Letter V Classical Radio this week

April 14
10 a.m.-1 p.m. EDT
1400-1700 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
http://www.wdce.org

Berlioz: “The Damnation of Faust” –
“Minuet of the Will-o’-the-Wisps”
“Dance of the Sylphs”
“Rákóczy March”
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra/David Zinman (Telarc)

Debussy: “Images”
Pierre-Laurent Aimard,
piano (Warner Classics)

Henri Dutilleux: “Metaboles”
Orchestre de Paris/
Paavo Järvi (Erato)

Andrew Norman:
“Mine, Mime, Meme”
eighth blackbird (Cedille)

Elgar: Violin Concerto in B minor
Hilary Hahn, violin
London Symphony Orchestra/Colin Davis (Deutsche Grammophon)

Beethoven: “Coriolan”
Overture
Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Georg Solti (Decca)

George Onslow: Quartet
in C minor, Op. 8, No. 1
Quatuor Ruggieri
(Aparte)

Schumann: Symphony
No. 4 in D minor
(original version, 1841)
The Hanover Band/Roy Goodman
(RCA Victor)

'Communion' in music

Following the recent terrorist attacks in Europe, musicians and their audiences found solace in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach: Pianist Alexandre Tharaud played the “Goldberg Variations” in Paris; conductor John Eliot Gardiner led the “Saint Matthew Passion” in Brussels.

After the chaos of the Paris massacres, performing the Goldbergs provided “deep inner silence . . . a chance for to be quiet together . . . a communion,” Tharaud tells David Patrick Stearns of the Philadelphia Inquirer:

http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/david_patrick_stearns/20160406_Alexandre_Tharaud_brings_Bach_s_healing_power_to_a_terrorized_world.html

Neither of those Bach programs had been planned as a response to tragic events; but comfort and communion in music often comes without prior intent.

My most lingering musical memory from Richmond concerts after 9/11 was a Sept. 14, 2001, program by the Richmond Symphony and Symphony Chorus, Eckart Preu conducting, with Barber’s “Agnus Dei,” the choral reworking of his Adagio for strings, followed by Brahms’ “Alto Rhapsody,” sung by mezzo-soprano Martha Slay, and Beethoven’s “Choral Fantasy,” played by pianist Joanne Kong.

That program, marking the chorus’ 30th anniversary, had been planned months in advance as a celebration, not a commemoration, and the Beethoven is hardly elegiac in tone or spirit. Yet the three pieces proved to be perfect for the occasion: solace from Barber and Brahms, and then from Beethoven a fortifying fight song for Western civilization.

Another Richmond Symphony concert, led by Mark Russell Smith on April 20, 2007, a few days after the mass shooting at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, featured “The Lark Ascending,” the meditative rhapsody by Ralph Vaughan Williams, played by violinist Jessica Lee. Another long-planned selection that turned out to be just what we needed at the time.

Letter V Classical Radio this week

April 7
10 a.m.-1 p.m. EDT
1400-1700 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
http://www.wdce.org

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

Janáček: “The Cunning
Little Vixen” Suite
(arrangement by Václav Talich & Charles Mackerras)
Czech Philharmonic/
Charles Mackerras (Supraphon)

Smetana: “Souvenirs of Bohemia
in the Form of Polkas,” Op. 13
András Schiff, piano
(Warner Classics)

Schubert:
“Moments musicaux,” D. 780
Shai Wosner, piano (Onyx)

Berg: Violin Concerto
(“To the memory
of an angel”)
Renaud Capuçon, violin
Vienna Philharmonic/
Daniel Harding (Virgin Classics)

Brahms: Intermezzo in A major, Op. 118, No. 2
Orli Shaham, piano (Canary Classics)

Borodin: Piano Quintet
in C minor
Alexander Mogilevsky, piano
Andrey Baranov &
Géza Hosszu-Legocky, violins
Nora Romanoff, viola
Jing Zhao, cello
(Warner Classics)

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

VCU Rennolds Concerts 2016-17

Performances by violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, the Parker Quartet with violist Kim Kashkashian, and The Montrose Trio, formed in 2014 by pianist Jon Kimura Parker and two alumni of the Tokyo String Quartet, violinist Martin Beaver and cellist Clive Greensmith, highlight the 2016-17 season of the Mary Anne Rennolds Chamber Concerts at Virginia Commonwealth
University.

Next season’s Rennolds series also will feature debut performances in Richmond by cellist Joshua Roman and the Dover and Miró string quartets.

Dates of 2016-17 Rennolds concerts, all at 8 p.m. in Vlahcevic Concert Hall of VCU’s Singleton Arts Center, Park Avenue at Harrison Street:

Sept. 17 – Dover Quartet.

Oct. 15 – Parker Quartet with Kim Kashkashian, viola.

Jan. 28 – Anne Aikiko Meyers, violin.

Feb. 18 – The Montrose Trio.

April 1 – Joshua Roman, cello.

May 6 – Miró Quartet.

Programs for the concerts will be announced later.

Ticket subscriptions for all six concerts are $135, $115 for seniors (60 and older), VCU employees and members of the VCU Alumni Association. Three-concert mini-subscriptions are $90/$80. Single tickets are $34/$31.

Valet parking is also offered.

Existing subscriptions may be renewed through June. On July 1, new subscription orders will be filled and single tickets will go on sale.

For more information, call the VCU Music Department at (804) 828-6776 or visit series’ website, http://arts.vcu.edu/music/events/rennolds

Doric Quartet & Biss reviewed

My review for the Richmond Times-Dispatch of the Doric String Quartet with pianist Jonathan Biss, performing in the Rennolds Chamber Concerts series at Virginia Commonwealth University:

http://www.richmond.com/entertainment/music/article_388519f4-eee2-5489-9ef3-5d2199d62665.html

Richmond Symphony reviewed

My review for the Richmond Times-Dispatch of the Richmond Symphony’s Casual Fridays concert, featuring flutist Mary Boodell in “Waking Dream” by Laura Elise Schwendinger:

http://www.richmond.com/entertainment/music/article_6b058f07-7c76-5419-8bf8-4836e1117a9a.html

'Like sending satellites into space'

Richmond-bred Mason Bates, now in his first year as composer-in-residence and curator-host of new-music concerts at Washington’s Kennedy Center, talks with The Washington Post’s Anne Midgette about a creative career at its apogee – with premieres of several major orchestral works each season, an opera-in-the-making on Apple founder Steve Jobs due to be premiered by the Santa Fe Opera in 2017, new recordings of his works by the San Francisco Symphony and Boston Modern Orchestra Project – all of which he’s determined to keep in balance with family and home.

Composing for big orchestras and institutions is “like sending satellites into space,” he says. “How do you know what you’re going to do on Mars 20 years ahead of time?”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/a-composer-offers-the-field-just-what-it-needs/2016/03/31/9bd82884-d428-11e5-be55-2cc3c1e4b76b_story.html

Anne Akiko Meyers, with Hugh Wolff conducting the National Symphony, plays Bates’ Violin Concerto in subscription concerts on April 14 and 16, and a “Declassified” program also featuring Bates’ “The B-Sides” and “The Rise of Exotic Computing,” with the composer performing on electronica, on April 15, all in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. “Mason Bates’ KC Jukebox: New Voices, Old Muses,” the last of this season’s series presenting new music in a club setting, will be staged on April 18 in the Kennedy Center Atrium. (See April calendar for details.)