514-3849 (ETIX) or visit www.richmondsymphony.com

Dates, artists and program highlights for the Brahms sonata series:

July 10 – Daisuke Yamamoto, violin, and Doris Wylee-Becker, piano. Scherzo in C minor (“Sonatensatz”).

July 17 – Barbara Gaden, cello, and Russell Wilson, piano. Cello Sonata in E minor, Op. 38.

July 24 – Ellen Cockerham, violin, and Maria Yefimova, piano. Violin Sonata in G major, Op. 78.

July 31 – Jason McComb, cello, and Joanne Kong, piano. Cello Sonata in F major, Op. 99.

Aug. 7 – Charles West, clarinet, and Yin Zheng, piano. Clarinet Sonata in F minor, Op. 120, No. 1.

Aug. 14 – Jocelyn Vorenberg, violin, and David Fisk, piano. Violin Sonata in A major, Op. 100.

Aug. 21 – Susanna Klein and Ross Monroe Winter, violins, and Charles Staples, piano. Violin Sonata in D minor, Op. 108.

Aug. 28 – Jared Davis, clarinet, and Daniel Stipe, piano. Clarinet Sonata in E flat major, Op. 120, No. 2.

(Additional repertory for each program will be announced later.)

Obstacle course weekend

From May 1-4, streets in Richmond’s downtown and Fan District areas will be closed and traffic patterns will be radically altered because of the USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships. Traffic advisories and street-closure maps are available from the presenting organization, Richmond2015, at www.richmond2015.com

The major classical-music events affected by street closures are:

-- The Richmond Symphony’s Rush Hour Concert, 6:30 p.m. May 1 at Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets. Closures will begin at 7 p.m. on East Broad Street between Third and Seventh streets; Fifth Street between East Marshall and East Grace streets; and Third Street between East Clay and East Broad streets. Park south of Grace Street to avoid the closures and the risk of having your vehicle towed.

-- The Rennolds Chamber Concerts program by the American String Quartet with violist Roberto Díaz and cellist Andrés Díaz, 8 p.m. May 3 at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Singleton Arts Center, Park Avenue at Harrison Street. Street closures on that day are between Marshall, Main, First and Seventh streets, well to the east of the Singleton Center; the closures are scheduled to end at 7 p.m. Some traffic congestion/confusion may persist around the center of the city, however, so allow extra time to get to the concert. Driving home afterward shouldn’t be a problem.

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: The Richmond Symphony wraps up its 2013-14 season with an all-French chamber-orchestra program, featuring concertmaster Daisuke Yamamoto, excerpted in a Rush Hour Concerts offering on May 1 at Richmond CenterStage, presented in full on May 4 at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland; a patriotic pops concert (free admission) on May 11 at Pocahontas State Park in Chesterfield; and performances of Berlioz’s “The Damnation of Faust” with the Richmond Symphony and Virginia Symphony choruses, May 17-18 at Richmond CenterStage. . . . The American String Quartet, joined by violist Roberto Díaz and cellist Andrés Díaz, play string sextets of Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Richard Strauss in the finale of this season’s Rennolds Chamber Concerts, May 3 at Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University. . . . The Central Virginia Masterworks Chorale sings Bach, Britten and more, May 4 at River Road Presbyterian Church, May 11 at Duncan Memorial United Methodist Church in Ashland. . . . The Richmond Philharmonic, joined by cellist Jennifer Kloetzel, plays Dvořák, Bernstein and Hanson, May 4 at Glen Allen High School (note the venue change, to steer clear of the weekend’s bicycle races). . . . Lyric Opera Virginia stages Terrence McNally’s musical play “Master Class,” May 4 at the University of Richmond’s Modlin Arts Center (following performances on May 2 at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art in Virginia Beach and May 3 at the Kimball Theatre in Williamsburg). . . . The Forest Hill Recital Series, staged by the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, presents soprano Anne O’Byrne with guitarist Andrew McEvoy and harpist Grace Bauson on May 17, and violinist Karen Johnson and pianist Joanne Kong on May 31.

* Noteworthy elsewhere: Pianist Yevgeny Sudbin gives a solo recital on May 1 at the American Theatre in Hampton. . . . Violinist Joshua Bell performs with JoAnn Falletta and the Virginia Symphony in a Virginia Arts Festival program, May 2 at the Sandler Arts Center in Virginia Beach, May 3 at Chrysler Hall in Norfolk, May 4 at the Ferguson Arts Center of Christopher Newport University in Newport News. . . . The Washington National Opera stages a new production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” sung in English, opening May 3 with further performances on May 5, 7-8, 10-11 and 15-18 at the Kennedy Center. . . . Pianist Yefim Bronfman joins Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony for a program of Beethoven and Shostakovich, May 3 at Strathmore in the Washington suburbs of DC. . . . Ash Lawn Opera stages Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide,” May 2 and 4 at the Paramount Theater in Charlottesville. . . . The Garth Newel Music Center, near Hot Springs in Bath County, launches its warm-weather chamber-music series on May 2, with further performances on May 3, 4, 11 and 17. . . . Thomas Wilkins conducts Washington’s National Symphony, with three dance troupes, violinist Leila Josefowicz and two NSO principals, in “New Moves: Symphony + Dance,” May 7-8, 10, 13 and 16-17 at the Kennedy Center. . . . The Virginia Consort performs Bach’s Magnificat, May 10 at First Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville. . . . The Miami String Quartet headlines the chamber-music schedule at the Virginia Arts Festival, with performances May 19-22 at various Southeastern Virginia venues. . . . Pianist Marc-André Hamelin and the Pacifica Quartet perform on May 20 at the Kennedy Center. . . . The Fredericksburg Chamber Music Festival moves to earlier dates, May 20, 22 and 23, and a new venue, Trinity Episcopal Church, in programs featuring works by Dvořák, Franck, Mozart, Brahms, Ravel and others.


May 1 (6:30 p.m.)
Gottwald Playhouse, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony
Steven Smith conducting
Fauré: “Masques et Bergamasques” (excerpts)
Ravel: “Tzigane”
Saint-Saëns: “Introduction and Rondo capriccioso”
Daisuke Yamamoto, violin
Ravel: “Le Tombeau de Couperin”
$20, includes beverage
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
www.richmondsymphony.com

May 1 (7:30 p.m.)
American Theatre, 125 E. Mellen St., Hampton
Yevgeny Sudbin, piano
program TBA
$25-$30
(757) 722-2787
www.hamptonarts.net/events

May 1 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Orchestra of Terezin Remembrance
Murry Sidlin conducting
“Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezin”
Arianna Zukerman, soprano
Ann McMahon Quintero, mezzo-soprano
Issachah Savage, tenor
Nathan Stark, bass
City Choir of Washington
Robert Shafer directing
$35-$100
(301) 581-5100
www.strathmore.org

May 2 (8 p.m.)
Sandler Arts Center, 201 S. Market St., Virginia Beach
May 3 (8 p.m.)
Chrysler Hall, 201 Brambleton Ave., Norfolk
May 4 (3 p.m.)
Ferguson Arts Center, Christopher Newport University, Newport News
Virginia Arts Festival:
Virginia Symphony
JoAnn Falletta conducting
Shostakovich: “Festive” Overture
Lalo: “Symphonie espagnole”
Joshua Bell, violin
Richard Strauss: “An Alpine Symphony,” with Tobias Melle’s “An Alpine Symphony in Images”
$20-$62
(757) 282-2822
www.vafest.org

May 2 (8 p.m.)
Price Auditorium, Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, 2200 Parks Ave., Virginia Beach
May 3 (8 p.m.)
Kimball Theatre, Merchants Square, Williamsburg
May 4 (2:30 p.m.)
Jepson Theatre, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
Lyric Opera Virginia
Joseph Walsh, music director
Terrence McNally: “Master Class”
Lisa Vroman (Maria Callas)
Sarah Kate Watson (Sophie De Palma)
Joshua Baumgardner (Tony Candolino)
Nicole Jenkins (Sharon Graham)
Greg Ganakas, stage director
$35
(757) 466-6666 (Virginia Beach)
(757) 565-8588 (Williamsburg)
(804) 289-8980 (Richmond)
www.lyricoperavirginia.org

May 2 (7:30 p.m.)
May 4 (2 p.m.)
Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Charlottesville
Ash Lawn Opera
Michael Slon conducting
Bernstein: “Candide” (semi-staged production)
Brian Anderson (Candide)
Emma Grimsley (Cunegonde)
Dan Stern (narrator)
Oratorio Society of Virginia members
in English
$25-$49
(434) 979-1333
www.theparamount.net

May 2 (7 p.m.)
Herter Hall, Garth Newel Music Center, 403 Garth Newel Lane, Hot Springs
Paige Morgan, oboe
Richard Faria, clarinet
Fritz Gearhart & Teresa Ling, violins
Evelyn Grau, viola
Isaac Melamed, cello
Genevieve Feiwen Lee, piano
Mozart: Oboe Quartet, K. 370
Brahms: Clarinet Trio, Op. 114
$25 (concert); $84 (concert & dinner)
(540) 839-5018
www.garthnewel.org

May 2 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First Street at Independence Avenue N.E., Washington
Tony Arnold, soprano
Steven Beck & Ursula Oppens, pianos
Alan R. Kay, clarinet
Fred Sherry, cello
Marie Tachouet, flute
Mike Truesdell, percussion
Momenta Quartet
David Fulmer conducting
George Crumb: “Madrigals,” book 2
Lukas Foss: Capriccio
Milton Babbitt: “Phenomena”
Henri Dutilleux: “Ainsi la Nuit”
Augusta Read Thomas: “Eagle at Sunrise”
Copland: “Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson” (excerpts)
Charles Wuorinen: “New York Notes”
free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/1314-preview.html

May 3 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Rennolds Chamber Concerts:
American String Quartet
Roberto Díaz, viola
Andrés Díaz, cello
Brahms: Sextet No. 2 in G major, Op. 36
Richard Strauss: Sextet from “Capriccio”
Tchaikovsky: Sextet in D minor (“Souvenir de Florence”)
$34
(804) 828-6776
http://arts.vcu.edu/music/events

May 3 (8 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, Virginia Tech, 190 Alumni Mall, Blacksburg
Blacksburg Master Chorale
Roanoke Symphony
Dwight Bigler conducting
Mendelssohn: “Elijah”
Danielle Talamantes, soprano
Katherine Pracht, mezzo-soprano
Robert Chafin, tenor
Branch Fields, bass
$20-$30
(540) 231-5300
www.artscenter.vt.edu

May 3 (7 p.m.)
Herter Hall, Garth Newel Music Center, 403 Garth Newel Lane, Hot Springs
Paige Morgan, oboe
Richard Faria, clarinet
Fritz Gearhart & Teresa Ling, violins
Evelyn Grau, viola
Isaac Melamed, cello
Genevieve Feiwen Lee, piano
Beethoven: Trio in G major, Op. 9, No. 1
Prokofiev: Quintet in G minor, Op. 39
$25 (concert); $84 (concert & dinner)
(540) 839-5018
www.garthnewel.org

May 3 (7 p.m.)
May 5 (7 p.m.)
May 7 (7:30 p.m.)
May 8 (7:30 p.m.)
May 10 (7 p.m.)
May 11 (2 p.m.)
May 15 (7:30 p.m.)
May 16 (7:30 p.m.)
May 17 (7 p.m.)
May 18 (2 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Opera House, Washington
Washington National Opera
Philippe Auguin conducting
Mozart: “The Magic Flute”
Kathryn Lewek/Anna Siminska (Queen of the Night)
Eri Nakamura/Maureen McKay (Pamina)
Joseph Kaiser/Paul Appleby (Tamino)
Joshua Hopkins/David Pershall (Papageno)
Soloman Howard/Jordan Bisch (Sarastro)
(Domingo-Cafritz Young Artists perform on May 16)
Harry Silverstein, stage director
in English, English captions
$25-$305
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 3 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop conducting
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 (“Emperor”)
Yefim Bronfman, piano
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 12
$31-$94
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
www.strathmore.org

May 4 (3 p.m.)
Blackwell Auditorium, Randolph-Macon College, 205 Henry St., Ashland
Richmond Symphony
Steven Smith conducting
Fauré: “Masques et Bergamasques”
Ravel: “Tzigane”
Saint-Saëns: “Introduction and Rondo capriccioso”
Daisuke Yamamoto, violin
Ravel: “Le Tombeau de Couperin”
$20
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
www.richmondsymphony.com

May 4 (3 p.m.)
River Road Presbyterian Church, 8960 River Road, Richmond
May 11 (3 p.m.)
Duncan Memorial United Methodist Church, 201 Henry St., Ashland
Central Virginia Masterworks Chorale
David Sinden directing
J.S. Bach: Motet, “Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden,” BWV 230
Britten: “Rejoice in the Lamb”
“Hark, I Hear Harps Eternal” (19th century shape-note hymn)
$10 in advance, $15 at door
(804) 798-4907
www.cvamc.org

May 4 (3 p.m.)
Ginter Park Presbyterian Church, Seminary and Walton avenues, Richmond
Robert Murray, violin
Ardyth Lohius, organ
works TBA by Geminiani, Bennett, Schmid, Blank, Komarnitsky, Glazunov, Healey
free
(804) 359-5049
www.classicalmusicva.com/mlduo

May 4 (4 p.m.)
Glen Allen High School, 10700 Staples Mill Road, Richmond
Richmond Philharmonic
Peter Wilson conducting
Bernstein: “Candide” Overture
Dvořák: Cello Concerto in B minor
Jennifer Kloetzel, cello
Hanson: Symphony No. 2 (“Romantic”)
$8 in advance, $10 at door (individual); $16 in advance, $20 at door (family)
(804) 673-7400
www.richmondphilharmonic.org

May 4 (4 p.m.)
Christ & St Luke’s Episcopal Church, 560 W. Olney Road, Norfolk
Virginia Arts Festival:
Janette Fishell, organ
program TBA
$20
(757) 282-2822
www.vafest.org

May 4 (11 a.m.)
Herter Hall, Garth Newel Music Center, 403 Garth Newel Lane, Hot Springs
Fritz Gearhart, violin
Isaac Melamed, cello
Genevieve Feiwen Lee, piano
Beethoven: Piano Trio in B flat major, Op. 97 (“Archduke”)
$25 (concert); $62 (concert & brunch)
(540) 839-5018
www.garthnewel.org

May 7 (7 p.m.)
May 8 (7 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Thomas Wilkins conducting
Keigwin + Company
“New Moves: Symphony + Dance”
Bernstein: “On the Waterfront”
Bernstein: “Three Dance Episodes from ‘On the Town’ ”
William Schuman: “New England Triptych”
Marc Neikrug: Bassoon Concerto
Sue Heineman, bassoon
$10-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 9 (7 p.m.)
Short Pump Town Center, 11800 W. Broad St., Richmond
May 11 (3 p.m.)
Stony Point Fashion Park, 9200 Stony Point Parkway, Richmond
Central Virginia Wind Symphony
Mike Goldberg directing
Mothers’ Day program TBA
free
(804) 342-8797
www.thewindsymphony.com

May 10 (7:30 p.m.)
First Presbyterian Church, 500 Park St., Charlottesville
Virginia Consort
Judith Gary directing
J.S. Bach: Magnificat, BWV 243
other works TBA
The Chamber Ensemble
The Youth Chorale
$20
(434) 244-8444
www.virginiaconsort.org

May 10 (2 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Martin Helmchen, piano
J.S. Bach: Partita in D major, BWV 828
Schumann: “Waldszenen”
Schubert: “Wanderer” Fantasy
$35
(202) 985-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org

May 10 (8 p.m.)
May 13 (7 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Thomas Wilkins conducting
New Ballet Ensemble
“New Moves: Symphony + Dance”
Duke Ellington: “Harlem”
Gershwin: “Porgy and Bess” (excerpts)
Barber: “Souvenirs”
Oliverio: “Olympian”
Jauvon Gilliam, timpani
$10-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 10 (7 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra
Vladimir Spivakov conducting
Mozart: Divertimento in F major
Tchaikovsky: Serenade for strings
Shostakovich: Prelude and Scherzo
Shostakovich: Elegy and Polka
Piazzolla: “La Historia del Tango”
Piazzolla: 2 tangos
$35-$85
(301) 581-5100
www.strathmore.org

May 11 (7 p.m.)
Heritage Amphitheater, Pocahontas State Park, 10301 State Park Road, Chesterfield
Richmond Symphony
Steven Smith conducting
patriotic program TBA
pre-concert performance by 392nd Army Band, CW5 Charles H. Vollherbst directing, at 6 p.m.
free ($5 parking fee at park, waived for active and retired military)
(rain location: Clover Hill High School, 13301 Kelly Green Lane, Midlothian)
(804) 796-4255
www.richmondsymphony.com

May 11 (11 a.m.)
Herter Hall, Garth Newel Music Center, 403 Garth Newel Lane, Hot Springs
Genevieve Feiwen Lee, piano
Beethoven: Sonata in E major, Op. 109
Beethoven: Sonata in A flat major, Op. 110
Beethoven: Sonata in C minor, Op. 111
$25 (concert); $62 (concert & brunch)
(540) 839-5018
www.garthnewel.org

May 13 (8 p.m.)
Attucks Theatre, 1010 Church St., Norfolk
Virginia Arts Festival:
NPR’s “From the Top” with Christopher O’Riley
artists & program TBA
$25
(757) 282-2822
www.vafest.org

May 14 (10:30 a.m.)
Hixon Theater, Barr Education Center, 440 Bank St., Norfolk
May 15 (10:30 a.m.)
Trinity Episcopal Church, 500 Court St., Portsmouth
Virginia Arts Festival:
Josu de Solaun, Anna Petrova, Bryan Wagorn & André-Michel Schub, pianos
programs TBA
$20
(757) 282-2822
www.vafest.org

May 15 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Pops
Jack Everly conducting
“A Celebration of Kander and Ebb”
program TBA
$36-$99
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
www.strathmore.org

May 16 (7 p.m.)
May 17 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Thomas Wilkins conducting
Jessica Lang Dance
John Adams: Violin Concerto
Leila Josefowicz, violin
Copland: “Appalachian Spring”
Michael Daugherty: “Red Cape Tango”
George Walker: Symphony No. 4 (“Strands”)
$10-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 17 (7 p.m.)
Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, Forest Hill Avenue at 43rd Street, Richmond
Forest Hill Recital Series:
Anne O’Byrne, soprano
Andrew McEvoy, guitar
Grace Bauson, harp
works TBA by Britten; Elizabethan, French, Irish songs
donation accepted
(804) 233-2278
www.goodshepherdrichmond.org

May 17 (8 p.m.)
May 18 (3 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony
Steven Smith conducting
Berlioz: “The Damnation of Faust”
Elizabeth Bishop, soprano
Vale Rideout, tenor
Kyle Ketelsen, bass-baritone
Jason Hardy, bass
Richmond Symphony Chorus
Erin R. Freeman directing
Virginia Symphony Chorus
Robert Shoup directing
$10-$76
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
www.richmondsymphony.com

May 17 (8 p.m.)
University Chapel, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Virginia Glee Club
Finals Concert
program TBA
free
(434) 924-3376
www.music.virginia.edu/events

May 17 (7 p.m.)
Herter Hall, Garth Newel Music Center, 403 Garth Newel Lane, Hot Springs
Teresa Ling, violin
Evelyn Grau, viola
Isaac Melamed, cello
Genevieve Feiwen Lee, piano
Božičević: “Monkey Face” for piano quartet
Smetana: Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 15
Brahms: Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 60
Saint-Saëns: Barcarolle for piano quartet
$84 (concert & dinner)
(540) 839-5018
www.garthnewel.org

May 17 (8 p.m.)
May 18 (3 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
National Philharmonic
Piotr Gajewski conducting
Richard Strauss: “Metamorphosen”
Vivaldi: “The Four Seasons”
Sarah Chang, violin
$28-$84
(301) 581-5100
www.strathmore.org

May 18 (7 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra
Peter C. Jacobson conducting
program TBA
free
(804) 788-1212
www.richmondsymphony.com

May 18 (4 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC
Jeff Buhrman directing
Laura Benanti, vocalist
“A Gay Man’s Guide to Broadway”
program TBA
$25-$78
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 19 (7:30 p.m.)
Trinity Episcopal Church, 500 Court St., Portsmouth
Virginia Arts Festival:
Miami String Quartet
Vahn Armstrong & Simon Lapointe, violins
Beverly Kane Baker, viola
Michael Daniels, cello
Erwin Schulhoff: “Five Pieces for String Quartet”
Adolphus Hailstork: String Quartet No. 1
Mozart: String Quintet in G minor, K. 516
$30
(757) 282-2822
www.vafest.org

May 19 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Hee-Yuon Choue, piano
works TBA by Haydn, Schumann, Chopin, Tchaikovsky
$25
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 20 (7:30 p.m.)
Hixon Theater, Barr Education Center, 440 Bank St., Norfolk
Virginia Arts Festival:
Miami String Quartet
Peter Wiley, cello
André-Michel Schub, piano
Shostakovich: Piano Quintet in G minor
Schubert: String Quintet in C major
$30
(757) 282-2822
www.vafest.org

May 20 (7 p.m.)
Trinity Episcopal Church, 825 College Ave., Fredericksburg
Fredericksburg Chamber Music Festival:
Erwin Schulhoff: Concertino
Carol Wincenc, flute
Steven Ansell, viola
Paul Glenn, double-bass
Paul Chihara: “Traces”
Kathleen Reynolds, bassoon
Bayla Keyes, violin
Michael Reynolds, cello
Dvořák: String Quintet in G major, Op. 77
Peter Zazofsky & Bayla Keyes, violins
Steven Ansell, viola
Michael Reynolds, cello
Paul Glenn, double-bass
performance by Andrew Liang, violin, 3rd prize winner of Young Artist Competition
$25
(540) 374-5040
www.fredfest.org

May 20 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Marc-André Hamelin, piano
Pacifica Quartet
Leo Ornstein: Piano Quintet
Hamelin: “Variations on a Theme by Paganini”
Dvořák: Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 81
$32
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 21 (10:30 a.m.)
Miller Theater, Sandler Arts Center, 201 S. Market St., Virginia Beach
Virginia Arts Festival:
Miami String Quartet
Peter Wiley, cello
program TBA
$20
(757) 282-2822
www.vafest.org

May 21 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Stefan Jackiw, violin
Anna Polonsky, piano
Mozart: Sonata in B flat major, K. 454
Lutoslawski: Partita for violin and piano
Saariaho: “Nocturne in Memory of W. Lutoslawski”
Brahms: Sonata in D minor, Op. 108
$35
(202) 985-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org

May 21 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Iveta Apkalna, organ
program TBA
$15
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 22 (7:30 p.m.)
Williamsburg Winery, 5800 Wessex Hundred, James City County
Virginia Arts Festival:
Miami String Quartet
Peter Wiley, cello
André-Michel Schub, piano
Beethoven: Cello Sonata in C major, Op. 102, No. 1
Beethoven: Cello Sonata in A major, Op. 69
Smetana: Quartet No. 1 in E minor (“From My Life”)
$30
(757) 282-2822
www.vafest.org

May 22 (7 p.m.)
Trinity Episcopal Church, 825 College Ave., Fredericksburg
Fredericksburg Chamber Music Festival:
Brahms: Horn Trio in E flat major, Op. 40
Michele Levin, piano
William Schamberg, French horn
Bayla Keyes, violin
Villa-Lobos: “Bachianas Brasileiras” No. 6
Carol Wincenc, flute
Kathleen Reynolds, bassoon
Ravel: Quartet
Peter Zazofsky & Bayla Keyes, violins
Steven Ansell, viola
Michael Reynolds, cello
performance by Brendan Shirk, oboe, 2nd prize winner of Young Artists Competition
$25
(540) 374-5040
www.fredfest.org

May 22 (7 p.m.)
Trinkle Main Stage, Mill Mountain Theatre, Center in the Square, Roanoke
Roanoke Symphony Winds
Tracy Cowden, piano
David Stewart Wiley, host
Richard Strauss: “Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks” (wind quintet arr.)
Beethoven: “Variations on Mozart’s ‘La ci darem la mano’ ”
Poulenc: Sextet for piano and winds
$30
(540) 343-9127
www.rso.com

May 23 (10:30 a.m.)
Williamsburg Winery, 5800 Wessex Hundred, James City County
Virginia Arts Festival:
Peter Wiley, cello
Benny Kim, violin
André-Michel Schub, piano
program TBA
$20
(757) 282-2822
www.vafest.org

May 23 (7 p.m.)
Trinity Episcopal Church, 825 College Ave., Fredericksburg
Fredericksburg Chamber Music Festival:
Martinů: “Madrigals”
Peter Zazofsky, violin
Steven Ansell, viola
Mozart: Divertimento in D major, K. 136
Bayla Keyes & Peter Zozofsky, violins
Steven Ansell, viola
Michael Reynolds, cello
Paul Glenn, double-bass
Franck: Piano Quintet in F minor
Michele Levin, piano
Bayla Keyes & Peter Zazofsky, violins
Steven Ansell, viola
Michael Reynolds, cello
performance by Zoe Woodaman, soprano, and Luke Payne, cello, 1st prize winners of Young Artists Competition
$25
(540) 374-5040
www.fredfest.org

May 24 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Hans Graf conducting
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto
Ray Chen, violin
Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2
$31-$94
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
www.strathmore.org

May 25 (8 p.m.)
West Lawn of U.S. Capitol, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
conductor TBA
Joe Mantegna & Gary Sinise, hosts
program TBA
free
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 29 (7:30 p.m.)
American Theatre, 125 E. Mellen St., Hampton
May 30 (8 p.m.)
Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts, 110 W. Finney Ave.
Virginia Symphony Chamber Orchestra
Vivaldi: “The Four Seasons”
$25-$30
(757) 722-2787 (Hampton)
(757) 923-2900 (Suffolk)
www.virginiasymphony.org

May 29 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop conducting
“A Midsummer Night's Dream – a Concert”
Mendelssohn’s incidental music with excerpts of Shakespeare’s play
actors TBA
Baltimore Choral Arts Society
Edward Berkeley directing
$31-$94
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
www.strathmore.org

May 30 (8 p.m.)
May 31 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra Pops
Steven Reineke conducting
Rajaton, guest artists
“The Music of ABBA”
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 31 (7 p.m.)
Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, Forest Hill Avenue at 43rd Street, Richmond
Forest Hill Recital Series:
Karen Johnson, violin
Joanne Kong, piano
works TBA by Elgar, Bridge, Mark O’Connor
donation accepted
(804) 233-2278
www.goodshepherdrichmond.org

May 31 (8 p.m.)
First Presbyterian Church, 300 36th St., Virginia Beach
Virginia Chorale
chamber orchestra
Charles Woodward conducting
Robynne Redmon, mezzo-soprano
Bradley Norris, organ
Vaughan Williams: “Serenade to Music”
Duruflé: Requiem
Jonathan Dove: “Seek him that maketh the seven stars”
$25
(757) 627-8375
www.vachorale.org

May 31 (2 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Sam Haywood, piano
Isserlis: Ballade No. 2 in E flat minor, Op. 3
Bach-Busoni: Chaconne in D minor
Beethoven: Sonata in C sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2 (“Moonlight”)
Villa-Lobos: “A Prole do Bebe,” book 1 (“The Dolls”) (excerpts)
Chopin: Scherzo in B flat minor, Op. 31
Chopin: Polonaise in A flat major, Op. 53 (“Heroic”)
Chopin: Ballade in F minor, Op. 52
Chopin: Nocturne in D flat major, Op. 27
$40
(202) 985-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org