Letter V Classical Radio this week

The show moves to later in the day on Thursdays from June 2 through Aug. 18.

In the wake of the sad news that Martha Argerich’s festival in Lugano, Switzerland, is shutting down after this summer, we’ll sample some of the finest live recordings made at this showcase of unusually empathetic performances
of both familiar and rarely heard piano and chamber repertory.

Argerich performs with pianist Yefim Bronfman,
the Capuçon brothers – violinist Renaud and cellist Gautier – and other gifted musicians who have gathered around the famed pianist during the 15-year run of this remarkable event. 

June 2
4-7 p.m. EDT
2000-2300 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
http://www.wdce.org

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1 (“Classical”)
(transcription by Rikuya Terashima)
Martha Argerich &
Yefim Bronfman, pianos
(EMI Classics)

Beethoven: Violin Sonata in G major, Op. 30, No. 3
Renaud Capuçon, violin
Martha Argerich, piano (Warner Classics)

Carlos Guastavino: “Tres Romances Argentinos”
Martha Argerich & Mauricio Vallina, pianos
(EMI Classics)

Mendelssohn: Piano Trio
in D minor, Op. 49
Martha Argerich, piano
Renaud Capuçon, violin
Gautier Capuçon, cello
(EMI Classics)

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466
Martha Argerich, piano
Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana/
Jacek Kaspszyk
(Warner Classics)

Liszt: “Concerto pathétique”
Martha Argerich & Lilya Zilberstein, pianos
(Warner Classics)

Schumann: Piano Quintet
in E flat major, Op. 44
Martha Argerich, piano
Dora Schwarzberg & Renaud Capuçon, violins
Nora Romanoff, viola
Mark Drobinsky, cello
(EMI Classics)

Ravel: “La Valse”
Martha Argerich &
Sergio Tiempo, pianos
(Warner Classics)

Name those tunes

Grant Woolard mixes 57 familiar melodies by 33 composers, from Pachelbel and Vivaldi to Mozart and Chopin to Liszt and Satie, into a six-minute classical mashup. Ingenious stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OYkWSW7u4k

(via http://www.slate.com)

Argerich festival shutting down

Progetto Martha Argerich, the summer festival in Lugano, Switzerland, featuring the famed pianist and her musician friends, will shut down after this year.

The festival, staged for the past 15 years, is known to most listeners as the source of a series of recordings for EMI Classics and its successor label, Warner Classics, of often electrifying live performances of rarely heard chamber and piano music.

The Lugano festival’s principal sponsor is pulling out and no replacement has been found, Norman Lebrecht reports:

http://slippedisc.com/2016/05/just-in-martha-argerich-festival-faces-closure/

Letter V Classical Radio this week

A program of arrangements and transcriptions, including Beethoven’s piano version of his Violin Concerto, Mahler’s string orchestration of Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” Quartet, Luciano Berio’s orchestration of Brahms’ Clarinet Sonata in F minor, Mozart’s “Prague” Symphony remade as a string quintet by Franz Theodor Schubert (Franz Schubert’s father), and two “Kreutzers” – the violin sonata by Beethoven and the string quartet by Janáček – as recast by the most prolific string orchestrator at work today, Richard Tognietti.

May 26
1-5 p.m. EDT
1700-2100 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
http://www.wdce.org

J.S. Bach: Concerto in A minor, BWV 1065
(transcription of Vivaldi’s Concerto in B minor
for four violins)
Gerald Hambitzer, Robert Hill,
Christoph Anselm Noll
& Roderick Shaw, harpsichords
Cologne Chamber Orchestra/
Helmut Müller-Brühl (Naxos)

Brahms: Sonata in
F minor, Op. 102, No. 1
(orchestration by
Luciano Berio)
Fausto Ghiazza, clarinet
Giuseppe Verdi Symphony Orchestra, Milan/
Riccardo Chailly (Decca)

Mozart: Symphony No. 38 in D major, K. 503 (“Prague”)
(arrangement by Franz Theodor Schubert)
Vienna Schubert Ensemble (Camerata)

Mahler: “Songs of a Wayfarer”
(arrangement by
Arnold Schoenberg)
Susan Platts,
mezzo-soprano
Smithsonian Chamber Players & Santa Fe Pro Musica/Kenneth Slowik
(Dorian)

Beethoven: Piano Concerto in D major, Op. 61a
(arrangement of Violin Concerto by Beethoven)
Ronald Brautigam, piano
Norrköping Symphony Orchestra/Andrew Parrott (BIS)

Past Masters:
Johann Strauss II:
“Wine, Women and Song”
(arrangement by Alban Berg)
Boston Symphony Chamber Players
(Deutsche Grammophon)
(recorded 1977)

Schubert: Quartet in D minor, D. 810 (“Death and the Maiden”)
(orchestration by Gustav Mahler)
Norwegian Chamber Orchestra/Iona Brown (Chandos)

Schubert: “Ständchen”
(transcription by
Franz Liszt)
Frederic Chiu, piano (Harmonia Mundi)

Beethoven: Sonata
in A major, Op. 47
(“Kreutzer”)
(orchestration by
Richard Tognietti)
Camerata Bern/
Antje Weithaas (Avi)

Janáček: Quartet No. 1 (“Kreutzer Sonata”)
(orchestration by Richard Tognietti)
Australian Chamber Orchestra/Richard Tognietti (Chandos)

Atlantic Chamber Ensemble reviewed

My review for the Richmond Times-Dispatch of the Atlantic Chamber Ensemble, performing at St. Luke Lutheran Church:

http://www.richmond.com/entertainment/music/article_64b4f628-a024-5661-b2cd-be090765a2a4.html

Jackson Ward concerts moved

Because of weather conditions forecast for the weekend, the Richmond Symphony concert under its Big Tent outdoor stage in the Celebrate Jackson Ward festival has been rescheduled to 6 p.m. Sunday, May 22 in Abner Clay Park, Brook Road at Leigh Street in central Richmond.

The symphony will be joined by a festival chorus and members of Elegba Folklore Society and Virginia Repertory Theatre. The program includes works by Florence Price, James P. Johnson, Duke Ellington, Rodgers & Hammerstein and others.

Festival concerts scheduled from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 21 will be staged indoors at Richmond Alternative School, 119 W. Leigh St., next door to Clay Park.

Admission is free for all festival events.

UPDATE (May 22): Richmond Symphony spokesman Scott Dodson writes that the orchestra cannot participate in the May 22 concert if the temperature remains under 65 degrees, because of potential damage to musical instruments. With or without the symphony, the 6 p.m. show will go on with Elegba, Virginia Rep and the Celebrate Jackson Ward Chorus, and other events of the final day of the festival will go on as scheduled.

Letter V Classical Radio this week

May 19
1-5 p.m. EDT
1700-2100 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
http://www.wdce.org

Josef Mysliveček: Concertino in E flat major
Concerto Köln/Werner Ehrhardt
(DG Archiv)

Past Masters:
Dvořák: Cello Concerto
in B minor
Pierre Fournier, cello
Berlin Philharmonic/
George Szell
(Deutsche Grammophon)
(recorded 1961)

Schumann:
Three Romances, Op. 94
Katherine Needleman, oboe
Jennifer Lin, piano (Genuin)

Haydn: Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major
Shai Wosner, piano
Danish National Symphony Orchestra/
Nicholas Collon (Onyx)

Brahms: Sonata in E flat major, Op. 102, No. 2
Paul Neubauer, viola
Gilbert Kalish, piano (Music@Menlo)

Ben Johnston: Quartet No. 7
Kepler String Quartet
(New World Records)

Past Masters:
Mozart: Symphony No. 29 in A major, K. 201
English Chamber Orchestra/Benjamin Britten
(London)
(recorded 1971)
 
Webern: Quartet,
Op. 28
Emerson String Quartet
(Deutsche Grammophon)

Frescobaldi: “Fantasia terza, sopra un soggetto solo”
Gustav Leonhardt, harpsichord (Philips)

Schubert: Sonata
in B flat major, D. 960
András Schiff, fortepiano (ECM)

Poulenc: Theme and Variations
Aleck Karis, piano (Bridge)