Opera on DVD: Alice in Wonderland

Available at Amazon: Unsuk Chin, Alice in Wonderland, S. Matthews, G. Jones, Bayerische Staatsoper, K. Nagano (released April 29, 2008) Unitel Classica / Medici Arts 2072418

We have been fairly impressed with the music of Korean composer Unsuk Chin, especially her song cycle Akrostichon-Wortspiel. When both Jens and Alex Ross wrote admiringly of her latest opera, Alice in Wonderland (both with a few reservations), it was clear one had to get to know the work. Happily this DVD, made during the premiere run at the Bavarian State Opera last summer, has just crossed my desk. The music is just as described in reviews of the premiere, a mélange of atonal sounds (often recalling Chin's teacher Ligeti) and more traditional harmonic passages. A vast orchestra, spilling out from the pit to surrounding boxes in the theater according to Jens, interweaves myriad colored threads in often unexpected ways.

Sally Matthews (Alice) and Stefan Schneider (Caterpillar) in Alice in Wonderland, Bavarian State Opera, 2007 (photo by Wilfried Hösl)

The sonic allusions include, among other things, spectralism, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and swing. The caterpillar, who speaks his lines through words that flash around him in a circle, plays an extended, bluesy solo on the bass clarinet. It is every bit as surreal and hallucinatory as Lewis Carroll's stories -- written, let us not forget, as an expression of an older minister's odd attraction to and obsession with an 11-year-old girl.

Even more striking, if possible, is the stylish, outlandish staging directed and designed by Achim Freyer (more pictures and videos here). It is abstract, with characters relating to one another indirectly, from separate parts of the geometrically divided set. The stage is mostly a dark background for the colorful masks worn by some characters and the otherworldly puppets, all created by Nina Weitzner, with influences from schizophrenic artists and other Art Brut styles. Some of the strangest images are seen at the open and close of the opera, where Chin and her librettist, David Henry Hwang, altered Carroll's story.

Sally Matthews in Alice in Wonderland, Bavarian State Opera, 2007 (photo by Wilfried Hösl)

Alice does not come from and exit to 19th-century England: she visits Wonderland by way of the composer's own dreams. Before Alice falls through a hole to get to Wonderland, she is menaced by two men, portrayed by large-headed puppets with phallic noses. At the end of the opera, an invisible man tells Alice to plant seeds in the dead, hard ground. When she does so, flowers sprout up and a bright light fills the stage. Sally Matthews is a piercing, girlish Alice, remarkably singing through the oversized mask for most of the opera. Other fine singing comes from countertenor Andrew Watts (White Rabbit), Piia Komsi (Cheshire Cat), and the redoubtable Gwyneth Jones (Queen of Hearts).

The only misfortune about this DVD is in how the performance was captured on video. Instead of allowing the viewer to see mostly from the perspective of the spectator in the theater, video director Ellen Fellmann has the cameras focus too exclusively in close-up on the puppets and performers. This not only draws too much attention to the fakeness of the materials but also spoils the overall effect of the dream-like staging. Worse, overused camera effects like hand-held zoom and rack focus transitions make for a ham-handed attempt to skew the surreal quality of the production, when that was hardly necessary. After watching it once, I preferred afterward just to listen to the sound.

A Trip to the Opéra-Comique

At National Gallery, Opera With a French Accent
Washington Post, May 13, 2008

Members of Opera Lafayette
National Gallery of Art
Pierre Alexandre Monsigny, Le Déserteur
Félicien David, Lalla Roukh

Elektra: "The Music Comes from Me"

Susan Bullock as Elektra, Washington National Opera, 2008 (photo by Karin Cooper)

Washington National Opera opened its final production of the season on Saturday night, Richard Strauss's 1909 opera Elektra. This opera and its sister from four years earlier, Salome, are in a sense extensions of the verismo style, just with much better orchestral scores and less vulgar melodies. Both one-act operas take ancient stories, from the Bible or Greek mythology, and shockingly refract them through the lens of modern psychology. Carl Jung used the story of Electra, of course, to describe the female counterpart of Freud's Oedipus complex, just a few years after the premiere of Strauss's opera. Hugo von Hoffmansthal's libretto for Elektra (in English translation), a distinct improvement over Strauss's adaptation of Hedwig Lachmann's German translation of Oscar Wilde's play in Salome, leaves open many possible motivations for Elektra's unhinged rage toward her mother, none of them pleasant to contemplate.

Elektra has been abandoned in the house of Agamemnon, who was murdered upon his return from the Trojan War by his wife and her lover. She plots her revenge for her father's murder, even burying the axe used to kill him, in the hope that she and her brother, Orest, can use it to slay Klytemnästra. This is not the first misfortune to befall the doomed House of Atreus, and it will not be the last. Why is Elektra so devoted to her father, who slew another of his daughters, Iphigenia, to appease Artemis and grant strong winds for the voyage to Troy?

Christine Goerke (Chrysothemis) in Elektra, Washington National Opera, 2008 (photo by Karin Cooper)

Elijah Moshinksy's production, revived from the WNO's last staging of Elektra in 1997, attempts to offer some answers. As directed this time around by David Kneuss, both Klytemnästra and Chrysothemis, Elektra's sister, are costumed in gowns and jewelry (costumes by Robert Israel). Elektra's more masculine hair and costumes, a sort of military jacket and pants, play with the dialogue in Elektra and Chrysothemis's duet. After the sisters discuss the latter's femininity and desire to be married and have children, Elektra kisses Chrysothemis forcefully. The words associated by Freud with the Elektra complex, penis envy, which are best avoided in conversation these days, come to mind when we see her wielding that axe, too.

It is hard to tell where the house of Agamemnon is located in this modern updating. The pop art, pastel colors and lighting, and angular architecture evoke at times an art gallery, chic department store, or a modern architect-designed house (sets by Robert Israel, lighting by Mimi Jordan Sherin). Aegisth is costumed in military dress uniform, but Klytemnästra is attended not by maids, but by suited secretaries with official badges. They spend much of the opening scene destroying boxes full of documents. Much of the libretto's specific military language of swords, horses, and chariots makes updating the setting awkward, but this staging makes sense somehow, in a murky, psychological way.

Susan Bullock as Elektra, Washington National Opera, 2008 (photo by Karin Cooper)

The singing ranges from good to excellent, with soprano Christine Goerke standing out among the leads as an exceptionally opulent Chrysothemis. Her voice ranged from a coffee-rich bottom to a soaring top, with enough squillo to shake the rafters. She also towered in stature over Susan Bullock's Elektra, which was serviceable but in need of more wattage and occasionally ragged and shrill (by comparison to, say, Éva Marton, who sang the role last time around). Bullock also seemed much less comfortable on stage, especially the ridiculous dancing she is called upon to do in exultation at the thought of her mother's murder by her brother. Unlike the original myth, von Hoffmansthal and Strauss have their Elektra die at the moment of her greatest triumph, recalling the end of Salome. Elektra's dance is one of the most difficult challenges of the opera, how to make it look crazy without looking dumb. The libretto calls the dance "nameless" and "creepy" (unheimlich), comparing it to the mad fury of the Maenads. It should probably not look like Elaine on Seinfeld ("like a full-body dry heave set to music"), although Elektra's bad dancing may be related to the swigs she repeatedly took from a flask throughout the opera.

Other Reviews: Anne Midgette, 'Elektra': Vocal, Not Visual, Power Surges (Washington Post, May 12) T. L. Ponick, Highly charged version by WNO (Washington Times, May 12)

Irina Mishura's Klytemnästra was powerful and demented, and her horrible mocking laugh curdled my blood. Daniel Sumegi was a stentorian Orest, directed mostly to stand like a statue, with a swallowed but potent style of vocal production. Among the supporting cast, Vivian Tierney's cigar-smoking overseer was particularly impressive, again bringing to the fore the confusion of masculine and feminine in this production. Best representing the maidservants, most of whom were sung by members of the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist program, was Aundi Marie Moore who had a dramatic turn as the fifth maidservant, the one who tries to defend Elektra. Conductor Heinz Fricke gave an intensely close reading of the score, distinguished especially by its exploitation of wild colors and triumphant and sneering brass. There were also warm solo strings in one of the opera's few truly beautiful passages, when Elektra realizes that Orest is not dead and has come back to kill their mother.

The remaining performances of Elektra, highly recommended for lovers of modern opera, are scheduled from tomorrow night (May 13, 7:30 pm) through May 27.

Mobtown Mobtown Mobtown Mobtown

Mobtown Modern
Washington Post, May 12, 2008

Mobtown Modern Music series, Contemporary Museum (Baltimore, Md.)

Terry Riley, In C (1964)
(performed by 124 musicians, Los Angeles)
Philip Glass, Music in Similar Motion (Crash Ensemble)
Part 1 | Part 2

Nico Muhly, Honest Music (Lisa Liu, Nico Muhly)

Michael Gordon, The Low Quartet

Steve Reich, Vermont Counterpoint

In Brief: Mother's Day Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to good things in Blogville and Beyond.

• Michael Lodico points out that Peter Dobrin has a shiny new blog. Say what you like about Alec Baldwin's personal life, Dobrin shows that the actor cares about art and music. [ArtsWatch]


• Of course, the most important thing happening right now is the NHL playoffs, and my Red Wings have been doing very well so far. (You can take the boy out of Michigan, but you cannot take Michigan out of the boy.) A friend, who has the misfortune of being an Avalanche fan, sends this hilarious video, re-subtitled to take place after Colorado's disastrous exit from the playoffs, thanks to the Wings. [YouTube]


• Heh heh, La Cieca takes exception to an American opera company hiring a British mentor for its young artist program. Uses the word fuck several times. The comments are numerous and acidic. [Parterre Box]


• I am so giving this link to my students: professor sues Dartmouth over the poor behavior of her students. [Dial "M" for Musicology]


• "Mountains sit in a line. / Leonard! Bernstein!" Marc Geelhoed contrasts his memories of listening to Mahler's first symphony and R.E.M. [Deceptively Simple]


• Via Tyler Green, a whole blog of nothing but photographs of people leaping in the air while in front of artworks. No, I'm not kidding. [Jumping in Art Museums]

Tolomeo from Il Complesso Barocco

Handel, Tolomeo, A. Hallenberg, K. Gauvin, R. Basso, Il Complesso Barocco, A. Curtis (released March 11, 2008) Archiv 477 710-6

Alan Curtis, a musicologist formerly at the University of California at Berkeley, has released a number of striking Baroque opera recordings with his group Il Complesso Barocco. Recent examples recommended here include Handel's Floridante (2007), Radamisto (2005), and Rodelinda (2005) and Vivaldi's Motezuma (2006), and we look forward to the forthcoming Alcina, with Joyce DiDonato in the title role (recorded last summer). The latest Handel to join the collection is this Tolomeo, Rè di Egitto, premiered in 1728, the last opera to be presented under the auspices of the failed Royal Academy of Music. The opera was meant to be produced on a small scale, with just five roles and only one concluding number for chorus. Handel pulled out all the stops for the premiere, casting his celebrated alto castrato, Senesino, in the title role, across from the dueling sopranos Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni as Seleuce and Elisa, respectively. Handel also mounted revivals of Tolomeo, with revisions for different casts, in 1730 and 1733.

For much of the opera, it feels like Handel is phoning it in, although recent scholarship has indicated that the lack of vocal and instrumental pizzazz represents Handel's attempt to create a more dramatically believable work. With singers as talented as this exceptional cast, there are still thrilling moments, especially with the often inspired embellishments on da capo repeats (presumably by Curtis). Worth mention is Elisa's Quanto è felice, with its high notes on short Ha's, by the brilliant soprano of Anna Bonitatibus, another singer in the mold of Simone Kermes, who has worked with Curtis several times. Given Curtis's apparent preference for mezzo-sopranos over countertenors for the castrato roles, the only male voice is the puissant bass of Pietro Spagnoli as Araspe.

Two of the most beautiful numbers in the opera are the duets between Tolomeo and Seleuce, Se il cor ti perde and Tutto contento (at the ends of Acts II and III, respectively), which feature the pure, blended voices of mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg (Tolomeo) and soprano Karina Gauvin (Seleuce). Both are splendid individually, too, as is Romina Basso in the role of Tolomeo's younger brother, Alessandro. The major conflict of the libretto (.PDF file) by Nicola Francesco Haym is a struggle of succession, between Tolomeo (Ptolemy IX) and his mother, Cleopatra, who favors his younger brother, who will become Ptolemy X. The opera begins like The Tempest, with a shipwreck, as Tolomeo's brother, Alessandro, washes up on the shores of Cyprus, where he falls in love with Elisa, the sister of the ruler, Adraspe.

Elisa has fallen in love with Tolomeo, who has been exiled to Cyprus and lives disguised as a shepherd. By chance, Tolomeo's wife, for whom he has searched in vain, is also living on Cyprus disguised as a shepherdess. Adraspe falls in love with her, and hilarity ensues. Improbably, all of these complications are, not unexpectedly, resolved into a lieto fine. This opera may not be the best option for the average listener, but for any fan of good Baroque playing and singing, it is highly recommended.

Felicity Lott Channels Yvonne Printemps

Soprano Felicity Lott (photo by Trevor Leighton)

Vocal Arts Society concluded another excellent season on Wednesday night with a delectable recital by British soprano Felicity Lott and her long-time collaborator, the superlative Graham Johnson. The capacity crowd took some extra time to pass through the recently added security measures at the Austrian Embassy, but the opening note was delayed only by about fifteen minutes. The brilliant program of this recital was organized in sets devoted to important poets, beginning with Mahler's settings of poems by Friedrich Rückert. The duo were strongest in the dreamy textures of the slower songs of the Fünf Rückertlieder, with a gentle, varied vocal line from Lott in Ich atmet' einen linden Duft! perfumed by gentle, heavily pedaled aromas in the piano. In the shy Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder, Johnson's playing could have been a little more agile, but that somewhat fuzzy style was perfectly suited to Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen, which ended in a disembodied and exquisite stillness. Although it seemed a shame not to have heard the set's final song, Um Mitternacht, that suspended stasis made for a glorious conclusion.

A set of Rückert and Goethe songs by Schumann and Wolf ended the first half. Schumann's Widmung and Liebeslied provided a chance for a more agitated musical approach. Lott's German pronunciation was clean, and her characterization for each song was carefully crafted, from detached coolness to coy, girlish skittishness. The voice sounded strained at the top at times, but Lott was still able to spin out a gorgeous high pianissimo. The set ended with a pairing of two of Wolf's settings of Goethe's lyrics for Mignon, the wandering naïf in Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, sung with childish intensity and some of the most booming sounds from the embassy's Bösendorfer.

Yvonne Printemps

A second half of filthy French songs prompted a gown change for Lott, from classic gold to bright pink. Johnson later explained that the program was also unified by the connection of all of the songs to Yvonne Printemps (née Wignolle, 1894-1977), the genre-crossing French soprano. A set of Baudelaire poems brought together songs by Duparc and Debussy, as well as lesser composers Pierre Capdevielle and Henri Sauguet. Duparc's L'invitation au voyage and Capdevielle's Je n'ai pas oublié seemed in this context to be the French mirror image of the Mignon songs, a dream of an exotic Shangri-La (the Netherlands) and a memory of a lost home. Lott's French was as good as her German, with only the deadly combination of "u" and "r" proving difficult ("sur," "azur").

Other Reviews: Anne Midgette, Felicity Lott, Basking in a Wistful Glow (Washington Post, May 10) Joshua Kosman, French songs elicit Lott's best (San Francisco Chronicle, May 3) Thomas Aujero Small, A Halcyon Recital (ConcertoNet, May 2)

Johnson, speaking from the piano, took the part of Noël Coward to Lott's Yvonne Printemps in a set of pieces from the act Coward wrote for her. For all that Coward's music has an effortless, refined air, it can be desperately hard for other performers to recreate that brilliant nonchalance, but it was a natural fit for Johnson and Lott. Nevermore had one of those instantly memorable melodies that Coward could spin so easily, and English Lesson, with Lott feigning to read her language exercises from a book, was a macaronic stitch. A final set of poems by Printemps's first husband, Sacha Guitry, concluded the recital, extended the Coward group with a series of pretty cabaret-style songs. This conclusion not only provided a lighter contrast to the earlier serious repertoire, it brought some attention to composers like Reynaldo Hahn, Oscar Straus, and André Messager. Encores continued in the same vein, with Coward's If Love Were All and Poulenc's setting of the Jean Anouilh poem Les chemins de l'amour.

This concert will be repeated tomorrow (May 10, 7:30 pm) at Carnegie Hall.


Noel Coward and Yvonne Printemps, I'll Follow My Secret Heart
Vocal Arts Society's 2008-2009 season promises to be another blockbuster. Major names are on the roster, including another recital by Felicity Lott (April 17, 2009), Anne-Sophie von Otter in her stunning Theresienstadt program (April 30, 2009 -- not part of the subscription series), Magdalena Kožená (May 6, 2009), and Teddy Tahu Rhodes (May 12, 2009). The other secret to VAS's success is that it showcases the most promising young singers, too, including mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey with Steven Blier's New York Festival of Song (November 14, 2008), Sarah Coburn and Lawrence Brownlee (January 31, 2009), soprano Susanna Phillips (March 26, 2009). If you enjoy exquisite song recitals, get your subscription soon.

Hilary Hahn Performs Paganini Concerto

Hilary Hahn, violinist

As arguably the most outstanding American violinist of her young generation -- with Julia Fischer holding the European title -- Hilary Hahn’s Thursday evening performance with the National Symphony Orchestra exemplified her unparalleled standards of perfection in performance. Verdi’s Overture to I vespri siciliani provided a suitable introduction the violin pyrotechnics show to follow, with the portamenti of the cello section, perhaps the strongest string section of the NSO, sounding gorgeous.

One might expect more than a show of soloistic virtuosity from Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1 given the composer’s thin orchestral writing, but one would be wrong. (Paganini's personal quartet of Stradiviari instruments were nearby last fall.) Hahn exploited Paganini’s weaknesses in order to direct all attention to her soaring tone, continuously far above the orchestra. I had incorrectly written off Hahn’s enormously forward tone in her recent CD of concertos (reviewed by Charles here and by Anne Midgette at the Post) as artificially enhanced; now I stand corrected.

Other Reviews: Anne Midgette, The NSO's Wild Wonderland (Washington Post, May 9)

Back to the Paganini, Hahn made each note have a purpose and is one of the only NSO violin soloists this season not to fudge through double and triple stops and other technical challenges in terms of intonation. The sweet second movement Adagio expressivo was augmented by Hahn’s wide and fast vibrato. The first movement (Allegro maestoso) was almost not quite enough Maestoso for Hahn to manage; the more relaxed tempo of the third-movement Rondo: Allegro spirituoso was more pleasing. Blistering runs, chords, multiple-stop glissandi, harmonics, and runs of harmonics were all handled in a cool, masterful way in the cadenza, where she at times accompanied herself with chords dashed between florid runs. Hahn’s sleepy encore, a soupy sarabande from Bach's second partita, was a real let-down; however, one can understand why she chose to contrast the Paganini with something mellow (perhaps to clear the cholesterol from her veins).

Hila Plitmann, soprano

The program ended with David Del Tredici’s Final Alice (1976), an extended work for large orchestra and amplified soprano (Hila Plitmann) speaking and singing the “final” chapters of Alice in Wonderland. This tonal work featuring unusual orchestration was undermined by the vocalist's microphone, which discouraged close listening. Feedback through the sound system seemingly affected Plitmann’s pitch, especially when the engineers adjusted the volume to match orchestral swells. Perhaps they could have turned the microphone on only during Plitmann’s speaking parts? Otherwise, Plitmann could likely have held her own.

This concert repeats tonight and tomorrow night (May 9 and 10, 8 pm), in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.

Handel's Saul: "Thou darling of my soul"

Handel, Saul, English Baroque Soloists, Monteverdi Choir, John Eliot Gardiner (remastered August 14, 2007) Philips 475 8256

With Saul, David, and Jonathan on my mind recently, it seems a good time to revisit this recently remastered recording of a classic musical setting of the Biblical story, Handel's oratorio Saul. The title is a good indication of the different focus of Handel's librettist, Charles Jennens (1700-1773), on the character of Saul, instead of the friendship of David and Jonathan (as in Charpentier's intermèdes). Instead of beginning with the Witch of Endor scenes, as Charpentier did, Handel and Jennens leave the summoning of the Ghost of Samuel to the third act, where it leads directly to Saul's destruction. Jennens drew on Abraham Cowley's Davideis, an epic poem left incomplete, to add the character of Merab, Jonathan's jealous sister, and some of the conceits of the famous Envy Chorus at the opening of Act II.

Tenor John Mark Ainsley is a pleasing Jonathan, appropriately lyric for a teenager, while countertenor Derek Lee Ragin is a little strident as David. Bass Alastair Miles is a rumbling, ranting Saul. Soprano Donna Brown's pretty voice is both venomous and later sweet as Jonathan's sister Merab, who initially hates David and later admires him. Ruth Holton has an angelic, white-toned turn on "An infant raised" that one wishes might have been applied instead to the role of Michal, in which Lynne Dawson was a little acidic and under-inflated. The English pronunciation is all native in this classic performance, a distinct advantage, and the diction clear as a bell.

It is a tribute to John Eliot Gardiner's pioneering spirit in historically informed performance that this early recording still sounds so good. The organ and harpsichord are both beautifully played and captured, as are the strange carillon that is meant to signal Saul's mad jealousy (as in the symphony at the end of Act I, scene 2). The three trombones are round-toned and accurate, too. The high quality is all the remarkable for this combination of several live performances, at the 1989 Göttingen Handel Festival. Like most performances of Saul, Gardiner mostly follows the 1739 version of the score, from the work's premiere. This includes having the part of David, which Handel originally composed for the mezzo-soprano Marchesini, sung an octave down by a tenor. The Witch of Endor, sung by a character tenor, could be sung in a much more burlesque way than it was here by Philip Salmon.

The Gardiner set cannot compete on merit alone with the two most recent recordings of Saul, from the Gabrieli Consort and Paul McCreesh, with Andreas Scholl's David (one of Jens's Best Recordings of 2004) and the even more pleasing version from Concerto Köln/RIAS Kammerchor and René Jacobs (which made the Best Recordings of 2005). The Jacobs is lean and mean, a vigorous reading that helps point out just how expansive Gardiner's reading. That same broadness that makes Gardiner a little dull in the first two acts is luxuriant in the final scene, an extended lamentation from the Dead March through Jennens' poetic heightening of the Biblical text of David's grief.

Next Season from WPAS

Anne-Sophie Mutter, violinist

Washington Performing Arts Society has released its schedule for the next season, and the choices may be somewhat predictable but with most of those reliable choices, how could one mind? Anne-Sophie Mutter will be back, for the Season Opening Celebration (October 11) with the Camerata Salzburg. Other violinists returning next season are Vadim Repin with Nikolai Lugansky (November 15), Midori (November 2), Joshua Bell (February 4, 2009) with Jeremy Denk, and

As for visiting orchestras in the ongoing dance of conductor hiring, we will have the New York Philharmonic (October 4), but with Lorin Maazel instead of incoming music director Alan Gilbert. Gustavo Dudamel, who has everyone and his brother in rapturous delight, will conduct twice, with the Israel Philharmonic (November 18) and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra (April 6, 2009). Far more interesting on the young conductor front from my point of view will be the appearance of Vladimir Jurowski with the London Philharmonic (February 26, 2009). Valery Gergiev will conduct Prokofiev with the London Symphony Orchestra (March 28, 2009). Manfred Honeck will make a visit with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (May 4, 2009), and Charles Dutoit with the Philadelphia Orchestra (June 3, 2009).

Krystian Zimerman, pianist

Piano recitals will include Louis Lortie playing the complete Chopin etudes (May 2, 2009), Evgeny Kissin (March 1, 2009), András Schiff playing Beethoven (October 10), and the divine Maurizio Pollini (October 29), Richard Goode (March 29, 2009), and Olga Kern (March 22, 2009). Krystian Zimerman has sworn not to play in the U.S. "until the Iraq situation is sorted" -- his recital (April 8, 2009) will fall after a new president begins his or her term.

Exciting new names on the roster include pianists Anna Vinnitskaya (September 27), Yevgeny Sudbin (January 24, 2009), and Simone Dinnerstein (February 7, 2009), the Capuçon brothers with Nicholas Angelich (November 21), and violinist Nicola Benedetti (February 3, 2009). Cellist Daniel Müller-Schott will collaborate with pianist Angela Hewitt in a fascinating Bach and Beethoven program (December 15). There are also some older, recognizable, and -- frankly -- less exciting names: Frederica von Stade and Samuel Ramey (March 25, 2009), Yo-Yo Ma with the Silk Road Project (March 11, 2009), and the Tokyo String Quartet (April 17, 2009).