Elgar Conducts Elgar: Enigma Variations; Symphony No. 2 in Acoustic Recordings, 1920-25, Splendidly Remastered by Andrew Rose of Pristine Classical, by Steven Kruger

Posted by  • November 15, 2011 • Printer-friendly


Elgar conducts an acoustic session.

Elgar Conducts Elgar--Enigma Variations; Symphony No. 2
The Royal Albert Hall Orchestra, Sir Edward Elgar, conductor
XR remastering by Andrew Rose at Pristine Audio, October 2011

Recorded 1920-1925
Pristine Audio CD PASC313 (Download or CD)

There is fascination here—on many levels. "Within these grooves", I am tempted to say, though one's gratitude this time is for the cleaning crew. Pristine has already given us some remarkable technical restorations of the Furtwangler discography. Encountering now these listenable and vivid performances by Sir Edward Elgar, recorded into acoustic horns at the near infancy of the art, is to know the best sort of alliance between digital wizardry and artistic judgment.

Read the full review
 on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!








BEMF to Present a Marc-Antoine Charpentier Double Bill at Jordan Hall, Sat. Nov. 25 at 8 pm and Sun. Nov. 26 at 3 pm, by Michael Miller

Posted by  • November 15, 2011 • Printer-friendly


Marc-Antoine Charpentier

Marc-Antoine Charpentier Double Bill
La Descente d’Orphée aux enfers
La Couronne de fleurs

Saturday, November 26, 2011 at 8pm
Sunday, November 27, 2011 at 3pm
New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall, Boston

Paul O’Dette & Stephen Stubbs, Musical Directors
Gilbert Blin, Stage Director
Anna Watkins, Costume Designer
Melinda Sullivan, Choreographer

Pre-concert talks an hour before the performances by John S. Powell, Professor of Music, The University of Tulsa.

BEMF Vocal Ensemble
Aaron Sheehan, Orphée
Mireille Asselin, Carrie Henneman Shaw, Michael Kelly,
Olivier Laquerre, Thea Lobo, Jason McStoots,
Megan Stapleton, Brenna Wells, Douglas Williams

Surely one of the great joys of being a music-lover in the present day is our rediscovery of French Baroque opera—not to mention the Italian and German masterpieces with which the Boston Early Music Festival has regaled its audiences over three decades. The amazing resurrection of Les Arts Florissants' legendary 1985 production of Lully's Atys this year brought that home. (They are now available on DVD and Blu-Ray.) BEMF had produced Rameau's Zoroastre in 1983. After that 18 years passed until they returned to French opera in their 2001 production of Lully's Thésée, followed by Psyché in 2007. While these four represent the most public strain of opera in Paris, the grand spectacles produced either under royal patronage or at the Opéra, BEMF's chamber opera series has provided a window on the smaller-scale, more private sort of performances cultivated by Marie de Lorraine, the Duchesse de Guise, with music by her house composer, Marc-Antoine Charpentier.

Read the full preview
 on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!








Sabine Meyer and the Modigliani String Quartet Play Music by Mozart, Schumann and Ian Munro

Sabine-meyer

Sabine Meyer. Photo: Thomas Rabsch.

City Recital Hall, Angel Place, Sydney: 12 November 2011
The ensemble will play this program in Newcastle on 17 November and Melbourne on 19 November

Ian Munro
Clarinet Quintet, Songs from the Bush
 I Country Dance
 II Campfire and Night Sky
 III Drover's Lament

Robert Schumann
String Quartet in A major, opus 41 no. 3

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Clarinet Quintet in A major, K581

Sabine Meyer - clarinet

Modigliani String Quartet
Philippe Bernhard - violin
Loïc Rio - violin
Laurent Marfaing - viola
François Kieffer - cello

The Modigliani String Quartet has quite a definite personality as a musical ensemble and so has Sabine Meyer in her playing. This is perhaps part of the reason they get along so well together in performance. The differences in style and color of each member of the quartet, though not great, are enough to create a consistent pellucid ensemble sound — one can hear straight through to the bottom of the music like a pristine glacial lake. Sabine Meyer's tone slipped in without a splash, though caused interesting ripples, without any sense of the strings merely 'setting off' a soloist, rather her clarinet combined when the music so called for to shade the sum color of the ensemble or conversed with the quartet on equal terms, and the musicians were always looking, glancing, listening closely to one another. The group did sound perhaps as if they would prefer a somewhat brighter acoustic, but they made the best use of the City Recital Hall (which was certainly adequate either way). Their tempo changes were always well judged to let the sound rebound — however dim on its return —, catch up, and shade in the sound and their pauses and silences were perfectly judged to satisfy the local drama and drift of the melodic structure of the music while allowing as best one could hope for for the fast-fading ring of the hall.

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!

Sculpture by the Sea by Alan Miller

Heads-up
Nearly to the point of self-parody, Sculpture by the Sea is the quintessential Sydney art exhibition. Every spring for fifteen years, the cliff top walk between Bondi and Bronte beaches has become an appropriately sculptural place to view sculpture. The weathered sandstone of the cliffs, sometimes smooth and rounded, sometimes broken and angular or pitted with lacy indentations, is already a kind of found sculpture, its grace clashing with the boxiness of so much Sydney architecture. Along the two kilometer walk, itself one of the city’s unmissable experiences, are a variety of natural “galleries” — works can be perched amidst the mineral minimalism of the cliffs with ocean as backdrop, tucked into lush grottoes on the inland side or clustered in the parks and beaches, either on the sand, on trampled lawns or along concrete paths. Everywhere, limpid sunshine pours down, mercilessly chiseling the surfaces of the works.

Read the full review on The Berkshire Review, an international journal of the arts!

Myung-Whun Chung and Garrick Ohlsson in Weber. Barber’s Piano Concerto, and Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique,” by Charles Warren

Myung Whun Chung

Boston Symphony Orchestra
November 10, 2011, Thursday 8:00 pm
Symphony Hall

Myung-Whun Chung, conductor
Garrick Ohlsson, piano

Weber ‑ Overture to Der Freischütz
Barber ‑ 
Piano Concerto
Tchaikovsky ‑ 
Symphony No. 6, Pathétique

Many things go toward the making of great conducting—knowledge of music and of how people play instruments; ability to communicate to orchestra musicians, through both technical and less tangible means; the inspiring of respect; a way with audiences and a sense of what will reach them. Much else, no doubt. Most important, in the end, is vision—a considered and impassioned sense of just how a work of music should sound and move and take shape, with a determination to elicit this from an orchestra and put it across to listeners. Here we go beyond the playing of a score, however expert and in however proper a style. The piece and the performance speak, every detail a part of the whole, and all proceeding from a deep human center. Myung-Whun Chung brought the Boston Symphony Orchestra to this level of performance with the Tchaikovsky "Pathétique" Symphony in the current series of concerts.

Read the full review
 on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!









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Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic at Davies Hall in San Francisco: Adams, Chapela, and Prokofiev…Dudamania lives!, by Steven Kruger


Dudamel-front-on
Gustavo Dudamel. Photo Chris Lee.

Davies Hall, San Francisco
Saturday, October 23, 2011

The Los Angeles Philharmonic
Gustavo Dudamel, conductor
Thomas Moser, electric cello

Adams—--Short Ride in a Fast Machine
Chapela—MAGNETAR

Prokofiev--Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, Opus 100

Once upon a time, not too long ago, listeners might have resisted accepting on credit the notion of a conductor performing new music charismatically. For many decades, full-house audiences (at those moments desperately wishing themselves sparse) tended to squirm patiently through modern works, waiting for ever more elusive harmony or so much as a symphonic phrase, the experience more to be withstood than understood. Dodecaphonic compositions, in particular, constituted toll-booths on the musical freeway: to be bought off as taxation, passed-through and, if lucky, forgotten. Certainly not to be loved.

Read the full review
 on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!








Verdi, Macbetto, Boston Lyric Opera, by Charles Warren

Macbeth (Daniel Sutin) and Lady Macbeth (Carter Scott) confer in Verdi's Opera. Photo Erik Jacobs.

Verdi, Macbetto
Boston Lyric Opera
November 4, 2011

Conductor - David Angus
Stage Director - David Schweizer
Original Production - Leon Major
Set Designer - John Conklin
Costume Designer - Nancy Leary
Lighting Designer - Robert Wierzel
Movement Director - Ken Roht*
Fight Director - Rob Najarian
Projected English Titles - John Conklin
Wigs And Makeup
Designer -  Jason Allen

Cast
Macbeth, Baritone - Daniel Sutin*
Lady Macbeth, Soprano - Carter Scott*
Banquo, Bass - Darren K. Stokes
Macduff, Tenor - Richard Crawley
Malcolm, Tenor - John Irvin*
Lady-In-Waiting, Soprano - Michelle Trainor*
A Doctor, Bass - David Cushing
A Servant, An Assassin,
A Herald, First Apparition - James Demler*
Second Apparition (A Bloody Child) - Molly Paige
Crookedacre/Third Apparition (A Crowned Child) - Marie Mccarville*

Shakespeare was a great inspiration to Verdi, as he was to Berlioz and to many other nineteenth-century composers, writers, and artists of all kinds. Opera Boston recently presented Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict, adapted from Much Ado About Nothing; and before this late work Berlioz had, of course, written his great “dramatic symphony” Roméo et Juliette and an early King Lear Overture. Verdi wrote Macbetto in 1847 (and revised and added to it later), his tenth opera, and just on the cusp of his great middle period that would include Rigoletto andLa Traviata. He concluded his career decades later with the magnificent Otello and Falstaff, works that rival in greatness their Shakespeare sources. Maybe Falstaff more than rivals The Merry Wives of Windsor. As for Otello, ages ago I was at a splendid Metropolitan Opera production—Levine, Vickers—and on the way out encountered a well known Renaissance literature scholar from Princeton—“I think it’s greater than the play!” he gasped.)

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!



(download)

The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra Led by Riccardo Minasi Plays Vivaldi, Zelenka, Sardelli, Fasch on Period Instruments, by Andrew Miller


Siobhan Stagg sings the Zelenka aria with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra. Photo: Steven Godbee.

City Recital, Angel Place, Sydney: 2 November 2011

Jan Dismas Zelenka
Sinfonia from the Serenata Il Diamante, ZWV 177
Aria "Qui piegate, qui posate" from Il Diamante, ZWV 177
Siobhan Stagg - soprano
Mikaela Oberg - baroque flute

Antonio Vivaldi
Concerto for flute "La Notte" opus 10 no. 2, RV 439
Melissa Farrow - baroque flute

Frederico Maria Sardelli
Cello Concerto in G minor
Jamie Hey - baroque cello

Johann Friedrich Fasch
Ouverture Grande in D major, FWV K:D8

Antonio Vivaldi
Violin concerto in E minor "Il Favorito", RV 277

Riccardo Minasi - baroque violin and guest director

Australian Brandenburg Orchestra

The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra specializes in playing Baroque music on period instruments, though they often include earlier 16th and later 18th century music too, but for this program they have taken a cross section of late Baroque Italy and Germany selecting pieces all from the 1720's and 1730's (or in a similar style). They have also invited Roman violinist Riccardo Minasi to direct and conduct the orchestra with a program of interesting Vivaldi concerti as well as the much more obscure Jan Dismas Zelenka, who was only rediscovered around the middle of the last century, though his 300th birthday in 1979 passed without any celebration from the recording industry (according to Early Music). A Bohemian originally, Zelenka played double bass for the Dresden court orchestra, later composing for the royal chapel, then for a short while acting as Kapellmeister. The ABO plans to play a bit more of his music next year, a sample of his church music. They have also announced for their 2012 season Monteverdi's L'Orfeo in concert, which is wonderful news for Sydney operaphiles who now at least have three operas to look forward to next year — L'Orfeo, Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades with Ashkenazy and the Sydney Symphony and the Pinchgut company's production in December. Baroque music, especially in the serious and exuberant way the ABO plays it, is lively, vigorous and sanguine but without violence or forcefulness. In this way Baroque music has much to teach humanity of the 21st Century.

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!


The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra Led by Riccardo Minasi Plays Vivaldi, Zelenka, Sardelli, Fasch on Period Instruments

Zelenka-aria-stagg-and-abo-pho
Siobhan Stagg sings the Zelenka aria with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra. Photo: Steven Godbee.

City Recital, Angel Place, Sydney: 2 November 2011

Jan Dismas Zelenka
Sinfonia from the Serenata Il Diamante, ZWV 177
Aria "Qui piegate, qui posate" from Il Diamante, ZWV 177
Siobhan Stagg - soprano
Melissa Farrow - baroque flute

Antonio Vivaldi
Concerto for flute "La Notte" opus 10 no. 2, RV 439
Melissa Farrow - baroque flute

Frederico Maria Sardelli
Cello Concerto in G minor
Jamie Hey - baroque cello

Johann Friedrich Fasch
Ouverture Grande in D major, FWV K:D8

Antonio Vivaldi
Violin concerto in E minor "Il Favorito", RV 277

Riccardo Minasi - baroque violin and guest director

Australian Brandenburg Orchestra

The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra specializes in playing Baroque music on period instruments, though they often include earlier 16th and later 18th century music too, but for this program they have taken a cross section of late Baroque Italy and Germany selecting pieces all from the 1720's and 1730's (or in a similar style). They have also invited Roman violinist Riccardo Minasi to direct and conduct the orchestra with a program of interesting Vivaldi concerti as well as the much more obscure Jan Dismas Zelenka, who was only rediscovered around the middle of the last century, though his 300th birthday in 1979 passed without any celebration from the recording industry (according to Early Music). A Bohemian originally, Zelenka played double bass for the Dresden court orchestra, later composing for the royal chapel, then for a short while acting as Kapellmeister. The ABO plans to play a bit more of his music next year, a sample of his church music. They have also announced for their 2012 season Monteverdi's L'Orfeo in concert, which is wonderful news for Sydney operaphiles who now at least have three operas to look forward to next year — L'Orfeo, Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades with Ashkenazy and the Sydney Symphony and the Pinchgut company's production in December. Baroque music, especially in the serious and exuberant way the ABO plays it, is lively, vigorous and sanguine but without violence or forcefulness. In this way Baroque music has much to teach humanity of the 21st Century.

Read the full review on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!

The Berkshire Review to Adopt Paid Subscription November 19, 2011

The Internet and the ever more sophisticated publishing technology it offers have made it possible to provide the best thought and writing we can achieve without having to raise capital for printing and distribution, and all the other expenses involved in a kind of publication, which, I regret to say, is headed towards obsolescence in our particular "niche," the arts. Many excellent print publications in the arts have had to shut down, and others have tried to survive by opening themselves to commercial interests. Newspapers and weeklies, struggling for survival themselves, have been radically cutting back their staffs in the arts, so that all that is left are quick impressions of a popular, consumeristic nature. We believe above all that the arts are too important for the life of communities and human civilization to be treated as a casual amusement or as a variety of shopping. Even if the latest technology has allowed us to present our wind-powered labors—looking both to the past and to the future—to a substantial audience in a form that, while making the most of multimedia, remains primarily based in text, the costs involved in creating this content are considerable.

Read the full announcement on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!