tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56073522024-03-18T18:01:48.324-05:00IonartsSomething other than politics in Washington, D.C.Charles T. Downeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14978821617871429169noreply@blogger.comBlogger8750125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607352.post-37086820237604122902024-03-18T06:42:00.001-05:002024-03-18T06:42:38.826-05:00Critic’s Notebook: Gunar Letzbor, Telemann, and Other Baroque Encounters
Also reviewed for Die Presse: Seltene barocke Erscheinungen
Tits'n'Telemann
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J.P.v.Westhoff,
Sei Partite a Violino
Gunar Letzbor
Arcana
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G.P.Telemann,
2 Fantasias for Solo Violin
Gunar Letzbor
Pan Classics
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J.J.Vilsmayr,
Artificosus Concentus pro Camera
Gunar Letzbor
Arcana
<!-Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607352.post-71951663468521563222024-03-16T12:39:00.003-05:002024-03-16T12:43:04.141-05:00Critic’s Notebook: Andrè Schuen and the Lied, A Triumph of Youthfulness
Also reviewed for Die Presse: Triumph der unbändigen Jugend
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F.Schubert,
Die Schöne Müllerin
A.Schuen & D.Heide
DG
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F. Schubert,
Schwanengesang
A.Schuen & D.Heide
DG
Boisterous and rough and beloved
Hard to believe that Andrè Schuen was already a Don Giovanni in Niklaus Harnoncourt’s Theater-an-der-Wien Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607352.post-39483923552069971062024-03-14T09:46:00.001-05:002024-03-14T09:46:19.715-05:00Critic’s Notebook: Incomprehension and Poulenc at a Kirill Gerstein Recital
Also reviewed for Die Presse: Konzerthaus: Chopin, ganz unschmeichelhaft
Chopin, torn, pensive, cerebral
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F.Busoni,
Piano Concerto
K.Gerstein, S.Oramo, Boston Symphony Orchestra
myrios
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G.Fauré,
Nocturnes
Daniel Grimwood
Peter Edition
Kirill Gerstein is a pianist I like greatly. Hard to believe it had been ten years Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607352.post-14042422848480715652024-03-08T11:40:00.002-05:002024-03-08T11:42:54.256-05:00Critic’s Notebook: Too much beauty from the Dresden Staatskapelle and András Schiff?
Also reviewed for Die Presse: Retro-Schönklang im Konzerthaus: So hat man Bach und Mozart lange nicht gehört
An excess of gorgeousness, if that is possible
I’ve never been to a concert where an orchestra played so well and annoyed me as much. The travel-contingent of the Dresden Staatskapelle was in Vienna with Sir András Schiff conducting and playing with them, and it was a bath of Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607352.post-40399033109403312332024-03-05T03:00:00.002-05:002024-03-05T10:53:20.116-05:00Critic’s Notebook: Daniil Trifonov in Recital
Also reviewed for Die Presse: Wie Daniil Trifonov den Mount Beethoven erklomm
Daniil Trifonov - Shtick but Shtupendous!"
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Rachmaninov for Two
S.Babayan/D.Trifonov
DG
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L.v.Beethoven,
Hammerklaviersonate
Maurizio 'The God' Pollini
DG
Sit down, play away. Chop-chop, no dilly-dallying. First thoughts on Trifonov Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607352.post-67473856270844639632024-03-04T07:54:00.004-05:002024-03-14T09:48:04.897-05:00Critic’s Notebook: A Bum Show from the Wiener Concert-Verein
Enthusiasm and good programming are not sufficient as a substitute for good music-making
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S.Coleridge-Taylor,
Violin Concerto, Ballade, African Suite
Chineke! Orchestra
Deccca
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S.Coleridge-Taylor,
Piano & Clarinet Q5ts
Nash Ensemble!
Hyperion
This concert was a while back – but it refuses to become less Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607352.post-72303178347705412642024-03-03T15:00:00.004-05:002024-03-04T13:31:17.165-05:00Critic’s Notebook: Alexander Malofeev gives his recital debut in Vienna
Also reviewed for Die Presse: Sensationell: Ausnahmepianist Alexander Malofeev begeistert bei seinem Wiener Solodebüt
A piano recital to remember: Alexander Malofeev in his solo debut in Vienna
There was a very young, very blond man in front of the Steinway, sitting low, and bent like an adult in a soapbox racer. Did he saw the piano bench’s legs off? For his Vienna recital debut, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607352.post-42980885040013552472024-02-29T00:30:00.000-05:002024-02-29T04:31:26.045-05:00Happy 56th Birthday, Rossini
Fifty-six is no age for a composer and so it is little wonder that Rossini - or at least his music - is alive and well. Born on February 29th, 1792, Gioachino Antonio Rossini soon discovered a penchant and talent in culinary appreciation as well as note-churning. The latter he put to use for the creation of almost 40 operas, the former to support his stately appearance.
So much has been writtenUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607352.post-3525293695077654212024-02-24T13:10:00.004-05:002024-02-25T12:26:07.585-05:00ABT returns to the Kennedy Center with "Swan Lake"Daniel Camargo and Isabella Boylston in Swan Lake with American Ballet Theatre. Photo: Rosalie O’ConnorAmerican Ballet Theatre brought its gorgeous version of Swan Lake back to the Kennedy Center Opera House this week. Last presented here in 2017, when it also sold out, Kevin McKenzie's choreography has not not been substantially altered in the Susan Jaffe. The only thing that stood out was in Charles T. Downeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14978821617871429169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607352.post-9286376524976682492024-02-23T05:30:00.001-05:002024-02-23T05:30:29.854-05:00Critic’s Notebook: Anderszewski Recital, Musikverein
Also reviewed for Die Presse: Piotr Anderszewski: Chopin-Mazurkas verwandeln sich bei ihm in Muränen
A Masterclass in Relaxation and Rubato: Piotr Anderszewski at the Musikverein
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K.Szymanowski, B.Bartók, L.Janáček,
Mazurkas Op. 50, 14 Bagatelles etc.
Piotr Anderszewski
Warner
Piotr Anderszweski was only the replacement, at his piano recital at Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607352.post-3144289992845469022024-02-22T12:20:00.000-05:002024-02-22T12:20:28.636-05:00Music – It Has To Become Part of Me – An Interview with Piotr Anderszewski This interview was conducted in 2011 in Salzburg and initially appeared as part of the long-defunct and deleted Classical WETA blog. I have rescucitated it now, to go with a Critic's Notebook review of a recital of Piotr Anderszewski's at the Musikverein.
Piano troubles? Piotr Anderszewski is preparing in the Mozarteum his concert later that night and is interrupted not just by me—late for myUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607352.post-53063913442278717772024-02-21T10:05:00.003-05:002024-02-21T10:05:58.288-05:00Dip Your Ears: No. 274 (Songs of Morning; Piotr Anderszewski’s Schumann)
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R.Schumann
Piano Music
Piotr Anderszewski
Virgin/Warner, 2011
The delightful unfunniness of Robert SchumannPiotr Anderszewski’s 2011 album of Schumann for Virgin (now part of Warner) had me from the very first notes. That’s, granted, never solely down to the performance at hand: It’s partly a matter of mood, a combination of intangibles and good fortune to have one of Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607352.post-18421063389572897562024-02-20T16:46:00.003-05:002024-02-21T09:31:12.418-05:00Critic’s Notebook: Of Bruckner and Scaffolds with the Vienna Symphony
Also reviewed for Die Presse: Gotteslob und Fallbeil: Constantinos Carydis setzt im Konzerthaus auf Kontrast
Great Contrasts and Constantinos Carydis' missing bells of brass
On paper, the program didn’t look all that promising. In one half Anton Bruckner’s tricky Te Deum – too short to be the main ingredient, too large – full orchestra, choir, four soloists, organist – not to be. In theUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607352.post-63124383609996892482024-02-16T11:22:00.001-05:002024-02-16T11:39:55.390-05:00Critic’s Notebook: Foerster’s Nightingale of Gorenjska
Also reviewed for Die Presse: Habsburger Melange an der Grazer Oper: „Die Nachtigall von Gorenjska“
Charming, lovely, adorably old-fashioned, well-played, soundly directed, and slightly forgettable: Slovenia's 'national opera'received its belated Austrian premiere.
The music sounds like the theaters and opera houses of the firm Fellner & Helmer, which are dotted all around the former Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607352.post-34046186846198909842024-02-14T11:59:00.000-05:002024-02-14T11:59:04.366-05:00Critic’s Notebook: Kill Tosca! (Or Don’t)
Also reviewed for Die Presse: „Tosca“ in der Staatsoper: Scarpia als stiller Sieger
The production of Vienna's Tosca is so old, Joe Biden considered it for his running mate. Should the Staatsoper elect to keep it?
Tosca, oh Tosca. Very possibly the most singularly annoying character in opera, to the point where one wonders, if Puccini had meant to create the caricature of a soprano Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607352.post-74250484973682333392024-02-06T09:30:00.004-05:002024-02-06T09:30:00.174-05:00Dip Your Ears: No. 273 (Rameau’s Glorious Temple)
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J.P.Rameau
Le Temple de la Gloire (1745)
Nicholas McGegan, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale, Soloists
PhilharmoniaBP, 2018
Neglected but fun, this is Rameau for the whole family!
In 2018, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, led by early music expert Nicholas McGegan out of Berkeley, put on Jean-Philippe Rameau’s opera-ballet Le Temple de la Gloire (to Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607352.post-17268331224509855982024-02-05T09:00:00.007-05:002024-02-06T07:23:22.532-05:00Dip Your Ears: No. 272 (La Clemenza di Rolando Villazon)
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W.A.Mozart
La Clemenza di Tito
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Chamber Orchestra of Europe
Joyce DiDonato, Tara Erraught, Regina Mühlemann, Adam Plachetka,
Marina Rebeka, Rolando Villazon
DG, 2018
The Nézet-Séguin Mozart opera project was doomed from the start.
It’d be easy to blame Deutsche Grammophon for having insisted on making their Nézet-Séguin Mozart operas a vehicle Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607352.post-61966595729293257692024-02-03T21:15:00.000-05:002024-02-04T09:07:13.019-05:00Critic’s Notebook: "Gran Toccata" Receives its Belated Premiere in Vienna
Also reviewed for DiePresse: So entsteht ein „moderner Klassiker“
Dieter Ammann's Piano Concerto has unrelenting bite, but also what it takes to become a modern audience favorite.
Five years after it was meant to have been given its world premiere in Vienna, Dieter Ammann’s Piano Concerto Gran Toccata was finally given its first Austrian outing courtesy of the co-commissioning team Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607352.post-32856452176712876042024-02-03T09:23:00.003-05:002024-02-03T09:25:54.777-05:00Critic’s Notebook: Bruckner 4th on the Organ. A Mistake.
Also reviewed for DiePresse: Ein Warnschuss des Brucknerwahnsinns
Bruckner symphonies on the organ. Obvious pursuit or dubious pleasure? An evening at the Konzerthaus suggested strongly one over the other.
It was my own darn fault. I wanted to go hear Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony that Monday, January 22nd, in the Konzerthaus. Played on the organ! Not that it wasn’t promising to hearUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607352.post-44057531761870932832024-02-02T08:33:00.001-05:002024-02-02T08:33:24.007-05:00Dip Your Ears: No. 271 (Gounod, the Pianist)
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Charles Gounod
Piano Works
Roberto Prosseda
Decca, 2018
Something Different from Mr. GounodWe know Charles Gounod as the composer of the grand opera Faust, perhaps also Roméo et Juliette, and of course the “Ave Maria” which, in any case, is mostly Bach. That’s a rather limited view for a composer otherwise so well known. This disc of Roberto Prosseda performing a Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607352.post-23476347898297653762024-01-30T10:34:00.002-05:002024-01-30T10:36:56.476-05:00Critic’s Notebook: Collegium 1704 Resuscitates Heinichen; a Crowning Achievement
Also reviewed for DiePresse: Resonanzen-Finale im Konzerthaus: Neptun macht die Ex-Geliebte zum Mann
The finale of Resonanzen, the annual early music festival of Vienna‘s Konzerthaus, landed on Neptune. And it wasn’t a safe landing: Collegium 1704 positively careened towards the blue planet and dove into the hydrogen and helium atmosphere, like Spaceman Spiff on a more reckless day. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607352.post-32457338848955922342024-01-25T15:14:00.000-05:002024-01-25T15:14:56.916-05:00Critic’s Notebook: Mars – Bringer of Early Italian Baroque
Also reviewed for DiePresse: Konzerthaus: Punktgenaue Marslandung
A rocking dose of early Italian Baroque from Concerto Scirocco
“Resonanzen“, the annual early music festival of Vienna‘s Konzerthaus, circled around to Mars only to land in a heap of early Italian baroque, courtesy of the engaged and dynamic, young baroque ensemble Concerto Scirocco. The instruments signaled “Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607352.post-23185899573583722342024-01-25T10:01:00.005-05:002024-01-25T10:09:39.333-05:00Critic’s Notebook: More English than Toast with Marmite and Cheddar, Fair Oriana
Also reviewed for DiePresse: Resonanzen-Festival: Very charming, indeed
A delightfully frothy mix of British, all-too British baroque from Fair Oriana at Vienna’s Resonanzen Festival.
“Resonanzen“, the annual early music festival of Vienna‘s Konzerthaus, continues and on Sunday had arrived on Venus. It’s an astoundingly British planet, it turns out, courtesy the vocal duo Fair Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607352.post-31003004580062387242024-01-23T12:01:00.011-05:002024-01-25T10:04:31.361-05:00Critic’s Notebook: Christophe Rousset & Atys opens Resonanzen Festival in Vienna
Also reviewed for DiePresse: Bei den „Resonanzen“ geht abends die Sonne auf
A large dose of deligthfully elegant French baqroque from Les Talens Lyriques and Christophe Rousset to open the Vienna Konzerthaus' "Resonanzen" Festival. Perhaps almost too much of a good thing?
“Resonanzen” is the name of the annual early music festival of the Vienna Konzerthaus – now in its 32nd Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5607352.post-55559014670865228252024-01-17T08:20:00.003-05:002024-01-17T08:23:55.963-05:00Briefly Noted: Anderszewski's Central European Survey (CD of the Month)
Janáček, On an Overgrown Path (Book 2) / Szymanowski, Mazurkas (selected) / Bartók, Bagatelles (complete), Piotr Anderszewski
(released on January 26, 2024)
Warner Classics 5419789127 | 65'32"
Schedule conflicts prevented me from hearing Piotr Anderszewski's most recent area recitals at Shriver Hall, in 2023 and 2019, much to my regret. The Polish pianist's program last year included some of Charles T. Downeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14978821617871429169noreply@blogger.com0