Letter V

Camilla Williams (1919-2012)

2012-02-02T16:04:00.007-05:00

Camilla Williams, the Virginia-born lyric soprano who was one of the first African-American singers to perform with leading opera companies, has died at 92.

A native of Danville and alumna of what is now Virginia State University, Miss Williams was especially well-known for her portrayal of Cio-Cio San in Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly,” the role in which she made her debuts at the New York City Opera in 1946 and the Vienna State Opera in 1954. She also sang Bess in the first complete recording of Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess.”

She taught voice at the Indiana University School of Music from 1977 until 1997.

An obituary by Margalit Fox in The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/03/arts/music/camilla-williams-opera-singer-dies-at-92.html?_r=1&hp

Camilla Williams is remembered in her hometown, from Tara Bozick of WSLS-TV in Roanoke:

http://www2.wsls.com/news/2012/jan/30/locals-recall-williams-impact-world-danville-ar-1651320/

Children's choir auditions

2012-02-01T16:33:00.003-05:00

The Greater Richmond Children’s Choir, directed by Hope Armstrong Erb, will hold auditions for the 2012-13 season on Feb. 7, beginning at 6:30 p.m., and
Feb. 18, starting at 9 a.m., at Grace & Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 8 N. Laurel St.

The choir’s various ensembles are open to boys and girls aged 8 or older.

To schedule an audition, call (804) 201-1894. For more information on GRCC, visit its website: http://www.grcchoir.org/

February calendar

2012-02-01T01:30:00.006-05:00

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

SCOUTING REPORT

* In and around Richmond: The Richmond Symphony presents two Masterworks series programs: Feb. 4-5 dates featuring guest conductor Danail Rachev and pianist Katherine Chi in music of Rachmaninoff, Sibelius and Grieg; Feb. 25-26 concerts featuring Music Director Steven Smith and the Richmond Symphony Chorus in a program of Beethoven, Mendelssohn and John Adams, all at Richmond CenterStage. (Note: All symphony tickets are half-price this month.) . . . Violinist Susanna Klein and the Atlantic Chamber Ensemble play works of Bach, Ysaÿe, Fauré and Dohnanyi, Feb. 6 at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Singleton Arts Center. . . . Bruce Stevens, Michael Simpson and Thom Robertson play the Beckerath organ in the University of Richmond’s Cannon Memorial Chapel in a Feb. 10 recital marking the instrument’s 50th anniversary. . . . The Shanghai Quartet is joined by pianist-composer Stephen Prutsman in the premiere of Prutsman’s Piano Quintet and a performance of Brahms’ Piano Quintet in F minor, Feb. 15 at UR’s Modlin Arts Center. . . . Virginia Opera’s production of “Orphée,” Philip Glass’ opera after the Jean Cocteau film, tours the state this month, with performances at Richmond CenterStage on Feb. 17 and 19 following runs in Norfolk and Fairfax. . . . Oboist Shawn Welk joins the Oberon Quartet in a program of Beethoven, Gerald Finzi and Joan Tower, Feb. 21 at St. Catherine’s School.

* Noteworthy elsewhere: Minnesota’s famed St. Olaf Choir performs at Newport News’ Ferguson Arts Center on Feb. 3. . . . Susan Graham, the stellar mezzo-soprano, gives an art-song recital on Feb. 4 at Washington’s Kennedy Center. . . . Pianist Jonathan Biss plays Beethoven, Chopin and Janáček, Feb. 4 at Washington’s Sixth & I Historic Synagogue. . . . Baritone Kevin McMillan and pianist Gabriel Dobner join pianist Carsten Schmidt and cellist James Wilson in a three-day Schubertiade presented by the Staunton Music Festival, Feb. 10-12 at Trinity Episcopal Church. . . . Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes plays Chopin and Debussy, Feb. 12 at Strathmore in the Maryland suburbs of DC. . . . The Emerson String Quartet and pianist Wu Han play Haydn, Brahms and Schumann, Feb. 15 at Strathmore. . . . Violinist Julia Fischer plays Beethoven, Ysaÿe and Saint-Saëns, Feb. 18 at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in DC. . . . The Washington National Opera stages Jonathan Miller’s production of Mozart’s “Cosí fan tutte,” Feb. 25 and 28 (with more dates in March) at the Kennedy Center. . . . The Alexander String Quartet plays favorites by Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, Feb. 28 at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. . . . Lorin Maazel conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in Mozart, Sibelius and Richard Strauss, Feb. 29 at the Kennedy Center.

Feb. 1 (7:30 p.m.)
Feb. 3 (8 p.m.)
Feb. 5 (2:30 p.m.)
Harrison Opera House, 160 E. Virginia Beach Boulevard, Norfolk
Virginia Opera
Steven Jarvi conducting
Philip Glass: “Orphée”
Matthew Worth (Orphée)
Sara Jakubiak (Eurydice)
Heather Buck (La Princesse)
Jeffrey Lentz (Heuterbise)
Christopher Temporelli (Judge)
Matthew Burns (Poet)
Martha Wryk (Aglaonice)
Jonathan Blalock (Cégeste)
Oliver Neal Medina (Le Commissaire)
Drew Duncan (Reporter)
Patrick O’Halloran (Glazier)
Michael O’Halloran (Policeman)
Sam Helfrich, stage director
in French, English captions
$25-$114
(866) 673-7282
http://www.vaopera.org/

Feb. 2 (8 p.m.)
Phi Beta Kappa Hall, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg
Feb. 4 (8 p.m.)
Regent University Theater, 1000 Regent University Drive, Virginia Beach
Virginia Symphony
Benjamin Rous conducting
Beethoven: “Fidelio” Overture
Dvořák: Violin Concerto in A minor
Simon Lapointe, violin
Mozart: Symphony No. 39 in E flat major, K. 543
$16-$60
(757) 892-6366
http://www.virginiasymphony.org/

Feb. 2 (7 p.m.)
Feb. 3 (8 p.m.)
Feb. 4 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach conducting
Richard Strauss: “Metamorphosen”
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”)
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Feb. 3 (8 p.m.)
Ferguson Arts Center, Christopher Newport University, Newport News
St. Olaf Choir
Anton Armstrong directing
program TBA
$22-$37
(877) 840-0457
http://www.fergusoncenter.cnu.edu/

Feb. 3 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
UVa Chamber Music Festival:
Albemarle Ensemble
works by Bach, Barber, Paul Taffanel
$20
(434) 924-3376
http://artsandsciences.virginia.edu/music/concertsevents/index.html

Feb. 3 (8 p.m.)
The Barns at Wolf Trap, Trap Road, Vienna
East Coast Chamber Orchestra
Schoenberg: Suite in G major (“In the Old Style”)
Beethoven: “Great Fugue,” Op. 133
Barber: Serenade for string orchestra, Op. 1
Tchaikovsky: Serenade for strings in C major
$35
(877) 965-3872
http://www.wolftrap.org/

Feb. 3 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First Street at Independence Avenue S.E., Washington
Cygnus Ensemble
Miranda Cuckson, violin
Daniel Panner, viola
Blair McMillen, piano
Fritz Kreisler: violin and piano works TBA
Harold Meltzer: “Kreisleriana” (premiere)
Meltzer: “Brion”
Kreisler: String Quartet in A minor
free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/1112-schedule.html

Feb. 4 (8 p.m.)
Feb. 5 (3 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony
Danail Rachev conducting
Grieg: “Peer Gynt” Suite No. 1
Rachmaninoff: “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini”
Katherine Chi, piano
Sibelius: Symphony No. 5
$9-$36.50
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
http://www.richmondsymphony.com/

Feb. 4 (8 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
Tchaikowski St. Petersburg State Orchestra
Roman Leontiev conducting
Ravel: “Daphnis et Chloë” Suite No. 2
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 1
Alexander Pirozhenko, piano
Rimsky-Korsakov: “Scheherazade”
$25-$50
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
http://cfa.gmu.edu/calendar/month/2012/2/

Feb. 4 (3 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Susan Graham, mezzo-soprano
Malcolm Martineau, piano
works by Purcell, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, Duparc, Wolf, Horowitz, Poulenc, Sondheim
$45-$65
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
http://www.wpas.org/

Feb. 4 (8 p.m.)
Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, Washington
Jonathan Biss, piano
Beethoven: Sonata in C minor, Op. 10, No. 1
Beethoven: Sonata in E flat major, Op. 81a (“Les Adieux”)
Chopin: Nocturne in E major, Op. 62, No. 2
Chopin: Polonaise-Fantasie in A flat major, Op. 61
Janáček: Sonata No. 1 (“From the Street”)
Janáček: “In the Mists”
$35
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
http://www.wpas.org/

Feb. 5 (3 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
Richard Becker, piano
program TBA
free
(804) 289-8980
http://www.modlin.richmond.edu/

Feb. 5 (3:30 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
UVa Chamber Music Festival:
David Sariti, violin
Kelly Sulick, flute
program TBA
$20
(434) 924-3376
http://artsandsciences.virginia.edu/music/concertsevents/index.html

Feb. 6 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Susanna Klein, violin
Atlantic Chamber Ensemble
works by Bach, Ysaÿe, Fauré, Dohnanyi
$5
(804) 828-6776
http://www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept/events/index.html

Feb. 9 (7 p.m.)
Feb. 10 (8 p.m.)
Feb. 11 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach conducting
Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin
Bruckner: Symphony No. 9
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Feb. 10 (7:30 p.m.)
Cannon Memorial Chapel, University of Richmond
Bruce Stevens, Michael Simpson & Thom Robertson, organ
50th anniversary celebration of Beckerath organ
works by Buxtehude, Bruhns, Bach, Schumann, Rheinberger, Reger, Franck, others
free
(804) 289-8277

Feb. 10 (8 p.m.)
Ferguson Arts Center, Christopher Newport University, Newport News
Tschaikowski St. Petersburg State Orchestra
Roman Leontiev conducting
Wagner: “The Flying Dutchman” Overture
Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor
Alexander Pirozhenko, piano
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5
$39-$69
(877) 840-0457
http://www.fergusoncenter.cnu.edu/

Feb. 10 (7 p.m.)
Trinity Episcopal Church, 214 W. Beverley St., Staunton
Staunton Music Festival:
Carsten Schmidt & Gabriel Dobner, piano
James Wilson, cello
Kevin McMillan, baritone
Jason Stell, speaker
Lecture-demonstration, “On Schubert’s Late Style”
$20
(540) 569-0267
http://www.stauntonmusicfestival.com/

Feb. 10 (8 p.m,.)
Feb. 12 (2 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
Virginia Opera
Steven Jarvi conducting
Philip Glass: “Orphée”
Matthew Worth (Orphée)
Sara Jakubiak (Eurydice)
Heather Buck (La Princesse)
Jeffrey Lentz (Heuterbise)
Christopher Temporelli (Judge)
Matthew Burns (Poet)
Martha Wryk (Aglaonice)
Jonathan Blalock (Cégeste)
Oliver Neal Medina (Le Commissaire)
Drew Duncan (Reporter)
Patrick O’Halloran (Glazier)
Michael O’Halloran (Policeman)
Sam Helfrich, stage director
in French, English captions
$44-$98
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
http://www.vaopera.org/

Feb. 11 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Feb. 12 (3:30 p.m.)
Monticello High School, 1400 Independence Way, Charlottesville
Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra
Kate Tamarkin conducting
Jennifer Lynn Waters, soprano
Gerald Powers, tenor
works by Johann Strauss II, Bizet, Tchaikovsky, Puccini, Mascagni
$10-$38
(434) 924-3376
http://artsandsciences.virginia.edu/music/concertsevents/index.html

Feb. 11 (7 p.m.)
Trinity Episcopal Church, 214 W. Beverley St., Staunton
Staunton Music Festival:
Carsten Schmidt & Gabriel Dobner, piano
James Wilson, cello
Kevin McMillan, baritone
Schubert: Lieder TBA
Schubert: Fantasie in F minor
Schubert: Piano Sonata in B flat major, D. 960
$20
(540) 569-0267
http://www.stauntonmusicfestival.com/

Feb. 11 (2 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Sol Gabetta, cello
Alessio Bax, piano
Schumann: “Fantasiestücke”
Shostakovich: Sonata in D minor
Mendelssohn: Sonata No. 2 in D major
Servais: “Fantaisie sur deux Airs Russes”
$25
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
http://www.wpas.org/

Feb. 12 (4 p.m.)
Bon Air Presbyterian Church, 9201 W. Huguenot Road, Richmond
Second Sunday South of the James:
Sonia Vlahcevic, piano
György Ligeti: “Musica Ricerata”
Chopin: works TBA
with commentary
donation requested
(804) 272-7514

Feb. 12 (4 p.m.)
Trinity Episcopal Church, 214 W. Beverley St., Staunton
Staunton Music Festival:
Carsten Schmidt & Gabriel Dobner, piano
James Wilson, cello
Kevin McMillan, baritone
Schubert: Lieder TBA
Schubert: “Arpeggione” Sonata
Schubert: Piano Sonata in A major, D. 959
$20
(540) 569-0267
http://www.stauntonmusicfestival.com/

Feb. 12 (3 p.m.)
Feb. 13 (8 p.m.)
Shaftman Performance Hall, Jefferson Center, 541 Luck Ave., Roanoke
Roanoke Symphony
David Stewart Wiley conducting
Bernstein: “One Hand, One Heart” from “West Side Story”
Mahler: Adagietto from Symphony No. 5
Howard Hanson: Symphony No. 2 (“Romantic”)
$21-$41
(540) 343-9127
http://www.rso.com/

Feb. 12 (7 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Leif Ove Andsnes, piano
Chopin: Nocturne in B major, Op. 62, No. 1
Chopin: Nocturne in E major, Op. 62, No. 2
Chopin: four ballades
Debussy: “Estampes”
Debussy: “Images,” book 1
$23-$80
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
http://www.wpas.org/

Feb. 14 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio
Michael Tree, viola
Harold Robinson, double-bass
Beethoven: Piano Trio in B flat major, Op. 11
Ellen Taafe Zwilich: Quintet for piano, violin, viola, cello and bass
Schubert: Piano Quintet in A major (“Trout”)
$45
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Feb. 15 (7 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Symphonic Wind Ensemble
Terry Austin directing
program TBA
$5
(804) 828-6776
http://www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept/events/index.html

Feb. 15 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
Shanghai Quartet
Stephen Prutsman, piano
Mozart: Quartet in B flat major, K. 458 (“Hunt”)
Prutsman: Piano Quintet (premiere)
Brahms: Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34
$34
(804) 289-8980
http://www.modlin.richmond.edu/

Feb. 15 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Vocal Arts DC:
Florian Boesch, baritone
Roger Vignoles, piano
Schubert: “Schwanegesang,” other Lieder TBA
Schumann: “Liederkreis,” other Lieder TBA
$45
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Feb. 15 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Emerson String Quartet
Wu Han, piano
Haydn: Quartet in F major, Op. 77, No. 2
Brahms: Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25
Schumann: Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op. 44
$35-$85
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
http://www.wpas.org/

Feb. 16 (7 p.m.)
Feb. 18 (8 p.m.)
Feb. 19 (3 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall
National Symphony Orchestra
Herbert Blomstedt conducting
Beethoven: Symphony No. 4
Richard Strauss: “Ein Heldenleben”
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Feb. 16 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Young Concert Artists:
Benjamin Beilman, violin
Yekwon Sunyoo, piano
Mozart: Sonata in E flat major, K. 302
Richard Strauss: Sonata in E flat major, Op. 18
Rogerson: “once” for violin and piano (premiere)
Prokofiev: Sonata, Op. 115, for solo violin
Fritz Kreisler: “Viennese Rhapsodic Fantasietta”
$24
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Feb. 17 (8 p.m.)
Feb. 19 (2:30 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Virginia Opera
Steven Jarvi conducting
Philip Glass: “Orphée”
Matthew Worth (Orphée)
Sara Jakubiak (Eurydice)
Heather Buck (La Princesse)
Jeffrey Lentz (Heuterbise)
Christopher Temporelli (Judge)
Matthew Burns (Poet)
Martha Wryk (Aglaonice)
Jonathan Blalock (Cégeste)
Oliver Neal Medina (Le Commissaire)
Drew Duncan (Reporter)
Patrick O’Halloran (Glazier)
Michael O’Halloran (Policeman)
Sam Helfrich, stage director
in French, English captions
$29-$111
(866) 673-7282
http://www.vaopera.org/

Feb. 18 (8 p.m.)
Sixth and I Historic Synagogue, Washington
Julia Fischer, violin
Milana Chernyavska, piano
Beethoven: Sonata in G major, Op. 30, No. 3
Ysaÿe: Sonata No. 1 in G minor
Saint-Saëns: Sonata No. 1 in D minor
$40
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
http://www.wpas.org/

Feb. 21 (7:30 p.m.)
Bannard Chapel, St. Catherine’s School, 6001 Grove Ave., Richmond
Oberon Quartet
Shawn Welk, oboe
works by Beethoven, Gerald Finzi, Joan Tower
free
(804) 288-2804
http://www.stcatherines.org/

Feb. 23 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Voxare String Quartet
program TBA
free
(434) 924-3376
http://artsandsciences.virginia.edu/music/concertsevents/index.html

Feb. 23 (7 p.m.)
Feb. 24 (8 p.m.)
Feb. 25 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra Pops
Michael Krajewski conducting
Cirque de la Symphonie, guest stars
program TBA
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Feb. 24 (8 p.m.)
Ferguson Arts Center, Christopher Newport University, Newport News
Feb. 25 (8 p.m.)
Chrysler Hall, 201 Brambleton Ave., Norfolk
Feb. 26 (2:30 p.m.)
Sandler Arts Center, 201 S. Market St., Virginia Beach
Virginia Symphony
JoAnn Falletta conducting
Nielsen: “Maskarade” Overture
Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor
Natasha Paremski, piano
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5
$20-$85
(757) 892-6366
http://www.virginiasymphony.org/

Feb. 25 (8 p.m.)
Feb. 26 (3 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony
Steven Smith conducting
John Adams: “The Chairman Dances”
Mendelssohn: “Die erste Walpurgisnacht”
Katherine Leemhuis, mezzo-soprano
Jorge Prego, tenor
Seth Mease Carico, bass-baritone
Richmond Symphony Chorus
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7
$9-$36.50
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
http://www.richmondsymphony.com/

Feb. 25 (7 p.m.)
Feb. 28 (7:30 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Opera House, Washington
Washington National Opera
Philippe Auguin conducting
Mozart: “Cosí fan tutte”
Elizabeth Futral (Fiordiligi)
Renata Pokupic (Dorabella)
Joel Prieto (Ferrando)
Teddy Tahu Rhodes (Guglielmo)
William Shimmel (Don Alfonso)
Christine Brandes (Despina)
Jonathan Miller, stage director
in Italian, English captions
$25-$300
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Feb. 26 (2 p.m.)
Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Laurel Street at Floyd Avenue, Richmond
VCU Commonwealth Singers
“A Musical Celebration of Dr. John Guthmiller”
program TBA
free
(804) 828-6776
http://www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept/events/index.html

Feb. 28 (8 p.m.)
Williamsburg Library Theatre, 515 Scotland St.
Chamber Music Society of Williamsburg:
Fauré Quartett
Mahler: “Klavierquartettsatz” in A minor
Fauré: Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15
Brahms: Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25
$15 (waiting list)
(757) 258-4814
http://www.chambermusicwilliamsburg.org/

Feb. 28 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Tuesday Evening Concerts:
Alexander String Quartet
Mozart: Quartet in B flat major, K. 458 (“Hunt”)
Beethoven: Quartet in F minor, Op. 95 (“Serioso”)
Schubert: Quartet in D minor, D. 810 (“Death and the Maiden”)
$25-$30
(434) 924-3376
http://www.tecs.org/

Feb. 29 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Vienna Philharmonic
Lorin Maazel conducting
Mozart: “The Marriage of Figaro” Overture
Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550
Sibelius: Symphony No. 7
Richard Strauss: “Der Rosenkavalier” Suite
$65-$250
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
http://www.wpas.org/

Review: Terry & Kong

2012-01-31T11:54:00.011-05:00

Lisa Terry, viola da gamba
Joanne Kong, harpsichord
Jan. 30, University of Richmond

by Francis Church
guest reviewer

J.S. Bach’s three sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord are rarely heard together, and even more rarely in their original instrumentation. Usually, one or another is played on cello, the viola da gamba’s modern successor, and piano, and programmed as a warmup for Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy or whomever.

Such was the case some years back when cellist James Wilson and pianist Joanne Kong opened a recital in the University of Richmond’s Camp Concert Hall with the second of these sonatas, in D major.

Such was not the case in this program, in which Kong, at the harpsichord, was joined by Lisa Terry on the viola da gamba. And the twosome essayed all three of these sonatas in one fell swoop without intermission (but with some enlightening commentary thrown in).

The performance was an eye- and ear-opener. With the lighter texture of both of these instruments, the sonatas were like quicksilver instead of gold. The players were perfectly in balance, a difficult task when they are played on modern instruments. Terry negotiated the seven strings of the viola da gamba with remarkable ease and plenty of smiles. Kong, who has given us such harpsichord masterpieces as Bach’s “Goldberg Variations,” was the ever faithful collaborator.

While the gamba sonatas may lack the intellectual firepower of the six suites for solo cello, which are more frequently performed, they nonetheless have a charm of their own that make them more accessible to the average audience. Last night’s audience was hardly average; one could detect many early music buffs in the sizeable crowd.

The sonatas, especially the first in G major, and the second, have plenty of musical and intellectual fodder, especially Bach’s signature counterpoint, in each of their four movements. The third, in G minor, is somewhat weaker, more in the form of a concerto in its three movements, as Kong explained. It was indeed a technical tour de force that left one’s tongue and ears wagging.

Especially poignant was the third slow movement of the first sonata, which one observer has noted, depicts Jesus’ ascent to Calvary. One never could quite pluck Bach’s Christian faith from his musical output. Nor, as last night’s recital revealed, could one extract Bach’s joy in music. Kong and Terry exploited both in a delightful hour and a quarter of music-making that seemed far shorter.

Francis Church, retired music critic of The Richmond News Leader, is a cellist and avid chamber music lover and player.

Review: Richmond Symphony

2012-01-30T01:03:00.008-05:00

Steven Smith conducting
Jan. 29, Randolph-Macon College, Ashland

The Richmond Symphony has a history with the music of John Adams. George Manahan, the orchestra’s third music director (1987-99), secured his appointment, in part, with a surprisingly well-received reading of Adams’ “Shaker Loops.” The symphony made its debut at Washington’s Kennedy Center in a performance of Adams’ “Harmonium” in 1988. And, in 1995, it was one of the first regional orchestras to take on the composer’s fiendishly challenging Chamber Symphony.

With its current music director, Steven Smith, the ensemble revisited the Adams symphony in a Metro Collection concert over the weekend. Few veterans of the 1995 performance remain on the orchestra’s roster, but they surely remember that first go; they were no doubt gratified to be part of a much more accomplished rendition this time around.

Adams’ Chamber Symphony, introduced in 1992, was inspired by the 1906 work of the same name by Arnold Schoenberg and by the composers who scored the now-classic cartoons of the 1940s, ’50s and early ’60s, notably Carl Stalling, whose frenetic, wildly inventive scores graced the Looney Tunes animations.

The Schoenberg influence can be heard in Adams’ musical textures; the energy level and often wacky instrumental voicings harken back to Stalling. The jazzy rhythmic character of this piece, and others by Adams (among them, “The Chairman Dances,” the symphonic foxtrot the symphony will play in a forthcoming Masterworks program), are a kind of family inheritance – the composer’s father was a clarinetist who played in jazz and swing bands.

Smith led an energetic performance that did full justice to the intricate combinations and exchanges of instrumental voices, cross-rhythms and perilous balances of the Adams score. Concertmaster Diana Cohen paced a quartet of the orchestra’s principal string players in sizzling fiddle figurations. Wind and brass players chirped and crooned, often at breakneck tempos and in odd time signatures. Russell Wilson, playing electronic keyboard, and the symphony’s percussionists made true grooves of Adams’ jazz rhythms.

Smith and the orchestra pulled off another balancing act in Samuel Barber’s “Capricorn” Concerto (1944), in which a string orchestra supports solos and ensemble playing by flute, oboe and trumpet. Rolla Durham reined in his trumpet to complement the projection and tonal qualities of Mary Boodell’s flute and Shawn Welk’s oboe, while the conductor obtained robust yet bright sonorities from the strings. The sunny character of the piece came through, and with more sonic brilliance than might have been expected in the dry acoustic of Randolph-Macon’s Blackwell Auditorium.

The 20th century gave way to the 18th in the program’s second half, highlighted by a lithe and bracing reading of Mozart’s Symphony No. 35 in D major, the “Haffner,” one of the works with which the composer introduced himself to Vienna. Smith adopted faster tempos, more crisp articulation and less plush string tone than he had in a recent performance of Mozart’s Symphony No. 39. The symphony’s strings were in excellent form, pacing an energized and stylish “Haffner.”

The program also featured a rare sampling of music by Jean-Phillippe Rameau, the greatest French composer of the high baroque, in a suite of three dances from the operas “Platée” and “Les fêtes d’Hébé” arranged by the 19th-century conductor Felix Mottl. Mottl was almost faithful to Rameau’s style – he couldn’t resist adding some romanticized harmonizations to low string parts; and Smith and the orchestra brought more baroque style and sensibility than the arranger could have conceived.

'Cellopaloosa 4' at VCU

2012-01-26T00:35:00.004-05:00

Joel Krosnick, cellist of the Juilliard String Quartet, will be the featured guest of Cellopaloosa 4, an instructional event for cellists, on Feb. 12 at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Singleton Arts Center, Park Avenue at Harrison Street in Richmond’s Fan District.

The day-long event, beginning with registration at 8 a.m., will include group "cello choir” sessions led by Jason and Dana McComb, a masterclass for young cellists led by Krosnick and a lecture-demonstration by Krosnick on “The Language of Contemporary Music.” The concluding event will be a cello choir concert at 5:30 p.m.

For information on registering for Cellopaloosa, call the VCU Music Department at (804) 828-1166 or visit http://www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept/study/strings/events/cellopaloosa/cellopaloosa4.html

Review: 'Ben Seni Variations'

2012-01-25T01:43:00.008-05:00

Doug Richards, composer & conductor
Jan. 24, Virginia Commonwealth University

Doug Richards, the long-tenured jazz composer and bandleader based at Virginia Commonwealth University, has mined some unexpected sources in recent compositions. In 2008, Richards introduced “Expansions on ‘A Maré Encheu,’ ” a reworking of a Brazilian folk song for orchestra and children’s chorus. Last year, he premiered “Ben Seni Variations,” a modern jazz concerto grosso based on a Turkish folk song.

The premiere took place in Ankara, the Turkish capital, in celebration of the country’s first university jazz studies program, at Hacettepe University State Conservatory; the program is directed by VCU alumnus Emre Kartari.

Now, the “Ben Seni Variations” has received its U.S. premiere before a full house at VCU’s Singleton Arts Center, with the VCU Symphony Orchestra and Montreal-based Ensemble Appassionata accompanying nine soloists: Ara Topouzian, playing the kanun, a Turkish lap harp similar to a dulcimer; trumpeter-fluegelhorn player John D’earth; saxophonist Skip Gailes; pianist Bob Hallahan; guitarist Adam Larabee; vibraphonist Jon Metzger; bassist Victor Dvorkin; and drummers Howard Curtis and Emre Kartari.

“Ben Seni,” conducted by Richards, shared the program with Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 in E minor (“From the New World”), in which the VCU Symphony and Ensemble Appassionata were conducted by Daniel Myssyk.

Before Richards’ variations were played, Ayça Gunduz Kartari (drummer Kartari’s wife) sang the original tune, “Beni Seni Sevdigimi Dunyalara Bildirdim,” a plaintive or yearning romance whose modal harmonies and complex rhythms struck Richards as fertile material for extended orchestral treatment.

The variations, which run about half an hour, are elaborately orchestrated – the stage of Vlahcevic Concert Hall has rarely been so packed with musicians – and sometimes rather densely so. Much of the scoring for orchestral winds and strings was barely audible in a performance dominated by amplified, high-energy soloists. (“Beni Seni”was being recorded at the concert; the microphones presumably picked up a lot that listeners’ ears missed.)

What I could hear of the orchestration had a rather cinematic quality, with both vivid and subtle coloristic effects, and more than a few nods toward Stravinsky in its treatments of harmony and rhythm. Among the solos, Topouzian’s kanun sounded idiomatically Middle Eastern, while the other featured instruments gravitated toward “straight-ahead” modern jazz style. The most striking set of variations comes fairly late in the piece, in a lengthy exchange among the vibraphonist and two drummers.

The soloists, most of whom were reprising the parts they played in the premiere in Turkey, include several musicians who’ve long worked with Richards as students and teaching/performing colleagues. It sounds as though the composer crafted the parts played by D’earth, Gailes, Hallahan, Larabee, Dvorkin and Curtis with their personalities and musical strengths very much in mind.

Whether the piece “travels” into the hands of other solo players as well as it travels geographically and stylistically remains to be heard.

UR organ's golden anniversary

2012-01-23T14:42:00.006-05:00

The University of Richmond will mark the 50th anniversary of the Rudolf von Beckerath organ in Cannon Memorial Chapel with a recital by UR’s faculty organist, Bruce Stevens, and two alumni, Michael Simpson and Thom Robertson, at
7:30 p.m. Feb. 10.

The program includes works by Buxtehude, Bach, Franck, Reger, Schumann, Rheinberger, Bruhns and others.

Admission is free. For more information, call the UR Music Department at (804) 289-8277.

Review: Ensemble Appassionata

2012-01-22T10:41:00.001-05:00

Daniel Myssyk conducting
with Richard Raymond, piano
Jan. 21, Virginia Commonwealth University

Daniel Myssyk, known in these parts as conductor of the VCU Symphony Orchestra, is known in his native Canada as co-founder and music director of Ensemble Appassionata, a string orchestra based in Montreal. Later this week, Myssyk will lead his two orchestras and guests in the U.S. premiere of the “Ben Seni Variations” by VCU’s Doug Richards.

Over the weekend, Ensemble Appassionata and pianist Richard Raymond performed in the university’s Rennolds Chamber Concerts series.

Meat-and-potato repertory, long the series’ standard diet, has given way to more fibrous fare in several of this season’s Rennolds programs. This was one of them: A liver-and-kale first half of works by Paul Hindemith and the Canadian composer André Prévost, with Chopin’s “Andante spianato and Grand Polonaise brilliante” and Dvořák’s Serenade for strings as post-intermission desserts.

Raymond is one of Canada’s most celebrated pianists, and showed why in his performances of the Chopin and Hindemith’s “The Four Temperaments” (1940), introduced as a ballet score for George Ballanchine, now usually heard in its concert version, a kind of sinfonia concertante for piano and strings.

“The Four Temperaments” is a set of variations of three themes on the ancient concept of “four humors” of human personality: the melancholy, the sanguine, the phlegmatic and the choleric. Hindemith’s treatments of these qualities are, to my ears at least, deceptive and/or confusing. His notion of melancholia strikes me as rather sanguine, and his phlegmatic music sounds jolly and animated. The piece is more easily absorbed as an abstract work in neo-classical style.

Raymond reveled in its often elaborate keyboard figurations and interplay between the piano and string soloists and small ensembles; he was especially effective in the fourth, “choleric” variations’ extended conversation between piano and string quartet and quintet. The pianist also brought out the wry humor of Hindemith’s see-sawing between classical and romantic piano rhetoric. And he proved to be a fluent and sensitive interpreter of Chopin in the andante and polonaise.

Ensemble Appassionata delivered a stylish, if rather mellow, performance of the Dvořák serenade, and a concentrated and energetic reading of Prévost’s Scherzo for strings (1960), an unusually accessible example of 12-tone compositional technique driven by off-center rhythms and sliding string effects.

Daniel Myssyk conducts Ensemble Appassionata, the VCU Symphony and guests in Doug Richards’ “Ben Seni Variations” and Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony at 8 p.m. Jan. 24 in VCU’s Singleton Arts Center, Grove Avenue at Harrison Street. Tickets: $15. Details: (804) 828-6776; http://www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept/events/index.html

Review: Garrick Ohlsson

2012-01-18T23:12:00.013-05:00

Jan. 18, University of Richmond

Hearing Garrick Ohlsson play Franz Liszt’s Sonata in B minor from the vantage of a fifth-row seat in Camp Concert Hall of the University of Richmond’s Modlin Arts Center was a total immersion in piano sonority – evidently too much so for a number of patrons around me, who moved back from rows near the stage for the second half of Ohlsson’s
all-Liszt program.

The veteran pianist, who turns 64 in April, is a heavy hitter when that’s called for, as it is in parts of the sonata and much else by Liszt. But this composer also was one of piano music’s most inventive, and at times subtlest, creators of tone color, as well as a frequent employer of pregnant silence. Ohlsson consistently displayed his mastery of those qualities in Liszt, at least as impressively as he played the big chords and glittering runs.

Ohlsson’s selection of works for this recital ran the gamut, from the heavily rhetorical to the delicate, from the evocative to the abstract, from the popular to the obscure.

The sonata and “Mephisto Waltz” No. 1, positioned, respectively, as the climaxes of the first and second halves of the program, received ovations, and deserved them for being both stormily virtuosic and deeply musical. Ohlsson devoted as much care and concentration to less familiar selections, such as “The Gardens of the Villa d’Este” from Book 3 of “Années de Pèlerinage” and “Will o’ the Wisp” from the “Transcendental Etudes.”

His placement of Liszt’s transcription of Bach’s Fantasy and Fugue in G minor at the beginning of the program usefully cleansed the stereotypical image of the composer as a bombastic showman, allowing the listener to hear the following sonata as much more than a romantic finger-buster. Placing “Funérailles” from “Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses” in the second half, as a kind of echo of the sonata, was a canny trick: In fact, “Funérailles,” written three years before Liszt began the sonata, was a pre-echo of, perhaps a template for, the great work.

The programming of this recital also was a constant reminder of how aware the composer was of the music of contemporaries such as Chopin and Wagner, and how influential Liszt was, both on his peers (“Tristan und Isolde” owes more than a bit to the Sonata in B minor) and on generations that followed.

Ohlsson’s performance was as instructive as it was masterful.

Virginia Opera 2012-13

2012-01-17T16:42:00.005-05:00

Virginia Opera will mount its first productions of Bizet’s “The Pearl Fishers” and “A Streetcar Named Desire,” André Previn’s 1998 opera based on the Tennessee Williams drama, in its
2012-13 season.

The lineup also includes a holiday season staging of the operetta “Die Fledermaus” by Johann Strauss II and a spring production of Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro,” the latter with the Richmond Symphony conducted by its music director, Steven Smith. The other three productions will employ an orchestra drawn from Hampton Roads’ Virginia Symphony.

Next season’s productions are characterized by Robin Thompson, the company’s artistic advisor, as “designed to build on the momentum of Virginia Opera's rekindled artistic profile.”

* “The Pearl Fishers” will be conducted by Anne Manson, former music director of the Kansas City Symphony and current music director of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, and directed by Tazewell Thompson, both making their Virginia Opera debuts. Starring soprano Georgia Jarman as the priestess Leila, the Bizet opera will be sung in French with English captions. Performances are scheduled for Sept. 29 and Oct. 3, 5 and 7 at the Harrison Opera House in Norfolk; Oct. 12 and 14 at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts in Fairfax; and Oct. 19 and 21 at the Carpenter Theatre of Richmond CenterStage.

* “Die Fledermaus,” sung in English with captions, will be conducted by Gary Thor Wedow and directed by Dorothy Danner. Starring roles will be filled by baritone Philip Cutlip, as Eisenstein, and soprano Christina Pier, as Rosalinde. Performance dates are Nov. 10, 14, 16 and 18 in Norfolk; Nov. 23 and 25 in Richmond; and Nov. 30 and Dec. 2 in Fairfax.

* “A Streetcar Named Desire,” conducted by Ari Pelto and directed by Sam Helfrich. Kelly Cae Hogan, the soprano last heard by Virginia Opera patrons as Brünnhilde in the company’s 2011 production of Wagner’s “The Valkyrie,” will portray Blanche DuBois. “Streetcar,” sung in English with captions, will be staged on Feb. 16, 20, 22 and 24 in Norfolk; March 1 and 3 in Fairfax; and March 8 and 10 in Richmond.

* “The Marriage of Figaro,” directed by Lillian Groag, will star the Richmond-born baritone Matthew Burns in the title role. Sung in Italian with English captions, the production’s dates are April 6, 10, 12 and 14 in Norfolk; April 19 and 21 in Fairfax; and April 26 and 28 in Richmond.

For information on season subscription packages, Norfolk and Richmond patrons may call the Virginia Opera box office at (866) 673-7282. For information on Fairfax subscriptions, available April 12 and thereafter, call the GMU Center for the Arts box office at (703) 993-2787.

More information may be found at the Virginia Opera website, http://www.vaopera.org/

Gustav Leonhardt (1928-2012)

2012-01-17T16:41:00.002-05:00

Gustav Leonhardt, the Dutch harpsichordist, organist and conductor who was one of the pioneering figures in the early music movement, has died at the age of 83. An obituary in The Telegraph (UK):

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9021331/Gustav-Leonhardt.html

Emerson plays VCU in May

2012-01-16T15:15:00.009-05:00

The Emerson String Quartet will perform in Virginia Commonwealth University’s Rennolds Chamber Concerts series on May 5 in place of violinist Leila Josefowicz, who canceled her VCU date for “personal reasons.”

The Emerson, long rated among the leading U.S. chamber ensembles, last performed in Richmond in 1996. The program for its Rennolds concert, 8 p.m. May 5 in VCU’s Singleton Arts Center, has not been announced.

Tickets already issued for Josefowicz will be honored for the Emerson date. Single tickets are $32.

For more information, call the VCU Music Department box office at (804) 828-6776, or visit http://www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept/events/rennolds.html#violin

Review: Richmond Symphony

2012-01-15T02:11:00.012-05:00

Steven Smith conducting
Jan. 14, Richmond CenterStage

One of the hardest things a symphony orchestra can do is play very quietly while maintaining balance, tonal quality, expression and projection. In that sense, the Richmond Symphony faces one of its biggest challenges of the season in accompanying classical guitarist Jason Vieaux in Joaquin Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez.”

This most familiar of guitar concertos requires not just an accomplished guitarist, which Vieaux certainly is, but also extraordinary sensitivity on the part of the conductor and orchestra, lest they overwhelm the soloist. The challenge is compounded when orchestral forces are substantial enough to project into a space as large as Richmond CenterStage’s Carpenter Theatre. Even when guitar sound is amplified, as it is in this weekend’s performances, maintaining balance between soloist and orchestra is very tricky indeed.

In the first of a pair of concerts, conducting an ensemble with a nearly full-sized complement of 36 strings, Steven Smith obtained rich and colorful sound from the orchestra, but without overbalancing Vieaux. The guitarist produced comparably robust tone and consistently fine expressive touches, notably in his extended duet with English horn player Shawn Welk in the concerto’s sublime slow movement. Amplification of the guitar sounded quite natural. Altogether, it was a jewel of a performance.

The Rodrigo is the centerpiece of an unusual program for the Masterworks series, which commonly is devoted to large-scale symphonic works. Of the four works on this bill, only one, Astor Piazzolla’s “Tangazo,” is scored for a big orchestra. The balance of the program, the Rodrigo concerto, William Bolcom’s “Commedia for (almost) 18th-Century Orchestra” and Mozart’s Symphony No. 39 in E flat major, K. 543, are works ordinarily played by a chamber orchestra, as they have been played previously by the symphony, usually in small halls.

Bolcom’s “Commedia,” a sometimes startlingly comic send-up of classical-period style and orchestration (also, less obviously, an homage to Charles Ives and several other modernist musical icons), is raucous enough to fill a room the size of this hall, especially when the piece’s concertante string trio is placed in the balcony, as it is for these performances.

The Mozart symphony is made room-filling with a beefier reading than this composer’s orchestral music usually gets these days. Smith’s interpretation is not quite a throwback to pre-historically informed “big-band” Mozart, but it is more broadly paced and richer in string tone, especially bass strings, than usual. This symphony is a good choice for this kind of treatment, because its orchestration features no oboes and only one flute; its wind choir has a warm, mellow quality that goes well with full-bodied string sound.

Piazzolla, the modern master of the Argentine tango, wrote a number of orchestral concert pieces as well as smaller-scaled music made for nightclubs and dance halls. “Tangazo,” peppered with colorful and playful touches and atmospheric effects, sounds like music in search of a movie, and is given an appropriately big-screen, Technicolor reading from Smith and the orchestra.

The program repeats at 3 p.m. Jan. 15 at Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets. Tickets: $18-$73. Details: (800) 514-3849 (ETIX); http://www.richmondsymphony.com/

A most unwelcome distraction

2012-01-12T12:45:00.006-05:00

New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert stops the orchestra in the midst of the finale of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony when a marimba-toned cell phone goes off, The New York Times’ Daniel J. Wakin reports:

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/11/new-york-philharmonic-interrupted-by-chimes-mahler-never-intended/?ref=music

Shades of the night in March 2009 when a cell phone chirped, not once but twice, as the Richmond Symphony played Charles Ives’ “The Unanswered Question,” a profoundly quiet piece at least as easily damaged by extraneous noise as the “dying away” at the end of the Mahler Ninth. Conductor Dorian Wilson and the orchestra played on as if nothing had happened.

That’s the usual response, Gilbert tells Wakin. Remarkably, this seems to be the first time in the New York Philharmonic’s history that a conductor has stopped a performance because of disruption in the audience. It ought to be standard practice, with the offender frog-marched out of the hall.

UPDATE: Wakin tracks down the culprit, a longtime philharmonic patron, who says, “I apologize to the whole audience” . . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/13/nyregion/ringing-finally-stopped-but-concertgoers-alarm-persists.html?hp

Alexis Weissenberg (1929-2012)

2012-01-10T12:53:00.000-05:00

Alexis Weissenberg, the Bulgarian-born pianist famed for his formidable technique and speedy tempos, has died at the age of 82. An obituary by Margalit Fox in The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/arts/music/alexis-weissenberg-pianist-of-fire-and-ice-dies-at-82.html?ref=obituaries

Review: Chamber Music Society

2012-01-07T01:36:00.010-05:00

Jan. 6, First Unitarian Universalist Church

Mary Boodell, the Richmond Symphony’s principal flutist and a regular participant in the programs of the Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia, is one of the most versatile and venturesome musicians in town.

Playing for a society program in October, she reveled in the exotically modernistic flute techniques permeating the “Four Pre-Incan Sketches” of Gabriela Lena Frank. In the opening concert of the society’s “Winter Baroque” mini-series, Boodell, playing the old-style traverso flute, made impeccably stylish work of Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto in G minor, known as “Il Cardellino.”

Boodell joined baroque violinists Krista Bennion Feeney, Fiona Hughes and David McCormick, violist Theresa Salomon, cellist James Wilson, harpsichordist Carsten Schmidt and lutenist David Walker, playing theorbo, the long-necked bass lute, in “Red Priest,” a program presenting three works of Vivaldi alongside pieces by three of his contemporaries, Arcangelo Corelli, Francesco Geminiani and Pietro Locatelli.

Italians of the late 17th and early 18th centuries created the violin as we now know it and the first examples of virtuoso music for the instrument; so, naturally, this program centered on violins. Feeney and Hughes were featured soloists, respectively, in Locatelli’s “Introduzione Teatrale” and the “Winter” Concerto from Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons,” and were duo partners in Vivaldi’s Trio Sonata, Op. 1, No. 12 (“La Folia”). Hughes and McCormick took on Corelli’s brief Trio Sonata in G major, known as “Ciacona.” Feeney and Boodell were concertante soloists in Geminiani’s Concerto Grosso in D major, Op. 2, No. 4.

Virtuosity was not confined to these high-register voices. Some of the evening’s most impressive fiddling came from Wilson, the society’s artistic director, in the fast-and-furious continuo cello figurations underlying much of the program’s uptempo music. Harpsichordist Schmidt contributed similar animation and extroversion, and lutenist Walker both texture and color, to the rhythm and bass lines of the selections.

Although gut-strung fiddles such as these do not project as powerfully as modern, metal-strung stringed instruments, and are trickier to tune and more prone to mishaps (such as the string that snapped on Hughes’ instrument, luckily while she was playing a supporting role in the Vivaldi Flute Concerto, rather than one of the pieces in which she was showcased), their tone and color is less homogenized than those of modern strings; so this small ensemble produced a more varied tonal palette and more vivid sound effects and atmospherics than a modern orchestra might in this music.

The Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia’s “Winter Baroque” continues with “Chaconne,” a free lecture-recital at noon Jan. 7 in the Gellman Room of the Richmond Public Library, First and Franklin streets; and “Agony and Ecstasy,” a program featuring the “Mystery” sonatas of Heinrich Biber, at 4 p.m. Jan. 8 at First Unitarian, 1000 Blanton Ave. at the Carillon. Tickets: $25. Details: (804) 519-2098; http://www.cmscva.org/

Symphony commemorates 1812

2012-01-04T13:42:00.008-05:00

The Richmond Symphony will mark the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 with a special concert at 3:30 p.m. Jan. 11 at the Carpenter Theatre of Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets.

The program, conducted by Steven Smith, coincides with the opening day of the 2012 session of the Virginia General Assembly. The orchestra will play works written around or about 1812, including Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture,” which musically chronicles Napoleon’s invasion and retreat from Russia in the same year as the war between the United States and Great Britain.

Admission to the hour-long concert is free, but tickets are required. They may be ordered by calling the symphony’s patron services desk at (804) 788-1212 or e-mailing patronservices@richmondsymphony.com

WCVE (88.9 FM) and its affiliates will broadcast the concert shortly after 8 p.m. Jan. 11, following Gov. Bob McDonnell’s State of the Commonwealth address to the General Assembly.

Classics vs. moderns

2012-01-03T14:16:00.002-05:00

In what they call “a striking challenge to conventional wisdom,” a team of researchers led by Claudia Fritz of the University of Paris report that a group of violinists, given six fiddles to play – two by Stradivarius, one by Guarneri and three by modern makers – couldn’t tell by sound which were classic instruments and which were modern, The Guardian’s Ian Sample reports:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/jan/02/how-many-notes-violinist-stradivarius

“[T]he report of this test leaves too many questions unanswered,” writes cellist Steven Isserlis, also for The Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2012/jan/03/stradivarius-v-modern-violins-study

From now on

2012-01-01T02:26:00.011-05:00

You’ll have noticed the sparsity of postings here through the summer and fall. I’ve been suffering from assorted and stubborn maladies. The big ones are in large part consequences of my having sat hunched over keyboards (typewriter, then computer) for more than 40 years. To keep these ailments at bay, I need to spend less time at the computer.

While I’ll continue to produce Letter V, I’ll do so as I had planned to in the first place: Providing a comprehensive calendar of classical events in Virginia and the Washington area on the first of each month, and selectively posting news items and reviews of performances.

Selectivity got lost in the shuffle. Other local media weren’t covering a lot of noteworthy events, old habits kicked in, and pretty soon I was reviewing most of the ticketed classical performances in the Richmond area, spending three or four nights a week going to concerts and coming home to spend another couple of hours at the keyboard.

Mind and body were signaling me to ease up, I tuned out the signals, and I’ve been paying for it.

I seem to be over the worst of it now. (One doctor told me I am “approaching normality.” Hmm.) To avoid relapses, I’m going to attend and review fewer performances. I’ll be absent from some events that many readers would consider major, and will cover events that some might consider marginal or offbeat. When local presenters cluster events into a few days, as they seem to be doing with greater frequency each season, I’ll almost certainly skip some.

Regrets in advance to those whose performances I miss. I’ve learned the hard way that there are limits, and to respect those limits.

January calendar

2012-01-01T01:26:00.026-05:00

2011-12-24T15:57:00.001-05:00

Virginia Opera meets challenge

2011-12-22T10:55:00.002-05:00

Virginia Opera has raised nearly $600,000 to match and surpass the goal of a $500,000 challenge grant made by an anonymous donor last January, adding more than $1 million to the company’s revenue.

The additional funds will be used for some 300 education and outreach programs statewide, as well as supporting the company’s four mainstage productions in 2012 and its Emerging Artists troupe.

Nearly 600 individual, corporate and foundation donors contributed to meet the challenge grant, said Russell P. Allen, Virginia Opera’s CEO and president.

Review: Stile Antico

2011-12-15T13:01:00.004-05:00

Dec. 14, University of Richmond

When Oscar Wilde wrote that life imitates art, he coined a clever aphorism but demonstrated his ignorance of English history – specifically, religious history under the Tudor monarchs. Listening to the British vocal ensemble Stile Antico perform liturgical music of Thomas Tallis, William Byrd and their contemporaries, one could easily forget that Christianity in 16th-century Britain was a death struggle between Catholics and Protestants, accompanied by epithets, burnings, beheadings and general mayhem.

Stile Antico’s Advent-Christmas program, “Puer natus est” (“A son is born”), centered on Tallis’ unfinished Mass for seven parts by that name; sections of the Mass were interspersed with Byrd’s four propers for the fourth Sunday of Advent.

This was audience-friendly, if not quite fair to Tallis. His Mass, introduced in 1554, was written in the
plainchant-rooted “old” style, circumscribed in both pacing (adagio to andante and back) and expressive range (reverential and awed). An uninterrupted performance of the piece would have been sublime, but also might have sent listeners into a blissful stupor.

Byrd’s works, later in vintage and more musically concentrated and adventurous, added needed animation and variety. Robert White’s Magnificat and John Sheppard’s “Verbum caro,” which ended the two halves of the program, added still more harmonic adventure and playful joyousness to the proceedings.

Stile Antico sings in a style that is historically informed, yet not angelically denatured, as so many early music vocal groups tend to sound. This group’s 13 voices blend beautifully, but retain their individual characters – especially the bass voices, with their hint of grit – and audibly feed off one another’s energy and expressiveness.

In this performance, the singers, singly and collectively, pushed the expressive limits of the Tallis Mass, treated Byrd’s vocal weavings with spontaneity, and positively reveled in the intricacies and surprising eccentricities of the White and Sheppard works.

Review: Richmond Symphony

2011-12-11T12:24:00.001-05:00

Erin R. Freeman conducting
Dec. 10, Richmond CenterStage

No two performances of any piece of music are exactly the same, but some works are more changeable than others. Handel’s “Messiah” is a prime example: Tempos, accents, ornamentation of melody lines, even solo voice registers, are all subject to change – and have been ever since Handel’s day.

This year’s Richmond Symphony “Messiah,” led by Erin R. Freeman, the orchestra’s associate conductor and director of the Richmond Symphony Chorus, was more upbeat than many past performances. Freeman opted for brisk, dance-like tempos in many of the work’s most familiar airs and choruses, notably “Hallelujah” and “O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion.”

The Symphony Chorus responded with alert, finely articulated singing that didn’t stint on the work’s big choral exclamations but often sounded more intimate and expressively nuanced than this large ensemble generally does.

The solo quartet – soprano Michelle Areyzaga, countertenor José Lemos, tenor William Ferguson and bass-baritone Matthew Burns – varied in tonal and expressive character. Lemos was audibly more conversant in baroque ornamentation and expressive affectus than his colleagues, and that expertise yielded dividends in several alto numbers, notably “He was despised.”

Most of the solo numbers in this performance, however, were melodically straightforward and conversational or contemplative. Ferguson’s interaction with the chorus in the sequence beginning with “All they that see him laugh him to scorn” added a nice touch of theatricality.

The orchestra’s chamber-scale forces, the strings playing with historically informed low vibrato, maintained good balance with soloists and chorus, at least from my vantage. (I sat in a center-orchestra seat, not my usual perch in the balcony.)

Trumpeter Rolla Durham played “The trumpet shall sound” with his accustomed brilliance, and concertmaster Diana Cohen and principal second violinist Ellen Cockerham made fine work of their cameo duet in the “Amen” chorus.

December calendar

2011-12-01T01:23:00.002-05:00

Review: Takács Quartet

2011-11-15T11:19:00.003-05:00

Nov. 14, University of Richmond

by Francis Church
guest reviewer

The 20th century, not to say the 21st, is anathema to too many listeners of so-called classical music. What a pity!

The Takács Quartet unveiled the last century in its many moods on Monday night in the Camp Concert Hall at the University of Richmond. The result: one of the finest concerts ever to reach these ears. Ever!

For openers, this ensemble – violinists Edward Dusinberre and Karoly Schranz, violist Geraldine Walther and cellist Andreas Fejer – chose the first of Leos Janáček’s two string quartets, subtitled “After Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata.” Based on Tolstoy’s novella, in which Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” Sonata for violin and piano takes on a prominent role, in a tale of ill-fated love, ending in murder, the music is highly operatic and episodic.

The Takács captured every mood, shifting from the dance-like to the dark, including in the third movement a brief statement from the Beethoven sonata, by first violin and cello, broken by slashing chords from second violin and viola. Finally, the Janáček quartet ends in emotion and resignation.

Next up was Benjamin Britten’s first quartet, written in 1941 during his stay in the United States. It shows the influence of the music he was listening to at the time, according to UR faculty member Jessie Fillerup in her engaging pre-concert talk: Stravinsky (“The Rite of Spring” and “Symphony of Psalms”) and Schoenberg (“Erwartung”). A far cry from Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst!

Unlike Janáček, Britten used many elements of formal structure, such as sonata form and counterpoint. And there were folksy elements, as well. The Takács offered a spunky, spiky reading that kept the audience on the edge of its seats. The playing of violist Walther was a special wonder. What warmth and power! No more viola jokes, please.

The concert closed with Maurice Ravel’s lone quartet, written at the opening of the 20th century. Unlike the works on the first half of this program, the Ravel is a staple. The Takács offered a singularly inspiring account, shimmering, balanced and probing, one to remember.

Thank heavens, the Takács let it go at that – no encore when one was not needed. One would like to add a future wish list of a Bartók quartet cycle in which this foursome with Hungarian roots excels. Come back soon.

Francis Church, retired music critic of The Richmond News Leader, is an avid chamber music lover and player.

Review: Fry Street Quartet

2011-11-06T08:33:00.007-05:00

with Robert McDonald, piano
Nov. 5, Virginia Commonwealth University

A string quartet without its usual first violinist is not its usual self – not nearly so in the large body of quartet literature in which the ensemble takes its expressive cues from and plays off the melodies of the first fiddle.

That may account for the thin and uneven collective sound and expressive caution of the Fry Street Quartet when the group arrived for a Rennolds Chamber Concerts date at VCU with a guest first violinist, Felicia Moye, joining three of its regulars, second violinist Rebecca McFaul, violist Bradley Ottesen and cellist Anne Francis.

The ensemble sounded best in Shostakovich’s Quartet No. 7, whose string parts are sharply etched and tonally stark and whose accents and dynamics are fairly straightforward. The four string players made a strong impression in the piece, especially cellist Francis and violist Ottesen in the somber melody of the central slow movement.

The group, joined by pianist Robert McDonald, played Brahms’ Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34, at such a measured pace that the work’s volatile and vehement elements came across with little more than thumping emphasis and its andante’s bittersweet lyricism sounded merely sweet. McDonald reined in piano sound to not overpower the strings and brought out some usually obscured inner lines of the piano part; but that’s about all this account had going for it.

The string players were a bit more expressively engaged in Beethoven’s Quartet in C minor, Op. 18, No. 4. Cellist Francis, as she had in the Brahms, seemed to be striving to ignite the proceedings with sharp accenting and robust bass lines; and the group warmed to the work as it went along, playing the concluding menuetto and allegro with animation and fire.

November calendar

2011-11-01T00:03:00.008-05:00

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: Nathan Laube plays Bach, Mendelssohn, Duruflé and more in an American Guild of Organists recital, Nov. 1 at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. . . . eighth blackbird, the Verge Ensemble and others join for the University of Richmond’s Third Practice Electroacoustic Music Festival, presenting five programs on Nov. 4-5 at UR’s Modlin Arts Center. . . . The Fry Street Quartet and pianist Robert McDonald perform in a Rennolds Chamber Concerts program, Nov. 5 at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Singleton Arts Center. . . . The VCU Symphony Orchestra, choral groups and clarinetist Charles West perform in an all-Mozart program, Nov. 8 at the Singleton Center. . . . Pianist Anton Nel and the Richmond Symphony Chorus join conductor Steven Smith and the symphony in music of Ravel, Poulenc, Rossini and Stravinsky, Nov. 12-13 at Richmond CenterStage. . . . The Takács Quartet, one of the world’s premier string quartets, plays Janáĉek, Britten and Ravel, Nov. 14 at UR’s Modlin Center. . . . The James River Singers perform in a mostly American program, Nov. 19 at River Road Church, Baptist, and Nov. 20 at Holy Comforter Episcopal Church. . . . The Richmond Concert Chorale anticipates Christmas in “In dulci jubilo,” Nov. 20 at All Saints Episcopal Church. . . . Virginia Opera stages Engelbert Humperdinck’s family classic “Hansel and Gretel,” Nov. 25 and 27 at Richmond CenterStage (following a Nov. 12-20 run at Norfolk’s Harrison Opera House).

* Also noteworthy: Pianist Peter Serkin joins Oliver Knussen and the National Symphony in a program of Messiaen and Stravinsky, Nov. 3-5 at Washington’s Kennedy Center. . . . Flutists James and Jeanne Galway play Mozart and Cimarosa with the Roanoke Symphony, Nov. 6 at the Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre. . . . The Washington National Opera stages Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor,” with Sarah Coburn and Lyubov Petrova alternating in the title role, Nov. 10-19 at the Kennedy Center. . . . The Toronto-based Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra plays Bach, Vivaldi, Lully and Fasch in a Tuesday Evening Concert Series program, Nov. 15 at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. . . . John Eliot Gardiner’s Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique gives an all-Beethoven program, including the “Eroica” and Fifth symphonies, Nov. 19 at the Kennedy Center. . . . The Chanticleer men’s vocal ensemble presents “A Chanticleer Christmas,” Nov. 26 at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts in Fairfax.

Nov. 1 (7:30 p.m.)
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Grove Avenue at Three Chopt Road, Richmond
American Guild of Organists Repertoire Recital Series:
Nathan Laube, organ
Bach: Toccata in E major, BWV 566
Sowerby: “Requiescat in Pace”
Mendelssohn-Laube: “Variations sérieuses,” Op. 54
Saint-Saëns: Fantasie in D flat major, Op. 101
Duruflé: Suite, Op. 5
Donation requested
(804) 288-2867
http://www.richmondago.org/

Nov. 1 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Orion String Quartet
Bach: Contrapunctus 1 from “The Art of the Fugue”
Webern: “Five Pieces”
Brahms: Quartet No. 3 in B flat major, Op. 67
Schubert: Quartet in G major, D. 887
$38
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Nov. 2 (7 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Johnandrew Slominski, piano
program TBA
free
(804) 828-6776
http://www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept/events/index.html

Nov. 3 (6:30 p.m.)
Museum of Contemporary Art, 2200 Parks Ave., Virginia Beach
Lyric Opera Virginia
Shelly Milam, soprano
Andrew Seigla, tenor
children’s chorus
preview of Rodgers’ & Hammerstein’s “The King and I”
$30
(757) 446-6666
http://www.lyricoperavirginia.org/

Nov. 3 (7 p.m.)
Nov. 4 (8 p.m.)
Nov. 5 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Oliver Knussen conducting
Messiaen: “Le Réveil des oiseaux”
Peter Serkin, piano
Stravinsky: “Firebird” Suite
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Nov. 3 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Pro Musica Hebraica:
Jascha Nemtsov, piano
other performers TBA
Stutschewsky: “Jewish Song + Freilachs” for cello and piano
Wolfsohn: “Two Paraphrases on Old Jewish Folk Tunes” for piano solo
Weinberg: Piano Trio, Op. 24
Krein: “Elegie” for piano trio
Veprik: “Chant rigoureux” for clarinet and piano
Jacob Schoenberg: “Chassidic Suite” for piano solo
Chajes-Sarah Nemtsov: “Hebrew Suite” (arr. for piano trio and clarinet) (premiere)
$38
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Nov. 4 (2:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m.)
Nov. 5 (10:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
Third Practice Electroacoustic Music Festival:
Benjamin Broening, artistic director
eighth blackbird
Verge Ensemble
Elizabeth McNutt, flute
works by Heather Stebbins, Joo Won Park, Lesley Hinger, David Malkiel, Christopher Chandler, Anna Clyne, Alvin Lucier, Jacob Ter Veldhuis, Mario Diaz de Leon, McGregor Boyle, Konstantinos Karathanasis, Andrew May, Nina C. Young, William Kleinasser, Nathan Wolek, Mark Kilstofte, Kevin Ernste, Benjamin Broening, James Mobberly, Kaija Saariaho, Steve Antonsca, Lucky Leone & Butch Rover
Free
(804) 289-8980
http://www.thirdpractice.org/

Nov. 4 (7 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony
Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra
Richmond Symphony Youth Concert Orchestra
Erin R. Freeman conducting
“Side by Side,” program TBA
Free
(800) 514-3849 (Etix.com)
http://www.richmondsymphony.com/

Nov. 4 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First Street at Independence Avenue S.E., Washington
Mozart Piano Quartet
Mozart: Piano Quartet in G minor, K. 478
Mahler: piano quartet movement in A minor
Saint-Saëns: Piano Quartet in B flat major, Op. 41
free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/1112-schedule.html

Nov. 5 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Rennolds Chamber Concerts:
Fry Street Quartet
Robert McDonald, piano
program TBA
$32
(804) 828-6776
http://www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept/events/index.html

Nov. 5 (8 p.m.)
Regent University Theatre, 1000 Regent University Drive, Virginia Beach
Virginia Symphony
Benjamin Rous conducting
Haydn: Symphony No. 83 (“The Hen”)
Judith Shatin: “Jefferson, in His Own Words”
Bill Barker, narrator
Beethoven: Violin Concerto
Vahn Armstrong, violin
$20-$50
(757) 892-6366
http://www.virginiasymphony.org/

Nov. 5 (2 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Marouan Benabdallah, piano
works by Schubert, Debussy, Ravel, Granados, Albeniz, Benabdallah
$38
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
http://www.wpas.org/

Nov. 5 (2 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First Street at Independence Avenue S.E., Washington
Roberto Díaz, viola
Kwan Yi, piano
Liszt: “Romance oubliée”
Brahms: Sonata in F minor, op. 120, no. 1
Bach: Cello Suite no. 1 in G Major (viola arr.)
Brahms: Sonata in E-flat Major, op. 120, no. 2
free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/1112-schedule.html

Nov. 6 (6 p.m.)
Verizon Wireless Arena, Siegel Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Broad and Harrison streets, Richmond
Richmond Symphony
community musicians
Erin R. Freeman conducting
“Come and Play,” program TBA
free
(800) 514-3849 (Etix.com)
http://www.richmondsymphony.com/

Nov. 6 (3 p.m.)
Central United Methodist Church, 14 N. Lewis St., Staunton
Staunton Music Festival:
Carsten Schmidt & Jason Stell, harpsichord
lecture-performance of Bach’s “Well-Temprered Clavier,” Book 2
$15
(540) 569-0267
http://www.stauntonmusicfestival.com/

Nov. 6 (3 p.m.)
Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre, Orange Avenue at Williamson Road
Roanoke Symphony
David Stewart Wiley conducting
Glinka: “Russlan and Ludmilla” Overture
Mozart: “The Magic Flute” Overture
Mozart: Flute Concerto No. 2 in D major, K. 314
James Galway, flute
Mendelssohn: “Hebrides” Overture
Cimarosa: Concerto in G major for two flutes
James & Jeanne Galway
$21-$69
(540) 343-9127
http://www.rso.com/

Nov. 6 (8 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
Chamber Orchestra Kremlin
Misha Rachlevsky conducting
program TBA
$23-$46
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
http://cfa.gmu.edu/calendar/month/2011/11/

Nov. 6 (2 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Kennedy Center Chamber Players
Bach: Sonata No. 1 in B minor, BWV 1014, for violin and piano
Mendelssohn: Sonata in F major for violin and piano
Bach: Sonata No. 1 in G major, BWV 1027, for cello and piano
Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op. 66
$35
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Nov. 8 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Symphony Orchestra
Daniel Myssyk conducting
Mozart: Clarinet Concerto
Charles West, clarinet
Mozart: Requiem
soloists TBA
VCU Choral Arts Society
Commonwealth Singers
$5
(804) 828-6776
http://www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept/events/index.html

Nov. 8 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Garrick Ohlsson, piano
Handel: Keyboard Suite in B flat major
Brahms: “Handel Variations”
Chopin: Barcarolle, Op. 60
Chopin: Mazurka in C sharp minor, Op. 50, No. 3
Chopin: Sonata No. 3 in B minor
$23-$80
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
http://www.wpas.org/

Nov. 10 (7 p.m.)
Nov. 11 (8 p.m.)
Nov. 12 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Leonard Slatkin conducting
Anna Clyne: “rewind”
Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No. 1
Gautier Capuçon, cello
Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 3
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Nov. 10 (7:30 p.m.)
Nov. 12 (7 p.m.)
Nov. 13 (2 p.m.)
Nov. 14 (7 p.m.)
Nov. 15 (7:30 p.m.)
Nov. 16 (7:30 p.m.)
Nov. 18 (7:30 p.m.)
Nov. 19 (7 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Opera House, Washington
Washington National Opera
Philippe Auguin conducting
Donizetti: “Lucia di Lammermoor”
Sarah Coburn/Lyubov Petrova (Lucia)
Saimir Pirgu/Alexey Dolgov (Edgardo)
Michael Chioldi/Brian Mulligan (Enrico)
Mirco Palazzi/Paolo Pecchioli (Raimondo)
David Alden, stage director
in Italian, English captions
$25-$300
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Nov. 11 (8 p.m.)
Ferguson Arts Center, Christopher Newport University, Newport News
Nov. 13 (2:30 p.m.)
Sandler Arts Center, 201 S. Market St., Virginia Beach
Nov. 19 (8 p.m.)
Chrysler Hall, 201 Brambleton Ave., Norfolk
Virginia Symphony
JoAnn Falletta conducting
Berlioz: “Harold in Italy”
Beverly Baker, viola
Tchaikovsky: “Francesca da Rimini”
Tchaikovsky: “Capriccio Italien”
$20-$87
(757) 892-6366
http://www.virginiasymphony.org/

Nov. 12 (8 p.m.)
Nov. 13 (3 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony
Steven Smith conducting
Rossini: “The Barber of Seville” Overture
Poulenc: Gloria
Richmond Symphony Chorus
Erin R. Freeman directing
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major
Anton Nel, piano
Stravinsky: “Jeu de Cartes”
$18-$73
(800) 514-3849 (Etix.com)
http://www.richmondsymphony.com/

Nov. 12 (8 p.m.)
Nov. 16 (7:30 p.m.)
Nov. 18 (8 p.m.)
Nov. 20 (2:30 p.m.)
Harrison Opera House, 160 E. Virginia Beach Boulevard, Norfolk
Virginia Opera
Gerald Steichen conducting
Humperdinck: “Hansel and Gretel”
Karin Mushegain (Hansel)
Julia Ebner (Gretel)
Margaret Gawrysiak (Witch/Gertrude)
Eric Greene (Peter)
Jason Abrams (Sandman)
Elizabeth Baldwin (Dew Fairy)
Kevin Newbury, stage director
in English and German, English captions
$25-$114
(866) 673-7282
http://www.vaopera.org/

Nov. 12 (8 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
Fairfax Symphony
Christopher Zimmerman conducting
Mozart: Symphony No. 10
Barber: Adagio for strings
Ginastera: Harp Concerto
Yolanda Kondonassis, harp
Barber: “First Essay for Orchestra”
Schubert: Symphony No. 5
$25-$55
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
http://www.fairfaxsymphony.org/

Nov. 13 (4 p.m.)
Bon Air Presbyterian Church, 9201 W. Huguenot Road, Richmond
Second Sunday South of the James:
Marjorie Wharton, mezzo-soprano
Russell Wilson, piano
opera arias, spirituals TBA
donation requested
(804) 272-7514

Nov. 13 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
UR Wind Ensemble
David Niethamer directing
Gordon Jacobs: “William Byrd Suuite”
other works TBA
free
(804) 289-8980
http://www.modlin.richmond.edu/

Nov. 13 (3 p.m.)
Central United Methodist Church, 14 N. Lewis St., Staunton
Staunton Music Festival:
Carsten Schmidt, harpsichord
Bach: “The Well-Tempered Clavier,” Book 2
$20
(540) 569-0267
http://www.stauntonmusicfestival.com/

Nov. 13 (4 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Choral Arts Society of Washington & orchestra
Norman Scribner conducting
Stravinsky: “Symphony of Psalms”
Bernstein: “Chichester Psalms”
Lauridsen: “Lux Aeterna”
Prokofiev: “Alexander Nevsky” (excerpts)
$15-$65
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Nov. 14 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
Takács Quartet
Janáĉek: Quartet No. 1 (“Intimate Letters”)
Britten: Quartet No. 1
Ravel: Quartet in F major
$38
(804) 289-8980
http://www.modlin.richmond.edu/

Nov. 15 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Tuesday Evening Concerts:
Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra
Jeanne Lamon, violin & director
Fasch: Orchestral Suite in D minor
Bach: Concerto in D minor, for three violins, after BWV 1063
Lully: “Phaeton” Suite
Bach: Violin Concerto in A minor, after BWV 1067
Vivaldi: Concerto in D minor for two oboes
$25-$30
(434) 924-3376
http://www.tecs.org/

Nov. 17 (7 p.m.)
Nov. 18 (1:30 p.m.)
Nov. 19 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach conducting
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 (“Pastoral”)
Brahms: Violin Concerto
Leonidas Kavakos, violin
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Nov. 18 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
The Washington Chorus & orchestra
Julian Wachner conducting
Wachner: “Come My Dark Eyed One”
Mozart: Mass in C minor (“Great”)
Marie-Ève Munger, soprano
Arianna Zukerman, soprano
Arnold Rawls, tenor
David Kravitz, baritone
$15-$65
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Nov. 19 (7 p.m.)
River Road Church, Baptist, River and Ridge roads, Richmond
Nov. 20 (5 p.m.)
Holy Comforter Episcopal Church, Monument Avenue at Staples Mill Road, Richmond
James River Singers
David Pedersen directing
Amy Beach: Te Deum
René Clausen: “Three Whitman Settings from ‘Leaves of Grass’ ”
Stravinsky-Gesualdo: “Tres Cantiones Sacrae”
Barber: “Reincarnations”
Bernstein: “Make Our Garden Grow” from “Candide”
works by Billings, Ronald Staheli, Mack Wilberg
$15
(804) 233-9220
http://www.jamesriversingers.org/

Nov. 19 (7:30 p.m.)
Nov. 20 (4 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Opera
Melanie Kohn Day directing
singers TBA
arias and scenes by Mozart, Rossini, Bizet, Handel, others
Free
(804) 828-6776
http://www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept/events/index.html

Nov. 19 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Nov. 20 (3 p.m.)
Monticello High School, 1400 Independence Way, Charlottesville
Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra
Stephen Czarkowski conducting
Bernstein: “Chichester Psalms”
Stravinsky: “Symphony of Psalms”
University Singers
Michael Slon directing
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 2 (“Little Russian”)
$10-$38
(434) 924-3376
http://artsandsciences.virginia.edu/music/concertsevents/index.html

Nov. 19 (3 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique
John Eliot Gardiner conducting
Beethoven: “Egmont” Overture
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5
$39-$100
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
http://www.wpas.org/

Nov. 20 (7:30 p.m.)
All Saints Episcopal Church, River and Parham roads, Richmond
Richmond Concert Chorale
Grant Hellmers directing
Crystal Jonkman, organ
“In dulci jubilo,” Christmas works by Praetorius, Byrd, Vaughan Williams, Reger, others
donation requested
(804) 288-7811

Nov. 20 (8 p.m.)
Brooks Hall Commons, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Assaf Schellig, piano
works TBA by Israeli and Jewish composers
free
(434) 924-3376
http://artsandsciences.virginia.edu/music/concertsevents/index.html

Nov. 21 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
U.Va. Baroque Orchestra
David Sariti conducting
Palladian Chamber Orchestra
works by Handel, C.P.E. Bach, Rosenmuller, Muffat, Finzi
Free
(434) 924-3376
http://artsandsciences.virginia.edu/music/concertsevents/index.html

Nov. 25 (8 p.m.)
Nov. 27 (2:30 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Virginia Opera
Gerald Steichen conducting
Humperdinck: “Hansel and Gretel”
Karin Mushegain (Hansel)
Julia Ebner (Gretel)
Margaret Gawrysiak (Witch/Gertrude)
Eric Greene (Peter)
Jason Abrams (Sandman)
Elizabeth Baldwin (Dew Fairy)
Kevin Newbury, stage director
in English and German, English captions
$29-$111
(866) 673-7282
http://www.vaopera.org/

Nov. 26 (8 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
Chanticleer
“A Chanticleer Christmas,” program TBA
$24-$48
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
http://cfa.gmu.edu/calendar/month/2011/11/

Nov. 28 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
UR chamber ensembles
vocalists TBA
opera scenes TBA
Free
(804) 289-8980
http://www.modlin.richmond.edu/

Nov. 30 (7 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Symphonic Wind Ensemble
University Band
Terry Austin directing
Hindemith: Symphony in B flat major
Michael Schelle: “The End of the World”
Frescobaldi-Slocum: Toccata
$5
(804) 828-6776
http://www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept/events/index.html

Nov. 30 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
UR Symphony Orchestra
Alexander Kordzaia conducting
winners of 2011 Concerto/Vocal Competition
works by Mozart, Dvořák, others
Free
(804) 289-8980
http://www.modlin.richmond.edu/

Review: Chamber Music Society

2011-10-30T07:37:00.001-05:00

Oct. 29, First Unitarian Universalist Church

Halloween arrived early, and with extra helpings of spookiness, in “Voyages fantastiques,” the finale of the Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia’s French-accented fall mini-series.

Harpist Sivan Magen and the Aeolus Quartet played works inspired by two of the more macabre stories of Edgar Allan Poe: “Ballade fantastique” for solo harp by Henriette Renié, inspired by “The Tell-Tale Heart;” and “Conte fantastiques” for harp and string quartet by André Caplet, a more or less blow-by-blow translation-into-tone of “The Mask of the Red Death.”

Both pieces are products of the French impressionist style at its most advanced, melodically fractured, harmonically prismatic, structurally episodic and vividly evocative. That last quality is what attracts listeners who are often put off by the other three in post-romantic music – an audience that might squirm through, say, Schoenberg or Bartók, is absorbed, even mesmerized, by the moodiness and color of impressionism.

Virtuosity helps, of course, and Magen has both the technique and the intensity to draw the listener deeply into any music he plays. His performance of the Renié showpiece, a trippy danse macabre whose heart beats to the tango (which, though born a continent away and half a century after Poe, surely would have appealed to his sensibilities).

Magen and the Aeolus brought comparable fire, focus and sonic edge, plus a compelling sense of narrative, to the Caplet. James Wilson, artistic director of the Chamber Music Society, introduced the Caplet by reading an abridgement of “The Mask of the Red Death” – a lengthy but useful preface.

Flutist Mary Boodell joined Magen and the Aeolus’ violist, Gregory Luce, in Claude Debussy’s Sonata for those instruments, one of the later (1915) and most abstract of this composer’s chamber works. The threesome effectively emphasized the music’s elusiveness and ambiguity by playing up its transparency. One was as aware of the spaces between notes and instruments, by the tones and tempos that were suggested rather than heard, as by the sounds and rhythms themselves.

Boodell and cellist Wilson audibly relished the feast of tone color and exotic instrumental technique served up by Gabriela Lena Frank in “Four Pre-Incan Sketches,” a set of pieces inspired by artifacts of ancient Amerindian cultures of Peru.

The odd piece out in this program was Camille Saint-Saëns’ Fantasy, Op. 124, for violin and harp, a lengthy exercise in sugary lyricism punctuated with elaborate flourishes, largely showcasing the fiddler. Nicholas Tavani, the Aeolus’ first violinist, and Magen gave the piece what it needed expressively and technically; but it inevitably came across as a rather insipid timeout from the sonic wonders that preceded and followed it.

Review: 'Aïda'

2011-10-22T11:06:00.002-05:00

Virginia Opera
John DeMain conducting
Oct. 21, Richmond CenterStage

Verdi’s “Aïda” is one of the grandest spectacles in opera. When Virginia Opera announced that it would open its 2011-12 season with “Aïda,” one wondered whether it could pull it off, having as it does to tailor its productions to fit the smallish stages of its theaters in Norfolk and Richmond (its Fairfax venue is a bit larger), and to work within budget constraints that have led the company to mount sparely staged shows using recycled scenic elements.

Happily, it can, and has. This compact “Aïda” has the pageantry, grandeur and exoticism that Verdi intended. Its cast of dozens is outfitted and choreographed, its choristers sing, its orchestra plays, and its dancers and supernumeraries move, to belie their numbers. Its set is minimal yet monumental.

Stage director Lillian Groag, scenic designer Erhard Rom, costume designer Martha Hally, choreographer Malcolm Burn, chorusmaster Adam Turner and John DeMain, the veteran opera conductor brought in for this production, have conjured a small miracle in this “Aïda.” Burn and his dancers from the Richmond Ballet make especially good use of, and an especially big impression in, the tight space in which they have to work. The choreographer’s distillation of the story in the dance scene of Act 2 is a high point of this production.

Mary Elizabeth Williams is an excellent Aïda, projecting the intense but largely repressed passion of the Ethiopian slave girl for Radamés, the warrior who leads Egyptian forces against her people. Gustavo Lopez Manzitti proved less expressively nuanced as Radamés in the first of two Richmond performances; his “Celeste Aïda” sounded to come more from the throat than the heart.

Jeniece Golbourne conveys the spiteful vehemence of Amneris, the Egyptian princess who is Aïda’s rival for Radamés’ love, perhaps rather too well to fit into a love triangle, but quite effectively if the women’s rivalry is seen as a battle between love and possessiveness.

Nathan Stark, as the Egyptian king, and Ashraf Sewailam, as the high priest Ramphis, are suitably stentorian in voice and manner. Fikile Mvinjelwa, as Amonasro, the Ethiopian king and father of Aïda, weaves effectively between the character’s commanding and calculating roles in the drama.

DeMain, leading members of the Virginia Symphony, brings out both the passion and grandeur of Verdi’s orchestration and consistently complements the singers and dancers. Conducting opera is a special kind of work, especially in this show, and this man clearly has mastered the art.

The final performance of the production, at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 23 at the Carpenter Theatre of Richmond CenterStage, is sold out.

Review: Richmond Symphony

2011-10-15T23:50:00.020-05:00

Steven Smith conducting
Oct. 15, Richmond Center Stage

It’s doubtful that any cellist could be rated one of the greats without mastering, or at least making a strong impression in playing, Dvořák’s Concerto in B minor. Yet this most familiar of cello concertos isn’t a conventional solo instrument-with-orchestra showpiece – it’s really more of a symphony for cello and orchestra. For much of the work the cello is closely integrated with the orchestra and its soloists (most noticeably, clarinet and violin); and in most of the concerto’s exposed solo passages, Dvořák wants the lyricism of the human voice, not ear-dazzling virtuosity.

The ideal soloist for this piece is one who has the technique of a star instrumentalist but is more conversant with orchestration than the typical soloist, and one who is inclined to play with, rather than in front of, orchestral musicians. Carter Brey, the principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic, proved to be that ideal soloist in the first of two weekend performances of the Dvořák with the Richmond Symphony.

Both audibly and visibly, Brey was deeply engaged with the orchestra’s performance as well as his own. His understanding of the cello’s role in the piece, leading here, supportive or collaborative there, was consistently on the mark. When called upon to make his instrument sing, it sang, expressively but without a trace of self-indulgence. From start to finish, his was a performance that said, “Listen to Dvořák’s creation,” not, “Listen to me play beautifully.” And the result was music-making of unaffected beauty and genuine nobility.

Conductor Steven Smith and the symphony’s musicians performed at Brey’s high level of technique, expression and concentration. They brought the same qualities to performances of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9 and “Fratres,” a 1977 work for strings and percussion by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt.

The Shostakovich Ninth is a tricky piece, surprisingly cheerful for this composer and the year of its writing (1945). Shostakovich often laced good humor with sarcasm and parody, and does so in this symphony, but with more subtlety than usual. His more somber writing is similarly understated – the tonal-emotional atmosphere is more partly cloudy than overcast. Smith’s interpretation was suitably calibrated, curbing the music’s bumptious enthusiasm (more effectively in the last movement than in the first) and giving the darker inner movements appropriate shades of gray.

The symphony’s strings, who played superbly throughout the program, brought a fine balance of rich tone and austere expression to the Pärt, quite effectively evoking the tone of monastic chant that this piece calls for. Smith just as effectively contoured the performance from deep quiet to high intensity and back.

The program repeats at 3 p.m. Oct. 16 in the Carpenter Theatre of Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets. Tickets: $18-$73. Details: (800) 514-3849 (Etix.com); http://www.richmondsymphony.com/

Review: Paley Festival

2011-10-15T00:24:00.004-05:00

Oct. 14, First English Lutheran Church

Opening night of Alexander Paley’s 14th annual Richmond festival was highlighted by a singular performance of Schubert’s last piano sonata, the B flat major, D. 960, in which the pianist filtered Schubertian style and lyricism through Russian passion and volatility.

Paley took substantial liberties with Schubert’s tempos – the sonata’s great andante, for example, slowed to a near-largo pace at times – and played the work’s stormier and faster passages with extraordinary vehemence. Eccentric or willful the performance may have been; but it was also compelling and palpably heartfelt.

The pianist and violinist Akemi Takayama treated Beethoven’s Sonata in G major, Op. 30, to a similarly fiery reading. Takayama favored a sweetly soulful sound, but proved ready to ratchet up to match Paley’s level of nervy intensity. The result was not the tidiest of performances, but tidiness is rarely what one wants in Beethoven.

Paley and his wife and piano partner, Pei-Wen Chen, are surveying the four-hands works of Mozart in this edition of the festival. They started with the Sonata in C major, K. 521, a substantial work with an especially soulful slow movement, and the Theme and Variations in G major, a decorous set of variations on a theme that might have been a comic-opera aria.

The Blüthner piano that Paley uses for these festival performances is a German-made instrument whose bright tone and clarity ought to be ideally suited to the composers represented in this program. On this occasion, however, the piano’s treble register was almost painfully bright at high volume, while its bass sounded recessed and often muddy. The imbalance was bothersome in the Mozart sonata, and even more so in the important bass lines of the first movement of the Schubert.

The Paley Festival continues with performances at 8 p.m. Oct. 15 and 3:30 p.m. Oct. 16 at First English Lutheran Church, Stuart Circle (Monument Avenue at Lombardy Street), Richmond. Admission is by donation. Details: (804) 355-9185; http://www.paleyfestival.info/

Seth Williamson (1949-2011)

2011-10-08T10:23:00.002-05:00

Seth Williamson, the voice of classical music, on the air and in print, in Roanoke and Southwest Virginia, has died at 62 from complications following surgery.

An obituary and appreciation of the longtime WVTF announcer and reviewer and columnist for The Roanoke Times by Matt Chittum:

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/299454

Chamber Music Society 2011-12

2011-10-06T16:26:00.004-05:00

The Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia, presenter of the chamber-music series directed by cellist James Wilson, will launch a three-part 2011-12 season with “French Fall,” four events this month featuring the Israeli harpist Sivan Magen and the Aeolus Quartet.

A “Parisian Gala,” whose program includes Debussy’s Quartet in G minor and the “Meditation” from Massenet’s “Thaïs,” will be staged at 7 p.m. Oct. 27 at the Ellen Glasgow House, Main and Adams streets. The event will feature music in the parlors of the historic downtown Richmond home and a buffet dinner following after the performance. Tickets are $75.

Magen will conduct a free workshop with the American Youth Harp Ensemble at 5 p.m. Oct. 28 at Grace Baptist Church, 4200 Dover Road in Windsor Farms, and the Aeolus Quartet will perform in a free casual concert at noon Oct. 29 in the Gellman Room of the Main Branch of the Richmond Public Library, First and Franklin streets.

“Voyages fantastiques,” in which Magen, the Aeolus, Wilson and flutist Mary Boodell will play works by Ravel, Saint-Saëns and Gabriela Lena Frank, will be staged at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 29 at First Unitarian Univeralist Church, 1000 Blanton Ave. at the Carillon. Tickets are $25, $20 for seniors, $5 for students.

Later festival events include two “Winter Baroque” concerts, Jan. 6 and 8 at First Unitarian, and a free lecture-recital on Jan. 7 in the Gellman Room. These will feature baroque violinists Christina Day Martinson and Fiona Hughes in the “Mystery” sonatas of Heinrich Biber and music by Vivaldi, Geminiani, Corelli, Locatelli and others. Ticket prices will be announced later.

The festival’s spring series, “Water Music: Chamber Music for the River City,” will feature concerts on May 18, 19 and 21 at First Unitarian and a free program on May 19 in the Gellman Room. Featured works include a suite from Handel’s “Water Music,” Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet, Smetana’s “The Moldau,” Menedelssohn’s “Hebrides” Overture, George Crumb’s “Voice of the Whale” and works by Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy, Szymanowski, Carl Reinecke and Richard Strauss. Subscription and single-ticket prices will be announced later.

For more information, call (804) 519-2098 or visit http://www.cmscva.org/

Symphony's 'Come and Play'

2011-10-06T16:25:00.001-05:00

The Richmond Symphony’s “Come and Play,” a chance for community musicians of all ages to rehearse and perform members of the orchestra, will be held on Nov. 6 at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Siegel Center, Broad and Harrison streets.

Erin R. Freeman, the symphony’s associate conductor, will rehearse the musicians from 2:30 to 5 p.m., and a free public performance will begin at 6 p.m.

The deadline to register is Oct. 7. Registration fees are $5 for students 22 and younger, $10 for adults.

Instrumental parts will be available to all performers.

For more information, call (804) 788-4717 or visit http://www.richmondsymphony.com/

October calendar

2011-10-01T00:03:00.011-05:00

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: Erin R. Freeman and the Richmond Symphony open the orchestra’s 2011-12 Pops series in live accompaniment to the classic film “Casablanca,” on Oct. 1 at Richmond CenterStage; Carter Brey, principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic, joins the Richmond Symphony and its music director, Steven Smith, in Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, on a Masterworks program also featuring works by Shostakovich and Arvo Pärt, Oct. 15-16 at Richmond CenterStage; the orchestra’s new concertmaster, Diana Cohen, is featured soloist in a Metro Collection program of Mozart, Prokofiev, Sibelius and Revueltas, Oct. 23 at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland; and Freeman and the symphony open the LolliPops family series with actors from Classical Kids Live in “Mozart’s Magnificent Voyage” on Oct. 29, at Richmond CenterStage. . . . Pianist Christopher O’Riley and cellist Matt Haimovitz present “Shuffle.Play.Listen,” a program of Bach, Gabrieli, Chopin, Stravinsky, Piazzolla and Radiohead, Oct. 3 at the University of Richmond’s Modlin Arts Center. . . . The new-music sextet eighth blackbird opens its eighth year in residence at UR with “Sounds of a New Century,” Oct. 5 at the Modlin Center. . . . The Brooklyn Rider Quartet, another pacemaker in contemporary chamber music, performs on Oct. 8 in a Rennolds Chamber Concerts program at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Singleton Arts Center. . . . The Alexander Paley Music Festival returns for its 14th season, featuring Paley and his wife and performing partner, Pei-Wen Chen, playing the four-hands works of Mozart, Oct. 14-16 at First English Lutheran Church. . . . The piano duo of Paul Hanson and Joanne Kong play rarely heard works of Franz Liszt in a program marking the bicentennial of the composer’s birth, Oct. 17 at UR’s Modlin Center. . . . John DeMain conducts Virginia Opera in its season-opening production, the company’s first performance of Verdi’s “Aïda,” featuring members of the Richmond Ballet, Oct. 21 and 23 at Richmond CenterStage (with earlier dates in Norfolk and Fairfax). . . . The Richmond Philharmonic opens its new season, with pianist Michael Sheppard featured in Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F, Oct. 23 at VCU’s Singleton Center. . . . The Oberon Quartet, joined by violist Kimberly Sparr and cellist Ryan Lannan, play works by Mozart, Brahms and Peter Schickele, Oct. 25 at the St. Christopher’s Upper School Chapel.

* Notables elsewhere: Russian pianist Vassily Primakov opens the Tuesday Evening Concerts series with a program of Schubert, Schumann and Chopin, Oct. 4 at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
. . . Gidon Kremer joins the National Symphony in the Sibelius Violin Concerto, Oct. 6, 8 and 9 at Washington’s Kennedy Center. . . . Valery Gergiev conducts the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra in an all-Tchaikovsky program with pianist Daniil Trifonov, Oct. 8 at George Mason University in Fairfax. . . . Violinist Hilary Hahn plays Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and more, Oct. 19 at Charlottesville’s Paramount Theater. . . . Pianist Louis Lortie plays Liszt’s “Années de Pèlerinage: Deuxième Année and Troisième Année,” Oct. 19 at the Library of Congress in Washington. . . . The Tokyo String Quartet plays Mozart, Szymanowski and Dvořák, Oct. 26 at the Kennedy Center. . . . Pianist András Schiff joins Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra in a program of Bartók and Schubert, Oct. 26 at the Kennedy Center.
. . . Violinist Gil Shaham plays Schubert, Bach and Franck, Oct. 30 at Strathmore in the Maryland suburbs of DC.

Oct. 1 (5 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Quux Collective
program TBA
free
(804) 828-6776
http://www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept/events/index.html

Oct. 1 (7 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Tabatha Easley, flute
Tracy Cowden, piano
works by Joseph Schwantner, Lukas Foss, Paul Schoenfield, others
free
(804) 828-6776
http://www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept/events/index.html

Oct. 1 (8 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony Pops
Erin R. Freeman conducting
“A Symphonic Night at the Movies: ‘Casablanca’ ”
$18-$76
(800) 514-3849 (Etix.com)
http://www.richmondsymphony.com/

Oct. 1 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 5 (7:30 p.m.)
Oct. 7 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 9 (2:30 p.m.)
Harrison Opera House, 160 E. Virginia Beach Boulevard, Norfolk
Virginia Opera
John DeMain conducting
Verdi: “Aïda”
Mary Elizabeth Williams (Aïda)
Jeniece Golbourne (Amneris)
Gustavo Manzitti (Radames)
Fikile Mvinjelwa (Amonasro)
Ashraf Sewailam (Ramphis)
Nathan Stark (King of Egypt)
Kaileen Miller (High Priestess)
Richmond Ballet members
Malcom Burn, choreographer
Lillian Groag, stage director
in Italian, English captions
$25-$114
(866) 673-7282
http://www.vaopera.org/

Oct. 1 (2 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Till Fellner, piano
Haydn: Sonata No. 60 in C major
Armstrong: “Half of One, Six Dozen of Another”
Schumann: “Kinderszenen”
Liszt: “Années de pèlerinage: deuxieme année: Italie”
$40
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
http://www.wpas.org/

Oct. 1 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos conducting
Beethoven: Symphony No. 8
Orff: “Carmina Burana”
Laura Claycomb, soprano
Nicholas Phan, tenor
Hugh Russell, baritone
Choral Arts Society of Washington
Robert Shafer directing
Children’s Chorus of Washington
Joan Gregoryk directing
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Oct. 2 (2:30 p.m.)
Museum of Contemporary Art, 2200 Parks Ave., Virginia Beach
Lyric Opera Virginia:
Peter Mark, conductor & coach
Joseph Walsh, piano
singers TBA
master class: “From the Conductor’s Perspective”
$27
(757) 446-6666
http://www.lyricoperavirginia.org/

Oct. 2 (3:30 p.m.)
Monticello High School, 1400 Independence Way, Charlottesville
Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra
Kate Tamarkin conducting
Dvořák: “Carnival” Overture
Brahms: Double Concerto
David Colwell, violin
Adam Carter, cello
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”)
$10-$38
(434) 924-3376
http://artsandsciences.virginia.edu/music/concertsevents/index.html

Oct. 3 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
Christopher O’Riley, piano
Matt Haimovitz, cello
“Shuffle.Play.Listen”
works by Bach, Gabrieli, Chopin, Stravinsky, Piazzolla, Radiohead
$36
(804) 289-8980
http://www.modlin.richmond.edu/

Oct. 3 (8 p.m.)
Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre, Orange Avenue at Williamson Road
Roanoke Symphony
David Stewart Wiley conducting
Bernstein: “Candide” Overture
Jeff Midkiff: Mandolin Concerto
Jeff Midkiff, mandolin
Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 in E minor (“From the New World”)
$21-$49
(540) 343-9127
http://www.rso.com/

Oct. 4 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Tuesday Evening Concert Series:
Vassily Primakov, piano
Schubert: 14 waltzes
Schumann: Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 14
Chopin: 24 preludes, Op. 28
$25-$30
(434) 924-3376
http://www.tecs.org/

Oct. 5 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
eighth blackbird
“Sounds of a New Century”
Fabian Svensson: “Two Sides” (2009) for sextet
Timo Andres: “Crashing Through Fences” (2009) for flute and percussion
Dan Visconti: “Fractured Jams” (2006) for clarinet, violin, cello and piano
Mayke Nas: “Digit#2” (2003) for piano four-hands
Amy Kirsten: “Pirouette” for solo flute (premiere)
Bruno Montovani: Chamber Concerto No. 2 for sextet (U.S. premiere)
$20
(804) 289-8980
http://www.modlin.richmond.edu/

Oct. 6 (8 p.m.)
Phi Beta Kappa Hall, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg
Virginia Symphony
Benjamin Rous conducting
Haydn: Symphony No. 83 (“The Hen”)
Judith Shatin: “Jefferson, In His Own Words”
Bill Barker, narrator
Beethoven: Violin Concerto
Vahn Armstrong, violin
$16-$60
(757) 892-6366
http://www.virginiasymphony.org/

Oct. 6 (7 p.m.)
Oct. 8 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 9 (3 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
John Storgårds conducting
Mussorgsky: “Night on Bald Mountain”
Sibelius: Violin Concerto
Gidon Kremer, violin
Liadov: “The Enchanted Lake”
Nielsen: Symphony No. 5
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Oct. 8 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Rennolds Chamber Concerts:
Brooklyn Rider Quartet
works by Mozart, Beethoven, Philip Glass, John Zorn, others
$32
(804) 828-6776
http://www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept/events/index.html

Oct. 8 (8 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra
Valery Gergiev conducting
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1
Daniil Trifonov, piano
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5
$30-$60
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
http://cfa.gmu.edu/calendar/month/2011/10/

Oct. 12 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Vocal Arts DC:
Matthias Hausmann, baritone
Craig Rutenberg, piano
works by Mahler, Korngold, Eisler, others
$45
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Oct. 13 (7 p.m.)
Oct. 14 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 15 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra Pops
Steven Reineke conducting
Rebecca Luker, vocalist
“Some Enchanted Evening: The Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein”
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Oct. 14 (8 p.m.)
First English Lutheran Church, Stuart Circle (Monument Avenue at Lombardy Street), Richmond
Paley Music Festival:
Alexander Paley & Pei-Wen Chen, piano & piano four-hands
Akemi Takayama & Kathy Judd, violins
Daphne Gerling, viola
Clyde Thomas Shaw, cello
Charles West, clarinet
Mozart: Sonata in C major, K. 521, for piano four-hands
Mozart: Theme and Variations in G major, K. 501
Beethoven: Violin Sonata No. 8 in G major, Op. 30
Schubert: Piano Sonata in B flat major, D. 960
donations accepted
(804) 355-9185
http://www.paleyfestival.info/

Oct. 14 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Piedmont Baroque
works by Purcell, Marais, Leclair, Marini
free
(434) 924-3376
http://artsandsciences.virginia.edu/music/concertsevents/index.html

Oct. 14 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 16 (2:30 p.m.)
Shaftman Performance Hall, Jefferson Center, 541 Luck Ave., Roanoke
Opera Roanoke
Scott Williamson conducting
Verdi: “Il Trovatore”
Hope Briggs (Leonora)
Jennifer Roderer (Azucena)
Scott Piper (Manrico)
Gary Simpson (Conte di Luna)
Keith Read (Ferrando)
in Italian, English captions
$21.10-$105.50
(540) 982-2742
http://www.operaroanoke.org/

Oct. 14 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 16 (2 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
Virginia Opera
John DeMain conducting
Verdi: “Aïda”
Mary Elizabeth Williams (Aïda)
Jeniece Golbourne (Amneris)
Gustavo Manzitti (Radames)
Fikile Mvinjelwa (Amonasro)
Ashraf Sewailam (Ramphis)
Nathan Stark (King of Egypt)
Kaileen Miller (High Priestess)
Richmond Ballet members
Malcom Burn, choreographer
Lillian Groag, stage director
in Italian, English captions
$44-$98
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
http://www.vaopera.org/

Oct. 14 (8 p.m.)
The Barns at Wolf Trap, Trap Road, Vienna
Ahn Trio
program TBA
$40
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
http://www.wolftrap.org/

Oct. 15 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 16 (3 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony
Steven Smith conducting
Arvo Pärt: “Fratres”
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 9
Dvořák: Cello Concerto in B minor
Carter Brey, cello
$18-$73
(800) 514-3849 (Etix.com)
http://www.richmondsymphony.com/

Oct. 15 (8 p.m.)
First English Lutheran Church, Stuart Circle (Monument Avenue at Lombardy Street), Richmond
Paley Music Festival:
Alexander Paley & Pei-Wen Chen, piano & piano four-hands
Akemi Takayama & Kathy Judd, violins
Daphne Gerling, viola
Clyde Thomas Shaw, cello
Charles West, clarinet
Mozart: Sonata in D major, K. 381/123a, for piano four-hands
Mozart: Sonata in B flat major, K. 358/186c, for piano four-hands
Schumann: Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105
Prokofiev: “Overture on Hebrew Themes”
Fauré: Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15
donations accepted
(804) 355-9185
http://www.paleyfestival.info/

Oct. 15 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Korean Concert Society:
Ji-Yoon Park, violin
François Dumont, piano
Mozart: Violin Sonata B flat major, K. 454
Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108
Chausson: “Poème”
Ravel: Violin Sonata No. 2 in G major
$30
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Oct. 16 (3:30 p.m.)
First English Lutheran Church, Stuart Circle (Monument Avenue at Lombardy Street), Richmond
Paley Music Festival:
Alexander Paley & Pei-Wen Chen, piano & piano four-hands
Akemi Takayama & Kathy Judd, violins
Daphne Gerling, viola
Clyde Thomas Shaw, cello
Charles West, clarinet
Mozart: Sonata in G major, K. 357 (unfinished), for piano four-hands
Mozart: Sonata in F major, K. 497, for piano four-hands
Joao Guilherme Ripper: “Kinderszenen”
Joao Guilherme Ripper: “Trio for clarinet, viola and piano
Dvořák: Piano Trio in E minor, Op. 90 (“Dumky”)
donations accepted
(804) 355-9185
http://www.paleyfestival.info/

Oct. 16 (4 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Guitar Series:
Sam Dorsey, classical guitar
program TBA
$15
(804) 828-6776
http://www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept/events/index.html

Oct. 17 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
Paul Hanson & Joanne Kong, pianos
Liszt: “Orpheus”
Liszt: “Festklänge”
Liszt: “Die Hunnenschlacht”
Liszt: Weinachtsbaum” (excerpts)
Free
(804) 289-8980
http://www.modlin.richmond.edu/

Oct. 18 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Tuesday Evening Concert Series:
Maxim Rysanov, viola
Elbar Nebolsin, piano
Bach: Suite No. 2
Schubert: “Arpeggione” Sonata
Schumann: Adagio and Allegro
Dubugnon: Lied
Franck-Rysanov: Sonata in A major
$25-$30
(434) 924-3376
http://www.tecs.org/

Oct. 19 (8 p.m.)
Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Charlottesville
Hilary Hahn, violin
Valentina Lisitsa, piano
Bach: Sonata No. 1 in G minor, BWV 1001
Beethoven: Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 12
Brahms: “Sonatensatz” in C minor
other works TBA
$29.50-$49.50
(434) 979-1333
http://www.theparamount.net/

Oct. 19 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First Street at Independence Avenue S.E., Washington
Louis Lortie, piano
Liszt: “Années de Pèlerinage: Deuxième Année and Troisième Année”
free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/1112-schedule.html

Oct. 20 (7:30 p.m.)
Ferguson Arts Center, Christopher Newport University, Newport News
State Choir of Russia
program TBA
$22-$37
(877) 840-0457
http://www.fergusoncenter.cnu.edu/

Oct. 21 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 23 (2:30 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Virginia Opera
John DeMain conducting
Verdi: “Aïda”
Mary Elizabeth Williams (Aïda)
Jeniece Golbourne (Amneris)
Gustavo Manzitti (Radames)
Fikile Mvinjelwa (Amonasro)
Ashraf Sewailam (Ramphis)
Nathan Stark (King of Egypt)
Kaileen Miller (High Priestess)
Richmond Ballet members
Malcom Burn, choreographer
Lillian Groag, stage director
in Italian, English captions
$25-$114
(866) 673-7282
http://www.vaopera.org/

Oct. 22 (8 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
Fairfax Symphony Orchestra
Christopher Zimmerman conducting
Sibelius: “Tapiola”
Javier Farias: “Concierto de los Andes”
Alturas Duo, guitar, viola & charango
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”)
$25-$55
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
http://www.fairfaxsymphony.org/

Oct. 22 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First Street at Independence Avenue S.E., Washington
Martin Bruns, baritone
Christoph Hammer, fortepiano
works by Liszt, Beethoven, Wagner
free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/1112-schedule.html

Oct. 23 (3 p.m.)
Blackwell Auditorium, Randolph-Macon College, 205 Henry St., Ashland
Richmond Symphony
Steven Smith conducting
Revueltas: “Homenaje a Federico Garcia Lorca”
Mozart: Violin Concerto TBA
Diana Cohen, violin
Sibelius: “Pelleas and Melisande”
Prokoviev: “Classical” Symphony
$20
(800) 514-3849 (Etix.com)
http://www.richmondsymphony.com/

Oct. 23 (4 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Richmond Philharmonic
Robert Mirakian conducting
De Falla: “Spanish Dance” No. 1
Gershwin: Piano Concerto in F
Michael Sheppard, piano
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7
$8 in advance, $10 at door
(804) 673-7400
http://www.richmondphilharmonic.org/

Oct. 23 (6:30 p.m.)
West Garden Court, West Building, National Gallery of Art, Fourth Street at Constitution Avenue NW, Washington
Paul Hanson & Joanne Kong, pianos
Liszt: “Orpheus”
Liszt: “Festklänge”
Liszt: “Die Hunnenschlacht”
Liszt: Weinachtsbaum” (excerpts)
(202) 737-4215
www.nga.gov/programs/music

Oct. 24 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Opera Lafayette Orchestra
Ryan Brown conducting
Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, countertenor
Gaële LeRoi, soprano
program TBA
in French and Italian, English captions
$50
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Oct. 25 (7:30 p.m.)
St. Christopher’s Upper School Chapel, 711 St. Christopher’s Road, Richmond
Oberon Quartet
Kimberly Sparr, viola
Ryan Lannan, cello
works by Mozart, Brahms, Peter Schickele
free
(804) 282-3185
http://www.stchristophers.com/

Oct. 25 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Young Concert Artists:
George Li, piano
program TBA
$24
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Oct. 25 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First Street at Independence Avenue S.E., Washington
soloists from Budapest Festival Orchestra
Jenő Jandó, piano
Iván Fischer, narrator
Bartók: duos for two violins (excerpts)
Bartók: Rhapsody No. 1 for violin and piano
Bartók: “Contrasts” for clarinet, violin and piano
Bartók: Piano Quintet
free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/1112-schedule.html

Oct. 26 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Tokyo String Quartet
Mozart: Quartet in G major, K. 387
Szymanowski: Quartet No. 1 in C major, Op. 37
Dvořák: Quartet in G major, Op. 106
$45
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Oct. 26 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Budapest Festival Orchestra
Iván Fischer conducting
Bartók: “Hungarian Peasant Songs”
Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 2
András Schiff, piano
Schubert: Symphony No. 9 (“Great”)
$39-$105
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
http://www.wpas.org/

Oct. 27 (7 p.m.)
Ellen Glasgow House, Main and Adams streets, Richmond
Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia:
Sivan Magen, harp
Aeolus Quartet
Massenet: “Meditation” from “Thaïs”
Debussy: String Quartet in G minor
other works TBA
$75
(804) 519-2098
http://www.cmscva.org/

Oct. 27 (7 p.m.)
Oct. 28 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 29 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Lorin Maazel conducting
Berlioz: “Benvenuto Cellini” Overture
Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor
Simon Trpčeski, piano
Mussorgsky-Ravel: “Pictures at an Exhibition”
$20-$85
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org/

Oct. 28 (5 p.m.)
Grace Baptist Church, 4200 Dover Road, Richmond
Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia:
Sivan Magen, harp
American Youth Harp Ensemble
workshop
free
(804) 519-2098
http://www.cmscva.org/

Oct. 28 (8 p.m.)
Ferguson Arts Center, Christopher Newport University, Newport News
Oct. 29 (8 p.m.)
Chrysler Hall, 201 Brambleton Ave., Norfolk
Oct. 30 (2:30 p.m.)
Sandler Arts Center, 201 S. Market St., Virginia Beach
Virginia Symphony
JoAnn Falletta conducting
Tchaikovsky: “Swan Lake” Suite
Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1
Liszt: “Totentanz”
Fabio Bidini, piano
Josef Suk: “Fairy Tale”
$20-$85
(757) 892-6366
http://www.virginiasymphony.org/

Oct. 28 (7:30 p.m.)
Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Charlottesville
Waynesboro Symphony Orchestra
Peter Wilson conducting
“Portrait of America”
works by Sousa, Copland, Jerome Kern, Morton Gould, John Williams
$40-$75 (includes reception at 6:30 p.m.)
(434) 979-1333
http://www.theparamount.net/

Oct. 28 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First Street at Independence Avenue S.E., Washington
Daniel Hope, violin
Gaurav Mazumdar, sitar
Simon Crawford-Phillips, piano
Vishal Nagar, tabla
De Falla: “Popular Spanish Songs”
Takemitsu: “Distance de Fée”
Ravel: “Tzigane”
Ravel: “Alborada del gracioso”
Mazumdar: “Homage to Ravi Shankar”
Bartók: “Romanian Folk Dances”
Ravel-Hope: Kaddish
Mazumdar: “Homage to Yehudi Menuhin”
free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/1112-schedule.html

Oct. 29 (11 a.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony LolliPops
Erin R. Freeman conducting
“Mozart’s Magnificent Voyage”
Classical Kids Live, actors
$17 (adult), $12 (child)
(800) 514-3849 (Etix.com)
http://www.richmondsymphony.com/

Oct. 29 (7:30 p.m.)
First Unitarian Universalist Church, 1000 Blanton Ave. at the Carillon, Richmond
Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia:
Sivan Magen, harp
Aelous Quartet
James Wilson, cello
Mary Boodell, flute
works by Ravel, Saint-Saëns, Gabriela Lena Frank, others
$25
(804) 519-2098
http://www.cmscva.org/

Oct. 29 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First Street at Independence Avenue S.E., Washington
Aglika Genova & Liuben Dimitrov, pianos
Schubert: Fantasy in F minor, op. 103, for piano, four hands
Arensky: Suite no. 1, op. 15
Liszt: “Concerto pathétique”
Milhaud: “Scaramouche”
Liszt: “Réminiscences de Don Juan – Fantaisie”
free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/1112-schedule.html

Oct. 30 (7 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Gil Shaham, violin
Inon Barnatan, piano
Schubert: Sonatina No. 2 in A minor, D. 385
Bach: Partita No. 2 in A minor, BWV 1004
Franck: Violin Sonata
$35-$85
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
http://www.wpas.org/

Review: Atlantic Chamber Ensemble

2011-09-26T21:47:00.014-05:00

Sept. 26, Virginia Commonwealth University

The Atlantic Chamber Ensemble, a new chamber-music collective composed largely of Richmond Symphony and Virginia Commonwealth University musicians, made an impressive debut before a pretty large and very appreciative crowd at VCU’s Singleton Arts Center.

The full ensemble for this performance – violinists Susanna Klein and Ross Monroe Winter, violist Kimberly Sparr, cellist Jason McComb, double-bassist Fred Dole, oboist Shawn Welk, clarinetist Ralph Skiano, bassoonist Martin Gordon, French horn player Deborah Fialek and flutist Jenn Lawson – played the too rarely heard Nonet of Bohuslav Martinů as the program’s finale. The wind players were featured in another infrequently played piece, Samuel Barber’s “Summer Music.” Winter, Klein, Sparr and McComb took on the program’s greatest interpretive challenge in Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8.

The Shostakovich quartet, ostensibly dedicated to the victims of fascism in World War II, is in fact a wrenchingly soul-bearing self-portrait of the composer, looking back on his struggle to maintain artistic integrity and sanity without falling prey to Josef Stalin and the minions of this most murderous and paranoid of Soviet dictators.

Shostakovich’s score is austere yet intensely expressive, and requires a high level of string technique with carefully timed descents into roughness. Some excellent ensembles have failed to strike those balances; many of the great quartets, wisely, have left this piece out of their repertories.

This foursome delivered a very credible and deeply moving reading, never slackening or losing emotional focus in the slow music, bringing out the profound dread of the “knocks on the door” in the second of the the three largos, and playing the allegro and allegretto movements with darkly hued animation if not the full measure of giddy desperation. A few intonational lapses could be forgiven in a performance of productive incaution.

The Barber and Martinů are much lighter and more cheerful works, each in their way fine examples of
mid-20th-century classicism, and were treated as such by these performers.

Some solo lines were over-projected in the Barber; overall, though, the composer’s assemblage of seven themes (several recurring) evoking summer atmospherics and moods received a well-balanced and finely detailed reading.

The Martinů Nonet, one of the Czech composer’s last works, conspicuously lacks the rarified, shimmering tonal devices and harmonic techniques of much of his mature music, sounding more like the French-accented neoclassical pieces he wrote in Paris in the 1920s. (In a blind listening test, the Nonet might easily be mistaken for something by Poulenc.)

The nine musicians gave the Martinů a suitably high-spirited run, with the substantial bonus of consistently refined playing.

ACE has made part of its mission a determination to talk to and otherwise interact with its audiences and involve listeners in the process of preparing and giving performances. That proved to be a work-in-progress in this debut.

A screen identifying Barber’s themes by letters A through G was unobtrusively useful, as was a printed “play-by-play” of the quintet’s movements. Spoken introductions to the concert and its selections see-sawed between the informative and gimmicky, conversational and stiff. The red stage lighting for the Shostakovich was a bit obvious, although the piece is better experienced in dimmer light. The claim that the gulags were shut down after Stalin’s death in 1953 was flat wrong: Prisoners would continue to languish and die in Soviet slave-labor camps for many more decades.

ACE is ensemble-in-residence of WCVE (88.9 FM), Richmond’s public-radio station. So, if you missed this program, you may catch some or all of it on the air.

Review: Richmond Symphony

2011-09-19T00:34:00.034-05:00

Steven Smith conducting
Sept. 18, Richmond CenterStage

The Richmond Symphony opened its 2011-12 season – the second of Steven Smith as its music director, and the first whose programming he has overseen fully – by contrasting classical-romantic with modern-contemporary works, a practice that promises to be this conductor’s modus operandi.

The classical-romantic first half opened with a rather mellow account of Beethoven’s “Leonore” Overture No. 3, paced by the offstage trumpet calls of Rolla Durham, who has done this duty often enough to expertly balance distance with presence. The Beethoven was followed by a more ardent and propulsive performance of the Brahms Violin Concerto, with Elena Urioste as the soloist.

Urioste, who first appeared with the orchestra last year as a late substitute in the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, proved a sonically focused and interpretively passionate advocate for the Brahms. Her tone may not the biggest and fattest around, but she can, and did, summon plenty of intensity when it’s called for, which it quite often is in the big first movement of this piece. The sweet but not excessively sentimental lyricism that prevailed in her reading of the concerto’s adagio was, in its way, just as impressive.

The young violinist also injected a bit of novelty into the Brahms, choosing the first-movement cadenza by Leopold Auer over the more familiar one by Joseph Joachim. (Actually, it was a judicious combination: the main body of Auer’s cadenza segued with Joachim’s smoother handover to the orchestra.)

For the second half of the program, conductor Smith chose “Dreamwaltzes” by the contemporary American composer Steven Stucky and “The Miraculous Mandarin” Suite of Bela Bartók.

Stucky’s tone poem, dating from 1986, is a tribute-cum-extension of the symphonic waltz tradition of the Strausses (Johann and Richard) by way of modernists, notably the Ravel of “La Valse,” liberally garnished with the shimmering, rarified colorations that have become increasingly prevalent in orchestral music over the past century.

The waltz elements of the score are pretty straightforward, even traditional (including a more or less straight quotation of the farewell waltz from Richard Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier”), generally centered in the strings but with low brass often playing unexpectedly prominent roles. The dreaminess of the piece emanates mostly from woodwinds and a large but rarely in-your-face percussion section.

Smith and the symphony delivered a nicely balanced and well-detailed performance, making a persuasive case for Stucky’s attractive score.

The conductor and musicians were audibly pumped-up for “The Miraculous Mandarin” Suite, riding its surges of sound and negotiating its subtler and more technically challenging elements with engagement and assurance. Clarinetist Ralph Skiano’s several important solos, and the shorter solo measures for violin, played by the symphony’s new concertmaster, Diana Cohen, enhanced an altogether winning reading of the piece.

The conductor introduced the Bartók suite with a
semi-apology for its “cacophonous” elements, a concession to traditionalist sensitivities that shouldn’t be necessary for a work that’s nearly a century old (it dates from 1919), and one whose techniques and effects have been mimicked for decades in the soundtracks of science-fiction and action movies and TV shows. By now, even the most conservative listeners ought to be able to tolerate, even to enjoy, music of this kind without also watching some sweaty guy running for his life.

Review: Vladimir Feltsman

2011-09-19T00:27:00.012-05:00

Sept. 17, Virginia Commonwealth University

By Brian Plante
guest reviewer

This past weekend was something of a feast for local music lovers, with the season-openers of the Richmond Symphony, Virginia Commonwealth University’s Rennolds Chamber Concerts and “La Traviata” from the new Lyric Opera Virginia packed into three days.

It was also frustrating for many patrons, as Richmond continued its unwelcome tradition of staging major musical events at the same time. (The first of two symphony concerts was also on Sept. 17; the symphony and “Traviata” repeated on the afternoon of Sept. 18.) No doubt the scheduling conflict with the symphony accounted for so many empty seats at VCU’s Singleton Arts Center, where the appearance of an artist with the international stature of pianist Vladimir Feltsman should have assured a full house.

Feltsman is not a newcomer to Richmond; he last played here in 2001. On this visit, his formidable technique, large tonal palette and artistic sensitivity were amply displayed in a program that siphoned the cream of keyboard composers. Bach’s Partita No. 1 in B flat major preceded Beethoven’s “Pathétique” Sonata, which was followed by the four Chopin ballades.

Such a program offers up several possibilities: the excitement of interpretive leaps that bring new depth or luster to familiar works; the simple pleasure of a reunion with old friends; or the temptation to separate from the crowd and put a personal stamp on the music, with the attendant risk of making it edgy, quirky or over-the-top. Feltsman left none of those stones unturned.

The partita, a creation of the so-called “happy Bach,” was very much in keeping with the standard pianistic approach to baroque keyboard music. Feltsman employed a limited dynamic range, steady tempos, and largely eschewed the pedal. What made his playing exceptional was its clarity and articulation, judicious use of a variety of touches and luminous tone. Each of the seven movements was given its own personality, and Feltsman was equally at home with the rhythmic pulse of the more folk-like dances and the almost operatic lines of the slower sections.

The “Pathétique” Sonata took a very different course. Feltsman exploited his technical prowess to unleash the nervous energy that drives the first movement, but the liberties of tempo and dynamics taken in the slow introduction foreshadowed things to come.

The melodious opening theme of the second movement seemed deliberately straightforward, almost a setup for the unexpected shift to the rubatos and rhythmic flux that permeated the middle section and carried over into the return of the original theme. As a result, the performance as a whole took on an improvisational quality and, to this listener, served almost as a metaphor of Beethoven’s growth and liberation from the constraints of classicism.

Feltsman’s temperament was completely in tune with the dramatic ebbs and flows of the Chopin ballades, which took up the last half of this program. His tonal command and romantic sensibility admirably captured both the fire and poetry that illuminate these works, and he tossed off their technical challenges with great aplomb.

Review: 'La Traviata'

2011-09-17T00:34:00.047-05:00

Lyric Opera Virginia
Peter Mark conducting
Sept. 16, The Steward School, Richmond

Lyric Opera Virginia, organized by Peter Mark after his dismissal from Virginia Opera last year, is making its debut, in Richmond and three other locales, with Verdi’s “La Traviata,” the work that Mark conducted 36 years ago as the first production of his former company.

The veteran opera impresario and conductor thus comes full circle in inaugural repertory, but apparently not in presentation. Some who saw and heard the 1975 Norfolk “Traviata” (I didn’t) remember it as being more ambitious than polished. This show is beautifully staged, with finely made and nicely angled scenery and lavish costumes; characterfully but unaffectedly acted, thanks to stage director Michael Shell; and very well sung.

Manon Strauss Evrard, the soprano who starred in Mark-led Virginia Opera productions of “The Tales of Hoffmann” and “Lucia di Lammermoor,” leads this launching of Lyric Opera Virginia as Violetta, the tragic heroine of “Traviata.” The role is one of the prime tests of an Italianate soprano’s vocal and emotional spectrum, and Evrard shines on most every point of that spectrum. She also has the ideal look of a Violetta, from the elegantly seductive to the fatally fragile.

She is well-matched, physically and vocally, with the young tenor Cody Austin, who portrays Alfredo Germont, whose love inspires Violetta to abandon the life of a Parisian courtesan. Austin’s clear, robust and (usually) reliably pitched voice is as much an attraction of this show as Evrard’s – a pretty high standard to meet.

The third principal character of “Traviata,” Giorgio Germont, Alfredo’s father, intent on severing the liason of his son and Violetta, is one of the trickiest of Verdi’s major roles – a heavy with a heart. Many baritones make an awkward transition from fatherly disapproval to sympathy for Violetta’s plight. Zachary Nelson’s shift from wooden sternness to soulful empathy is not the smoothest that one might imagine; but, then, Verdi is not especially helpful on that score. As a voice and presence, though, Nelson is a most convincing Giorgio.

Among the supporting cast, standouts are Andrew Seigla, as Gaston, the life of the Act 1 party scene, and Emily Duncan-Brown, as Annina, Violetta’s maid.

Mark’s conducting of the production’s 34-member pit orchestra is consistently sensitive to Verdi’s dramatic and lyrical requirements, especially the orchestration’s potent undertone of pathos.

The theater of Richmond’s Steward School is the smallest of the four venues at which this company is staging “Traviata,” and on this opening night the volume level of voices, especially en masse, was high, crossing the line to overwhelming for those seated close to the stage. Downshifting of decibels will be needed in this space.

The production repeats at 2:30 p.m. Sept. 18 at the Cramer Arts Center of The Steward School, Gayton and Ryandale roads. Tickets: $20-$85. Additional performances will be staged at Charlottesville’s Paramount Theater on Sept. 20 and the Ferguson Arts Center of Christopher Newport University in Newport News on Sept. 23 and 25. Details: (757) 446-6666; http://www.lyricoperavirginia.org/

Staunton: a new string mecca

2011-09-13T23:27:00.002-05:00

The Heifetz International Music Institute, Daniel Heifetz’s career-development program for teenage and young-adult string players, is moving its summer program to Mary Baldwin College in Staunton.

With the program’s arrival, Staunton gets the substantial bonus of thrice-weekly concerts by the institute’s students and faculty in July and August 2012, the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Holly Prestidge reports:

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/flair/2011/sep/13/tdmet02-heifetz-international-music-institute-movi-ar-1304623/

Paley Festival set for October

2011-09-12T12:07:00.003-05:00

The Richmond festival staged by pianist Alexander Paley is moving this year to later dates, Oct. 14-16, while continuing at its longtime venue, First English Lutheran Church on Stuart Circle (Monument Avenue at Lombardy Street) in the Fan District.

This 14th season of the Paley Music Festival, titled “Fourteen Hands,” will be highlighted by performances of all of Mozart’s works for piano four-hands, played by Paley and wife, Pei-Wen Chen, and the U.S. premieres of two pieces by Joao Guilherme Ripper, a noted Brazilian composer who also serves as director of the Cecília Meireles Concert Hall in Rio de Janeiro.

Performers, in addition to Paley and Chen, are clarinetist Charles West, violinists Akemi Takayama and Kathy Judd, violist Daphne Gerling and cellist Clyde Thomas Shaw.

Admission is free, with donations accepted.

For more information, call First English Lutheran Church at (804) 355-9185 or visit http://www.paleyfestival.info/

This year’s Paley Festival dates and programs:

Oct. 14 (8 p.m.) – Mozart: Sonata in C major, K. 521, for piano four-hands; Mozart: Theme and Variations in G major, K. 501, for piano four-hands; Beethoven: Violin Sonata in G major, Op. 30; Schubert: Piano Sonata in B flat major, D. 960.

Oct. 15 (8 p.m.) – Mozart: Sonata in D major, K. 381/123a, for piano four-hands; Mozart: Sonata in B flat major, K. 358/186c, for piano four-hands; Schumann: Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105; Prokofiev: “Overture on Hebrew Themes,” Op. 34, for clarinet, piano and string quartet; Fauré: Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15.

Oct. 16 (3:30 p.m.) – Mozart: Sonata in G major (unfinished), K. 357, for piano four-hands; Mozart: Sonata in F major, K. 497, for piano four-hands; Ripper: “Kinderszenen” for clarinet, cello and piano; Ripper: Trio for clarinet, viola and piano; Dvořák: Piano Trio in E minor, Op. 90 (“Dumky”).

New chiefs at Virginia Opera

2011-09-08T18:18:00.003-05:00

Russell P. Allen, who served as the administrative chief of Virginia Opera from 1994 to 2000, will return to the company as its chief executive officer, succeeding Paul A. “Gus” Stuhlreyer III in the post as of Sept. 19.

Allen has managed a number of arts organizations, including Atlanta Opera, the Phoenix Symphony and the ballet companies of Orlando and Washington. He also has served as an independent arts consultant and with programs of the National Endowment for the Arts and OPERA America.

“When Russell last served as our chief executive, we reached unprecedented heights in subscription and ticket sales and contributed revenues,” Alan D. Albert, president of the Virginia Opera board, said in a prepared statement, adding that under Allen’s leadership the company “seek[s] to repeat those successes.”

Virginia Opera also announced that John Kennelly, the company’s producing director since 2000, will become its interim artistic director. Kennelly has held production management posts with Michigan Opera Theatre, Central City Opera in Colorado, Pennsylvania Opera Theatre of Philadelphia and other entities.

Robin Thompson, named artistic advisor of Virginia Opera last year after the dismissal of longtime artistic chief Peter Mark, will continue in that post as the company runs an international search for an artistic director and music director.

Albert said the search will be conducted over the next year, with appointments expected to be made in time for the 2013-14 season.

Stuhlreyer will maintain an affiliation with Virginia Opera as a consultant on its endowment-fund campaign, Teresa Annas reports in The Virginian-Pilot:

http://hamptonroads.com/2011/09/virginia-opera-hires-new-chief-executive

'Concepts, not just concerts'

2011-09-06T10:43:00.009-05:00

Eleven musicians from the Richmond area have launched a new chamber-music cooperative, the Atlantic Chamber Ensemble. ACE will give its first concert on Sept. 26 at Virginia Commonwealth University. The group has also been tapped as ensemble-in-residence at WCVE (88.9 FM), Richmond’s public-radio station.

Members of the ensemble are violinists Susanna Klein and Ross Monroe Winter, violist Kimberly Sparr, cellist Jason McComb, double-bassist Fred Dole, flutist Ann Choomack, oboist Shawn Welk, bassoonist Martin Gordon, clarinetist Ralph Skiano, French horn player Deb Fialek and pianist Maria Yefimova.

“Members of ACE don’t plan on presenting the old ‘been-there-done-that’ format of chamber music concerts,” according to a news release announcing the formation of the group. Its programs will include audience participation and “talk-backs,” and will feature untraditional mixtures of music in “atypical venues” – “presenting concepts, not just concerts.”

“The idea of a chamber music co-op affords us the opportunity to create art outside of the typical format,” says Klein, who hads the string program of the VCU music department. “[W]e are all leaders and we all take ownership for our product. It’s more of an umbrella, allowing us to change and adapt freely to what we want to play, rather than having to fit into a model.”

“Richmond is rich in music and culture, but this is one niche we find lacking here,” violinist Winter says. “The face of classical music is changing so rapidly and we are happy to ride on the front of the wave.

A less formal, more interactive “approach to chamber music as an experience for musicians and audiences alike makes ACE the exact kind of ensemble with which I have longed to partner,” says WCVE’s Bobbie Barajas. The group’s musicianship and the radio station’s “ability to share the experience with our listeners means new and great things for chamber music and broadcasting in Central Virginia.”

Among their collaborative plans are “Behind the Scenes: a backstage pass,” a series of “webisodes,” or productions on the Internet, “documenting the efforts that go into preparing the concerts: planning, meeting, rehearsal, etc., right up to the finished product.”

Winter and Skiano will join Barajas between 2 and 3 p.m. Sept. 8 on a broadcast to formally announce the ACE-WCVE partnership and discuss the ensemble and its plans.

ACE’s inaugural concert will feature three works written within seven years of the mid-20th century: Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8 (1960), Samuel Barber’s “Summer Music” for winds (1953) and the Nonet of Bohuslav Martinů (1959). Flutist Jen Lawson will be a guest performer in this program.

For more information on the group, visit its website: http://www.acensemble.org/

The Atlantic Chamber Ensemble performs at 8 p.m. Sept. 26 in Vlahcevic Concert Hall of VCU’s Singleton Arts Center, Park Avenue at Harrison Street. Tickets: $5. Details: (804) 828-6776; http://www.pubinfo.vcu.edu/calendar/detailEvent.asp?ID=52212