Who for Whom - II
It's official: Kurt Masur is out for the LPO's Washington performance. Replacing him is not Osmo Vänskä as we had previously suggested (the wish having been the father of the rumor?) but Charles Dutoit Yan Pascal Tortelier. [Whaaat? Tortelier, not Dutoit? No offense, but that sucks. And I was just going to tout Dutoit as another improvement over solid-stolid Kapellmeister Masur.]
Anyway... it wouldn't be March-Madness for WPAS if all they had to replace was two conductors and one pianist. Let's throw the possibility of a bailing violinist out there, too. No Khachatryan? - No Problem: There is another capable (and sexier) replacement waiting in the wings. Stepping in, gracefully, would be Arabella Steinbacher. Vänskä, Tortelier, Dutoit or Masur, Khachatryan or Steinbacher - the concert (Britten, Khachaturian, Tchaikovsky) still promises to be an event that WPAS should have no problem filling decently. That only leaves them worrying about convincing patrons not to return their tickets for Perahia-cum-Peter Serkin and his program of Beethoven's Hammerklavier (daring stuff; last one to try in the region almost didn't live to tell that tale) preceded by transcribed Renaissance songs.
5 comments:
Totally agree with your review of the last Hammerklavier. Did you know that it's on of Pollini's Barbican recital this month? And we have no program hints from WPAS yet. Dare we hope for 3 in one season?
Hello JFL
After 5 weeks of thinking about equal musics, I have committed this. You might find it fun and your comments would be most highly appreciated.
Gawain
Terry: If Pollini fills one half of the recital with 106, I'll be in heaven. One half, at any rate, will be taken up by Chopin Nocturnes... we don't need an announcement to know that.
Chopin Nocturnes??? No way! Not Pollini. And it's not just my opinion: "With the recent release of a signal disc of Chopin nocturnes, you might imagine that he would be giving recitals on the back of it, but that is not Pollini's way. Alongside the Mozart piano quartets, he has boldly programmed radical music by such 20th-century composers as Webern, Boulez and his fellow Italian, Luigi Nono," from the Arts. Telegraph article (published just before Pollini's recital at the Barbican).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/03/09/bmpollini09.xml&sSheet=/arts/2006/03/11/ixartright.html
FYI: if he would have played at the Barbican on March 16, his program would look like this:
Beethoven Sonata no.1 in F minor, op 2, no 1
Schoenberg 3 Pieces for Piano, op 11
Schoenberg 6 Small Pieces for Piano, op 19
Beethoven Sonata no.29 in B-flat major, 'Hammerklavier', op 106
Unfortunately, his recital was cancelled.
p.s. "Who for Whom" Part 3 ?
This Performance has been Cancelled
Don't you do that to me, Pollini-man. No,no,no,no,no... don't even think about it. You go to bed now, pronto, have a hot cup of somethin' and get in fightin' shape by the time you are to appear at Strathmore. Remember, 8PM, sharp!
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