Classical Music - my/maSCENA

Lebrecht Weekly – Joseph Haydn: Violin concertos (Panclassics)

By Norman Lebrecht on 13 May 2016 Classical, Lebrecht Weekly, Violin

It must be a seasonal thing. When fresh mushrooms simmer and asparagus gently steams, it starts raining …Haydn. Sure enough, four Haydn releases have landed this month. Decca has a positively frisky set of four symphonies, 78-81, from Ottavio Dantone and the Accademia Bizantina. The period-instrument precision is awe-inspiring, a worthy counterpoint to that epochal Decca set (1969-73) of Haydn symphonies from Antal Dorati and the Philharmonia Hungarica. Dorati changed the weather for Haydn while, with 104 symphonies, confirming the prejudice that the composer wrote too much. Other conductors gave up midway. I like Dantone’s note-perfect approach very much and…

Lukas Geniušas and Lucas Debargue, photo Vladimir Kevorkov

Tchaikovsky Competition winners face off — and get along

By Arthur Kaptainis on 9 May 2016 Chamber Music, Contemporary, Piano

Two 2015 Tchaikovsky Competition laureates for the price of one: This was the upscale bargain offered by the Show One concert organization, whose many Toronto followers obligingly filled Koerner Hall. Few could have left disappointed. Lucas Debargue and Lukas Geniušas were the visiting pianists, the former born in Paris, the latter in Moscow. Debargue is already a minor celebrity owing to an improbable life story that includes a late start at 11 and a three-year hiatus from his chosen instrument in his late teens. The slim 25-year-old says he has learned some complex 20th-century scores by ear, a claim that…

Arion orchestre baroque

This Week in Montreal (May 9–15)

By Kiersten van Vliet on 9 May 2016 Baroque and Early, Orchestral, This Week in Montreal

End of Season at the Chapelle Historique The Chapelle will close its spring season with pianists Kyoko Hashimoto and Ilya Poletaev playing works by Brahms, Debussy, Mozart, and Rachmaninov. May 15, 3 pm. www.ville.montreal.qc.ca/chapellebonpasteur An Awaited Return and a New Face at Arion To mark his return, violinist and guest conductor Stefano Montanari will draw from the singular repertoire of the sinfonia concertante. Concerti alla Montanari comprises works by Sammartini, Boccherini, and Cambini. Soloist: Kate Bennett Wadsworth, cello. Bourgie Hall, April 8 to 10. The first concert in Montreal by the British harpsichordist and conductor Steven Devine will be the…

Lebrecht Weekly – Beethoven: Symphonies 4 and 5 (Sony)

By Norman Lebrecht on 9 May 2016 Classical, Lebrecht Weekly, Orchestral

In May 2015, visibly frail, the august Nikolaus Harnoncourt stood before his Concentus Musicus Wien and directed two Beethoven symphonies in a reading that followed closely what the composer had written in his score. If Beethoven gave a primitive horn an impossible low D to play, that’s how Harnoncourt wanted it played and not, as others do, switched it to the bassoon. It’s a vital question, he said at the time, of “whether it is possible to achieve your goals.” Harnoncourt and his Concentus had spent their lives together trying to achieve a literal understanding of great art, written by…

Isabelle Faust, photo Molina Visuals

This Week in Montreal (May 2–8)

By Kiersten van Vliet on 2 May 2016 Dance, Orchestral, This Week in Montreal, Violin

End of Season at the Chapelle Historique The last concert of the series Beethoven: The Sonatas for Piano and Violin with violinist Olivier Thouin and pianist François Zeitouni will take place on May 8 at 3 pm. www.ville.montreal.qc.ca/chapellebonpasteur The MSO MSO and Danse Danse present Anatomy of a Sigh, an evening of dance and music to the sound of the Grand Orgue Pierre-Béique. With organist Jean Willy Kunz and Le Carré des Lombes dance company, in a choreography by Danièle Desnoyers to music by John Rea, Frescobaldi, Alain, and Messiaen. Maison symphonique, May 6 and 7 at 8 pm. www.osm.ca…

Lebrecht Weekly – Mahler: 3rd Symphony (DSO Live)

By Norman Lebrecht on 2 May 2016 Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly, Orchestral

What can New York expect of its next music director? Jaap van Zweeden’s recordings can be counted on your fingers and most are – like this release with the Dallas Symphony – live concerts. Mahler’s third symphony is a large and unwieldy piece with a mezzo soloist and women’s and children’s choruses, a test of organisation for any conductor before he or she can begin to think about interpretation. On first hearing, this performance is efficient and attractive with sustainable speeds and some fetching solos from the concertmaster, Alexander Kerr. The vocal soloist Kelley O’Connor lacks heft and any dimensiom…

Lebrecht Weekly – Deutsche Grammophon: The Mono Era, 1948-57 (DG)

By Norman Lebrecht on 25 April 2016 Classical Music, Lebrecht Weekly

Slower even than one-horse EMI, Deutsche Grammophon was the last label of consequence to adopt stereo recording in the late 1950s. Its circumspection is, in retrospect, comprehensible. In austerity-minded Germany, a second living-room speaker would have been deemed an anti-social luxury and DG’s mono quality was, by any criterion, world-class. Under the leadership of camp-survivor Elsa Schiller, DG had buried its Nazi past beneath a blaze of new talent and high performance. The DG represented in this massive box of rarities is a label under post-War reconstruction, fascinating in its rigour and frugality. This is DG in the age before…

Audience members circulate among the singers. Photo R. K. Basdeo

Polyphonic Extravagance Wows Audiences at the Gesù

By Rebecca Anne Clark on 19 April 2016 Baroque and Early, Choral, Concert Reviews, Contemporary

Musica Orbium, under the direction of Patrick Wedd, treated audiences to some stunning vocal performances at two performances of their concert “Extravagance Polyphonique” at the Église du Gesù last Sunday, April 17. The program, based around the illustrious motets Spem in alium by Tallis and Ecce beatam lucem by Striggio, also contained lesser-known gems, including works that predate the aforementioned motets such as Johannes Ockeghem’s Deo gratia à 36 and Josquin des Prez’s Qui habitat in adiutorio altissimi for 24 voices, as well as contemporary works including Patrick Wedd’s Nines₂, composed for Musica Orbium’s tenth anniversary, and Gregg Smith’s Sound…

Lebrecht Weekly – Argerich and Barenboim: Live from Buenos Aires (DG)

By Norman Lebrecht on 18 April 2016 Lebrecht Weekly, Piano

The question is, what took them so long? Martha Argerich and Daniel Barenboim, born a year apart in Buenos Aires to Jewish mothers of Russian extraction, have left it until their mid-seventies to discover common ground. Both prodigious pianists, they sailed for Europe where their paths diverged. Argerich won the Busoni and Chopin competitions and worked intensively with Italian conductors, notably Abbado, Muti, Sinopoli and Chailly. Barenboim determined from an early age to be an orchestral conductor. He had no need for other pianists. When he put on a concerto he could play it himself (or call in his mentor,…

Singer/songwriter "Lior" (left) and Australian composer Nigel Westlake (right)

U.S. Premiere in Austin (Tx): “Compassion” Shows the Way Towards Peace and Understanding

By Paul E. Robinson on 17 April 2016 Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Orchestral

Verdi: Nabucco Overture Schubert: Symphony No. 8 in B minor “Unfinished” Nigel Westlake/Lior Attar: Compassion (U.S. Premiere) Lior Attar, singer Austin Symphony Orchestra/Peter Bay Long Center Austin, Texas Saturday, April 9, 2016 For many decades now, one of the most intractable problems facing world leaders has been the conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbours. Although experienced diplomats have tried their best to bring it about, peace seems beyond their reach. Over the years, a number of artists have tried to bridge the gap in their own ways.Daniel Barenboim, for example, created the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra to bring young Israeli and Arab musicians together and it has been…

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