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Browsing: Classical Music

Conspirare and Craig Hella Johnson Give Voice to Passions From Bach to Lang!

By Paul E. Robinson on 24 May 2010 Baroque and Early, Choral, Concert Reviews

by Paul E. RobinsonBach’s St. Matthew Passion is one of the great masterpieces of Christian music; its music is sublime and inspiring, and its structure is one of its great strengths. Crowd reaction to Christ’s suffering is built into the telling of the story, and chorales in which the congregation is expected to participate, are also integral to the piece. A few years ago, American composer David Lang appropriated this structure as the inspiration for a work of his own, The Little Match Girl Passion, based on the well-known story by Hans Christian Andersen. Conspirare’s superb Company of Voices recently…

Cette semaine à Montréal / This Week in Montreal 17-23 mai

By La Scena Musicale Team on 17 May 2010 Chamber Music, Scena Jazz, Theatre, This Week in Montreal

THEATREPhoto: Jean Francois Gratton / Une communication orangetango Pierre LebeauEt Vian ! dans la gueuleUne version modifiée d’un spectacle – à l’origine signé par le Groupe Audubon – dont on avait apprécié l’humour et la virtuosité en 1995. Le metteur en scène Carl Béchard y reprend donc sa plongée ludique dans l’univers fantaisiste de Boris Vian avec un collage de textes et de chansons parodiant l’institution militaire. Ils seront servis ici par des interprètes de première force, tels Pierre Lebeau, Sylvie Drapeau et Pascale Montpetit. Du 27 avril au 22 mai, au Théâtre du Nouveau MondeBuffet chinoisDepuis 20 ans, d’Œstrus…

Eschenbach, Lang Lang and the SHFO Give Austin a Show to Remember!

By Paul E. Robinson on 27 April 2010 Concert Reviews, Piano

by Paul E. RobinsonThere is no one hotter in the world of classical music today than Chinese pianist Lang Lang. What a coup for Maestro Christoph Eschenbach and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra (SHFO) that he agreed to be the featured soloist on their first North American tour! In this extraordinarily long tour of twenty-three concerts in thirty-two days, Lang Lang played concertos by Prokofiev, Mozart and Beethoven, with Eschenbach at the podium. I caught up with this remarkable road show at the Long Center in Austin, Texas.An Intimate Destination for Music Festival ConnoisseursThe Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival is based in Salzau…

Van Zweden and DSO Raise their Game with Schönberg and Brahms

By Paul E. Robinson on 23 April 2010 Concert Reviews, Orchestral

by Paul E. RobinsonAs he nears the end of his second season as music director of the Dallas Symphony, Jaap van Zweden has clearly raised the quality of playing in the orchestra. There have not been many personnel changes, but there has been a palpable exploitation of the enormous pool of talent already in the orchestra. A case in point: the trombone section has always been ‘good’ but now it is ‘remarkably good.’ The sureness of intonation, the beauty of tone, the balance between the three instruments and tuba – all these things are on a level of refinement only…

Claudio Abbado’s Grand Tour with his Mozart Orchestra

By La Scena Musicale Team on 8 April 2010 Classical, Concert Reviews, Orchestral

by Giuseppe PennisiMusic is the best medicine to cure cancer according to Maestro Claudio Abbado. Doctors removed much of his stomach and he can only eat small amounts at a time.“I found a new life, without a stomach,” he states. “I think differently. My senses are different.” His music-making has also changed: “I hear more lines now; I hear sounds I never heard before.”Unfortunately, the therapy has weakened him: it’s now a special occasion when Maestro Abbado conducts. At 77, Abbado has mostly turned away from the kind of grand institutions he once led — La Scala, the Vienna State…

Cette semaine à Montréal (7 à 17 avril) / This Week in Montreal (April 7 – 17)

By La Scena Musicale Team on 6 April 2010 Chamber Music, Choral, Dance, Orchestral, Scena Jazz, Theatre, This Week in Montreal, Visual Arts

Musique / Music Canadian trumpet virtuoso Guy Few (pictured to the left) joins the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal on April 7 to perform a concerto for trumpet and orchestra by the renowned and recently deceased Jacques Hétu. Under the baton of assistant conductor Nathan Brock, the orchestra performs works that include Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 1 and Smetana’s The Moldau. 514-842-2112, www.osm.ca — Hannah Rahimi The Trio Fibonacci presents its final concert of the season on April 9 at the Chapelle Saint-Louis. Audiences can experience the wide range of compositions for string trio with a varied programme that begins with Haydn and concludes…

Strauss’s Don Quixote Brought to Life by Bay and Austin Symphony

By Paul E. Robinson on 24 March 2010 Concert Reviews, Orchestral, Romantic

by Paul E. RobinsonWhat a revolutionary idea it was to provide surtitles (“translated or transcribed lyrics/dialogue projected above a stage or displayed on a screen”) in the opera house! All of a sudden, people actually understood what was going on. An art form that had been forbidding and impenetrable for millions was transformed into something welcoming and meaningful. Shame on the Karajans and Levines who, for whatever reason, delayed that monumental breakthrough in communication.I believe the concert hall could use the same communication overhaul afforded the opera house. To my mind, vocal works should always have surtitles; most often, they…

Pressler at Pollack

By La Scena Musicale Team on 18 March 2010 Chamber Music, Concert Reviews, Piano

By Hannah Rahimi and Kali HalapuaThe 86 year-old Menahem Pressler appeared last night at Pollack Hall before a packed house of appreciative musicians and music lovers. A generous performer, Pressler smiled throughout the evening, possessed with a twinkling energy that fueled his playing and spread throughout the audience. Well-programmed, the concert consisted of Dvorak’s Quintet in A Major, Op. 81, performed with the Cecilia String Quartet, McGill’s graduate quartet in residence, followed by Schubert’s beloved “Trout” quintet, performed with McGill faculty members, Jonathan Crow (violin), Douglas McNabney (viola), Matt Haimovitz (cello) and Ali Yazdanfar (double bass).The young Cecilia Quartet presented…

Cette Semaine à Montréal / This Week in Montreal (16 – 23 mars / March)

By La Scena Musicale Team on 16 March 2010 Classical Music, Dance, Scena Jazz, Theatre, This Week in Montreal

Musique / MusicThe prodigious German violinist Christian Tetzlaff makes his debut with the OSM on March 15 and 16 in a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. This concert will feature the renowned conducting skills of Sir Andrew Davis, who will also lead the orchestra in performances of Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune and Elgar’s first symphony. (www.osm.ca, 514-842-2112) – Hannah RahimiThe Molinari Quartet celebrates the Russian composer Alfred Schnittke with a series of lectures and performances at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal. On March 17, 18, and 19, audiences can attend free lectures at 5 p.m. Each evening…

Rach 3 Rocks with Nissman and the Austin Symphony!

By Paul E. Robinson on 11 March 2010 Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Orchestral, Piano

by Paul E. RobinsonLast week, at the Long Center for the Performing Arts, Peter Bay and the Austin Symphony presented an all-Russian program: Rachmaninov’s Vocalise, followed by the Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3, and closing with the Shostakovich Symphony No. 5, the Russian composer’s most popular symphony.As always, Maestro Bay had prepared well and interpreted the music with assurance and without exaggeration of any kind. In the opening piece, Vocalise, Bay went for a nuanced, understated beauty that suited this slight work very well. Personally, I would like to hear more expansive phrasing in some sections, but then I may…

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