Letter V Classical Radio this week

Remembering Christopher Hogwood, the British harpsichordist, conductor and musicologist who died on Sept. 24. His recordings of Mozart and Haydn with the Academy of Ancient Music in the 1970s and ’80s ushered the period-instruments, historically informed performance movement beyond the Renaissance and baroque into the classical period. We’ll also hear Hogwood leading the two modern-instruments ensembles with which he was most closely associated: the Basel Chamber Orchestra in Stravinsky and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in Martinů.

Oct. 2
noon-2 p.m. EDT
1600-1800 UTC /GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Handel: “Messiah” – “The trumpet shall sound”
David Thomas, bass; Michael Laird, trumpet
Academy of Ancient Music/Christopher Hogwood (L’Oiseau Lyre)

Stravinsky: “Pulcinella” Suite
Basel Chamber Orchestra/Christopher Hogwood (Arte Nova)

Haydn: Symphony No. 94 in G major (“Surprise”)
Academy of Ancient Music/Christopher Hogwood (L’Oiseau Lyre)

Martinů: Sinfonietta (“La Jolla”)
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra/Christopher Hogwood (London)

Mozart: Mass in C major, K. 317 (“Coronation”)
with “Epistle” Sonata in C major, K. 278
Emma Kirkby, soprano; Catherine Robbin, contralto; John Mark Ainsley, tenor; Michael George, bass
Winchester Cathedral Choir; Winchester College Quiristers
Academy of Ancient Music/Christopher Hogwood
(L’Oiseau Lyre)

Mozart: Adagio in E major, K. 261
Simon Standage, violin
Academy of Ancient Music/Christopher Hogwood (L’Oiseau Lyre)

Review: Paley Music Festival

Alexander Paley & Pei-Wen Chen, piano
Rebecca Zimmerman, cello
Charles West, clarinet
Sept. 27-28, St. Luke Lutheran Church

This year’s Paley Music Festival concluded with another near-marathon performance, this time of Beethoven and Brahms: two sonatas for cello and piano and two trios for clarinet, cello and piano – altogether, nearly three hours of music. As with the opening-night concert, a near-capacity audience turned out, but with a good deal of attrition during intermission.

The Richmond-bred cellist Rebecca Zimmerman, now based in Chicago, joined clarinetist Charles West and Paley in the Sept. 28 finale. Zimmerman’s instrument, which has rich bass tone but much less presence in its high register, was not ideally combined with the bright-sounding Cristofori piano that Paley played. The cellist also proved to be less assertive a player than Paley (not many performers match him on that score).

In Beethoven’s Sonata in A major, Op. 69, and Brahms’ Sonata in F major, Op. 99, their most complementary work came in the slow movements, especially the adagio cantabile of the Beethoven, in which both Zimmerman and Paley captured the music’s wistful lyricism. Their treatment of the Brahms adagio, while lyrical and nuanced, did not quite live up to the composer’s modifier, affettuoso.

Zimmerman’s full-bodied bass lines enhanced both Beethoven’s Trio in E flat major, Op. 38, and Brahms’ Trio in A minor, Op. 114. West’s technique was faultless in both works; his slightly reticent expressiveness in the Brahms suited this music’s unique character – intimate and soulful, but at a certain emotional distance. Paley moderated his projection nicely in the Brahms trio.

The threesome played with liveliness and engagement in the Beethoven, a six-movement work that is a hybrid of the classical-period serenade and the weightier but more concise chamber works for which this composer is better-known.

The program of Sept. 27 was given over entirely to Arnold Schoenberg’s piano-four hands transcription of the overture and key arias and ensembles from Rossini’s opera “The Barber of Seville,” played by Paley and his spouse, Pei-Wen Chen.

Most four-hands scores of the 19th and early 20th centuries (this one dates from 1903) were made for amateur pianists to play at home. It’s hard to imagine this one appealing to that clientele. Most of it requires not just professional, but virtuosic, technical ability, and it’s so speedy and note-heavy that two players at the same keyboard seem to risk elbowing each other to the point of bruising. (Four-hands piano as rugby – another novel idea from Schoenberg?)

A larger problem, from a public-performance standpoint, is that most of the tunes are played in the high register, with just a few melody lines in ensemble numbers given to the lower keys. So it’s as if the opera is sung almost entirely by sopranos and mezzos. And, of course, without words.

The no-words issue was only partially addressed by a synopsis printed in the program book and brief summaries of the action spoken between numbers by Paley.

The festival’s first season at St. Luke Evangelical Lutheran Church was successful in drawing crowds (mid-point attrition notwithstanding), also in showcasing the church sanctuary’s excellent acoustic, which I find comparable to that of Camp Concert Hall at the University of Richmond’s Modlin Arts Center. String players, especially, should take note of a fine venue that has not been widely used to date.

Review: Paley Music Festival

Alexander Paley, piano
Sept. 26, St. Luke Evangelical Lutheran Church

In concert, Alexander Paley sometimes brings to mind some unstoppable natural phenomenon – a tsunami, maybe. Fortunately, there are no known cases of people unfiguratively being swept away and drowned by music.

The only potential casualty of Paley’s performances of two long keyboard suites by Jean-Philippe Rameau and the 24 études of the Op. 10 and Op. 25 sets by Frédéric Chopin would have been the pianist himself. Paley came out of it apparently unscathed; after nearly three hours of high-intensity performing, he was soon back at the keyboard for an impromptu coaching session with some of the young piano students invited to sit in the front pews for the second half of the concert.

Opening night of the 17th annual Paley Festival was the most intimate session of music-making since the first festival was staged in a downtown Richmond bookstore. In the sanctuary of St. Luke Evangelical Lutheran Church, most listeners were seated within 15 feet of the pianist. The brightness of the room’s acoustic and the church’s Cristofori piano lent even more presence to the performance.

Rameau and Chopin, composers of markedly different musical eras and sensibilities, proved to be quite complementary voices, at least in Paley’s hands.

He treated the baroque dances of Rameau’s suites in A minor and G minor, from “Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin” (1726-27), rather like miniature tone poems – in one instance, the allemande opening the A minor Suite, like a pre-echo of the modern Parisian chanson.

This music was written, of course, for the harpsichord; and this piano’s tonal character, especially the “twang” of bass notes at high volume, at times recalled the sound of the antique, plucked-string keyboard. Paley also was scrupulous in his treatment of French baroque ornamentation, moderating tempos so that Rameau’s flourishes sounded clearly and without crowding. These were, nevertheless, unashamedly pianistic performances – thoroughly convincing and deeply absorbing ones at that.

And not entirely as obscure as listeners might have expected: In the middle of the Suite in G minor, what should appear but a brilliant little number, “La Poule” (“The Hen”), that Ottorino Respighi used (titled, in Italian, “La Gallina”) in his orchestral suite “Gli Uccelli” (“The Birds”). Paley’s pecking effects were even more vivid than Respighi’s.

The Chopin études, which range expressively from thunderous to dreamy in mood, and from densely solid to prismatically wispy in texture, might have been written for a pianist of Paley’s technique and temperament. Each set seemed to burst forth under his hands – he barely paused for breath between numbers – with extraordinary urgency and unbridled spirit.

“He plays Chopin like a god,” one listener said. Almost literally so in the more emphatic études, such as the first and last of Op. 10. There, and elsewhere, it was as if “let there be light” were pronounced in musical tone.

The Paley Music Festival continues with Alexander Paley and Pei-Wen Chen playing Schoenberg’s piano four-hands transcription of Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 27 and Paley, cellist Rebecca Zimmerman and clarinetist Charles West playing sonatas and trios of Beethoven and Brahms at 3 p.m. Sept. 28, both at St. Luke Evangelical Lutheran Church, 7757 Chippenham Parkway. Admission by donation. Details: (804) 665-9516; www.paleyfestival.info

Christopher Hogwood (1941-2014)

Christopher Hogwood, one of the leading figures in period-instruments and historcally informed orchestral performance, has died at 73.

Hogwood, a Cambridge University-educated harpsichordist, played in the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields in the 1960s. In 1967, he and David Munrow co-founded the Early Music Consort. Hogwood founded Britain’s Academy of Ancient Music in 1973 and led the ensemble until 2006.

He served as artistic director of the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston (1986-2001) and music director of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (1988-92) and Mostly Mozart Festival of London’s Barbican Centre (1983-85). He also was principal guest conductor of the Basel Chamber Orchestra in Switzerland.

Hogwood held academic posts at Cambridge; the Royal Academy of Music; King’s College, London; Gresham College, London; and Harvard and Cornell universities in the U.S.

His activities as a musicologist included serving as chairman of the ongoing new edition of the complete works of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.

Hogwood was a prolific recording artist, once dubbed the “Karajan of early music.” Perhaps the best-known of his more than 200 recordings with the Academy of Ancient Music were their pioneering period-instruments cycle of the Mozart symphonies and acclaimed accounts of Handel’s “Messiah” and Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons.” In later recordings with modern-instruments orchestras, he essayed modern repertory ranging from Stravinsky and Martinů to Barber and Copland.

An obituary by Barry Millington in The Guardian:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/sep/24/christopher-hogwood

Letter V Classical Radio this week

A special program, with studio guests: pianist Alexander Paley and his spouse and piano four-hands partner, Pei-Wen Chen. They will be joined by cellist Rebecca Zimmerman and clarinetist Charles West in the 17th annual edition of Paley’s Richmond festival, Sept. 26-28 at a new location, St. Luke Evangelical Lutheran Church, 7757 Chippenham Parkway.

During the show, we’ll survey the festival’s history, discuss the music to be featured this year, and hear some of the pianists’ live and studio recordings – including a sample from a soon-to-be-released disc of suites by the 18th-century French master Jean-Philippe Rameau, played by Paley on piano.

Sept. 25
noon-2 p.m. EDT
1600-1800 UTC
1700-1900 GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Chopin: Sonata in B minor, Op. 58 – scherzo
Alexander Paley, piano (Blüthner)

Chopin: Étude in F major, Op. 25, No. 3
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano (Decca)

Rameau: Suite in G minor (“l’Egyptinne”) – excerpt
Alexander Paley, piano (Harmonia Mundi France)

Dvořák: “From the Bohemian Forest” – “Silent Woods”
Alexander Paley &
Pei-Wen Chen, piano four-hands
(2004 Paley Festival, live recording)

Rossini: “The Barber of Seville” Overture
Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Claudio Abbado (Deutsche Grammophon)

Past Masters:
Rachmaninoff: Symphony
No. 3 in A minor
Philadelphia Orchestra/
Sergei Rachmaninoff
(Dutton Laboratories)
(recorded 1939)

Prokofiev: “Romeo and Juliet” – excerpts
Alexander Paley, piano (Blüthner/Hänssler Classic)

Review: eighth blackbird

Sept. 22, University of Richmond

The new-music sextet eighth blackbird has presented some formidable challenges to ears and sensibilities in its decade in residence at the University of Richmond. “Pattycake,” the program launching its 11th UR season, proved to be not exactly easy listening, but a good deal easier than usual for the non-specialist to absorb.

The program was anchored by two pieces about rhythm, freed from overlays of melody and harmony. Sean Griffin’s “Pattycake” (2007) tasks four performers with a physically complex take on the children’s hand-clapping game. Tom Johnson’s “Counting Duets” play numbers games, garnished with some tricks of dynamism and a bit of ballroom dance. Both were great fun to watch and hear. I suspect they were exhausting for the artists to prepare, but they seemed spontaneous and almost effortless in performance.

Johnson’s pieces kept unlikely company, being interspersed with four études by György Ligeti in arrangements by two members of the ’birds, flutist Tim Munro and pianist Lisa Kaplan. Kaplan’s treatments of the rhythmically driven “Fanfares” and “Entrelacs” (études Nos. 4 and 12, respectively) fit more comfortably alongside the Johnson duets. Munro’s enlargements of the intricately colored and deeply moody “En Suspens” and “Automne à Varsovie” (études Nos. 11 and 6), ingenious as they are, departed too far in tone and mood from Johnson’s droll rhythmic exercises.

An even less likely combination of pieces, which the ’birds call “Songs of Love and Loss,” combine “Duo for Heart and Breath” (2012) by Richard Reed Parry of the Montreal rock band Arcade Fire and Kaplan’s arrangement of Bon Iver’s “Babys” with Munro’s instrumental arrangements of 17th-century vocal pieces by Claudio Monteverdi and Carlo Gesualdo.

Parry’s duo, whose tempo is determined by pianist Kaplan’s heartbeat (she wore a stethoscope) and violinist Yvonne Lam’s breath rate, was in this performance a mellow and deliberately paced minimalist prelude. Lam played her violin with no vibrato; in the following Monteverdi, she played viola with ample vibrato – a reversal of historical and modern performance practices.

An even more radical reversal in this set: The early music is “hard” and the contemporary music is “easy” (relatively, anyway).

The Gesualdo arrangement underlined the eccentricity of this composer with bell-like and sliding/winding-down effects. Kaplan’s “Babys” arrangement – building on the insistent and gnarly groove of Bon Iver’s instrumental introduction to the song – returned to the steady state of Parry’s piece, with an intense, lyrical climax from cellist Nicholas Photinos.

Photinos also took on David Little’s “and the sky was still there” (2010) for cello and electronics, written for the violinist and electronica artist Todd Reynolds. The piece sets sections of an account by Amber Ferenz of her experiences as a closeted lesbian in the “don’t ask/don’t tell”-vintage U.S. Army to a sonically eventful and complex soundtrack. In this performance, amplified electronics overbalanced the cello (amplification is frequently troublesome in UR’s acoustically bright Camp Concert Hall), and parts of the narration were lost in the mix.

Rounding out the program, another chamber work with pop origins: “Number Nine” (2013) by Gabriella Smith, a thickly textured tone poem that rises out of, and eventually returns to, an instrumentalization of the rhythms and pitches of “number nine,” as it was vocalized and repeated before the song “Revolution 9” on The Beatles’ “White Album” of 1968.

“I also incorporated many other ‘Revolution 9’ references, weaving their collage fragments into ‘Number Nine’s’ continuously evolving arc,” the composer writes in a program note. The collage is so dense and the fragments so fragmentary that few listeners would feel able to hum along.

On first hearing, “Number Nine” struck me as a Platonic shadow (as in Plato’s allegory of the cave: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_Cave) of the high-concept progressive rock song, complete with drum solo (which Matt Duvall mercifully dispatched in much less than a period-authentic 20 minutes). A pretty accurate shadow, I’d say – maybe even preferable to the real thing, at least for those of us who overdosed on the real thing 40 years ago.

Forward, into the past

As popular music has become “more a nostalgic, preservative practice rather than one anticipating and demanding change, classical music comes to fresh, forward-looking life,” longtime British rock critic Paul Morley writes in an essay for The Observer. Morley describes his migration to the classics as “a move to where the provocative, thrilling and transformative ideas are, mainly because modern pop and rock has become the status quo” . . .

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/sep/21/pop-belongs-last-century-classical-music-relevant-future-paul-morley

His playlist: Mozart’s “Masonic Funeral Music,” Debussy’s Cello Sonata, Luciano Berio’s “Sequenza V,” Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony, Webern’s “Slow Movement” and Earle Brown’s “Times Five.” The earliest of them, the Mozart, dates from 1785; the latest, the Berio, from 1966; and there’s nothing from the 19th century.

Plenty of thrills and transformations yet to come, it seems.

(via www.artsjournal.com)

Review: Atlantic Chamber Ensemble

Sept. 21, St. Matthias’ Episcopal Church

The Atlantic Chamber Ensemble, the collective composed of musicians from the Richmond Symphony, Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Richmond and the College of William and Mary, likes to build its programs on themes. In this case, it chose a fruitful one: “Metamorphosis.”

Oboist Shawn Welk, the chief discusser of this program, noted that music is full of examples of one thing – a tune, figuration, rhythm or other element – evolving into something else. The 11-member ensemble chose several of the most obvious vehicles for musical metamorphosis, the theme and variations, garnished with a variety of other forms in which the process literally or figuratively occurs.

The most familiar of the T&Vs was the slow movement of Schubert’s Piano Quintet in A major, nicknamed the “Trout” after the art-song whose tune is the subject of variations in the movement. Soprano Antonio FD Vassar and pianist Maria Yefimova began with the song, after which Yefimova, violinist Alana Carithers, violist Stephen Schmidt, cellist Jason McComb and double-bassist Kelly Ali gave a graceful and sonorous performance of the movement.

It reinforced the point of the program, but it also whetted the appetite for the rest of the quintet. The same was true of the T&V andante from Jean Françaix’s Wind Quintet No. 1. That’s the risk you run when playing excerpts.

Usually, anyway: The piece that Welk chose to open the program, “Pan” from Benjamin Britten’s “Six Metamorphoses after Ovid” for solo oboe, stood nicely on its own. Yefimova’s surprisingly lyrical treatment of Philip Glass’ “Metamorphosis One,” from a full work that goes on for something like three hours (!), probably did not make many listeners yearn to hear the rest. (It did make me wonder whether the pianist might be a fan of “Downtown Abbey,” whose main theme is strikingly similar to this bit of Glass.)

Ravel’s “Le Tombeau de Couperin,” which metamorphosed in the composer’s hands from a six-movement work for solo piano to a four-movement orchestration, was played in a further variant, the orchestrated four movements arranged for wind quintet by Mason Jones, principal French horn player of the Philadelphia Orchestra during the Eugene Ormandy era.

Not suprisingly, Jones’ arrangement has an unusually prominent horn part, played here to strong effect by James Ferree. He and his colleagues – flutist Jennifer Lawson, oboist Welk, clarinetist Jared Davis and bassoonist Martin Gordon – paced Ravel’s fast movements a little too briskly for my taste; but their treatment of the central fugue and minuet sections of the Ravel, as well as the earlier Françaix, resonated nicely.

Cellist McComb and pianist Yefimova proved highly sensitized to the idioms of Anton Webern in his Mahleresque “Langsam” (slow) movement, written at the turn of the 20th century, and his “Drei kleine Stücke” (“Three Little Pieces”) of 1914, couched in his austere and telegraphic mature style. McComb directed the audience’s attention to the role of silence in Webern’s later music, but that element may not have registered as coughs and other extra-musical noises broke the silences.

The program ended on more upbeat and tuneful notes, as pianist Yefimova, flutist Lawson, oboist Welk and clarinetist Davis played Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Caprice on Danish and Russian Airs,” a blending of musical source matter that sounds more complementary than cultural geographers might expect.

Review: Richmond Symphony

Steven Smith conducting
with Joshua Bell, violin
Sept. 20, Richmond CenterStage

If Joshua Bell has kept count of the number of times he has played Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, he hasn’t shared the tally. A lot, for sure – enough for the Bruch to be widely known as his signature concert piece.

Bell played it again with Steven Smith and the Richmond Symphony to open the orchestra’s 2014-15 season. The violinist played with evident affection for this music, and with a seeming inclination toward what musicians of the 18th century called affectus – a calculated projection of mood and emotion.

From the first long, low note on the fiddle to the brilliant conclusion, Bell’s performance was highly expressive. Hardly a phrase went by without some touch-up, usually but not always rendered subtly. His signature tone, combining richness and brilliance, was present in abundance, especially in the central adagio of the concerto. His instrument, a 1713 Stradivarius formerly owned by Bronislaw Huberman, is one of the finest violins in existence, and its owner knows how to get the most out of it.

Bell nowadays is both a solo violinist and conductor, in his third year as music director of Britain’s Academy of St. Martin in the Fields; so it was interesting to see how he interacted with the orchestra in this performance. Attentively – he often faced the accompanying musicians when he wasn’t playing – but without any overt moves toward directing them. Their conductor, Steven Smith, had the performance well in hand, and shared Bell’s emphasis on expressivity.

Smith anticipated it, in fact, in the music that preceded Bell’s appearance, “Vltava” (“The Moldau”), the best-known piece from Bedrich Smetana’s symphonic cycle “Ma Vlast” (“My Fatherland”) and perhaps the most evocative “water music” of the romantic era. Smith and the symphony’s strings and winds expertly navigated Smetana’s swells and eddies, with the orchestra’s French horns adding richly atmospheric touches.

The concert, which drew a capacity crowd, concluded with two popular orchestral showpieces by Ottorino Respighi, “The Fountains of Rome” and “The Pines of Rome.” Respighi is one of the figures without whom the Hollywood film score as we know it simply wouldn’t exist; many of the splashier coloristic effects of film music are inherited directly from these two pieces.

Smith and the symphony splashed spectacularly – the raucous “Triton Fountain at Morn” and the militant conclusion of “The Pines of the Appian Way” were some of the loudest performances the orchestra has delivered in years; but they also handled atmospherics and representational touches with sensitivity as well as vividness.

The brass players and percussionists audibly relished their showcases, playing with great sonority as well as impact. Wind players, including flutist Mary Boodell, clarinetist Jared Davis and oboist Shawn Welk, contributed excellent solos, as did trumpeter Rolla Durham in an offstage passage.

Stationing trumpeters and trombonists at three points in the balcony enhanced the room-filling sound of the "Appian Way" finale.

Letter V Classical Radio this week

Sept. 18
noon-2 p.m. EDT
1600-1800 UTC
1700-1900 GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Sarasate: “Serenata andaluza”
Julia Fischer, violin; Milana Chernyavska, piano (Decca)

Suk: Serenade for strings
Appassionata/Daniel Myssyk (Fidelio)

Beethoven: Sonata in C minor, Op. 10, No. 1
Ronald Brautigam, fortepiano (Bis)

Debussy: Sonata for flute, viola and harp
Philippe Bernold, flute; Gérard Caussé, viola; Isabelle Moretti, harp
(Harmonia Mundi France)

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 15 in B flat major,
K. 450
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano & director
Chamber Orchestra of Europe (Warner Classics)

Past Masters:
Richard Strauss: “Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks”
Cleveland Orchestra/George Szell (Sony Classical)
(recorded 1957)

Size matters in Atlanta

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Howard Pousner gets to the nub of the dispute between management and musicians in the Atlanta Symphony lockout: Whether an ensemble smaller than the current complement of 88 – down from 95 in the 2011-12 season – crosses a threshold that “must not be crossed” if a “full, robust and world-class symphony orchestra” is to be maintained, as the orchestra’s chief conductors, Robert Spano and Donald Runnicles, wrote in a letter to management before the Sept. 7 lockout:

http://artsculture.blog.ajc.com/2014/09/13/orchestras-size-resonates-as-big-issue-in-atlanta-symphony-dispute/

The Atlanta Symphony has been running in the red for 12 consecutive seasons. If the orchestra cannot increase its revenue through fund-raising and ticket sales – not impossible: a $37 million budget is not excessive in a metro area of 5.5 million people (the Baltimore Symphony maintains a $27 million budget in a metro area with half the population of Atlanta’s) – then, clearly, something has to give.

Size matters in a lot of symphonic music, especially in Mahler, Richard Strauss, the big Stravinsky ballet scores and other late-romantic and early modern repertory. It is possible to give credible performances of such works with reduced strings – when orchestras shrink, most of the shrinkage is absorbed by string sections – but rarely possible to achieve great performances.

I’ve heard the Richmond Symphony and Virginia Symphony play big opuses of Mahler, Bruckner, Sibelius and Nielsen with understrength string sections. They were readings of high intensity and deep musicality, but with unavoidable imbalances between strings and winds and a marked loss of sonic punch, especially when performed in full-size concert halls.

Ensemble cohesion matters as much as size. I’ve heard many orchestral performances in which substantial numbers of free-lance substitutes filled out string and wind sections. Better balances and more punch inevitably were offset by less refinement, expressivity and stylistic fluency.

If the plan in Atlanta is to shrink to a fulltime “core” needing the addition of several dozen substitutes to play large-scale works, then the conductors and locked-out musicians are correct in anticipating that the Atlanta Symphony would be an entirely different orchestra. From week to week, even.

Would it remain a “world-class” orchestra? Doubtful, even if one were to grant that it has been a top-tier ensemble. (Not many critics would rate it that highly.)

With intelligent artistic guidance, a downsized Atlanta Symphony might be remade into a estimable classical-scale orchestra, comparable to such ensembles as the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields or the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, capable of playing first-rate Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, even Brahms and Dvořák, and of accompanying most of the standard concerto repertory and the great Atlanta Symphony Chorus that Robert Shaw built.

Would such an orchestra project properly in the Woodruff Arts Center’s 1,762-seat Atlanta Symphony Hall? Or would it need to move to a smaller venue? Since the orchestra currently operates as part of the Woodruff Center, a move presumably would entail a new corporate arrangement. Assuming that could be managed, would playing in a smaller hall generate enough ticket revenue?

Affecting cost savings by paying fewer musicians is a more complex proposition than the usual kind of corporate downsizing.

* * *

UPDATE (Sept. 18): A reader points out other pertinent numbers, in an article by Jenny Jarvie on the website www.artsatl.com: Musicians’ earnings “represent about 25 percent of the total [Atlanta Symphony] budget. According to the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians, that is substantially lower than top orchestras around the country, which average about 40 percent.”

The full article:

www.artsatl.com/2014/09/news-aso-lockout-enters-second-week/

Review: Pacifica Quartet

Sept. 13, Virginia Commonwealth University

You don’t hear many programs in which Joseph Haydn is the second-wittiest composer. The Pacifica Quartet managed that programming feat in its return engagement at Virginia Commonwealth University, opening the new season of Rennolds Chamber Concerts.

The top wit? György Ligeti, the Hungarian-born late-20th century master whose String Quartet No. 1 (“Métamorphoses nocturnes”) is part-homage to Béla Bartók, part-funhouse mirror-in-sound manipulation of a four-note motif into numerous shapes, shades and styles.

What could be a jarringly schizophrenic exercise – evocations of Bartók’s “night music” up against skittishly jazzy numbers and a woozy waltz – is instead a wide-ranging, technically dazzling, sometimes hilarious tonal essay, and a surprisingly compact one whose 12 interlocking movements zip along eventfully and with a coherence that testifies eloquently to Ligeti’s ingenuity.

The Pacifica – violinists Simon Ganatra and Sibbi Bernhardsson, violist Masumi Per Rostad and cellist Brandon Vamos – played the Ligeti with deep engagement and audible affection. The piece plays to several of the ensemble’s greatest strengths, a collective ear for the finest sonic nuance and a knack for highly transparent rendition of parts.

The foursome emphasized the same qualities in Haydn’s Quartet in B flat major, Op. 76, No. 4 (“Sunrise”); and three of the four, Bernhardsson, Rostad and Vamos, also captured the woodsy, rustic quality of Haydn’s string writing, to which few musicians outside historically informed circles are attuned. First violinist Ganatra, however, played against that grain with a bright, penetrating tone that leaped out of the ensemble.

This contrast of voicings – producing, in effect, music for violin and string trio – proved more effective in Felix Mendelssohn’s Quartet in F minor, Op. 80, the composer’s last substantial work, produced in the wake of the death of his sister, Fanny Mendelssohn Henselt (its adagio is an elegy to Fanny), and completed a few months before Felix himself died.

The piece is, stylistically and expressively, quite unlike the more familiar Mendelssohn, even at his most dramatic or turbulent. This music is darker, more intense and with an introspective quality more characteristic of later romantics such as Brahms or Tchaikovsky.

The Pacifica, which has recorded all the Mendelssohn quartets, effectively highlighted the differences in this last one, playing with go-for-broke energy and taut expressivity.

The group rewarded the following ovation with an encore: the taxing allegretto pizzicato from Bartók’s Quartet No. 4.

Letter V Classical Radio this week

Sept. 11
noon-2 p.m. EDT
1600-1800 UTC
1700-1900 GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Beethoven: “The Ruins of Athens” – “Turkish March”
Berlin Philharmonic/Claudio Abbado
(Deutsche Grammophon)

Past Masters:
Elgar: “Enigma Variations”
London Symphony Orchestra/Pierre Monteux (Decca)
(recorded 1958)

Haydn: Symphony No. 96 in D major (“Miracle”)
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam/
Colin Davis (Philips)

Martinů: “La revue de cuisine”
The Dartington Ensemble (Hyperion)

Poulenc: Piano Concerto
Pascal Rogé, piano
London Chamber Orchestra/Christopher Warren-Green
(Signum Classics)

Weill: “Little Threepenny Music”
London Symphony Orchestra/Michael Tilson Thomas (Sony Classical)

Lockout at Atlanta Symphony

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and its musicians have failed to reach agreement on a new contract, resulting in what the musicians are calling a lockout. They will not receive salaries until a new contract is agreed upon, and the orchestra’s management says the 2014-15 season, scheduled to begin on Sept. 25, may be delayed.

Management, citing “12 consecutive years of deficit operations” and an accumulated debt of about $5 million, offered musicians a 4.5 percent raise over the course of a new contract and a 22 percent share of any budget surplus, but called on musicians to pay more for health insurance and agree to concessions to management in “determining how and when vacancies [in] the orchestra are filled in order to balance the artistic and financial needs of the orchestra.”

The New York Times’ Michael Cooper reported on Sept. 5 that the Atlanta Symphony’s music director, Robert Spano, and principal guest conductor, Donald Runnicles, took the unusual step of writing to the orchestra board and management, asking them “to acknowledge the sacrifice the musicians have already made, and to examine other ways and areas to establish sustainability.” Their letter apparently had no effect.

Musicians, who absorbed wage concessions under the 2012-14 contract that expired Sept. 6, say that ASO management and Atlanta’s Woodruff Arts Center, under whose umbrella the orchestra operates, have “displayed no willingness to find a workable agreement,” insisting on a “ ‘last, best, and final offer,’ under which the musicians would continue to hemorrhage income and lose orchestra positions.”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution publishes statements from both sides:

http://www.peachpundit.com/2014/09/07/atlanta-symphony-management-fail-to-meet-cba-deadline/

Letter V Classical Radio this week

Sept. 4
noon-2 p.m. EDT
1600-1800 UTC
1700-1900 GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Mozart: “Exsultate, jubilate”
Emma Kirkby, soprano
Academy of Ancient Music/Christopher Hogwood
(l’Oiseau Lyre)

Nielsen: Flute Concerto
Emmanuel Pahud, flute
Berlin Philharmonic/
Simon Rattle
(EMI Classics)

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

Berlioz: “Benvenuto Cellini” Overture
Staatskapelle Dresden/
Colin Davis
(RCA Victor)

Grieg: Quartet in G minor
Shanghai Quartet
(Delos)

Past Masters:
Tchaikovsky: “Marche slave”
Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Fritz Reiner
(RCA Victor)
(recorded 1959)

* * * 

As a sponsor of the Fall Line Festival, Sept. 5-6 at downtown Richmond venues, WDCE plans to be on the air around the clock over the coming weekend. I’m taking the 3-5 a.m. (EDT) Saturday shift. The music won’t be classical . . . well, there is that Kurt Weill set, kicked off by Jim Morrison & The Doors . . . and Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli playing “Limehouse Blues” . . . but I shouldn’t spoil all the surprises.

2014-15 season overview

For your calendar-marking and ticket-buying convenience, here’s an overview of ticketed classical events and festivals in Richmond during the 2014-15 season.

There are fewer conflicts than in past years. Two dueling matinees – Virginia Opera vs. Richmond Symphony on Oct. 5, symphony vs. Richmond Philharmonic on May 3 – and a couple of pops concerts up against chamber-music programs are the only offenders (so far).

There aren’t many blockbusters or game-changers, either. In the former category, the symphony’s performances of Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony (No. 2) on Oct. 18-19 qualify. And eighth blackbird, the University of Richmond’s new-music sextet, undoubtedly will spring surprises galore in their programs on Sept. 22 and, with the Sleeping Giant composers’ collective, on March 16. (Some free performances at Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Richmond, not listed here, also venture off the usual musical turf.)

It will be nice to hear violinist Joshua Bell, appearing in Richmond for the first time since 1989 in the symphony’s Sept. 20 season-opener. He’s playing Bruch’s Concerto No. 1 in G minor, one of his signature showpieces. I can’t say I’ve spent 25 years yearning to hear Bell play this above all other music; but if he delivers the goods, I’m prepared to be dazzled.

In contrast to recent seasons in which it pushed the repertory envelope, Virginia Opera marks its 40th anniversary with a greatest-hits lineup: “Sweeney Todd” (Oct. 3 and 5), “H.M.S. Pinafore” (Nov. 21 and 23), “Salome” (Feb. 6 and 8) and “La Traviata” (March 27 and 29). The latter features the Richmond Symphony as the pit band touring the state – thus, the blank spell on the calendar in early April.

Highlighting chamber-music offerings: the first local performance by pianist Hélène Grimaud (April 22) at UR; return engagements for the Pacifica Quartet (Sept. 13) and St. Lawrence String Quartet (Nov. 15), the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (Feb. 28) and violinist Rachel Barton Pine (Jan. 24) at VCU; the annual visit by the Shanghai Quartet with former Guarneri Quartet violist Michael Tree (Jan. 25) and a duo recital by pianist Jonathan Biss and violinist Miriam Fried (Nov. 2) at UR; and James Wilson’s characteristically wide-ranging programming, with extra helpings of solo Bach, for the Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia on various dates in October, January and May.

Following the calendar, you’ll find telephone and online links to the presenting organizations.


SEPTEMBER
10 – Albert Guinovart, piano (UR Modlin Center).
13 – Pacifica Quartet (VCU Singleton Center).
20 – Richmond Symphony/Steven Smith; Joshua Bell, violin (Richmond CenterStage).
22 – eighth blackbird (UR Modlin Center).
26-28 – Alexander Paley Music Festival (St. Luke Evangelical Lutheran Church).
27 – Richmond Symphony Pops/Keitaro Harada; Waterloo (“ABBA – the Music”) (Richmond CenterStage).

OCTOBER
2 – Richmond Symphony/Steven Smith (Rush-Hour concert) (Richmond CenterStage).
3/5 – Virginia Opera: “Sweeney Todd” (Richmond CenterStage).
5 – Richmond Symphony/Steven Smith (Randolph-Macon College).
18-19 – Richmond Symphony & Symphony Chorus/Steven Smith (Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony) (Richmond CenterStage).
25 – Richmond Symphony LolliPops/Keitaro Harada (“Beethoven Lives Upstairs”).
25 – New York Brass Arts Trio (VCU Singleton Center).
27 – Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia (Bon Air Presbyterian Church).

NOVEMBER
2 – Jonathan Biss, piano; Miriam Fried, violin (UR Modlin Center).
2 – Richmond Philharmonic/Peter Wilson, conductor & violin (Collegiate School).
7-8 – Third Practice Electroacoustic Music Festival (UR Modlin Center).
8 – Richmond Symphony/Steven Smith; Richard King, French horn (Richmond CenterStage).
13 – Richmond Symphony/Steven Smith; Tom Schneider, bassoon (Rush-Hour concert) (Richmond CenterStage).
15 – St. Lawrence String Quartet (VCU Singleton Center).
16 – Richmond Symphony/Steven Smith; Tom Schneider, bassoon (Randolph-Macon College).
21/23 – Virginia Opera: “H.M.S. Pinafore” (Richmond CenterStage).

DECEMBER
6-7 – Richmond Symphony Pops & Symphony Chorus/conductor TBA (“Let It Snow!”) (Richmond CenterStage).
13 – Richmond Symphony & Chorus/Steven Smith (Handel’s “Messiah”) (Richmond CenterStage).
16 – Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia: Beiliang Zhu & James Wilson, cellos (Holy Comforter Church, Episcopal).

JANUARY
8 – Richmond Symphony/Steven Smith (Rush-Hour concert) (Richmond CenterStage).
10 – Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia (First Unitarian Universalist Church).
11 – Richmond Symphony/Steven Smith (Randolph-Macon College).
12 – Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia (First Unitarian Universalist Church).
17-18 – Richmond Symphony/Steven Smith; Adam Golka, piano (Richmond CenterStage).
24 – Richmond Symphony LolliPops/Keitaro Harada; Charlotte Blake Alston, narrator (“Pinocchio’s Adventures in Funland”) (Richmond CenterStage).
24 – Rachel Barton Pine, violin (VCU Singleton Center).
25 – Shanghai Quartet; Michael Tree, viola (UR Modlin Center).
27 – Richmond Symphony/Steven Smith (Holocaust anniversary program) (Richmond CenterStage).
31 – Richmond Symphony Pops/Keitaro Harada; Preservation Hall Jazz Band (Richmond CenterStage).

FEBRUARY
6/8 – Virginia Opera: “Salome” (Richmond CenterStage).
11 – New York Polyphony (UR Modlin Center).
13 – Richmond Symphony & Symphony Chorus; One Voice Chorus; St. Paul’s Baptist Church Chorus/Steven Smith (Duke Ellington program) (St. Paul’s Baptist Church).
14 – Richmond Symphony & Symphony Chorus; One Voice Chorus; St. Paul’s Baptist Church Chorus/Steven Smith (Duke Ellington program) (Richmond CenterStage).
22 – Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia: Carsten Schmidt, harpsichord (Holy Comforter Church, Episcopal).
28 – Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (VCU Singleton Center).
28 – Richmond Symphony Pops/Keitaro Harada; vocalists TBA (“Wicked Divas”) (Richmond CenterStage).

MARCH
7 – Richmond Symphony/Tito Muñoz; Stanislav Khristenko, piano (Richmond CenterStage).
8 – Richmond Philharmonic/Peter Wilson; Sheri Oyan, also saxophone (Collegiate School).
16 – eighth blackbird; Sleeping Giant (UR Modlin Center).
21 – Richmond Symphony LolliPops/Keitaro Harada (“Orchestra Games”) (Richmond CenterStage).
27/29 – Virginia Opera: “La Traviata” (Richmond CenterStage).

APRIL
18-19 – Richmond Symphony/Steven Smith; Daisuke Yamamoto, violin (Richmond CenterStage).
22 – Hélène Grimaud, piano (UR Modlin Center).

MAY
2 – Richard Goode, piano; Sarah Shafer, soprano (VCU Singleton Center).
3 – Richmond Symphony/Steven Smith; Lynette Wardle, harp (Randolph-Macon College).
3 – Richmond Philharmonic/Peter Wilson; Jack Glatzer, violin (Collegiate School).
9-10 – Richmond Symphony & Symphony Chorus/Steven Smith (Richmond CenterStage).
16 – Richmond Symphony/conductor TBA (“Bugs Bunny at the Symphony II”) (Altria Theater).
17 – Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia (First Unitarian Universalist Church).
19 – Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia (First Unitarian Universalist Church).


RICHMOND SYMPHONY:
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
www.richmondsymphony.com

VIRGINIA OPERA:
(866) 673-7282
www.vaopera.org

UR MODLIN CENTER:
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu

VCU RENNOLDS CONCERTS:
(804) 828-6776
www.arts.vcu.edu/music

RICHMOND PHILHARMONIC:
(804) 673-7400
www.richmondphilharmonic.org

CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF CENTRAL VIRGINIA:
(804) 519-2098
www.cmscva.org

ALEXANDER PALEY MUSIC FESTIVAL:
(804) 665-9516
www.paleyfestival.info

Doorbusters

Richmond Symphony cellist Jason McComb and University of Richmond-based pianist Joanne Kong were the box-office champions in the first Summer at CenterStage series.

Defying concerns that classical music might be a poor summertime draw at a downtown venue, the eight-program series played to mostly capacity crowds in Richmond CenterStage’s Gottwald Playhouse.

For drawing the fullest house on July 31, McComb and Kong were awarded busts of Johannes Brahms, whose sonatas were featured this summer.

A second summer season is planned for 2015. Organizers – the Richmond Symphony, University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University music departments and CenterStage – are contemplating programs of French chamber music.

September 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: Pianist Albert Guinovart plays music from the Catalonian region of Spain, Sept. 10 at the University of Richmond’s Modlin Arts Center. . . . The Pacifica Quartet opens this season’s Rennolds Chamber Concerts with a program of Haydn, Mendelssohn and Ligeti, Sept. 13 at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Singleton Arts Center. . . . Rajeev Taranath plays sarod (Indian lute) in a program of North Indian classical music, Sept. 17 at VCU. . . . Pianist Henning Vauth plays Frederic Rzewski’s epic “The People United Will Never Be Defeated,” Sept. 19 at VCU. . . . Stellar violinist Joshua Bell joins Steven Smith and the Richmond Symphony in the opening concert of the orchestra’s 2014-15 season, Sept. 20 at Richmond CenterStage. . . . The Atlantic Chamber Ensemble introduces Shawn Welk’s chamber arrangement of Ravel’s “Le Tombeau de Couperin” in a wide-ranging program on Sept. 21 at St. Matthias Episcopal Church in Midlothian. . . . eighth blackbird opens its 11th season at the University of Richmond with “Pattycake,” a program of new and recent works by György Ligeti, Tom Johnson, Lee Hyla, Sean Griffin, Gabriella Smith and David Little, Sept. 22 at the Modlin Center. . . . The Alexander Paley Music Festival, featuring the Russian-American pianist and colleagues in music by Rossini, Beethoven, Brahms, Rameau and Chopin, returns Sept. 26-28 at a new venue, St. Luke Evangelical Lutheran Church in South Richmond. . . . Keitaro Harada, the new associate conductor of the Richmond Symphony, leads a Symphony Pops program with Waterloo performing music of the Swedish pop legends ABBA, Sept. 27 at Richmond CenterStage.

* Noteworthy elsewhere: The Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival ranges from Mozart, Schubert and Martinů to chamber arrangements of Beethoven’s “Eroica” and Mahler’s Fourth symphonies in seven concerts from Sept. 7-18 at the University of Virginia’s Old Cabell Hall and the Paramount Theater. . . . Washington National Opera presents the vocal power couple of tenor Stephen Costello and soprano Ailyn Pérez, Sept. 10 at the Kennedy Center. . . . Pinchas Zukerman substitues for an indisposed Hilary Hahn, playing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony, Sept. 18 at Strathmore in the Maryland suburbs of DC. . . . Pianist Emanuel Ax joins JoAnn Falletta and the Virginia Symphony in Mozart and Richard Strauss to open the orchestra’s new season, Sept. 19-21 at venues in Newport News, Norfolk and Virginia Beach. . . . Washington National Opera stages Daniel Catán’s “Florencia in the Amazon” for five performances, Sept. 20-28 at the Kennedy Center. . . . Joshua Bell and soprano Kelli O’Hara join the National Symphony Orchestra, Christoph Eschenbach and Steven Reineke conducting, in its season-opener, Sept. 21 at the Kennedy Center. . . . Kate Tamarkin leads the newly renamed Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia in the opening concerts of its 40th anniversary season, Sept. 26 at UVa’s Old Cabell Hall and Sept. 28 at Charlottesville High School’s the Martin Luther King Jr. Performing Arts Center.


Sept. 5 (7 p.m.)
Williamsburg Winery-Wessex Hall, 5800 Wessex Hundred
Virginia Symphony
JoAnn Falletta conducting
guest artists TBA
program TBA
$65-$150
(757) 892-6366
www.virginiasymphony.org

Sept. 7 (3 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival:
Timothy Summers, violin
Raphael Bell, cello
Judith Gordon, piano
Schubert: Violin Sonata in A major, D. 574
Martinů: Cello Sonata No. 3
Schubert: Piano Trio in B flat major, D. 898
$TBA
(434) 924-3376
www.cvillechambermusic.org

Sept. 9 (7:30 p.m.)
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Ninth and Grace streets, Richmond
Richmond chapter, American Guild of Organists Opening Service and Introduction of Officers:
David Sinden, organ
other performers TBA
hymns and organ works TBA on Psalm themes
donation requested
$15 (dinner at 6:30 p.m.; reservations required by Sept. 5)
(804) 272-0036
www.richmondago.org

Sept. 10 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
Albert Guinovart, piano
Catalonian Spanish works TBA
$20
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu

Sept. 10 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Washington National Opera:
Stephen Costello, tenor
Ailyn Pérez, soprano
Danielle Orlando, piano
program TBA
$60
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Sept. 11 (7:30 p.m.)
31st Street Stage, 31st Street at Atlantic Avenue, Virginia Beach
VSOcean:
Virginia Symphony
conductor TBA
program TBA
free
(757) 892-6366
www.virginiasymphony.org

Sept. 11 (8 p.m.)
Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Charlottesville
Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival:
Sharon Roffman & Timothy Summers, violins
David Quiggle, viola
Raphael Bell, cello
Joseph Carver, double-bass
Judith Gordon, piano
Gabriel Shuford, harmonium
Sooyun Kim, flute
Adam Hollander, oboe
Matthew Hunt, clarinet
Bram van Sambeek, bassoon
Lisa Conway, French horn
Matthew Gold & I-Jen Fang, percussion
Virpi Räisänen, mezzo-soprano
Korngold: “Glück, das mir verblieb” from “Die tote Stadt”
Mozart: Quintet in E flat major, K. 452, for winds
Mahler-Simon: Symphony No. 4
$18-$25
(434) 979-1333
www.cvillechambermusic.org

Sept. 11 (7 p.m.)
Sept. 12 (8 p.m.)
Sept. 13 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra Pops
Steven Reineke conducting
Pink Martini & The von Trapps, guest stars
program TBA
$20-$88
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Sept. 12 (7:30 p.m.)
Christopher Newport University, Newport News
Symphony Under the Stars:
Virginia Symphony
Benjamin Rous conducting
program TBA
free
(757) 892-6366
www.virginiasymphony.org

Sept. 12 (8 p.m.)
Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Charlottesville
Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival:
Sharon Roffman & Timothy Summers, violins
David Quiggle, viola
Raphael Bell & Edward Arron, cellos
Joseph Carver, double-bass
Judith Gordon, piano
Gabriel Shuford, harpsichord
Sooyun Kim, flute
Adam Hollander, oboe
Matthew Hunt, clarinet
Bram van Sambeek, bassoon
Jeroen Berwaerts, trumpet
Matthew Gold, percussion
Virpi Räisänen, mezzo-soprano
Vivaldi: Concerto in D major, RV 95 (“Le Pastorella”)
Alexandre Lunsqui: “Topografia Index 3” for percussion, clarinet and flute
Vivaldi: “Cessate, omai cessate,” RV 684
Rossini: Sonata “a quattro” No. 3 in C major
Luciano Berio: “Sequenza III” for solo voice
J. S. Bach: “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 2 in F major
$18-$25
(434) 979-1333
www.cvillechambermusic.org

Sept. 13 (6 p.m.)
Heritage Amphitheater, Pocahontas State Park, 10301 State Park Road, Chesterfield
Richmond Symphony
conductor TBA
program TBA
free
(804) 796-4255
www.richmondsymphony.com

Sept. 13 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Rennolds Chamber Concerts:
Pacifica Quartet
Haydn:Quartet in B flat major, Op. 76, No. 4 (“Sunrise”)
Ligeti: Quartet No. 1
Mendelssohn: Quartet in F minor, Op. 80
$34
(804) 828-6776
www.arts.vcu.edu/music

Sept. 13 (6 p.m.)
City Center at Oyster Point, 701 Town Center Drive, Newport News
Virginia Symphony members
conductor TBA
“VSO Jazz”
works TBA by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Glenn Miller, others
free
(757) 892-6366
www.virginiasymphony.org

Sept. 13 (8:30 p.m.)
The Southern Café and Music Hall, 103 S. First St., Charlottesville
Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival:
performers TBA
“Music Fresh Squeezed”
program TBA
$12
(800) 594-8499
www.cvillechambermusic.org

Sept. 14 (4 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Guitar Series:
Denver Walter & Nathan Mills, classical and flamenco guitars
program TBA
$10-$15
(804) 828-6776
www.arts.vcu.edu/music

Sept. 14 (3 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival:
Sharon Roffman & Timothy Summers, violins
David Quiggle, viola
Raphael Bell & Edward Arron, cellos
Mimi Solomon & Steven Beck, piano
Matthew Hunt, clarinet
Bram van Sambeek, bassoon
Jeroen Berwaerts, trumpet
Beethoven: Trio in B flat major, Op. 11
Martinů: “La revue de cuisine”
Enescu: “Légende”
Ligeti: “Le Grand Macabre”
Beethoven-Ries: Symphony No. 3 in E flat major (“Eroica”)
$TBA
(434) 924-3376
www.cvillechambermusic.org

Sept. 17 (7 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Rajeev Taranath, sarod
North Indian classical program TBA
free
(804) 828-6776
www.arts.vcu.edu/music

Sept. 18 (12:30 p.m.)
Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Charlottesville
Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival:
performers TBA
program TBA
free
(434) 979-1333
www.cvillechambermusic.org

Sept. 18 (8 p.m.)
Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Charlottesville
Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival:
Jennifer Koh & Timothy Summers, violins
Raphael Bell, cello
Benjamin Hochman, piano
Yehudi Wyner: “Concordance”
John Zorn: “Passagen”
David Ludwig: “Aria Fantasy” for piano quartet
Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78
$18-$25
(434) 979-1333
www.cvillechambermusic.org

Sept. 18 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop conducting
Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D major
Pinchas Zukerman, violin
Mahler: Symphony No. 4
Tamara Wilson, soprano
$65-$120
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
www.strathmore.org

Sept. 19 (7 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Henning Vauth, piano
Frederic Rzewski: “The People United Will Never Be Defeated”
other works TBA
free
(804) 828-6776
www.arts.vcu.edu/music

Sept. 19 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
UR Wind Ensemble
UR Jazz Ensemble
UR Symphony Orchestra
Schola Cantorum & Women’s Chorale
“Family Weekend Concert”
program TBA
free
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu

Sept. 19 (8 p.m.)
Ferguson Arts Center, Christopher Newport University, Newport News
Sept. 20 (8 p.m.)
Chrysler Hall, 215 St. Paul’s Boulevard, Norfolk
Sept. 21 (2:30 p.m.)
Sandler Arts Center, 201 Market St., Virginia Beach
Virginia Symphony
JoAnn Falletta conducting
Richard Strauss: “Don Juan”
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 14 in E flat major, K. 449
Richard Strauss: “Burleske”
Emanuel Ax, piano
Ravel: “La Valse”
$25-$107
(757) 892-6366
www.virginiasymphony.org

Sept. 20 (8 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony
Steven Smith conducting
Smetana: “The Moldau”
Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor
Joshua Bell, violin
Respighi: “The Fountains of Rome”
Respighi: “The Pines of Rome”
$25-$125
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
www.richmondsymphony.com

Sept. 20 (7:30 p.m.)
Olin Theater, Roanoke College, Salem
Kandinsky Trio
Scott Williamson, tenor
Haydn: Piano Trio in E flat major
Vaughan Williams: “On Wenlock Edge”
Dvořák: Piano Trio in F minor, Op. 65
$12-$20
(540) 375-2333
www.roanoke.edu

Sept. 20 (8 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
Fairfax Symphony Orchestra
Christopher Zimmerman conducting
Glinka: “Russlan and Ludmilla” Overture
Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor
Alexander Schimpf, piano
Brahms: Symphony No. 2 in D major
$25-$60
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
www.fairfaxsymphony.org

Sept. 20 (7 p.m.)
Sept. 22 (7 p.m.)
Sept. 24 (7:30 p.m.)
Sept. 26 (7:30 p.m.)
Sept. 28 (2 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Opera House, Washington
Washington National Opera
Carolyn Kuan conducting
Daniel Catán: “Florencia in the Amazon”
Christine Goerke/Melody Moore (Florencia Grimaldi)
Norman Garrett (Ríolobo)
Andrea Carroll (Rosalba)
Patrick O’Halloran (Arcadio)
Nancy Fabiola Herrera (Paula)
Michael Todd Simpson (Álvaro)
David Pittsinger (Captain)
Francesca Zambello, stage director
in Spanish, English captions
$25-$300
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Sept. 21 (4 p.m.)
St. Matthias Episcopal Church, 11300 W. Huguenot Road, Midlothian
Atlantic Chamber Ensemble
Ravel-Welk: “Le Tombeau de Couperin”
works TBA by Britten, Schubert, Saint-Saëns, Glass, Webern
donation requested
(804) 272-8588, ext. 103
www.stmatmidlo.com

Sept. 21 (2 and 5 p.m.)
Vinton War Memorial, 814 Washington Ave.
David Stewart Wiley Quartet (Roanoke Symphony members)
“The Classical Connection: Baroque to Billy Joel”
works TBA by J.S. Bach, Jethro Tull, Procol Harum, Billy Joel, others
$32-$52
(540) 343-9127
www.rso.com

Sept. 21 (7 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
Jeffrey Siegel, piano
“Keyboard Conversations: Classics Go Pop!”
works TBA by Gershwin, Chopin, Debussy, Mozart, Schubert, others
$24-$40
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
www.cfa.gmu.edu

Sept. 21 (7 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach & Steven Reineke conducting
Bernstein: “Candide” Overture
Saint-Saëns: “Introduction and Rondo capriccioso”
Ravel: “Tzigane”
Joshua Bell, violin
Bernstein: “Glitter and Be Gay” from “Candide”
Flaherty-Ahrens: “Something Beautiful”
Kosma-Manilow-Mercer-Reineke: “Autumn Leaves”/“When October Goes”
Monnot-Guglielmi-Reineke: “La vie en rose”
Kelli O’Hara, soprano
Ravel: “La Valse”
$49-$125
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Sept. 22 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
eighth blackbird
“Pattycake”
György Ligeti: Études (arr. 2014)
Tom Johnson: “Counting Duets” (2014)
Lee Hyla: “Wave” (2012)
Sean Griffin: “Pattycake” (2007)
Gabriella Smith: “Number Nine” (2013)
David Little: “and the sky was still there” (2010)
$20
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu

Sept. 22 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Rex Richardson, Kevin Maloney, Brian Strawley & Taylor Barnett, trumpets
Yin Zheng, piano
“VCU Trumpet Spectacular”
program TBA
free
(804) 828-6776
www.arts.vcu.edu/music

Sept. 22 (7:30 p.m.)
Molnar Recital Hall, Wygal Music Building, Longwood University, Farmville
Kandinsky Piano Trio
program TBA
free
(434) 395-2504
www.longwood.edu/calendar.htm

Sept. 23 (8 p.m.)
Williamsburg Library Theatre, 515 Scotland St.
Chamber Music Society of Williamsburg:
Carpe Diem String Quartet
Wolf: “Italian Serenade”
Grieg: Quartet in G minor
Korine Fugiwara: “Fiddle Suite Montana”
$15
(757) 229-0385
www.chambermusicwilliamsburg.org

Sept. 26 (7:30 p.m.)
St. Luke Evangelical Lutheran Church, 7757 Chippenham Parkway, Richmond
Paley Music Festival:
Alexander Paley, piano
Rameau: Suite No. 4 in A minor
Rameau: Suite No. 5 in G minor
Chopin: 24 études, Opp. 10 and 25
donation requested
(804) 665-9516
www.paleyfestival.info

Sept. 26 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Sept. 28 (3:30 p.m.)
Martin Luther King Jr. Performing Arts Center, Charlottesville High School, 1400 Melbourne Road
Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia
Kate Tamarkin conducting
Randol Alan Bass: “Anniversary Fanfare” (premiere)
Emmanuel Séjourné: Concerto for marimba and string orchestra
I-Jen Fang, marimba
Dvořák: Slavonic Dance in F major, Op. 46, No. 4
Kodály: “Háry János” Suite
$10-$45
(434) 924-3376
www.cvillesymphony.org

Sept. 27 (7:30 p.m.)
St. Luke Evangelical Lutheran Church, 7757 Chippenham Parkway, Richmond
Paley Music Festival:
Alexander Paley & Pei-Wen Chen, piano four-hands
Rossini-Schoenberg: “The Barber of Seville”
donation requested
(804) 665-9516
www.paleyfestival.info

Sept. 27 (8 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony Pops
Keitaro Harada conducting
Waterloo, guest stars
“ABBA – the Music”
$10-$78
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
www.richmondsymphony.com

Sept. 27 (2 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Steven Lin, piano
Mozart: Sonata in F major, K. 332
Schumann: Sonata in F minor (“Concerto without Orchestra”)
Hertzberg: “Notturno Incantanto”
Chopin: Scherzo in C sharp minor, Op. 39
Ravel: “La Valse”
$35
(202) 985-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org

Sept. 27 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop conducting
Jennifer Higdon: “blue cathedral”
Korngold: Violin Concerto
James Ehnes, violin
John Williams: “Schindler’s List” main theme
Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 1
$40-$100
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
www.strathmore.org

Sept. 28 (3 p.m.)
St. Luke Evangelical Lutheran Church, 7757 Chippenham Parkway, Richmond
Paley Music Festival:
Alexander Paley & Pei-Wen Chen, piano
Rebecca Zimmerman, cello
Charles West, clarinet
Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 3 in A major, Op. 69
Beethoven: Trio in E flat major, Op. 38, for clarinet, cello and piano
Brahms: Cello Sonata No. 2 in F major, Op. 99
Brahms: Trio in A minor, Op. 114, for clarinet, cello and piano
donation requested
(804) 665-9516
www.paleyfestival.info