'La Bohème' reviewed

Roy Proctor’s review for the Richmond Times-Dispatch of Puccini’s “La Bohème,” staged by Virginia Opera:

http://www.richmond.com/entertainment/music/article_40e3bcd7-40a9-586a-82cf-62da8c3dfc73.html

Paley plans 'Winter Weekend'

Pianist Alexander Paley, whose Richmond festival of piano and chamber music presented its 18th season of concerts this fall, has added two concerts in late January at St. Luke Lutheran Church, 7757 Chippenham Parkway.

Paley will perform in a solo recital of Chopin’s 14 waltzes and the 24 préludes of Rachmaninoff at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 30.

He will be joined by pianist Daniel Stipe and narrator Pamela McClain in a family concert, “Beauties and Beasts,” at 3 p.m. Jan. 31. Their program includes Tchaikovsky’s “Children’s Album,” Ravel’s “Mother Goose” Suite and Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf.”

A donation of $20 is suggested for each concert.

For more information, call (804) 665-9516 or visit www.paleymusicfestival.org

'Appomattox' pro and con

The reviews are coming in for the revised, Civil War-to-civil rights version of “Appomattox” by Philip Glass and Christopher Hampton, whose Washington National Opera production opened on Nov. 14 at the Kennedy Center.

The Washington Post’s Anne Midgette hails the opera as evidence of Glass’ “mastery in the genre” and as being “as deeply moving as anything I’ve seen in opera” . . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/appomattox-a-superb-night-at-the-opera/2015/11/15/29e46610-8b63-11e5-9a07-453018f9a0ec_story.html

Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, reviewing for The New York Times, calls it “a frustratingly uneven work that presents well-known historical facts on a conveyor belt of forgettable music” . . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/16/arts/music/review-appomattox-at-the-kennedy-center.html

“Appomattox” runs through Nov. 22.

Richmond Symphony reviewed

My review for the Richmond Times-Dispatch of the Richmond Symphony’s Nov. 14 concert with pianist Orion Weiss:

http://www.richmond.com/entertainment/music/article_6f46c5d4-627e-53cc-bb06-ac5f4d3f3224.html

Robert Craft (1923-2015)

Robert Craft, the assistant to Igor Stravinsky from 1948 until the composer’s death in 1971, has died at 92. A conductor and author, Craft was an erudite and sometimes contentious guardian of Stravinsky’s artistic legacy and persona.

“Only two people know anything about Stravinsky,” Craft claimed. “Only Mrs. Stravinsky and I know.”

An obituary by The Washington Post’s Matt Schudel:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/robert-craft-conductor-and-longtime-stravinsky-confidant-dies-at-92/2015/11/14/a38059e4-8aea-11e5-be39-0034bb576eee_story.html

Letter V Classical Radio this week

Nov. 12
10 a.m.-1 p.m. EST
1500-1800 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Past Masters:
Handel: “Music for the Royal Fireworks”
English Chamber Orchestra/
Raymond Leppard
(Philips)
(recorded 1971)

Mason Bates: “Bagatelles for String Quartet and Electronica”
Del Sol String Quartet (Sono Luminus)

Leclair: Sonata in C major
Florian Deuter &
Mónica Waisman, violins (Eloquentia)

Mozart: Oboe Concerto in C major, K. 314
Heinz Holliger, oboe & conductor
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
(Brilliant Classics)

Past Masters:
Brahms: Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 60
Jacob Lateiner, piano
Jascha Heifetz, violin
Sanford Schonbach, viola
Gregor Piatigorsky, cello
(RCA Victor)
(recorded 1965)

Scarlatti: Sonata in
C sharp minor, K. 247
Mikhail Pletnev, piano (Virgin Classics)

Nielsen: Symphony No. 2 (“The Four Temperaments”)
New York Philharmonic/Alan Gilbert (Dacapo)

Schumann: “Kinderszenen”
Martha Argerich, piano (Deutsche Grammophon)