Letter V Classical Radio this week

Music for Passover and Easter, including Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Mendelssohn’s setting of Psalm 42 and Handel’s oratorio “Israel in Egypt.”

April 2
11 a.m.-2 p.m. EDT
1500-1800 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Haydn: Symphony No. 26 in D minor (“Lamentation”)
The English Concert/Trevor Pinnock
(DG Archiv)

Pergolesi: Stabat Mater
Emma Kirkby, soprano
James Bowman, countertenor
Academy of Ancient Music/Christopher Hogwood
(Decca)

Mendelssohn: Psalm 42
Eiddwen Harhhy, soprano
La Chapelle Royale
Collegium Vocale Ghent
Ensemble Orchestral de Paris/
Philippe Herreweghe
(Harmonia Mundi France)

Handel: “Israel in Egypt”
Ruth Holton, Elisabeth Friday & Donna Deam, sopranos
Ashley Stafford, Michael Chance, Patrick Collin & Jonathan Peter Kenny, altos
Nicolas Robinson, Philip Salmon, Paul Tindall & Andrew Tusa, tenors
Julian Clarkson & Christopher Purves, basses
Monteverdi Choir
English Baroque Soloists/John Eliot Gardiner
(Philips)

Penderecki: “Polish Requiem” – Lacrimosa
Jadwiga Gadulanka, soprano
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic/
Krzysztof Penderecki
(Chandos)

John Renbourn (1944-2015)

John Renbourn, the English guitarist whose “folk-baroque” performances and recordings with the group Pentangle and on his own introduced the folk-music audience to early music antecedents, has died at 70.

An obituary by The New York Times’ Jon Pareles:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/29/arts/music/john-renbourn-eclectic-guitarist-who-founded-the-pentangle-dies-at-70.html?ref=music

Review: 'La Traviata'

Virginia Opera
Andrew Bisantz conducting
March 27, Richmond CenterStage

Verdi’s “La Traviata,” the work with which Virginia Opera made its debut in 1975, concludes its 40th anniversary season on a very high note. From casting and direction to scenery and costumes, this production is almost faultless.

Soprano Cecilia Violetta López, portraying Violetta, the Parisian courtesan turned self-sacrificing lover, and tenor Rolando Sanz, as Alfredo Germont, the young man with whom Violetta falls in love, boast powerful, flexible voices. Their ability to bring nuance to character and emotion makes their duets fully entwined musically and dramatically, as well as bringing more than brilliance to their solo arias. López’s acting is comparably nuanced.

Malcolm Mackenzie, as Giorgio Germont, Alfredo’s father, who persuades Violetta to abandon her lover for the sake of family honor, ultimately to bitterly regret his success, brings far more dimension to this character than audiences normally see and hear. Mackenzie establishes his presence and authority as the paterfamilias in a big, commanding baritone, then reins it in most effectively in Giorgio’s Act 2 duet and the Act 3 death-scene ensemble.

With leads of such quality, this hardy perennial of operatic melodrama cuts much deeper than usual.

The supporting cast – Courtney Miller (Flora), Ashley Kerr (Annina), Cullen Gandy (Gastone), Andre Chiang (Baron Duphol), Matthew Scollin (Marchese d’Obigny) – and chorus live up to the leads’ standards of vocalization and characterization.

Stage director Lillian Groag crafts a straightforward “Traviata” whose drama is driven by story and music, and never over-driven. In the ball scenes, Groag shows her mastery at getting a crowd to genuinely act. The only real directorial intervention on traditional staging is a foursome of white-gowned ghost figures, simultaneously evoking Violetta’s glamorous past and tragic fate.

Visually, this co-production of Virginia Opera and Des Moines Metro Opera adheres to the decorous 19th-century French Empire style of a traditional “Traviata,” with some helpful post-modern modifications, chiefly a brighter color palette and skeletal structural elements that make the set look less claustrophobic than the typical representation of a Parisian salon.

Conductor Andrew Bisantz, leading a pit orchestra drawn from the Richmond Symphony, realizes the pathos in Verdi’s score to striking effect, while giving free rein to festive and dramatically charged sequences – too free, occasionally, in the first of two Richmond performances, as brassy stretches of orchestration overbalanced voices.

Virginia Opera “La Traviata” repeats at 2:30 p.m. March 29 at the Carpenter Theatre of Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets. Tickets: $20.33-$105.93. Details: (800) 514-3849 (ETIX). The run concludes with performances at 8 p.m. April 11 and 2:30 p.m. April 12 at the Sandler Arts Center, 201 S. Market St., in Virginia Beach. Tickets: $19-$89. Details: (866) 673-7282; www.vaopera.org

Letter V Classical Radio this week

March 26
11 a.m.-2 p.m. EDT
1500-1800 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Nielsen: “Maskarade” Overture
Danish National Orchestra/Sixten Ehrling (Audiofon)

Haydn: Quartet in D major, Op. 76, No. 5
Carmina Quartet (Denon)

Past Masters:
Dvořák: Serenade in E major
Royal Philharmonic/
Leopold Stokowski
(Newton Classics)
(recorded 1975)

Peter Warlock: “Capriol” Suite
Royal Philharmonic/Barry Wordsworth
(Royal Philharmonic Masterworks)

Beethoven: Symphony No. 2 in D major
Minnesota Orchestra/
Osmo Vänskä (BIS)

Sidney Lanier:
“Blackbirds”
“Wind Song”
Paula Robison, flute
Samuel Sanders, piano (Arabesque)

Poulenc: “L’Eventail de Jeanne” –
Pastourelle
Orchestre National de France/Charles Dutoit (London)

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

Poulenc: “Aubade”
Pascal Rogé, piano
Orchestre National de France/Charles Dutoit (London)

Digital dominance

Music from digital sources – streaming services and downloads of recordings – accounted for nearly two-thirds of sales of recorded music in 2014, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

For the first time last year, music streaming subscriptions accounted for more revenue than sales of compact discs. Both continued to be outpaced by purchases of digital downloads.

As tabulated by RIAA, streaming revenue was $1.87 billion. CD sales brought in $1.85 billion. Download purchases, which dipped last year, still accounted for $2.58 billion.

Vinyl-disc and tape purchases, not tabulated separately, apparently nudged “physical” music sales to a larger share of the market than streaming, judging by the pie chart in this report from cnet’s Joan E. Solsman:

http://www.cnet.com/news/streaming-music-drowns-out-us-cd-sales-for-the-first-time/

(via www.artsjournal.com)

Letter V Classical Radio this week

In the last hour of the program, a special guest: Daniel Leibovic, the Richmond-born pianist, now studying at Yale University, who will play Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor with the University of Richmond Symphony Orchestra, Alexander Kordzaia conducting, on April 8 at UR’s Modlin Arts Center. While discussing the concerto and the young pianist’s musical activities and aspirations, we’ll sample Rachmaninoff’s Rachmaninoff: two of his 1919 Ampico piano rolls in digital realizations and his celebrated 1929 recording of the Second Piano Concerto with Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

March 19
11 a.m.-2 p.m. EDT
1500-1800 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Handel: “Il pastor fido” Suite (1734 version)
Tafelmusik/Jeanne Lamon (Sony Classical)

Haydn: “The Seasons” – “Spring”
“Song of Joy”
Genia Kühmeier, soprano
Werner Güra, tenor
Arnold Schoenberg Choir
Concentus Musicus Wien/Nikolaus Harnoncourt (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi)

Vaughan Williams:
“The Lark Ascending”
Hilary Hahn, violin
London Symphony Orchestra/Colin Davis (Deutsche Grammophon)

Past Masters:
Smetana: “Má Vlast” (“My Fatherland”) –
“From Bohemia’s Meadows and Forests”
Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Rafael Kubelik (Mercury)
(recorded 1952)

Schumann: Symphony
No. 3 in E flat major (“Rhenish”)
Staatskapelle Berlin/
Daniel Barenboim (Teldec)

Dag Wirén: Serenade,
Op. 11
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields/Neville Marriner (Decca)

Past Masters:
Rachmaninoff:
Prelude in C sharp minor, Op. 3, No. 2
Étude-tableau in B minor, Op. 39, No. 4
Sergei Rachmaninoff, Ampico piano roll (Telarc)
(recorded 1919; 1996 realizations by Wayne Stahnke)

Past Masters:
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor
Sergei Rachmaninoff, piano
Philadelphia Orchestra/Leopold Stokowski
(RCA Victor)
(recorded 1929)

'Creative thievery'

For his 1977 “Star Wars” score, “John Williams all but lifted the core idea . . . from the scherzo of Erich Korngold’s Symphony in F sharp minor, written 25 years earlier,” notes Los Angeles Times music critic Mark Swed. By the reasoning of the court judgment last week that “Blurred Lines,” a song by Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams, plagiarized Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up,” would Korngold’s heirs have a claim against Williams?

“Out of this lawsuit, which is essentially a spat by millionaires about money, the court has attempted to regulate the rules of musical composition,” Swed writes. Citing examples of composers “borrowing” the music of others from medieval to modern times, the critic declares: “So-called creative thievery isn’t just the privilege of pop musicians; it is the God-given right of all musicians and the very basis of Western music.”

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-blurred-lines-classical-notebook-20150314-column.html

Swed makes a persuasive case, but probably not one that would prevail in the US legal system.

A savvy composer today is best-advised not to borrow from, or even arguably approximate, any music not in the public domain – i.e., published since 1923.

(via www.artsjournal.com)

The Met on the edge

James B. Stewart, writing for The New Yorker, examines in depth the crises in finance, artistic direction and labor-management-board relations that almost led to a shutdown last fall at the Metropolitan Opera, and continue to plague the largest performing-arts institution in the U.S. A very sobering read:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/03/23/a-fight-at-the-opera

Review: Mannheim Rocket

Richard Spece conducting
with Marshall University Fife & Drum Corps
March 13, Monumental Church

Mannheim Rocket, Richmond’s new period-instruments orchestra, launched itself with several flourishes in one of the few public spaces in this country whose age matches the vintage of classical-period music and the instruments on which it was first heard.

Performing in Monumental Church, designed by the pioneering American architect Robert Mills and completed in 1814, the 24-piece orchestra of gut-strung fiddles, narrow-bore woodwinds, valveless “natural” horns and trumpets and kidskin-headed timpani delivered a highly assertive reading of Beethoven’s First Symphony, vividly showcasing the very different sonorities and tone colors of pre-modern orchestral instruments.

Curious thing about these early instruments: Their tone is thinner, more dry and less refined or “rounded” in sound than their modern descendants; but collectively they often seem to project more strongly, even aggressively. Some of the difference can be attributed to playing technique, especially stronger accenting; greater clarity and speed in quick figurations also boosts the energy level.

Slashing accents, hard drumbeats, more prominently audible wind and brass parts and high contrasts between loud and soft playing drove Mannheim Rocket’s Beethoven First. The piece, which when played by a modern orchestra tends to sound like a rambunctious cousin of Haydn and Mozart, here sounded like a pre-echo of the more grandly scaled, expressively epic symphonies that Beethoven would produce a few years later.

The ensemble’s performance of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550, had a similar in-your-face presence and intensity, although indelicacies of tone production, balance and ensemble were more audible.

I sat in different parts of the church for the two symphonies, closer to the orchestra for the Mozart; so the differences I heard in performances of the two works were probably as much due to the acoustical peculiarities of this octagonal, domed, highly resonant space as to the different demands made on musicians by the two composers and how these musicians met those demands.

The string sections of the ensemble were minimal by modern standards – three each of first and second violins, two each of violas and cellos, one double-bass; but they maintained balance with winds in even the loudest passages, and carried tunes with more lyricism and warmth than might have been expected.

Mannheim Rocket’s conductor, Richard Spece, a clarinetist whose has played in period-instruments ensembles for two decades, showed a firm grasp of the music at hand and the capacities of the instruments in his band. His choices of when and when not to take repeats at times seemed unusual – the finale of the Mozart, for example, was about as long as the first movement; but repeats when taken were expressively differentiated enough to warrant the repetitions.

The symphonies were preceded by a set of early American, British and French marches and popular tunes, played by the Marshall University Fife & Drum Corps. Performing in Colonial-period uniforms, the ensemble produced an exhilarating sound that was room-filling and then some, nearing but not crossing the line to the deafening.

The corps’ director, Wendell Dobbs, credited by Spece as a prime instigator in the organization of Mannheim Rocket, traded fife for flute to play in the orchestra.

Concert recast as workshop

The performance by eighth blackbird and the Sleeping Giant composers’ collective of the new work “HandEye” on March 16 at the University of Richmond’s Modlin Arts Center has been recast as a workshop “sneak preview” of four segments of the work, with the performers seeking feedback from the audience.

Tickets already issued must be exchanged for general-admission seating, with limited seating capacity. Ticket exchanges will begin at 6 p.m. outside the Modlin Center’s Jepson Theatre. The workshop begins at 7:30 p.m.

A performance of the complete “HandEye” will be scheduled in the 2015-16 season.

For more information, call the Modlin Center box office at (804) 289-8980.

Name games

Critics at The New York Times speculate on prospective successors to Alan Gilbert as music director of the New York Philharmonic – attempting, it seems, to create a groundswell for the Finnish composer-conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, formerly music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and more modest rumbles for David Robertson of the St. Louis Symphony and Marin Alsop of the Baltimore Symphony:

www.nytimes.com/2015/03/15/arts/music/the-new-york-philharmonic-and-the-search-for-a-new-music-director.html

The Guardian’s Tom Service, meanwhile, offers more detached ratings of prospective successors to Simon Rattle at the Berlin Philharmonic:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2015/mar/10/berlin-philharmonic-next-principal-conductor

The Berlin musicians, who elect their chief conductors, will hold their first round of voting on May 11.

The New York Phil’s executives and board probably will be searching and dickering with candidates and their agents for some time.

Letter V Classical Radio this week

Sorry for the truncated broadcast. Electricity for the building housing the radio station was unexpectedly cut off. I will reschedule the interrupted Beethoven quartet and the Liszt piano pieces on a future program.

March 12
11 a.m.-2 p.m. EDT
1500-1800 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Glinka: ”Capriccio brilliante on the ‘Jota aragonesa’ ”
BBC Philharmonic/Vassily Siniasky (Chandos)

Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga: Quartet No. 3
in E flat major
Guarneri Quartet
(Newton Classics)

Schumann: “Gesänge der Frühe” (“Songs of Dawn”),
Op. 133
Mitsuko Uchida, piano
(Decca)

Dvořák: Polonaise in E flat major
Detroit Symphony Orchestra/Antal Doráti (Decca)

Past Masters:
Brahms: Symphony No. 3 in F major
Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Fritz Reiner
(RCA Victor)
(recorded 1957)

Janáček: “V Mlhách”
(“In the Mists”)
Piotr Anderszewski, piano (Virgin Classics)

Zelenka: “Hipocondrie”
Collegium 1704/
Václav Luks (Supraphon)

Beethoven: Quartet in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2 (“Razumovsky”)
Cypress String Quartet (Avie)

Liszt: “Soirées de Vienne”
Schumann-Liszt: “Liebeslied” (“Widmung”)
Evgeny Kissin, piano (RCA Victor)

Mannheim Rocket lifts off

Few American cities are as historically informed as Richmond. For years it has seemed that everything that happened here could be traced back to some event or personality of the early national period or the Civil War. Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis live on, and not just in tourist brochures.

Historically informed performance – playing pre-romantic music with the instrumentation and techniques of its times – has had a less stellar or consistent history in these parts.

University series presenting tourist artists have brought some period-instruments bands and early music vocal ensembles to town, but fewer now than 10 or 15 years ago. Summer concerts of early choral music with period-instruments accompaniment were staged for years at Centenary United Methodist Church, but that series lapsed into extended hiatus. In recent years, live performances on period instruments have been limited to the mid-winter baroque concerts of the Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia and recitals on historically modeled organs.

Other than organists and some wind players, few local musicians playing modern instruments have demonstrated much interest, or competence, in adopting the performance techniques or styles of the baroque and classical periods.

Richard Spece, a clarinetist and conductor who settled in Richmond two years ago, makes a bid to raise Richmond’s interest in period-instruments, historical-style performance with Mannheim Rocket, a classical orchestra that will present its inaugural concert on March 13.

The ensemble will play Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C major in one of the city’s most historic spaces, Monumental Church, Robert Mills’ Greek revival masterpiece, built as a memorial to the victims of the great Richmond Theater fire of 1811. The church, completed in 1814, is now surrounded by Virginia Commonwealth University’s medical campus in the Court End section of downtown Richmond.

“As we were planning our inaugural concert,” Space says, “a friend suggested Monumental Church as a venue with the historical cachet that would complement what we’re setting out to do with this orchestra.”

The musical and architectural vintages are roughly equivalent – the Mozart and Beethoven symphonies predate Monumental Church by about 20 years, but would have been considered contemporary, even cutting-edge, music in the cultural climate of the early national period. And the sound of the gut-string fiddles, narrow-bore woodwinds and valveless horns and trumpets played by the musicians of Mannheim Rocket would have been a familiar sound to listeners of the early 19th century.

The ensemble’s seemingly futuristic name is as historical as its musical mission. The Mannheim Rocket is a crescendo in which an arpeggiated melodic line quickly rises from the lowest to the highest instruments of an orchestra. It was among the innovations in orchestration spawned by composers of the Mannheim school of the mid-18th century. This effect animates much of the music of Mozart, Beethoven and other composers of the late-18th and early 19th centuries.

In organizing Mannheim Rocket, Spece recruited musicians from as far afield as Canada and the Pacific Northwest. Most have been colleagues he has performed with in period-instruments ensembles over the past 20 years, and many, he says, are playing this date gratis or for nominal fees, “out of love for the music and to promote historical performance.”

Mannheim Rocket’s tuning, A=430, is a quarter-tone flatter than that of a modern orchestra. The group is smaller than most classical-style orchestras, with three first violins, three seconds, two violas, two cellos and a double-bass, with pairs of flutes, oboes, bassoons, clarinets, French horns and trumpets, plus timpani.

The period instruments are tonally less brilliant and project less powerfully than their modern descendants, but their thinner, drier tone brings out details of articulation and quick figurations that can be obscured in the more resonant sonority of the modern orchestra.

“In a fairly intimate space like Monumental Church, I think these forces will pack plenty of punch,” Spece says.

After this week’s inaugural concert, Spece and associates will set out to raise funds and firm up organizational details to make Mannheim Rocket an ongoing endeavor. He hopes that the ensemble will establish a regular schedule of chamber-music concerts in fall and winter and orchestral programs in spring.

Mannheim Rocket’s inaugural program of Mozart and Beethoven begins at 8 p.m., with a pre-concert talk at 7:30 p.m., on March 13 at Monumental Church, 1224 E. Broad St. The Marshall University Fife and Drum Corps also will perform. Free parking is available in the Virginia Department of Transportation lot across Broad Street from the church. Tickets: $30; $25 for seniors and students. Details: (804) 491-6056; www.mannheimrocket.org

Review: Richmond Symphony

Tito Muñoz conducting
with Stanislav Khristenko, piano
March 7, Richmond CenterStage

Tito Muñoz, music director of the Phoenix Symphony in Arizona, led a finely articulated yet sweepingly expressive account of Schumann’s Fourth Symphony in a guest-conducting date with the Richmond Symphony, obtaining one of the most successful performances this orchestra has given in recent memory.

The Schumann capped a Masterworks program that also introduced Richmonders to Stanislav Khristenko, a Ukrainian-born pianist whose tone production and phrasing often recalled the music-making of Emil Gilels.

Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466, may not have been an ideal vehicle for Khristenko’s artistry; but his encore, Schumann’s song “Widmung” in Liszt’s piano transcription, showcased his technique and interpretive bent most persuasively.

Khristenko and Muñoz emphasized the proto-romanticism of the Mozart concerto, effectively reminding listeners of why this work (and “Don Giovanni”) remained popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries while the rest of Mozart’s music was rarely heard.

The pianist and conductor played up the concerto’s contrasts of turbulence and wistful dreaminess, but with rather murky articulation and blunted accents. In lyrical passages of the first movement, Khristenko seemed to be playing Mozart through the filter of Chopin. The performance was most convincing in the central romanza, paced as a fairly brisk andante and phrased lovingly. Khristenko used the familiar Beethoven cadenza in the first movement, and his own stormy yet witty cadenza in the finale.

He made the Schumann-Liszt “Widmung” the epitome of the nobly expressive German-romantic love song, elaborated with brilliant pianistic touches that, in Khristenko’s hands, never sounded excessive.

Schumann’s symphonies are difficult to pull off. His orchestrations are oddly balanced; for generations, they were thought to be so clumsy that conductors felt free to doctor them. (Gustav Mahler’s re-orchestrations were especially interventionist.) Schumann himself tinkered extensively with the Symphony No. 4 in D minor – chronologically, his second symphony – before its belated publication.

For this performance, Muñoz chose the standard Schumann revision and made it work, quite splendidly, without any noticeable retouching. As in the Mozart, the conductor made the contrast of portent and lyricism the crux of the music. Muñoz spun out long lines of melody and expression, maintaining continuity over four movements played without pauses. His handling of dynamics, notably in the transition between the third and fourth movements, was expert.

The orchestra delivered a surgingly passionate, technically almost faultless performance.

The dark moodiness of the Schumann and Mozart were pre-echoed in the program’s opening selection, Beethoven’s “Egmont” Overture, too slow and heavily textured for my taste but nonetheless well-played.

Letter V Classical Radio this week

The classical orchestra is born and comes of age: Richard Spece, conductor of Mannheim Rocket, a period-instruments orchestra giving its inaugural concert on March 13 at Richmond’s historic Monumental Church, joins me for an exploration of classical style and the orchestral configuration, forms and techniques that developed in the second half of the 18th century.

March 5
11 a.m.-2 p.m. EST
1600-1900 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

C.P.E. Bach: Sinfonia in E minor, Wq 178
Akademie für alte Musik Berlin
(Harmonia Mundi France)

Past Masters:
Carl Stamitz: Sinfonia concertante in A major
Franzjosef Maier, violin
Franz Beyer, viola
Thomas Blees, cello
Collegium Aureum (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi)
(recorded 1978)

Beethoven: Symphony No. 1 in C major
I: Adagio molto – allegro con brio
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique/
John Eliot Gardiner
(DG Archiv)

Beethoven: Symphony No. 1 in C major – IV: Finale: adagio – allegro molto e vivace
Orchestra of the 18th Century/Frans Brüggen (Philips)

Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550
Les Musiciens du Louvre, Grenoble/Marc Minkowski (DG Archiv)

J.C. Bach: Sinfonia concertante in A major
Stephen Schardt, violin
Joachim Fiedler, cello
Musica Antiqua Köln/
Reinhard Goebel
(DG Archiv)

Haydn: Mass in D minor (“Nelson”)
Susan Gritton, soprano
Pamela Helen Stephen, mezzo-soprano
Mark Padmore, tenor
Stephen Varcoe, baritone
Collegium Musicum 90/Richard Hickox (Chandos)

Old hall, new name

The New York Philharmonic’s home in Lincoln Center, Avery Fisher Hall, named for the high-fidelity components mogul, will be renamed David Geffen Hall, as the popular-entertainment mogul – producer of recordings by The Eagles, Nirvana and Joni Mitchell and co-founder of the film-making firm DreamWorks – makes a gift of $100 million toward renovation of the hall, The New York Times’ Robin Pogrebin reports:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/05/arts/david-geffen-captures-naming-rights-to-avery-fisher-hall-with-donation.html?ref=arts

Renovation of the hall, whose acoustics have been faulted ever since it opened in 1962, is set to begin in 2019, at a cost currently projected at $500 million.

Rattle takes London Symphony post

Simon Rattle, who will step down as chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic in 2018, has been named music director of the London Symphony Orchestra, succeeding Valery Gergiev. Rattle will take over the London podium in September 2017, The Guardian’s Mark Brown reports:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/mar/03/simon-rattle-appointed-music-director-london-symphony-orchestra

Rattle has been highly vocal in advocating construction of a state-of-the-art concert hall in London, which has been plagued for decades with dull-sounding and otherwise unsuitable venues for orchestral music. Whether his acceptance of the LSO post signals willingness on the part of London to commit to a new concert hall is naturally the subject of much speculation.

Chamber Music Society reviewed

I was unable to attend the Feb. 28 concert by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Virginia Commonwealth University. Here is a review by Anne Timberlake for the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

http://www.richmond.com/entertainment/music/article_50a53a38-6250-5128-8e2c-71b9de6419e6.html

'The edge of moral collapse'

Gidon Kremer, the Latvian-born, Russian-schooled violinist and conductor, writes that following the murder of Boris Nemtsov, a leading critic of the Vladimir Putin regime, Russia stands “on the edge of moral collapse . . . [a] society starved of pure air, pumped full of fear and jingoism, where good intentions have been driven into a dead-end.”

His full statement can be read here:

http://slippedisc.com/2015/02/gidon-kremer-on-the-murder-of-boris-nemtsov/

(via www.slippedisc.com)

March calendar

Classical performances in and around Richmond, with selected events elsewhere in Virginia and the Washington area. Program information, provided by presenters, is updated as details become available. Adult single-ticket prices are listed; senior, student/youth, group and other discounts may be offered.

* In and around Richmond: Organist Bruce Stevens, whose recital was snowed out last month, plays a program of Bach, Mendelssohn, Rheinberger and more on March 1 on the Beckerath organ of Cannon Memorial Chapel at the University of Richmond. . . . The Richmond Symphony is joined by guest conductor Tito Muñoz, music director of the Phoenix Symphony, and pianist Stanislav Khristenko for a program of Mozart, Schumann and Beethoven, March 7 at Richmond CenterStage. . . . The symphony is engaged for most of the month as the pit orchestra for Virginia Opera’s production of Verdi’s “La Traviata,” coming to Richmond CenterStage on March 27 and 29 after runs at the Harrison Opera House in Norfolk (March 13, 15 and 17) and George Mason University’s Center for the Arts in Fairfax (March 21-22). . . . Richard Spece conducts Richmond’s new period-instruments orchestra, Mannheim Rocket, in its inaugural concert, playing symphonies by Mozart and Beethoven on March 13 at historic Monumental Church. . . . eighth blackbird, the new-music sextet in residence at the University of Richmond, is joined by the Sleeping Giants composers’ collective in “HandEye,” March 16 at UR’s Modlin Arts Center. . . . Virginia Commonwealth University stages a Flamenco Festival of music, dance and song, featuring flamenco guitarists Torcuato Zamora and Miguelito and other performers, March 20-22 at VCU’s Singleton Arts Center. . . . Six Virginia organists perform in the fifth annual Bach Birthday Marathon presented by the Richmond chapter of the American Guild of Organists, March 22 at St. Benedict Catholic Church. . . . Two Richmond Symphony principals, violinist Daisuke Yamamoto and cellist Neal Cary, join pianist Joanne Kong in “Vive la France,” a program of French chamber music, March 23 at the Modlin Center.

* Noteworthy elsewhere: Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble tour the Western and on-Western worlds on May 1 at Washington’s Kennedy Center. . . . The Kronos Quartet revisits the music and images of World War I in “Beyond Zero: 1914-1918,” March 5 at Virginia Tech’s Center for the Arts in Blacksburg. . . . Jesús López-Cobos conducts the National Symphony Orchestra in music of Spain and Portugal, March 5-7, part of the Kennedy Center’s month-long “Iberian Suite” festival of music, dance and visual art. . . . Pianist Lang Lang plays Bach, Tchaikovsky and Chopin, March 7 at the Kennedy Center. . . . Roberto Díaz premieres the Viola Concerto of Jennifer Higdon with Robert Spano conducting the Curtis Chamber Orchestra, in a program also featuring works by Prokofiev, Mozart and Spano, March 7 at the Library of Congress in Washington. . . . Pianist Marc-André Hamelin joins Les Violons du Roy in a program of Rameau, Haydn and Mozart, March 17 at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. . . . The Emerson String Quartet plays Beethoven, Ravel and Purcell, March 26 at the Kennedy Center. . . . Cellist Matt Haimovitz brings his “Bach Listening Room” program to the Mansion at Strathmore in the Maryland suburbs of DC on March 27. . . . Steven Reineke, the National Symphony Pops and guest artists perform in “Do You Hear the People Sing,” a sampler of the musicals of Alain Boublil & Claude-Michel Schönberg (“Les Miserables,” “Miss Saigon,” “Martin Guerre”), March 27-28 at the Kennedy Center. . . . Violinist Joshua Bell plays Beethoven, Brahms Grieg and Bartók, March 31 at the Kennedy Center.



March 1 (3 p.m.)
Cannon Memorial Chapel, University of Richmond
Bruce Stevens, organ
J.S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue in G major, BWV 541
Mendelssohn: Sonata in D minor, Op. 65, No. 6
Pachelbel: Partita on “Christus, der ist meine Leben”
Anton Heiller: “In Festo Corporus Christi”
Rheinberger: Sonata No. 9 in B flat minor, Op. 142
free
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu

March 1 (4 p.m.)
St. Matthias’ Episcopal Church, 11300 W. Huguenot Road, Midlothian
Richmond Symphony Brass Quintet
Clifton Hardison, percussion
“Anthony Holborne Suite”
Giovanni Gabrieli: “Canzona prima à 5”
J.S. Bach: Contrapunctus No. 1
Victor Ewald: Quintet No. 1
“Duke Ellington Suite”
donation requested
(804) 272-8588
www.stmatmidlo.com

March 1 (2:30 p.m.)
Sandler Arts Center, 201 S. Market St., Virginia Beach
Virginia Symphony
JoAnn Falletta conducting
Libby Larsen: “Four on the Floor”
Dvořák: Cello Concerto in B minor
Amit Peled, cello
Copland: Symphony No. 3
$25-$107
(757) 892-6366
www.virginiasymphony.org

March 1 (5 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Silk Road Ensemble
Kojiro Umezaki: “Side In Side Out”
Giovanni Sollimat: “Taranta Project”
Edward Perez: “The Latina 6/8 Suite”
Zhao Lin: “Paramita”
Sandeep Das & Kayhan Kalhor: “Jugalbandi”
Kinan Azmeh: “Wedding”
$56-$145
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts)
www.wpas.org

March 1 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Fortas Chamber Music Concerts:
Imani Winds
Valerie Coleman: “Tzigane”
Hindemith: “Kleine Kammermusik,” Op. 24, No. 2
Pavel Haas: Wind Quintet, Op. 10
Debussy: “Bruyères”
Stravinsky: “The Rite of Spring”
trad.: klezmer dances
$32
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

March 2 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
Barry Hannigan, piano
works by Rachmaninoff, Brahms, Pierce, Burnson, Benshoof
free
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu

March 4 (7 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Eastman Triana:
Julianne Kirk-Doyle, clarinet
Anyango Yarbo-Davenport, violin
Yin Zheng, piano
works by Milhaud, Arutunian, Menotti, Schoenfield
free
(804) 828-6776
www.arts.vcu.edu/music

March 4 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Arakaender Choir & Orchestra
Ashley Solomon conducting
“Baroque Music from Jesuit Reductions in Bolivia”
$35
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

March 5 (7:30 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Symphony Orchestra
Daniel Myssyk conducting
Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 (“Romantic”)
other works TBA
VCU Concerto Competition winners
free
(804) 828-6776
www.arts.vcu.edu/music

March 5 (7:30 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg
Kronos Quartet
Byzantine chant: “Eternal Memory to the Virtuous” (arranged by Aleksandra Vrebalov)
Stravinsky: ”Three Pieces for String Quartet”
Geeshie Wiley: “Last Kind Words” (arranged by Jacob Garchik)
Tanburi Cemil Bey: “Evic Taksim” (arranged by Stephen Prutsman)
Ravel: “Trois beaux oiseaux du Paradis” (arranged by JJ Hollingsworth)
trad.: “Smyrneiko Minore” (arranged by Jacob Garchik)
Webern: “Six Bagatelles”
Ives: “They Are There! Fighting for the People’s New Free World”
Rachmaninoff: “All Night Vigil” – Nunc Dimittis
“Beyond Zero: 1914-1918”
Aleksandra Vrebalov, composer
Bill Morrison, filmmaker
$10-$55
(540) 231-5300
www.artscenter.vt.edu

March 5 (7 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Jesús López-Cobos conducting
Turina: “Danzas fantánsticas”
Albéniz-Arbos: “Iberia”
Portuguese fado songs
Carminho & Camané, fadistas
$10-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

March 5 (7:30 p.m.)
March 8 (2 p.m.)
March 10 (7:30 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Opera House, Washington
Washington National Opera
Antony Walker conducting
Poulenc: “Dialogues of the Carmelites”
Leah Crocetto (Madame Lidoine)
Layla Claire (Blanche de la Force)
Dolora Zajick (Madame de Croissy)
Elizabeth Bishop (Mother Marie)
Ashley Emerson (Sister Constance)
Alan Held (Marquis de la Force)
Shawn Mathey (Chevalier de la Force)
Robert Baker (Chaplain)
Francesca Zambello, stage director
in English, English captions
$25-$300
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

March 6 (8 p.m.)
Ferguson Arts Center, Christopher Newport University, Newport News
March 7 (8 p.m.)
Chrysler Hall, 215 St. Paul’s Boulevard, Norfolk
Virginia Symphony Pops
Benjamin Rous conducting
Sal Androlina, clarinet
“Music of Benny Goodman”
$25-$93
(757) 892-6366
www.virginiasymphony.org

March 6 (8 p.m.)
March 7 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Jesús López-Cobos conducting
Cristóbal Halffter: “Tiento del primer tono y batalla imperial”
De Falla: “Nights in the Gardens of Spain”
Javier Perianes, piano
Villa-Lobos: “Bachianas Brasileiras” Nos. 5
Juanita Lascarro, soprano
Albéniz-Arbos: “Iberia”
Turina: “Danzas fantánsticas”
$10-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

March 7 (8 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony
Tito Muñoz conducting
Beethoven: “Egmont” Overture
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466
Stanislav Khristenko, piano
Schumann: Symphony No. 4 in D minor
$10-$78
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
www.richmondsymphony.com

March 7 (4 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Lang Lang, piano
J.S. Bach: “Italian Concerto”
Tchaikovsky: “The Seasons”
Chopin: scherzos, Opp. 20, 31, 39, 54
$35-$99
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

March 7 (7 p.m.)
March 9 (7 p.m.)
March 11 (7:30 p.m.)
March 13 (7:30 p.m.)
March 15 (2 p.m.)
March 19 (7:30 p.m.)
March 21 (7 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Opera House, Washington
Washington National Opera
Philippe Auguin/Eric Weimer conducting
Wagner: “The Flying Dutchman”
Eric Owens/Alan Held (Dutchman)
Christiane Libor/Jennifer Root (Senta)
Jay Hunter Morris (Erik)
Ain Anger/Peter Volpe (Daland)
Dana Beth Miller (Mary)
Michael Brandenburg (Steersman)
Stephen Lawless, stage director
in German, English captions
$25-$300
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

March 7 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First Street at Independence Avenue N.E., Washington
Curtis Chamber Orchestra
Robert Spano conducting
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1 (“Classical”)
Jennifer Higdon: Viola Concerto (premiere)
Roberto Díaz, viola
Spano: “Hölderlin-Lieder”
Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551 (“Jupiter”)
free rush tickets distributed at 6 p.m.
(202) 
www.loc.gov/concerts

March 7 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Christian Macelaru conducting
Stravinsky: “The Fairy’s Kiss” Divertimento
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 1
Simon Trpceski, piano
Tchaikovsky: “The Tempest” Fantasy-Overture
Tchaikovsky: “Romeo and Juliet” Fantasy-Overture
$32-$95
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
www.strathmore.org

March 8 (3:30 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Virginia Consort Chorus & Orchestra
Judith Gary conducting
J.S. Bach: Mass in B minor – Gloria
Bernstein: Mass – Gloria
Beethoven: Mass in C major – Gloria
other works TBA
$35
(434) 924-3376
www.virginiaconsort.org

March 8 (4 p.m.)
St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, 125 N. Augusta St., Staunton
Staunton Music Festival:
Carsten Schmidt, harpsichord
J.S. Bach: “The Well-Tempered Clavier” (Book 1)
pre-concert talk at 3 p.m.
$22
(540) 569-0267
www.stauntonmusicfestival.org

March 10 (7:30 p.m.)
March 11 (7:30 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Family Theater, Washington
PostClassical Ensemble
Antonio Muñoz Molina & Joseph Horowitz: “Iberian Mystics: the Confluence of Faiths”
$30
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

March 12 (8 p.m.)
Phi Beta Kappa Hall, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg
March 14 (8 p.m.)
Regent University Theater, 1000 Regent University Drive, Virginia Beach
Virginia Symphony
JoAnn Falletta conducting
J.S. Bach: Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068
Haydn: Sinfonia concertante in B flat major
Vahn Armstrong, violin
Michael Daniels, cello
Sherie Aguirre, oboe
Laura Leisring, bassoon
Brahms: “Nänie”
Brahms: “Schicksalslied”
Virginia Symphony Chorus
Robert Shoup directing
$25-$63
(757) 892-6366
www.virginiasymphony.org

March 12 (7 p.m.)
March 13 (8 p.m.)
March 14 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach conducting
Chabrier: “España”
Lalo: “Symphonie espagnole”
Leticia Moreno, violin
Debussy: “Images” – “Ibéria”
Ravel: “Boléro”
$10-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

March 13 (8 p.m.)
Monumental Church, 1224 E. Broad St., Richmond
Mannheim Rocket
Richard Spece conducting
Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550
Beethoven: Symphony No. 1 in C major
pre-concert lecture at 7:30 p.m.
$30
(804) 491-6056
www.mannheimrocket.org

March 13 (8 p.m.)
March 15 (2:30 p.m.)
March 17 (7:30 p.m.)
Harrison Opera House, 160 E. Virginia Beach Boulevard, Norfolk
Virginia Opera
Andrew Bisantz conducting
Verdi: “La Traviata”
Cecilia Violetta López (Violetta)
Rolando Sanz (Alfredo Germont)
Malcolm MacKenzie (Giorgio Germont)
Courtney Miller (Flora)
Ashley Kerr (Annina)
Cullen Gandy (Gastone)
Lillian Groag, stage director
in Italian, English captions
$19-$99
(866) 673-7282
www.vaopera.org

March 13 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First Street at Independence Avenue N.E., Washington
Kim Kashkashian, violin & viola
Peter Nagy, piano
Schumann-Kashkashian: “Fantasiestücke,” Op. 73
Bartók: Rhapsody No. 1 for violin and piano
László Tihanyi: “Eight Invocations to the Lunar Phase”
Brahms: Sonata in E flat major, Op. 120, No. 2, for viola and piano  
free rush tickets distributed at 6 p.m.
(202) 707-5502
www.loc.gov/concerts

March 15 (4 p.m.)
duPont Chapel, Hollins University, Roanoke
Roanoke Symphony Virtuosi
David Stewart Wiley, conductor & host
Judith Cline, soprano & narrator
“Beyond the Silence: Remembering the Holocaust”
works TBA by J.S. Bach, Mozart, Puccini, Gideon Klein, Erwin Schulhoff, Victor Ullman, others
$32-$52
(540) 343-9127
www.rso.com

March 15 (4 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
András Schiff, piano
Haydn: Sonata in C major, Hob. XVI:50
Beethoven: Sonata in E major, Op. 109
Mozart: Sonata in C major, K. 545
Schubert: Sonata in C minor, D. 958
$35-$75
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts)
www.wpas.org

March 16 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
eighth blackbird
Sleeping Giant
Ted Hearne, Robert Honstein, Christopher Cerrone & Timo Andres: “HandEye”
$20
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu

March 17 (8 p.m.)
Williamsburg Library Theatre, 515 Scotland St.
Chamber Music Society of Williamsburg:
Vienna Piano Trio
Mozart: Piano Trio in G major, K. 496
Schumann: “Fantasiestücke,” Op. 88
Mendelssohn: Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 49
$15 (waiting list)
(757) 229-0385
www.chambermusicwilliamsburg.org

March 17 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Tuesday Evening Concerts:
Les Violons du Roy
Bernard Labadie conducting
Rameau: “Les Boréades” Suite
Haydn: Symphony No. 45 in F sharp minor (“Farewell”)
Mozart: Rondo in A major, K. 386
Haydn: Piano Concerto in D major
Marc-André Hamelin, piano
$12-$33
(434) 924-3376
www.tecs.org

March 19 (7 p.m.)
March 20 (8 p.m.)
March 21 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach conducting
Mahler: Symphony No. 9
$10-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

March 20 (7:30 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Flamenco Festival:
Torcuato Zamora, flamenco guitar
dancers TBA
program TBA
$15
(804) 828-6776
www.arts.vcu.edu/music

March 20 (8 p.m.)
Ferguson Arts Center, Christopher Newport University, Newport News
March 21 (8 p.m.)
Chrysler Hall, 215 St. Paul’s Boulevard, Norfolk
March 22 (2:30 p.m.)
Sandler Arts Center, 201 S. Market St., Virginia Beach
Virginia Symphony
Benjamin Rous conducting
Rimsky-Korsakov: “Russian Easter Overture”
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 9
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major
Alexendre de Costa, violin
$25-$107
(757) 892-6366
www.virginiasymphony.org

March 21 (11 a.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony LolliPops
Erin R. Freeman conducting
Alexander Sapp, narrator
Gregory Smith: “The Orchestra Games”
$10-$12
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
www.richmondsymphony.com

March 21 (7:30 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Flamenco Festival:
Miguelito, flamenco guitar
dancers, vocalist TBA
“Flamenco Fiesta”
program TBA
$15
(804) 828-6776
www.arts.vcu.edu/music

March 21 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
March 22 (3:30 p.m.)
Monticello High School, 1400 Independence Way, Charlottesville
Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia
Kate Tamarkin conducting
J.S. Bach: Oboe Concerto in D minor
Aaron Hill, oboe
William Boyce: Symphony No. 5 in D major
Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor
$10-$45
(434) 924-3376
www.music.virginia.edu/events

March 21 (8 p.m.)
St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, 401 Alderman Road, Charlottesville
Virginia Glee Club
Frank Albinder directing
Penn Glee Club (University of Pennsylvania)
Erik Nordgren directing
“Botherhood in Song”
program TBA
free
(434) 924-3376
www.music.virginia.edu/events

March 21 (8 p.m.)
March 22 (2 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
Virginia Opera
Andrew Bisantz conducting
Verdi: “La Traviata”
Cecilia Violetta López (Violetta)
Rolando Sanz (Alfredo Germont)
Malcolm MacKenzie (Giorgio Germont)
Courtney Miller (Flora)
Ashley Kerr (Annina)
Cullen Gandy (Gastone)
Lillian Groag, stage director
in Italian, English captions
$44-$98
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
www.vaopera.org

March 21 (2 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First Street at Independence Avenue N.E., Washington
Leipzig String Quartet
Borodin: Quartet No. 2 in D major
Stravinsky: “Three Pieces for String Quartet”
Wagner: “Albumblatt (für Cosima Wagner)”
Debussy: Quartet in G minor 
free rush tickets distributed at 6 p.m.
(202) 707-5502
www.loc.gov/concerts

March 22 (2 p.m.)
Grace Baptist Church, 4200 Dover Road, Richmond
Music from Grace:
Kim Ryan, viola
Dave Robbins, piano
program TBA
presented in tribute to the memory of Christopher Falzone
$10-$20
(804) 837-9355
www.harpsensemble.org

March 22 (2:30 p.m.)
St. Benedict Catholic Church, 300 N. Sheppard St., Richmond
David Sinden, Bruce Stevens, Jeremy Thompson, Aaron Renniger, Rebecca Davy & Grant Hellmers, organ
James River Singers
David Pedersen directing
Lauren Clay Tompkins, soprano
tenor TBA
Lucinda Marvin, violin
Jason McComb, cello
Tabatha Easley Peters, flute
George Pavelis, oboe
James A. Dorn, continuo
Mike Goldberg, host
“Bach Birthday Marathon”
works TBA by J.S. Bach
free
(804) 254-8810
www.richmondago.org

March 22 (4 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Flamenco Festival:
Leah Kruszewski, flamenco guitar
guest artists TBA
“Flamenco Finale”
program TBA
$15
(804) 828-6776
www.arts.vcu.edu/music

March 22 (7:30 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Orquestra Jovem do Estado
Cláudio Cruz conducting
Harolyn Blackwell, soprano
“From Villa-Lobos to Tom Jobim: Symphonic Music from Brazil”
program TBA
$15-$58
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

March 22 (3 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop conducting
Ravel: “Valses nobles et sentimentales”
Haydn: Cello Concerto in C major
Sol Gabetta, cello
Ravel: “La Valse”
Richard Strauss: “Der Rosenkavalier” Suite
$32-$95
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
www.strathmore.org

March 23 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
Daisuke Yamamoto, violin
Neal Cary, cello
Joanne Kong, piano
“Vive la France”
Ravel: “Tzigane”
Chausson: Piano Trio in G minor
works TBA by Fauré, Offenbach
free
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu

March 24 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Fortas Chamber Music Concerts:
Sharon Isbin, guitar
Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano
Federico Lorca: “Canciones españolas antiguas” (selections)
Granados: “Spanish Dance” No. 5
Albéniz: “Asturias”
Rodrigo: “Aranjuez ma pensée”
Xavier Montsalvatge: “Cinco canciónes negras” (selections)
Francisco Tárrega: “Recuerdos de la Alhambra”
De Falla: “Siete canciones populares españolas”
$32
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

March 25 (7:30 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg
Crash Ensemble
Donnacha Dennehy: “Turn”
Dan Trueman: “Marbles” (premiere)
Eric Lyon: “Dualities” (premiere)
Michael Gordon: “Dry”
$20-$45
(540) 231-5300
www.artscenter.vt.edu

March 26 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Fortas Chamber Music Concerts:
Emerson String Quartet
Purcell: fantasias Nos. 2, 9
Purcell: Chacony in G minor
Beethoven: Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 74 (“Harp”)
Ravel: Quartet in F major
$69
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

March 27 (8 p.m.)
March 29 (2:30 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Virginia Opera
Andrew Bisantz conducting
Verdi: “La Traviata”
Cecilia Violetta López (Violetta)
Rolando Sanz (Alfredo Germont)
Malcolm MacKenzie (Giorgio Germont)
Courtney Miller (Flora)
Ashley Kerr (Annina)
Cullen Gandy (Gastone)
Lillian Groag, stage director
in Italian, English captions
$20.33-$105.93
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
www.vaopera.org

March 27 (8 p.m.)
Ferguson Arts Center, Christopher Newport University, Newport News
March 28 (8 p.m.)
Chrysler Hall, 215 St. Paul’s Boulevard, Norfolk
Virginia Symphony Pops
Benjamin Rous conducting
Alli Mauzey & Nicole Parker, vocalists
“Wicked Divas in Concert”
$25-$93
(757) 892-6366
www.virginiasymphony.org

March 27 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
University Singers & Chamber Singers
Michael Slon directing
Ives: Psalm 90
Norman Dello Joio: “Jubilant Song”
Bernstein: “Hashkiveinu”
Copland: “In the Beginning”
American folk songs TBA
$15
(434) 924-3376
www.music.virginia.edu/events

March 27 (8 p.m.)
March 28 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra Pops
Steven Reineke conducting
Lea Salonga, Eric Kunze, Terrence Mann, Kathy Voytko & Marie Zamora, vocalists
University of Maryland Concert Choir
Children’s Chorus of Washington
“Do You Hear the People Sing”
selections from “Les Miserables,” “Miss Saigon,” “Martin Guerre” and other musicals by Alain Boublil & Claude-Michel Schönberg
$20-$88
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

March 27 (7 p.m.)
Mansion at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Matt Haimovitz, cello
“Bach Listening Room”
program TBA
$32
(301) 581-5100
www.strathmore.org

March 28 (2 p.m.)
Gellman Room, Richmond Public Library, First and Franklin streets
Capitol Opera Richmond
selections TBA from Gilbert & Sullivan operettas
free
(804) 646-7223
www.richmondpubliclibrary.org

March 28 (2 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Jan Lisiecki, piano
J.S. Bach-Busoni: “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme,” BWV 645
J.S. Bach-Busoni: “Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ,” BWV 639
Grieg: “Lyric Piece,” Op. 12, No. 1 (“Arietta”)
J.S. Bach: Partita No. 2 in C minor, BWV 826
Paderewski: “Three Humoresques de Concert,” Op. 14
Paderewski: Nocturne in B flat major, Op. 16, No. 4
Mendelssohn: Rondo capriccioso, Op. 14
Chopin: études, Op. 10
$38
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts)
www.wpas.org

March 28 (8 p.m.)
March 29 (3 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
National Philharmonic
Piotr Gajewski conducting
Tchaikovsky: “Romeo and Juliet” Fantasy-Overture
Rimsky-Korsakov: “Capriccio espagnol”
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3
Haochen Zhang, piano
$28-$84
(301) 581-5100
www.strathmore.org

March 29 (3 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
Richard Becker & Doris Wylee-Becker, piano duo
program TBA
free
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu

March 30 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Adam Carter, cello
Peter Kairoff, piano
David Sariti, violin
J. S. Bach: Sonata No. 3 in G minor, BWV 1029, for viola da gamba and harpsichord
Schubert: Sonata in A minor, D. 821 (“Arpeggione”)
György Ligeti: Sonata for solo cello
Kodály: Duo, Op. 7, for violin and cello
$15
(434) 924-3376
www.music.virginia.edu/events

March 31 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Tuesday Evening Concerts:
Augustin Hadelich, violin
Joyce Yang, piano
Stravinsky: “Suite Italianne”
Kurtág: “Tre Pezzi”
Schumann: Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105
Franck: Sonata in A Major
Sarasate: “Carmen Fantasy”
$12-$33
(434) 924-3376
www.tecs.org

March 31 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Joshua Bell, violin
Sam Haywood, piano
Beethoven: Sonata in A minor, Op. 23
Grieg: Sonata in F major, Op. 8
Brahms: Sonata in G major, Op. 78
Bartók: Rhapsody No. 1
$45-$115
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts)
www.wpas.org