In Brief: Chance of Snow Edition

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

• Watch James Conlon conduct the Orchestre de Paris and the Chœur de l'Orchestre de Paris (also available as audio only) in Debussy's Trois Nocturnes and Poulenc's Gloria (with Patricia Petibon as soloist), plus Samuel Barber's violin concerto with Gil Shaham. [ARTE Live Web]


• Listen to a performance of Philip Glass's opera Les enfants terribles, with Emmanuel Olivier conducting the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, live from the Grand-Théâtre de Bordeaux. [France Musique]


• More contemporary music, most of it inspired by rock music, with the so-called Fête de l'Humanité from the Parc de La Courneuve, including pieces by Didier Benetti, Graham Fitkin, Edgard Varèse, Frank Zappa, Iannis Xenakis, Christopher Rouse, and Stewart Copeland. [France Musique]


• A concert devoted to music of John Cage, with the vocal ensemble Exaudi and friends, from the Théâtre de la Ville as part of the Festival d'Automne in Paris. [France Musique]


• In hagiographical news, Pope Benedict XVI has announced that he will canonize Hildegard von Bingen, the medieval abbess, mystic, and composer, and name her a Doctor of the Church. Some see the move as a possible hint of movement from the Vatican to reform liturgical music practices in the Catholic Mass. [The Chant Café]


• Watch Paul Agnew conduct Les Arts Florissants in a concert of Monteverdi's second book of madrigals. [Cité de la Musique Live]


• Listen to the Chœur de Radio France perform sacred music by Liszt and Kodály, in the Basilique Sainte-Clotilde. [France Musique]


• Watch Valery Gergiev conduct the Israel Philharmonic in Beethoven's third symphony, plus Gil Shaham in two violin concertos, by Bruch (no. 1) and Tchaikovsky. [ARTE Live Web]


• Revisit the performances of the last two winners of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, Denis Kozhukhin and Anna Vinnitskaya. (Click on the headphones icon under the heading "(ré)écouter.") [France Musique]


• Watch the Orchestre National du Capitole perform music by Tchaikovsky and Brahms, plus Musorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death with soloists Tugan Sokhiev and Olga Borodina. [Medici.tv]


• Vladimir Ashkenazy conducts the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in a program of Prokofiev, Roussel, and Strauss, with violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja. [France Musique]


• For more ideas on good music to be heard, for little to nothing, Tim Page has a nice piece in this weekend's Washington Post. The paper's beloved former music critic is in town for a couple weeks as an end-of-the-year bonus for Washingtonians. [Washington Post]


• Listen to soprano Polina Pasztirczak give a recital of German Lieder by Strauss and others, with pianists Jan Philip Schulze and Jean-Frédéric Neuburger. [France Musique]


• As widely reported earlier this week, legendary harpsichordist, teacher, and early music luminary Gustav Leonhardt played what he says will be his last concert on Monday. Now 83 years old and appearing frail and thin at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris, Leonhardt says that health concerns required him to cancel the rest of his engagements in 2012. Jacques Drillon reported on the extraordinary event of this final concert: "The theater was packed, with some listeners even being seated on cushions on the floor, and the auditorium included a striking number of musicians, especially harpsichord players, all more or less his students, or students of his students." We wish him good health and some well-deserved rest. [Le Nouvel Observateur]


• More Strauss and Mahler, this time chamber music performed by Jean-Frédéric Neuburger and friends. [France Musique]


• The Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris is showing an exhibit of art by the German sculptor and painter Georg Baselitz, through January 29. Here is a video (en français). [Le Point]


• The Chœur de Radio France and the Orchestre National de France perform Beethoven's Mass in C Major, under the baton of Colin Davis, plus Beethoven's fourth piano concerto with soloist Nicholas Angelich. [France Musique]


• In another example of the worst parts of American culture invading France, Michel Legrand, among several others, has released an album of Christmas music. An article by Jessica Rat explains to the French what a Christmas album is. [L'Express]