Letter V Classical Radio this week

May 28
11 a.m.-2 p.m. EDT
1500-1800 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

J.S. Bach: Concerto in C major, BWV 595
(after Johann Ernst)
Marie-Claire Alain, organ (Erato)

John Avison: Concerto grosso No. 10 in D major
(after Domenico Scarlatti)
Roy Goodman, violin & director
Brandenburg Consort (Hyperion)

Brahms: Clarinet Sonata in F minor, Op. 120, No. 1
(orchestration by Luciano Berio)
Fausto Ghiazza, clarinet
Giuseppe Verdi Symphony Orchestra, Milan/Riccardo Chailly (Decca)

Respighi: “Gli Ucelli” (“The Birds”)
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra/Hugh Wolff (Teldec)

Schubert: Quintet in C major, D. 956
Janine Jansen & Boris Brovtsyn, violins
Amihai Grosz, viola
Torlief Thedéen & Jens Peter Maintz, cellos (Decca)

Nielsen: “Pan and Syrinx”
Danish National Symphony Orchestra/Thomas Dausgaard (Dacapo)

Past Masters:
Berlioz: “Harold in Italy”
William Primrose, viola
Boston Symphony Orchestra/Charles Munch (RCA Victor)
(recorded 1958)

Mussorgsky: “Night on Bald Mountain”
(original version)
London Symphony Orchestra/Claudio Abbado
(RCA Victor)

Not sure this is news...

Lyrics of most popular songs in 2014 were at second- to third-grade reading levels, according to a study by British data analyst Andrew Powell-Morse, summarized by The Guardian:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/may/19/new-study-reveals-lyric-intelligence-getting-lower

Powell-Morse, using the Flesch-Kincaid index and other readability metrics, found that country music scored slightly higher than rock or hip-hop, mainly because country songwriters use multisyllabic words such as “hallelujah,” “cigarettes” and “Mississippi.”

The most literate best-seller of 2014, “Dani California” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, boasted lyrics at a fifth- to sixth-grade reading level.

Joe Wilson (1938-2015)

Joe Wilson, longtime director of the National Council for the Traditional Arts, maestro of the National Folk Festival (which spawned the Richmond Folk Festival and other such events across the US) and a figure instrumental in creating the Blue Ridge Music Center and The Crooked Road network of traditional country music venues in Southwest Virginia, has died at 77.

An obituary by Ralph Berrier Jr. for The Roanoke Times:

http://www.roanoke.com/arts_and_entertainment/music/joe-wilson-was-mountain-music-s-biggest-fan-and-greatest/article_66a3aa2d-5e6a-58e0-8a83-363d8464041d.html

Letter V Classical Radio this week

May 21
11 a.m.-2 p.m. EDT
1500-1800 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Alexander Reinagle: “Miscellaneous Overture”
Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä/Patrick Gallois (Naxos)

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488
Ivan Moravec, piano
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields/
Neville Marriner
(Hänssler Classic)

Jean Françaix: Wind Quintet No. 1
Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet (Bis)

Schumann: “Fantasiestücke,” Op. 12
Marc-André Hamelin, piano (Hyperion)

Dvořák: Piano Trio in E minor, Op. 90 (“Dumky”)
Eroica Trio
(EMI Classics)

Past Masters:
Beethoven: Symphony
No. 7 in A major
Columbia Symphony Orchestra/Bruno Walter (Sony Classical)
(recorded 1958)

Letter V Classical Radio this week

May 14
11 a.m.-2 p.m. EDT
1500-1800 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Josef Suk: “Fantastiké Scherzo”
Buffalo Philharmonic/JoAnn Falletta (Naxos)

Jan Antonín Koželuh: Oboe Concerto in F major
Albrecht Mayer, oboe & director
Kammerakademie Potsdam
(Deutsche Grammophon)

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

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

J.S. Bach: “English Suite” No. 3 in G minor, BWV 808
András Schiff, piano (Decca)

Delius: “On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring”
London Philharmonic/
Vernon Handley
(Classics for Pleasure)

Debussy: Quartet in G minor
Belcea Quartet (EMI Classics)

Rodrigo: “Fantasia para un gentilhombre”
Pepe Romero, guitar
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields/
Neville Marriner (Philips)

Berlin Philharmonic punts

After 11 hours of deliberations and several votes, members of the Berlin Philharmonic have failed to agree on a new chief conductor. A spokesman says the musicians will meet again “within one year” to consider a replacement for Simon Rattle, who is leaving the orchestra in 2018, The Guardian’s Louise Osborne reports:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/may/11/berlin-philharmonic-imon-rattle-orchestra-vote-chief-conductor

“The election seemed to lay bare divisions among the players over what direction to take,” The New York Times’ Michael Cooper and Katarina Johannsen report:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/12/arts/music/no-new-conductor-chosen-for-berlin-philharmonic.html?ref=music&_r=0

Review: Richmond Symphony

Steven Smith conducting
with Richmond Symphony Chorus
May 9, Richmond CenterStage

The final Masterworks program of the Richmond Symphony’s 2014-15 season coincides with the 70th anniversary of VE-Day, the end of World War II in Europe. The concluding work on the program, Sergei Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony, composed late in the war and first performed in January 1945, can be heard as one of the most extroverted and optimistic, if not explicitly triumphal, products of the war years.

In the first of two weekend performances, Steven Smith obtained an assertive and finely detailed reading from the orchestra, enlarged with extra strings and winds for the piece. The symphony’s big brassy and percussive episodes sounded with impressive heft, and the conductor and musicians consistently brought out the unique sound texture – brilliance in high-register strings and winds coexisting with thicker, steel-wooly tonalities rooted in low-register brass and contrabassoon – that makes this music sound simultaneously ethereal and earthy.

Smith’s close attention to details of internal balance, especially among woodwinds and the percussion section, and to realizing various special effects in string and wind playing, gave this reading greater depth and dimension – and, in the allegro giocoso finale, a clearer than usual soundstage for Prokofiev’s musical wit.

Sharing the program with the Prokofiev symphony, two vivid, if quite dissimilar, showcases for the Richmond Symphony Chorus: the “Polovtsian Dances” from Alexander Borodin’s opera “Prince Igor,” and Leonard Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms.”

Bernstein’s settings of Psalms 100, 23 and 131, along with selected verses from Psalms 108, 2 and 133, all sung in Hebrew, employ unusual orchestration – strings with full brass and percussion sections, but no woodwinds – supporting a large chorus. A boy alto – 10-year-old Jack Rigdon in this performance – introduces Psalm 23, while a quartet of adult soloists – here, soprano Jennifer Hagen, alto Erin Stuhlman, tenor Wesley Pollard and bass Joseph Ciulla, all drawn from the Symphony Chorus – are featured in the final section.

Subject and language might suggest music in “ancient” style, but Bernstein wrote in a modern and American vernacular, at times echoing blues and Latin-accented jazz. (One of the most prominent tunes in “Chichester Psalms” was originally intended for “West Side Story.”) His setting of Psalm 2, verses 1-4 (“Why do the nations rage”) is as percussively violent as any music he ever produced; but the overall tone of the work is hopeful and pacific.

The Symphony Chorus, prepared by Erin R. Freeman, gave a characterful, borderline-theatrical performance, quite in keeping with Bernstein’s style, while the instrumental forces emphasized the brightness and animation of the score.

The orchestra and chorus held nothing back in the “Polovtsian Dances,” rendering its romantic lyrical sections voluptuously and its war cries and orgiastic dances with a frenzy that seemed uncontrolled. Actually, effective musical frenzy requires a lot of control, which Smith and his charges exercised very capably.

The program repeats at 3 p.m. May 10 at the Carpenter Theatre of Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets. Tickets: $10-$78. Details: (800) 514-3849 (ETIX); www.richmondsymphony.com

VCU Rennolds Concerts 2015-16

Performances by the Juilliard String Quartet and the classical comedy duo Igudesman & Joo highlight the 2015-16 season of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Mary Anne Rennolds Chamber Concerts series.

Violinist Aleksey Igudesman and pianist Hyung-ki Joo have built a wide following (largely via YouTube) for their physically manic yet wryly comic spoofs on classical music and its performance etiquette. The duo will stage its “And Now Mozart” program to open the coming Rennolds season on Oct. 10.

The Juilliard Quartet, due on Oct. 24, is celebrating its 60th anniversary in the coming season. In its current lineup, the quartet’s longtime cellist, Joel Krosnick, and violinist Ronald Copes, a member since 1997, perform with violinist Joseph Lin, who joined the Juilliard in 2011, and violist Roger Tapping, who joined in 2013.

Following an acclaimed performance earlier this season by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, a different foursome from the society – pianist Gilles Vonsattel, violinist Aranaud Sussman, violist Paul Neubauer and cellist Paul Watkins – will give another concert of piano quartets, including Dvořák’s E flat major, Op. 87, on Feb. 20.

Two musicians familiar to Richmonders from their performances with the Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia, violinist Jesse Mills and pianist Reiko Aizawa, will return to town with cellist Raman Ramakrishnan, with whom they comprise the Horszowski Trio, for a March 19 Rennolds program.

In the final concert of the series’ 2015-16 season, the Doric String Quartet – violinists Alex Reddington and Jonathan Stone, violist Hélène Clément and cellist John Myerscough – will be joined by pianist Jonathan Biss on April 2.

To obtain a season brochure or more information on the Rennolds Chamber Concerts, call the VCU Music Department box office at (804) 828-6776.

Letter V Classical Radio this week

A special program this week, anticipating one of the most resonant anniversaries of recent world history.

On May 9, 1945, World War II ended in Europe. Nazi Germany was crushed, but at devastating cost. The continent was in ruins. More than 32 million combatants and civilians had died, more than 6 million in the Holocaust of European Jewry. Millions were displaced from homes they would never see again.

To mark the 70th anniversary of the war’s end, four of the greatest compositions inspired by the worst conflict in European history, from Russian, British, Czech and German composers; and an American work written during the war but seemingly immune to it: Aaron Copland's “Appalachian Spring,” introduced in 1944, subsequently awarded the Pulitzer Prize for music on the date that turned out to be V-E Day.

May 7
11 a.m.-3 p.m. EDT
1500-1900 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13 (“Babi Yar”)
Alexander Vinogradov, bass
men’s voices of Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir & Huddersfield Choral Society
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic/Vasily Petrenko (Naxos)

Past Masters:
Britten: “War Requiem”
Galina Vishnevskaya, soprano
Peter Pears, tenor
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone
The Bach Choir
London Symphony Orchestra Chorus
Highgate School Choir
Simon Preston, organ
Melos Ensemble
London Symphony Orchestra/Benjamin Britten (Decca)
(recorded 1963)

Past Masters:
Richard Strauss: “Metamorphosen”
Staatskapelle Dresden/Rudolf Kempe
(recorded 1973)
(EMI Classics)

Martinů: Symphony No. 3
Czech Philharmonic/Václav Neumann (Supraphon)

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

Review: Richmond Symphony

Steven Smith conducting
with Lynette Wardle, harp
May 3, Randolph-Macon College, Ashland

Lynette Wardle, principal harpist of the Richmond Symphony and Albany (NY) Symphony (some commute!), sprang one of those rare but always welcome “where have you have been all my life?” compositions on a near-capacity audience in the season finale of the Metro Collection series.

Alberto Ginastera, Argentina’s preeminent composer (of music other than tango, anyway), drew on his country’s indigenous music but generally filtered those strains through a rather hard-edged neoclassical style. That tone of voice informs his Harp Concerto, but so does an infectious urban energy, a full and richly varied palette of impressionistic color, and, in the concerto’s central movement, an almost romantic lyricism.

Ginastera lets the harp do what harps do best – plenty of glissandos and rarified crystalline tones – but he also makes the instrument highly percussive and has it impersonate a guitar. The solo harp at times floats above a colorful and busily rhythmic orchestration; at other times, the instrument weaves through the orchestra.

Wardle masterfully negotiated the score’s many technical challenges and the harp’s shifts of tone and mood. Conductor Steven Smith led alert and animated orchestral accompaniment.

With the exception of the opening selection, the Overture to Rossini’s “The Italian Girl in Algiers,” the program was devoted to Spanish-accented music. The Ginastera concerto was followed by the Suite No. 1 from Manuel de Falla’s “The Three-Cornered Hat” and the Symphony in D major of Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga, a short-lived Basque composer of the early 19th century.

The Falla suite, from a ballet score introduced in 1919 for a Serge Diaghilev production with scenic design by Pablo Picasso and choreography by Léonide Massine, is a brightly colored, cheerful romp, centered on a fandango. Smith and the orchestra played up its extroversion and comic touches. Bassoonist Tom Schneider played his role as lead comic voice broadly.

Arriaga’s symphony, written in Paris shortly before the composer’s death (probably of tuberculosis) a few days shy of his 20th birthday, is a mature and polished composition – not up to the standards of Beethoven or Schubert, to be sure, but better than most symphonies being produced at the time outside of Vienna. Arriaga’s craftsmanship is evident throughout, notably in the way he exploits tension between major and minor passages to give his music a dramatic edge and to keep things moving.

Smith and the orchestra delivered a warmly voiced and, where appropriate, urgently expressive account of this obscure but rewarding work.

Review: Goode & Shafer

Richard Goode, piano
Sarah Shafer, soprano
May 2, Virginia Commonwealth University

The esteemed American pianist Richard Goode has spent much of his career serving as a mentor to young musicians, notably in 14 years (1999-2013) as co-artistic director, with Mitsuko Uchida, of Marlboro, the music school and festival in Vermont. More recently, Goode has been performing chamber concerts and recitals with young colleagues.

In the last of this season’s Rennolds Chamber Concerts at Virginia Commonwealth University, Goode performed with the young soprano Sarah Shafer, accompanying her in art-songs by Brahms, Fauré and Debussy, interspersed with his performances of solo-piano works by those composers.

Shafer, whose operatic career is blossoming rapidly, boasts a rich, robust voice whose maturity belies her age. She brings a palpable sense of drama to her performances. These qualities enhanced some of the repertory she chose for this program – Brahms’ “Auf dem Kirchhofe” (“In the Churchyard”), for example, and in a contrasting vein, “Ariettes oubliées,” Debussy’s settings of six poems of Paul Verlaine.

In more intimate or conversational pieces, however, Shafer’s delivery was simply too theatrical. Toning down to the scale of art-song doesn’t come naturally to many opera singers; they tend to inflate or “oversell” songs. There was a good deal of this is Shafer’s performance – but also evidence, in two pieces by Fauré, “Les Berceaux” (“The Cradles”) and “Après un Rêve” (“After a Dream”), that she grasped the distinction between art-song and operatic aria.

Goode has long been recognized as a master of Austro-German classical and romantic repertory, and his treatments of three numbers from Brahms’ Op. 76 set, the capriccios in F sharp minor and B minor and Intermezzo in A flat major, lived up to that high repute.

His performance of Fauré’s Nocturne in D flat major, Op. 63, emphasized the composer’s romanticism over his proto-impressionism – Goode made the piece sound almost like Gallic Schumann. In three of Debussy’s piano preludes, Goode’s showed gratifying sensitivity to subtleties of color and articulation, but also a touch of rhythmic brittleness.

May calendar

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

* In and around Richmond: A busy and varied coda to the fall-to-spring concert season: Pianist Richard Goode is joined by soprano Sarah Shafer in the season finale of the Rennolds Chamber Concerts, May 2 at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Singleton Arts Center. . . . The Richmond Symphony stages a “Music Marathon” benefit featuring its members, staff and associates on May 2 at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery; the finale of its Metro Collection series, featuring Lynette Wardle playing Ginastera’s Harp Concerto, May 3 at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland; and the Richmond Symphony Chorus singing in Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms” and the orchestra performing Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony in the Masterworks series finale, May 9-10 at Richmond CenterStage. . . . The Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia presents harpsichordist Carsten Schmidt playing Book 1 of Bach’s “Well-Tempered Clavier” on May 3 at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Comforter, and an ensemble of flute, piano and strings samples Scandinavian and Russian music in a free concert on May 16 at the Richmond Public Library and ticketed concerts on May 17 and 19 at First Unitarian Universalist Church. . . . Wesley Parrott performs in the last program of the season’s Repertoire Recital Series of the Richmond chapter, American Guild of Organists, May 8 on the Taylor & Boody organ of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church. . . . The Central Virginia Masterworks Chorale sings Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem and more, May 10 at Duncan Memorial United Methodist Church in Ashland and May 17 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Richmond. . . . James Ross discusses and conducts Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony (No. 9) with the Symphony Musicians of Richmond in a benefit for the United Way, May 20 at St. Michael Catholic Church.

* Noteworthy elsewhere: Violinist Leonidas Kavakos spends two weeks at Washington’s Kennedy Center, playing Sibelius’ Violin Concerto with the National Symphony, May 7-9; joining NSO music director and pianist Christoph Eschenbach in a recital on May 11; and playing violin and conducting the NSO in a program of Bach, Sibelius and Mussorgsky, May 14-16. . . . Marin Alsop conducts the Baltimore Symphony in an all-Russian program, with Lukáš Vondrácek as soloist in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, May 7 at Strathmore in the Maryland suburbs of DC and May 10 at the Ferguson Arts Center of Christopher Newport University in Newport News. . . . Two celebrated pianists perform on successive nights at the Kennedy Center, Igor Levit playing Bach, Beethoven and more on May 9, and Paul Lewis playing the last three sonatas of Beethoven on May 10. (Lewis’ recital is sold out, with a waiting list.) . . . Thierry Escaich plays compositions of Brahms, Bach, Vierne and Stravinsky and improvises a symphony on submitted themes, May 13 on the organ of the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. . . . Baroque specialist Nicholas McGegan leads the Virginia Symphony in an all-Handel program, featuring soprano Amanda Forsythe, May 24 at the Williamsburg Lodge. . . . Opera Lafayette, the DC early music troupe, gives two performances of André Grétry’s “L’Épreuve Villageoise” (“The Village Trial”), May 30 at the Kennedy Center.


May 1 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach & Ankush Kumar Bahl conducting
John Lescault, Lawrence Redmond, Danny Yoerges & Tracey Stephens, actors
“Beyond the Score: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 – Fate Knocks?”
$10-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 2 (1 p.m.)
Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, Ownby Lane at Overbrook Road, Richmond
Richmond Symphony musicians, staffers, board and league members, others
“Music Marathon at Hardywood”
solo and chamber works TBA
donation requested; proceeds benefit Richmond Symphony
(804) 788-4717
www.richmondsymphony.com

May 2 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Rennolds Chamber Concerts:
Richard Goode, piano
Sarah Shafer, soprano
program TBA
$34
(804) 828-6776
www.arts.vcu.edu/music

May 2 (8 p.m.)
May 3 (2:30 p.m.)
Sandler Arts Center, 201 S. Market St., Virginia Beach
Virginia Symphony
Benjamin Rous conducting
“Disney ‘Fantasia’ Live in Concert”
$18.25-$60
(757) 892-6366
www.virginiasymphony.org

May 2 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach conducting
Johann Strauss II: “Die Fledermaus” Overture
Penderecki: Concerto grosso for three cellos and orchestra
Steven Honigberg, James Lee & David Teie, cellos
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor
$10-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 2 (8 p.m.)
May 3 (3 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
National Philharmonic
Piotr Gajewski conducting
Mozart: “The Marriage of Figaro” Overture
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467
Christopher Taylor, piano
Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551 (“Jupiter”)
(301) 581-5100
www.strathmore.org

May 3 (3 p.m.)
Blackwell Auditorium, Randolph-Macon College, 205 Henry St., Ashland
Richmond Symphony
Steven Smith conducting
Rossini: “The Italian Girl in Algiers” Overture
Ginastera: Harp Concerto
Lynette Wardle, harp
De Falla: “The Three-Cornered Hat” Suite No. 1
Arriaga: Symphony in D major
$20
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
www.richmondsymphony.com

May 3 (4 p.m.)
Episcopal Church of the Holy Comforter, Monument Avenue at Staples Mill Road, Richmond
Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia:
Carsten Schmidt, harpsichord
J.S. Bach: “The Well-Tempered Clavier,” Book 1
$25
(804) 519-2098
www.cmscva.org

May 5 (7 p.m.)
St. Luke Lutheran Church, 7757 Chippenham Parkway, Richmond
Virginia Benefit Chorale
program TBA
donation requested; proceeds benefit Virginia Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
(804) 272-0486
www.stlukerichmond.org

May 6 (8:15 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Michael Idzior, euphonium
Johan de Meij: “UFO Concerto”
Sawako Yamazato: “Minyo Fantasy”
J.S. Bach: Cello Sonata No. 3 (euphonium arr.)
free
(434) 924-3376
www.music.virginia.edu

May 7 (7 p.m.)
May 8 (8 p.m.)
May 9 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach conducting
Sibelius: Violin Concerto
Leonidas Kavakos, violin
Mahler: Symphony No. 5
$29-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 7 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Pro Musica Hebraica:
ARC Ensemble
“Before the Night: Jewish Classical Masterpieces of pre-1933 Europe”
Jerzy Fitelberg: Quartet No. 2
Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Piano Quintet No. 1
Korngold: Suite for two violins, cello and piano left-hand
$44
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 7 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop conducting
Rimsky-Korsakov: “Russian Easter Overture”
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor
Lukáš Vondrácek, piano
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 7
$55-$105
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
www.strathmore.org

May 8 (7:30 p.m.)
St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, 8706 Quaker Lane, Bon Air
American Guild of Organists Repertoire Recital Series:
Wesley Parrott, organ
J.S. Bach: Toccata and Fugue in E major, BWV 566
Dandrieu: “Premier Livre de Pièces d’Orgue”
Howells: “Six Pieces for Organ” – Saraband and “Master Tallis’s Testament”
Mendelssohn: Sonata in F minor, Op. 65, No. 1
Lefébure-Wely: “L’Organiste Moderne,” Book 11 – Sortie in E major
Vierne: “Triptyque pour grand Orgue” – “Stèle pour en enfant défunt”
Vierne: “Pièces de Fantasie” Suite No. 3, Op. 54, No. 2 – Impromptu
Widor: Symphony No. 5, Op. 42, No.1 – I: Allegro vivace (variations)
donation requested
(804) 272-0992
www.richmondago.org

May 9 (8 p.m.)
May 10 (3 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony
Steven Smith conducting
Borodin: “Prince Igor” – “Polovtsian Dances”
Bernstein: “Chichester Psalms”
Richmond Symphony Chorus
Erin R. Freeman directing
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5
$10-$78
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
www.richmondsymphony.com

May 9 (2 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Igor Levit, piano
J.S. Bach: Partita No. 1 in B flat major, BWV 825
Beethoven: Sonata in F major, Op. 54
Ronald Stevenson: “Fantasy on ‘Peter Grimes’ ”
Beethoven: Sonata in D minor, Op. 31, No. 2 (“Tempest”)
Prokofiev: Sonata No. 7
$40
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts)
www.wpas.org

May 9 (7 p.m.)
May 11 (7 p.m.)
May 13 (7:30 p.m.)
May 15 (7:30 p.m.)
May 16 (7 p.m.)
May 17 (2 p.m.)
May 19 (7:30 p.m.)
May 21 (7:30 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Opera House, Washington
Washington National Opera
Speranza Scappucci conducting
Rossini: “La Cenerentola” (“Cinderella”)
Isabel Leonard/Tara Erraught (Angelina)
Maxim Mironov/David Portillo (Don Ramiro)
Simone Alberghini (Dandini)
Paolo Bordogna (Don Magnifico)
Shenyang (Alidoro)
Deborah Nansteel (Tisbe)
Jacqueline Echols (Clorinda)
Joan Font, stage director
in Italian, English captions
$25-$300
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 10 (3 p.m.)
Duncan Memorial United Methodist Church, 201 Henry St., Ashland
May 17 (3 p.m.)
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Ninth and Grace streets, Richmond
Central Virginia Masterworks Chorale
David Sinden directing
Daniel Stipe, organ
Duruflé: Requiem
Duruflé: “Four Motets on Gregorian Themes”
trad.-James Erb: “Shenandoah”
$10 in advance, $15 at door
(800) 838-3006
www.cvamc.org

May 10 (4 p.m.)
Ferguson Arts Center, Christopher Newport University, Newport News
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop conducting
Rimsky-Korsakov: “Russian Easter Overture”
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor
Lukáš Vondrácek, piano
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 7
$27-$87
(855) 337-4849
www.fergusoncenter.org

May 10 (7 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
Jeffrey Siegel, piano
“Keyboard Conversations: Rachmaninoff and Friends”
$24-$40
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
www.cfa.gmu.edu

May 10 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Paul Lewis, piano
Beethoven: Sonata in E major, Op. 109
Beethoven: Sonata in A flat major, Op. 110
Beethoven: Sonata in C minor, Op. 111
$49 (waiting list)
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts)
www.wpas.org

May 11 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Leonidas Kavakos, violin
Christoph Eschenbach, piano
J.S. Bach: Sonata in E major, BWV 1016
Beethoven: Sonata in F major, Op. 24 (“Spring”)
Schumann: Sonata in D minor, Op. 121
$49
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 12 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Ustad Nishat Khan, sitar
Srimati Kaushiki Chakraborty, vocals
Samir Chatterjee, tabla
Kedar Naphade, harmonium
Indian classical works TBA
$30-$70
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 13 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Thierry Escaich, organ
Brahms: Prelude and Fugue in G minor, WoO 10
Brahms: Chorale Prelude, “Herzliebster Jesu,” Op. 122, No. 2
J.S. Bach: Chorale Prelude, “In dir ist Freude,” BWV 615
J.S. Bach: Chorale Prelude, “Christ ist erstanden,” BWV 627
Vierne: Symphony No. 4 in G minor, Op. 32 – Romance and Finale
Stravinsky-Escaich: “The Firebird” (excerpts)
Escaich: improvised symphony on submitted themes
$15
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 14 (7 p.m.)
May 15 (8 p.m.)
May 16 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Leonidas Kavakos conducting
J.S. Bach: Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041
Leonidas Kavakos, violin
Sibelius: “Pelléas and Mélisande”
Mussorgsky-Ravel: “Pictures at an Exhibition”
$10-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 15 (8 p.m.)
University of Virginia Chapel, Charlottesville
Virginia Glee Club
Frank Albinder directing
Finals Concert
program TBA
free
(434) 924-3376
www.virginiagleeclub.org

May 16 (2 p.m.)
Gellman Room, Richmond Public Library, First and Franklin streets
Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia:
Jesse Mills & Daisuke Yamamoto, violins
Melissa Reardon, viola
James Wilson, cello
Mary Boodell, flute
Rieko Aizawa, piano
“Mixed Musix: Ice Cubes”
program TBA
free
(804) 519-2098
www.cmscva.org

May 16 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Mario Venzago conducting
Schubert: Symphony No. 8 in B minor (“Unfinished”)
Haydn: Piano Concerto in D major
Oliver Schnyder, piano
Richard Strauss: “Don Juan”
Debussy: “La Mer”
$32-$95
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
www.strathmore.org

May 17 (4 p.m.)
First Unitarian Universalist Church, 1000 Blanton Ave. at the Carillon, Richmond
Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia:
Jesse Mills & Daisuke Yamamoto, violins
Melissa Reardon, viola
James Wilson, cello
Mary Boodell, flute
Rieko Aizawa, piano
“Northern Lights: Romantics and Mystics”
Borodin: Quartet No. 2 in D major
Kuhlau: Quintet, Op. 51, No. 3
Borening: “Dark Wood”
Narbutaite: “Mozart Sommer”
$25
(804) 519-2098
www.cmscva.org

May 17 (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 a 5”
J.S. Bach: Contrapunctus No. 1
Victor Ewald: Quintet No. 1
“Duke Ellington Suite”
reception follows
donation requested
(804) 272-8588
www.stmatmidlo.com

May 17 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Choral Arts Society of Washington & orchestra
Scott Tucker conducting
Orff: “Carmina burana”
soloists TBA
$15-$75
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 19 (7:30 p.m.)
First Unitarian Universalist Church, 1000 Blanton Ave. at the Carillon, Richmond
Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia:
Jesse Mills, violin
James Wilson, cello
Mary Boodell, flute
Rieko Aizawa, piano
“Northern Lights: Hot and Cold”
Roman: Trio Sonata in G major
Vasks: “Landscape with Birds”
Sibelius: “The Swan of Tuonela”
Tchaikovsky: Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 50
$25
(804) 519-2098
www.cmscva.org

May 19 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Myriad Trio
Anthony McGill, clarinet
Jan Bach: “Eisteddfod”
Debussy: Sonata for flute, viola and harp
Shostakovich: Waltzes
Dvořák-Webster: Slavonic dances TBA for flute, clarinet and harp
David Bruce: “The Eye of the Night”
$49
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 20 (7 p.m.)
St. Michael Catholic Church, 4491 Springfield Road, Richmond
Symphony Musicians of Richmond
James Ross conducting & narrating
introduction to and performance of Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 in E minor (“From the New World”)
$10 in advance; proceeds benefit Community Impact Fund of United Way of Greater Richmond and Petersburg
(804) 771-5827
www.yourunitedway.org

May 23 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Markus Stenz conducting
Weber: “Der Freischütz” Overture
Richard Strauss: “Four Last Songs”
Heidi Melton, soprano
Schumann: Symphony No. 2 in C minor
$32-$95
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
www.strathmore.org

May 24 (7 p.m.)
Williamsburg Lodge, 310 S. England St.
Virginia Symphony
Nicholas McGegan conducting
Amanda Forsythe, soprano
“A Handel Celebration”
program TBA
$35-$50
(757) 892-6366
www.virginiasymphony.org

May 24 (8 p.m.)
West Lawn, U.S. Capitol, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
conductor & guest artists TBA
Memorial Day concert
program TBA
free
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 29 (8 p.m.)
May 30 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Manuel López-Gómez conducting
Gershwin: “Cuban Overture”
Andy Akiho: Concerto for steel pan and orchestra (“Beneath Lighted Coffers”)
Liam Teague, steel pan
Ginastera: “Estancia” Suite
Antonio Estévez: “Meliodia en la Ilano”
Bernstein: “West Side Story” Symphonic Dances
$10-$70
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 30 (2 and 7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Opera Lafayette
Ryan Brown conducting
Grétry: “L’Épreuve Villageoise” (“The Village Trial”)
Pascale Beaudin/Emmanuelle de Negri (Denise)
Talise Trevigne (Madame Hubert)
Thomas Dolié (La France)
Francisco Fernández-Rueda (André)
Nick Olcott, stage director
in French, English captions
$65-$100
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

May 30 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
National Philharmonic
Piotr Gajewski conducting
Brahms: Serenade No. 2 in A major
Fauré: Requiem
Julie Keim, soprano
Andrew McLaughlin, baritone
National Philharmonic Chorale
$28-$84
(301) 581-5100
www.strathmore.org