Met negotiations extended

New York’s Metropolitan Opera, which had planned to lock out workers whose unions did not agree to new contract terms by July 31, has extended negotiations for another 72 hours.

The company issued a statement saying it has agreed to terms with three of the 15 unions representing its employees, those of service workers such as ushers and cleaners, employees of the call center and building engineers.

The three-day extension of talks was requested by the Federal Mediation Service, which was called in on negotiations between the Met and two of its largest employee unions, those representing singers, dancers, stage and managers and directors, and orchestra musicians and music staff. Negotiations also are continuing with the stagehands’ union, the company said.

The Met, which says that two-thirds of its $327 million operating budget is spent on pay and benefits for union workers, has been seeking concessions from those employees.

UPDATE (AUG. 2): The Met and the union representing its musicians have agreed to a one-week contract extension while an independent financial review is conducted. The extension effectively puts negotiations on hold with all 12 of the unions with which the company has not yet agreed on contract terms.

Letter V Classical Radio this week

July 31
noon-4 p.m. EDT
1600-2000 UTC
1700-2100 GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Mozart: “Cosí fan tutte” Overture
Concerto Köln/René Jacobs (Harmonia Mundi France)

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major
Leif Ove Andsnes,
piano & director
Mahler Chamber Orchestra
(Sony Classical)

Barber: “Capricorn” Concerto
Basel Chamber Orchestra/Christopher Hogwood (Arte Nova)

Vivaldi: Concerto in E flat major, RV 253
(“La Tempesta di Mare”)
Simon Standage, violin
The English Concert/Trevor Pinnock (CRD)

Tchaikovsky: “Souvenir de Florence”
Sarah Chang & Bernhard Hartog, violins; Wolfram Christ & Tanja Christ, violas; Georg Faust & Olaf Maninger, cellos (EMI Classics)

Liszt: “Études de Paganini” –
No. 1 in G minor (“Tremolo”),
No. 2 in E flat major (“Octave”),
No. 3 in G sharp minor (“La Campanella”)
Marc-André Hamelin, piano (Hyperion)

Lalo: “Symphonie espagnole”
Maxim Vengerov, violin
Philharmonia Orchestra/Antonio Pappano
(EMI Classics)

Past Masters:
Dohnányi: “Variations on a Nursery Song”
Erno Dohnányi, piano
London Symphony Orchestra/Lawrance Collingwood (EMI Classics)
(recorded 1931)

François-Adrien Boieldieu: “The Caliph of Baghdad” Overture
New Philharmonia Orchestra/Richard Bonynge (Decca)

Past Masters:
Rimsky-Korsakov: “Scheherazade”
Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Fritz Reiner
(RCA Victor)
(recorded 1960)

Saint-Saëns: “Samson et Delila” – Bacchanale
Montreal Symphony Orchestra/Charles Dutoit (London)

Lockout looms at Met

New York’s Metropolitan Opera appears headed toward a management lockout of unionized musicians and stage workers. The company’s general manager, Peter Gelb, has sent letters to Met employees warning that if agreements are not reached on new contracts by July 31, work will be halted.

Management is seeking concessions from workers to head off what Gelb says is a looming financial crisis at the Met, whose revenues, especially ticket sales, have declined while expenses have risen.

The New York Times’ Michael Cooper reports:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/24/arts/music/met-opera-prepares-to-lock-out-workers.html?ref=music

Norman Lebrecht posts an interview with Gelb on the situation:

http://slippedisc.com/2014/07/gelb-latest-its-sad-we-are-in-a-position-where-a-work-stoppage-could-take-place/

And a response from the Met’s musicians:

http://slippedisc.com/2014/07/musicians-to-peter-gelb-youll-lose-the-city-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars/

And from the company’s stage unions:

http://slippedisc.com/2014/07/gelbs-proposed-lockout-the-stage-unions-respond/

Letter V Classical Radio this week

July 24
noon-4 p.m. EDT
1600-2000 UTC
1700-2100 GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Nielsen: “Maskarade” – Overture, “Cockerel’s Dance”
Danish National Symphony Orchestra/Thomas Dausgaard (Dacapo)

Schumann: Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op. 44
Stefan Vladar, piano; Artis Quartet
(Sony Classical)

Kodály: “Hungarian Rondo”
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
(Deutsche Grammophon)

Sarasate: “Jota aragonesa”
Julia Fischer, violin; Milana Chernyavska, piano (Decca)

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467
Jan Lisiecki, piano
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra/
Christian Zacharias
(Deutsche Grammophon)

Past Masters:
Dvořák: Quartet in F major, Op. 96 (“American”)
Smetana Quartet (Testament)
(recorded 1966)

Rossini: “William Tell” Overture
Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Claudio Abbado (Deutsche Grammophon)

Mendelssohn: Octet in E flat major, Op. 20
Daniel Hope, Lucy Gould, Sophie Basançon & Christian Eisenberger, violins; Pascal Siffert & Stewart Eaton, violas; William Conway & Kate Gould, cellos
(Deutsche Grammophon)

György Ligeti:
“Concert Romånesc”
Berlin Philharmonic/
Jonathan Nott (Teldec)

Bach-Busoni: Chaconne (from Partita in D minor, BWV 1004)
Awadagin Pratt, piano
(EMI Classics)

Schubert: Symphony No. 2 in B flat major
Staatskapelle Dresden/Herbert Blomstedt
(Berlin Classics)

C.P.E. Bach: Solo in G minor, Wq 135
Heinz Holliger, oboe; Ursula Holliger, harp; Rama Jucker, cello (Philips)

New site for 2014 Paley Festival

The 17th annual Richmond music festival of pianist Alexander Paley and friends will be presented Sept. 26-28 at a new location, St. Luke Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Paley and his wife and four-hands piano partner, Pei-Wen Chen, will be joined by clarinetist Charles West and cellist Rebecca Zimmerman for the fall festival of piano and chamber music.

The Paley Festival, first staged in 1998 in a book shop, subsequently has been presented in churches. St. Luke, located at the intersection of Chippenham Parkway and Custis Road, between Forest Hill Avenue and Huguenot Road, will be its first venue south of the James.

Paley will open the festival performing the 12 études of Chopin and two suites by the 18th-century French master Jean-Philippe Rameau. The pianist is currently in the process of recording the first full cycle of Rameau’s clavier suites on piano.

In the second program, Paley and Chen will play Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” in a rarely heard four-hands piano arrangement. In the finale, Paley, Zimmerman and West will play sonatas and trios of Beethoven and Brahms.

For more information, go to www.paleyfestival.info

The complete 2014 Paley Festival program schedule:

Sept. 26 (7:30 p.m.)
Alexander Paley, piano
Rameau: Suite No. 4 in A minor/major
Rameau: Suite No. 5 in G major/minor
Chopin: 12 études

Sept. 27 (7:30 p.m.)
Alexander Paley & Pei-Wen Chen, piano four-hands
Rossini: “The Barber of Seville”
(arrangement by Arnold Schoenberg)

Sept. 28 (3 p.m.)
Alexander Paley, piano
Charles West, clarinet
Rebecca Zimmerman, cello
Beethoven: Sonata in A major, Op. 69, for cello and piano
Beethoven: Trio in E flat major, Op. 38, for clarinet, cello and piano
Brahms: Sonata in F major, Op. 99, for cello and piano
Brahms: Trio in A minor, Op. 114, for clarinet, cello and piano

Listening to the Proms

The BBC Promenade Concerts are under way, and will continue until the famed Last Night of the Proms on Sept. 13. BBC Radio 3 is streaming most of the concerts, here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3

A guide to the full Proms season is here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms

The times listed are five hours ahead of local time. For example, 8 p.m. London time is 3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

Review: 'Summer at CenterStage'

Barbara Gaden, cello
Russell Wilson, piano
July 17, Richmond CenterStage

In a program dedicated to the memories of Saul Kay, a Richmond Symphony violinist who died in 2004, and his wife, Grace Kay, who died in May, cellist Barbara Gaden and pianist Russell Wilson began with reminiscences, mainly of Saul Kay and his critical yet supportive way with fellow musicians.

I won’t attempt to channel him in this review – even Grace wouldn’t try that; but I couldn’t help wondering whether Gaden and Wilson, both longtime symphony colleagues, didn’t sense him listening over their shoulders, especially in their performance of the Cello Sonata in E minor, Op. 38, of Brahms, a composer Saul Kay loved above most all others.

The greater degree of expression and sound projection, especially from the cellist, was marked in the Brahms, in comparison with a much less forceful performance of Beethoven’s “Seven Variations on ‘Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen’ [‘In men who know the feeling of love’]” from Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.”

The compositions themselves account for much of the difference: Beethoven’s variations relegate the cello to a rather subsidiary role relative to that of a not especially assertive keyboard, while they are full-throated and nearly equal partners in the Brahms sonata. Gaden, moreover, sounded more inclined to make her instrument really sing in the Brahms.

Between the two cello-piano works, Wilson played Schumann’s Fantasy in C major, Op. 17, a sprawling, garrulous homage to Beethoven whose exclamatory expressions of passion naturally became the pianist’s interpretive focus.

“Summer at CenterStage” continues with violinist Ellen Cockerham and pianist Maria Yefimova playing Brahms’ Violin Sonata in G major, Op. 78, and Grieg’s Violin Sonata in G minor, Op. 45, at 6:30 p.m. July 24 in the Gottwald Playhouse of Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets. Tickets: $20. Details: (800) 514-3849 (ETIX); www.richmondsymphony.com

Letter V Classical Radio this week

Previewing the BBC Promenade Concerts at London’s Royal Albert Hall – this year running from July 18 to Sept. 13 – with vintage recordings by the festival’s founder, Henry J. Wood; some of this season’s featured artists in the works they will play; and a couple of staples from the festive Last Night of the Proms . . .

July 17
noon-4 p.m. EDT
1600-2000 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Past Masters:
Elgar: “Pomp and Circumstance” March No. 1
London Philharmonic/Henry J. Wood
(Dutton Laboratories)
(recorded 1940)

Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F major (“Pastoral”)
Tonhalle Orchestra, Zürich/David Zinman (Arte Nova)

Past Masters:
Elgar: “The Kingdom” Prelude
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Edward Elgar
(EMI Classics)
(recorded 1933)

Past Masters:
Henry J. Wood: “Fantasia on British Sea Songs”
London Symphony Orchestra/Henry J. Wood (Dutton Laboratories)
(recorded 1939)

Dvořák: Cello Concerto in B minor
Alisa Weilerstein, cello
Czech Philharmonic/Jiří Bělohlávek (Decca)

Beethoven: “Missa Solemnis” – Gloria
Monteverdi Choir
English Baroque Soloists/John Eliot Gardiner (DG Archiv)

Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor
Joshua Bell, violin
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields/Neville Marriner (Decca)

Past Masters:
William Walton & Edith Sitwell: “Façade” (selections)
Edith Sitwell & Constant Lambert, reciters
chamber orchestra/William Walton (Symposium)
(recorded 1929)

Vaughan Williams: “Job – a Masque for Dancing”
London Philharmonic/
Vernon Handley (Classics for Pleasure)

Thomas Arne:
“Rule, Brittania”
Jamie MacDougall, tenor; Jennifer Smith, soprano
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale/
Nicholas McGegan (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi)

Hubert Parry: “Jerusalem”
(orchestration by Edward Elgar)
Choir of Winchester Cathedral; Waynflete Singers
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/David Hill (Argo)

Lorin Maazel (1930-2014)

Lorin Maazel, the eminent conductor who in recent years has staged a summer music festival at Castleton Farms, his estate in Rappahannock County, VA, has died at 84 of complications following pneumonia, according to a statement posted on the festival’s website (www.castletonfestival.org)

Maazel had been in the midst of rehearsals and performances at the Castleton Festival, which he founded in 2009 with his wife, Dietlinde Turban Maazel, at the end of his tenure as music director of the New York Philharmonic. He described working with young singers and instrumentalists at the festival as “more than a labor of love – a labor of joy.”

A professional musician for three quarters of a century, Maazel was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris, to American parents, and reared in Los Angeles and Pittsburgh. He began violin study at age 5, performed publicly for the first time when he was 8, and began conducting at 9.

When he was 11, Maazel was invited by Arturo Toscanini to conduct the NBC Symphony Orchestra. (Among the works on that program was a piece by Dika Newlin, then a 17-year-old pupil of Arnold Schoenberg; she later became a music professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and a doyen of Richmond’s alternative-music scene.)

Maazel conducted more than 150 orchestras and opera companies in thousands of performances during his long career. His discography runs to more than 300 recordings.

He also was a composer of operas – notably “1984,” after the George Orwell novel – and concert works. Three of his works, including “Irish Vapours and Capers,” featuring flutist James Galway, were on the program of a Castleton Festival Orchestra concert on July 13, staged in memory of Maazel.

The New York Philharmonic will dedicate its July 14 concert in Central Park to Maazel, playing Barber’s Adagio in his memory. Alan Gilbert, who succeeded Maazel as the orchestra’s music director, called his predecessor “a major force in the musical world, and truly an inspiration for generations of American musicians.”

In 1960, Maazel became the first American to conduct at Bayreuth, the Wagner shrine and festival in Germany, leading a production of “Lohengrin.”

He served as music director or chief conductor of the Berlin Radio (RIAS) Symphony Orchestra (1964-75), the Deutsche Oper Berlin (1965-71), the Cleveland Orchestra (1972-82), Orchestre National de France (1977-91), the Vienna State Opera (1982-84), the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (1988-96), the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (1993-2002) and the New York Philharmonic (2002-09).

He was named chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic in 2010. He resigned from the post last month on medical advice, at the same time withdrawing from all professional engagements other than the Castleton Festival.

An obituary by Allan Kozinn in The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/14/arts/music/lorin-maazel-brilliant-intense-and-enigmatic-conductor-dies-at-84.html

An obituary by Anne Midgette in The Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/lorin-maazel-child-prodigy-turned-brilliant-conductor-and-festival-founder-1930-2014/2014/07/13/9c7902ec-0ac9-11e4-8341-b8072b1e7348_story.html

* * *

In a 2012 video, Maazel conducts Japan’s NHK Symphony Orchestra in “The ‘Ring’ without Words,” his orchestral distillation of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWLEaNwAWzE

A 1986 performance of the Verdi Requiem, with tenor Luciano Pavarotti, led by Maazel at the Philadelphia Spectrum:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ga26Lxw9RE

And a much younger Maazel plays the solo (with his own cadenza) and directs the Vienna Philharmonic in the first movement of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K. 216:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9869o4-PEI

UR Modlin Center 2014-15

The esteemed French pianist Hélène Grimaud, the duo of pianist Jonathan Biss and violinist Miriam Fried, the Shanghai Quartet with longtime Guarneri Quartet violist Michael Tree and a program, of early and modern vocal works by New York Polyphony highlight classical-music programs in the 2014-15 season of the University of Richmond’s Modlin Arts Center.

UR’s resident new-music sextet, eighth blackbird, will present two programs, a fall contemporary sampler called “Pattycake” (after Sean Griffin’s 2007 work of that name) and a spring program with Sleeping Giants, the New York-based composers’ collective, introducing the six composers’ “HandEye.” The ’birds also will perform with UR’s Schola Cantorum in the springtime premiere of Dominick DiOrio’s “An Equal Humanity.”

Other classical programs presented by the UR Music Department includes recitals by pianist Paul Hanson and organist Bruce Stevens and a program of French music featuring UR-based pianist Joanne Kong with two Richmond Symphony members, violinist Daisuke Yamamoto and cellist Neal Cary, as well as performances by the UR Symphony Orchestra, UR Wind Ensemble and chamber and choral groups.

Other musical attractions in the Modlin Center’s coming season include the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band with veteran New Orleans singer-songwriter Allen Toussaint, the acoustic duo of mandolinist Chris Thile and double-bassist Edgar Meyer, singer-songwriter Marc Broussard, country musicians Kathy Metea and the Gibson Brothers with Liz Longley, the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, hip-hop artists Zap Mama and Antibalas, and the Turtle Island String Quartet with singer-songwriter Nellie McKay.

Theatrical offerings include “BASETRACK, a Multimedia Performance Experience” on contemporary life in the U.S. Marine Corps, the thriller “Pumpkin Pie Show,” comedian Paula Poundstone and the Chicago comedy troupe The Second City, The Robot Planet’s radio-drama style “The Intergalactic Nemesis: Target Earth,” Michael Milligan in “Mercy Killers” and, in live simulcasts from London’s National Theatre, “Medea,” starring Helen McCroury; “Skylight,” starring Carey Mulligan and Bill Nighy; “Frankenstein,” starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Johny Lee Miller.

Dance presentations include Momix’s “Alchemia,” Kyle Abraham’s Abraham.in.Motion troupe in “The Watershed” and “When the Wolves Came In,” Compagnie Käfig and CCN Créteil et Val-de-Marne in “Correria” and “Agwa,” the Russian National Ballet Theatre in “Cinderella,” and Pathé Live theatrical telecasts of Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet in “Legend of Love,” ”The Pharaoh‘s Daughter,” “La Bayadère,” “Swan Lake,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “Ivan the Terrible.”

Author Elizabeth Kolbert will discuss her recent book “The Sixth Extinction: an Unnatural History,” and public radio’s Ira Glass will speak on “Reinventing Radio.”

On-campus performances will be at the Modlin Center’s venues as well as Westhampton Green, Cannon Memorial Chapel and Perkinson Recital Hall in North Court. Other performances will be staged in downtown Richmond at the Richmond CenterStage’s Carpenter Theatre and Gottwald Playhouse and the Theatre Gym of Virginia Rep Center.

To obtain a season brochure, call the Modlin Center box office at (804) 289-8980. Details and subscription forms also are available on the center’s website, www.modlin.richmond.edu

The 2014-15 season of the Modlin Center and UR’s departments of music and theatre and dance (prices listed are for single adult tickets):

Sept. 4 (4 p.m.)
Sept. 14 (2 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
NT Live:
“Medea”
starring Helen McCrory
$14

Sept. 7 (noon)
Westhampton Green
No BS! Brass Band (12:30 p.m.)
Slavic Soul Party (1:45 p.m.)
Red Baraat (3 p.m.)
Rebirth Brass Band (5 p.m.)
$34

Sept. 10 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
Albert Guinovart, piano
program TBA
$20

Sept. 15 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
David Esleck Trio
free

Sept. 18 (7:30 p.m.)
Jepson Theatre
The Robot Planet
“The Intergalactic Nemesis: Target Earth”
$34

Sept. 19 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
UR Wind Ensemble
UR Jazz Ensemble
UR Symphony Orchestra
UR Schola Cantorum & Women’s Chorale
“Family Weekend Concert”
program TBA
free

Sept. 22 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
eighth blackbird
“Pattycake”
György Ligeti: Études (2014 arr.)
Tom Johnson: “Counting Duets” (2014)
Lee Hyla: “Wave” (2014)
Sean Griffin: “Pattycake” (2007)
Gabriella Smith: “Number Nine” (2013)
David Little: “and the sky was still there” (2010)
$20

Sept. 24 (7:30 p.m.)
Jepson Theatre
Marc Broussard
$36

Sept. 26 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
Turtle Island String Quartet
with Nellie McKay
$36

Oct. 1 (7:30 p.m.)
Jepson Theatre
Alonzo King LINES Ballet
progam TBA
$38

Oct. 2 (7:30 p.m.)
Oct. 3 (7:30 p.m.)
Oct. 4 (7:30 p.m.)
Oct. 5 (2 p.m.)
Cousins Studio Theatre
Department of Theatre and Dance:
“Clybourne Park”
Chuck Mike, director
$15

Oct. 4 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
Chris Thile, mandolin
Edgar Meyer, double-bass
$45

Oct. 16 (7:30 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
National Acrobats of The People’s Republic of China
$30-$38

Oct. 19 (3 p.m.)
Jepson Theatre
“The Adventures of Harold and the Purple Crayon”
$18, $9 (child 12 and younger)

Oct. 20 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
Mike Davison & The Latin Jazz Messengers
free

Oct. 22 (7:30 p.m.)
Oct. 23 (7:30 p.m.)
Jepson Theatre
“BASETRACK, a Multimedia Performance Experience”
$22

Oct. 23 (2 p.m.)
Nov. 16 (3 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
NT Live:
“Skylight”
starring Carey Mulligan & Bill Nighy
$14

Oct. 26 (3 p.m.)
venue TBA
UR Schola Cantorum & Women’s Chorale
Jeffrey Riehl & David Pedersen directing
program TBA
free

Oct. 29 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
Preservation Hall Jazz Band
with Allen Toussaint
$45

Oct. 31 (7  and 10 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
NT Live:
“Frankenstein”
starring Benedict Cumberbatch & Johny Lee Miller
$14

Nov. 2 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
Jonathan Biss, piano
Miriam Fried, violin
Brahms: Sonata in A major, Op. 100
Bartók: Sonata No. 2
Beethoven: Sonata in G major, Op. 96
$36

Nov. 7 (times TBA)
Nov. 8 (times TBA)
Camp Concert Hall
Third Practice Electroacoustic Music Festival
Benjamin Broening, artistic director
artists TBA
programs TBA
free

Nov. 10 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
UR Jazz & Contemporary Combos
free

Nov. 13 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
UR Wind Ensemble
David Niethamer directing
program TBA
free

Nov. 14 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
Gibson Brothers
with Liz Longley
$45

Nov. 14 (8 p.m.)
Nov. 15 (8 p.m.)
Theatre Gym at Virginia Rep Center, 114 W. Broad St.
“The Pumpkin Pie Show”
$22

Nov. 16 (7:30 p.m.)
Gottwald Playhouse, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
DakhaBrakha
$22

Nov. 19 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
Pathé Live:
Bolshoi Ballet
“Legend of Love”
$14

Nov. 20 (7:30 p.m.)
Nov. 21 (7:30 p.m.)
Nov. 22 (7:30 p.m.)
Nov. 23 (2 p.m.)
Jepson Theatre
Department of Theatre and Dance:
“Remnants”
José Joaquín Garcia & J.A. Myerson, music & lyrics
Pop Master Fabel & Alicia Diaz, choreography
$15

Nov. 23 (3 p.m.)
Westhampton Green
(rain location: Camp Concert Hall)
“Global Sounds”
Andrew McGraw directing
free

Nov. 24 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
Pathé Live:
Bolshoi Ballet
“The Pharaoh’s Daughter”
$14

Dec. 2 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
UR Chamber Ensembles
program TBA
free

Dec. 2 (7:30 p.m.)
Jepson Theatre
“Cuban Spectacular: Where in the World Is Carmen Santiago?”
Carmen & Harvey, narrators
UR Jazz Ensemble & Combo
Mike Davison directing
dancers TBA
guest artists from Penn State University
free; tickets required

Dec. 3 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
UR Symphony Orchestra
Alexander Kordzaia conducting
Rimsky-Kosakov: “Scheherazade” (excerpts)
Elgar: “Enigma Variations”
Nick Yeutter: new work TBA
other works TBA
Erin Vidlak, soprano
Marie Fernandez, flute
Leslie Kinnas, violin
Kevin Westergaard, cello
free

Dec. 5 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
Paula Poundstone
$40

Dec. 7 (5 and 8 p.m.)
Cannon Memorial Chapel
UR Schola Cantorum & Women’s Chorale
Jeffrey Riehl & David Pederson directing
The Virginia Girls Choir
“Festival of Lessons and Carols”
free

Dec. 7 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
Pathé Live:
Bolshoi Ballet
“La Bayadère”
$14

Jan. 16 (7:30 p.m.)
Jepson Theatre
The Second City
“Second City Hits Home”
$36

Jan. 22 (7:30 p.m.)
Jepson Theatre
Spanish Harlem Orchestra
$32

Jan. 25 (3 p.m.)
Jepson Theatre
“Schoolhouse Rock Live!”
$18, $9 (children 12 and younger)

Jan. 25 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
Shanghai Quartet
Michael Tree, viola
Turina: “The Matador’s Prayer”
Brahms: Quintet in F major, Op. 88
other works TBA
$36

Jan. 28 (7:30 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Zap Mama
Antibalas
$30-$38

Feb. 1 (3 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
Richard Becker, piano
program TBA
free

Feb. 2 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
Neumann Lecture on Music:
Jessie Ann Owens
“Cipriano de Rore and the Search for Music”
free

Feb. 4 (7:30 p.m.)
Jepson Theatre
Elizabeth Kolbert, speaker
“The Sixth Extinction: an Unnatural History”
$32

Feb. 8 (3 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
Pathé Live:
Bolshoi Ballet
“Swan Lake”
$14

Feb. 11 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
New York Polyphony
“A Lily Among Thorns”
Guerrero: “Regina caeli,” “Quae est ista/Surge propera”
Byterring: “Nesciens mater”
Power: “Beata progenies/Psalm 117”
Dunstable: “Speciosa facta es”
Pyamour: “Quam pulchra es”
Plummer: “Tota pulchra es”
Brumel: “Sicut lilium”
Clemens: “Ego flos campi/Sub umbra illius”
Roll: “There Is No Rose”
new works TBA
$36

Feb. 12 (7:30 p.m.)
Feb. 13 (7:30 p.m.)
Feb. 14 (7:30 p.m.)
Feb. 15 (2 p.m.)
Cousins Studio Theatre
Department of Theatre and Dance:
“Production Studies III Showcase”
$15

Feb. 12 (7:30 p.m.)
Feb. 13 (6 and 8:30 p.m.)
Feb. 14 (3 and 7:30 p.m.)
Feb. 15 (3 p.m.)
Gottwald Playhouse, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
“The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer”
$20, $10.50 (children 12 and younger)

Feb. 16 (7:30 p.m.)
Cannon Memorial Chapel
Bruce Stevens, organ
works TBA by Böhm, Bach, Brahms, Rheinberger, Charles Ives
free

Feb. 18 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
Mike Davison, trumpet
and friends
“A Tribute to the Brecker Brothers”
free

Feb. 20 (7:30 p.m.)
Feb. 21 (3 and 7:30 p.m.)
Feb. 22 (3 p.m.)
Cousins Studio Theatre
Michael Milligan
“Mercy Killers”
$22

Feb. 23 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
Paul Hanson, piano
Bach: “The Well-Tempered Clavier” (excerpts)
Liszt: “Variations on Bach’s ‘Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen’ ”
works TBA by Stockhausen, Takemitsu
free

Feb. 27 (7:30 p.m.)
Feb. 28 (7:30 p.m.)
March 1 (2 p.m.)
University Dancers
Annual Spring Concert
“@ 30”
Larry Keigwen, Norbert de la Cruz & Kim Urba, choreographers
$15

March 2 (1 p.m.)
Perkinson Recital Hall, North Court
Barry Hannigan, piano
masterclass
free

March 2 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
Barry Hannigan, piano
program TBA
free

March 4 (7:30 p.m.)
Jepson Theatre
Compagnie Käfig & CCN Créteil et Val-de-Marne
“Correria”
“Agwa”
$38

March 8 (7:30 p.m.)
Jepson Theatre
Parallel Exit
“Exit Stage Left”
$18

March 13 (7:30 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Russian National Ballet Theatre
“Cinderella”
$37-$47

March 16 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
eighth blackbird
Sleeping Giant
Ted Hearne, Andrew Norman, Chris Cerrone, Timo Andres, Robert Honstein & Jacob Cooper: “HandEye” (2014)
$20

March 19 (7:30 p.m.)
March 20 (7:30 p.m.)
Jepson Theatre
Kyle Abraham/Abraham.in.Motion
“The Watershed”
“When the Wolves Came In”
$38

March 21 (7:30 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Ira Glass
“Reinventing Radio”
$37-$47

March 22 (3 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
Pathé Live:
Bolshoi Ballet
“Romeo and Juliet”
$14

March 23 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
Daisuke Yamamoto, violin
Neal Cary, cello
Joanne Kong, piano
“Vive la France”
Ravel: “Tzigane”
Chausson: Piano Trio in G minor
works TBA by Offenbach, Fauré
free

March 25 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
Matt Wilson Quartet
with John Medeski
$20

March 26 (7 p.m.)
Perkinson Recital Hall, North Court
Kathy Metea
“My Coal Journey”
$20

March 27 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
Kathy Metea
“Calling Me Home”
$40

March 29 (3 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
Richard Becker & Doris Wylee-Becker, pianos
program TBA
free

April 2 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
UR Wind Ensemble
David Niethamer directing
program TBA
free

April 6 (7:30 p.m.)
Jepson Theatre
UR Jazz Ensemble
Mike Davison & Danny Guzman directing
free

April 8 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
UR Symphony Orchestra
Alexander Kordzaia & Daniel Guzman conducting
Guzman: works TBA
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2
Daniel Leibovic, piano
free

April 11 (7:30 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra
with Wynton Marsalis
$52-$62

April 12 (3 p.m.)
North Court Courtyard
(rain location TBA)
“Global Family Concert”
free

April 13 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
UR Jazz & Contemporary Combos
free

April 16 (7:30 p.m.)
April 17 (7:30 p.m.)
April 18 (7:30 p.m.)
April 19 (2 p.m.)
Department of Theatre and Dance:
“Funny Girl”
Jule Styne & Bob Merrill, music & lyrics
Walter Schoen, director
$15

April 19 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
UR Schola Cantorum Jeffrey Riehl directing
eighth blackbird
Dominick DiOrio: “An Equal Humanity” (premiere)
free

April 20 (noon)
Camp Concert Hall
UR Chamber Ensembles
program TBA
free

April 22 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
Hélène Grimaud, piano
works TBA by Liszt, Schubert, Ravel, Debussy, Berio, Fauré, Janáček, Takemitsu, Albeníz
$40

April 24 (7:30 p.m.)
April 25 (7:30 p.m.)
April 26 (3 p.m.)
Jepson Theatre
Momix
“Alchemia”
$40

May 3 (1 and 3 p.m.)
Jepson Theatre
“ ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and Other Eric Carle Favorites”
$18, $9 (children 12 and younger)

May 3 (3 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall
Pathé Live:
Bolshoi Ballet
“Ivan the Terrible”
$14

Stern in the dock

Violinist Isaac Stern (1920-2001) is remembered as one of the stars of classical music in the United States, particularly from the 1950s through the ’70s; as leader of the forces that saved Carnegie Hall, mobilizing resources and public opinion to prevent the landmark New York concert hall from being torn down in the 1960s (its main auditorium is now named for Stern); as a tireless supporter of Israel; and as mentor/promoter of musicians such as Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman.

Stern also had the reputation of being a ruthless musical politician, able and willing to retard the careers of potential rivals among violinists and other artists who got on the wrong side of him. Stories of his machinations have long circulated by word of mouth, and have been hinted at in various memoirs by musicians and music-industry figures.

Norman Lebrecht, the British writer who has made a specialty of exposing the seamier aspects of the classical-music business and its dominant personalities, has obtained detailed accounts of Stern’s abusive behavior from violinist Aaron Rosand and pianist Mordecai Shehori, who taught Stern’s children in the 1970s and early ’80s.

Here is Rosand’s story:

http://slippedisc.com/2014/07/high-explosive-aaron-rosand-accuses-isaac-stern-of-sabotaging-his-career/

And Shehori’s:

http://slippedisc.com/2014/07/isaac-stern-tried-to-expel-me-from-the-us/

Reader comments appended to the two posts go into even more dismaying detail about violinists said to be victims of Stern – Henryk Szeryng, Erick Friedman, Ruggiero Ricci, Uto Ughi and Ivry Gitlis are some of the more recognizable names – and others on the receiving end of his power plays.

As a journalist, my only person-to-person encounters with Stern were a couple of telephone interviews in the 1980s, which were neither pleasant nor especially informative. I heard him perform live a half-dozen or so times, mostly in the later stages of his career, during which he pretty consistently lived down to his backstage nickname, “Isaac Scratch.”

I’ve owned many of his recordings, but have kept very few in my collection. In most every piece he ever recorded, there are other violinists I would much rather hear.

I can’t attest to the factuality of the stories that Lebrecht is amassing; but I can say they don’t shatter one of my musical idols.

Review: 'Summer at CenterStage'

Daisuke Yamamoto, violin
Doris Wylee-Becker, piano
July 10, Richmond CenterStage

Throughout July and August, members of the Richmond Symphony, faculty musicians from Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Richmond and others will be surveying Brahms’ sonatas for solo strings and winds and related chamber music.

The series got off to a winning start as Daisuke Yamamoto, the symphony’s concertmaster, and UR-based pianist Doris Wylee-Becker played Brahms’ Scherzo in C minor, Op. 4, and a sampling from his Op. 116 set of solo-piano fantasies, as well as works by his close friends Robert and Clara Schumann.

The scherzo was the 20-year-old Brahms’ contribution to a sonata written with Robert Schumann and Albert Dietrich in tribute to violinist Joseph Joachim. They gave the piece the title “Frei aber einsam” (“Free but Lonely”), which Joachim had adopted as his motto. Schumann recycled the two movements he had written into his Violin Sonata No. 3; Joachim released the Brahms scherzo for publication in 1906, nine years after the composer’s death.

Yamamoto played in a manner that surely would have won Joachim’s approval – richly lyrical, with generous but not excessive vibrato and unerring phrasing and treatment of dynamics. Wylee-Becker, playing the role of Clara Schumann (who introduced the “F.A.E.” Sonata with Joachim in an at-home musicale in 1853), brought heft and portent to the piano part, but took care not to overbalance the violin.

The duo maintained a similar balance of voices in Clara Schumann’s Op. 22 set of three romances, managing to convey the sweet lyricism of the pieces without sounding treacly; and gratifyingly turned up the heat in Robert Schumann’s Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105.

Wylee-Becker sounded a bit nervy and angular in her treatments of pairs of capriccios and intermezzos from Brahms’ Op. 116 set.

Surprisingly for a classical recital in mid-July in downtown Richmond, this “Summer at CenterStage” opener played to a full house. The next program is nearly sold out, too; but the symphony and CenterStage are accommodating those who turn up without having already purchased tickets to unclaimed and extra seats.

“Summer at CenterStage” continues with cellist Barbara Gaden and pianist Russell Wilson playing Brahms’ Cello Sonata in E minor, Op. 38, and works by Beethoven and Schumann at 6:30 p.m. July 17 in the Gottwald Playhouse of Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets. Tickets: $20. Details: (800) 514-3849 (ETIX); www.richmondsymphony.com