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29.1.12

In Brief: All-Star Edition

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

  • From the Grosser Saal of Vienna's Musikverein, violinist Hilary Hahn and pianist Valentina Lisitsa play a recital of music by Tartini, Antheil, Ives, and others. [France Musique]

  • Listen to performances of Tchaikovsky's Iolanta and Stravinsky's Persephone from the Teatro Real in Madrid. [France Musique]

  • Christian Tetzlaff joins the Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen for music by Bartók and Debussy, from the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. [France Musique]

  • The new director of the Château de Versailles, appointed last August, is Catherine Pégard, a former journalist and editor-in-chief of Le Point and also counselor of Nicolas Sarkozy. There were complaints about the appointment, which she spoke about in a recent interview with Harry Bellet and Florence Evin, saying among other things, "I have observed politics and power for twenty-five years as a journalist, I was at the heart of power for five years, and here I am in the symbolic seat of power." Pégard also announced that she would be writing a blog during her tenure, to be called Les Carnets de Versailles. We'll let you know if that actually happens. [Le Monde]

  • Mme Pégard also spoke to Claire Bommelaer, giving the impression that she had plans to distance herself from the predilection of her predecessor, Jean-Jacques Aillagon, for hosting contemporary artists and their work at Versailles. [Le Figaro]

  • Daniele Gatti conducts the Orchestre National de France in music of Schubert and Berg, with soprano Chen Reiss and clarinetist Patrick Messina, from the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. [France Musique]

  • From the Présences Festival, Oscar Strasnoy leads the Ensemble Zellig in new music by Strasnoy, Masakazu Natsuda, and Vincent Manac’h. [France Musique]

  • More with Argentinian composer Oscar Strasnoy (b. 1970), from the Présences Festival. [France Musique]

  • Yeah, about the Présences Festival and Oscar Strasnoy, Pierre Gervasoni was not exactly impressed, citing the festival's focus on Strasnoy, "a guest of honor of the least notoriety," as the reason for the festival's mediocrity this year. [Le Monde]

  • Violist Antoine Tamestit and pianist Nicholas Angelich offer a recital of Brahms and Schumann, from the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. [France Musique]

  • Hear some of the rising musicians of tomorrow, with the concert of winners at the Révélations des Victoires de la Musique Classique earlier this month. [France Musique]

  • Watch a performance of the Fauré Requiem, with the Orchestre National de Lyon, and Patricia Petibon and Matthias Goerne, under the baton of Josep Pons. [Medici.tv]

  • Listen to a Puccini Festival from the Opéra de Lyon. [France Musique]

  • The Quatuor Voce plays string quartets by Wolfgang Rihm and Maurice Ravel, at the 5ème Biennale de quatuors à cordes, in Paris. [France Musique]

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