Notes from Istanbul: Brahms, Dead on Arrival

At the heart of a recent press-junket to İstanbul lied the Borusan İstanbul Philharmonic Orchestra. It’s a very young orchestra, sort of a bit older version of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, except 95% Turkish (a few Romanians sprinkled in; with a clear female majority) which is the result of actively appreciated circumstance. After all, the Borusan Foundation intends to further classical music in Turkey as something that is an integral part of the Turkish fabric, not superimposed from the outside—the route some high-spending orchestras in the Middle East are taking. In the 20 years since its foundation, the orchestra has become unquestionably Turkey’s best. That means little in relative terms; more in absolute—as their success on CD and with critics abroad confirms. They even impressed Markus Hinterhäuser enough that he had the orchestra play at the 2010 Salzburg Festival… admittedly in return for a healthy Borusan sponsorship of its visiting orchestras program.

It was good to have known something of the orchestra’s abilities—and to have them confirmed later that week, in rehearsal for the next concert, because their outing at the Türkiye İş Bankası (“İşbank”) İstanbul Music Festival in their İş Sanat Arts and Culture Centre was, in a word, pitiful.

The concert series is laudable and studded with the world’s foremost classical musicians, but the İş Sanat-İstanbul Hall located in the Bank’s İş Towers building, is the worst I have heard yet, although I’m assured, unfathomable though it seems, that İstanbul features even worse. It’s essentially a conference hall on the second floor of an office tower, with a ten foot ceiling and inch-thick carpet everywhere. Carpet, synonymous for comfort and luxury in the region, appears to be a universal affliction of Turkish concert halls. One simply cannot receive society in Turkey, so it seems to foreign eyes, in an uncarpeted abode. The air-conditioning hiss from above is no help. Phrases fall on the thick floor, lifeless. The strings sound flattened as if made of paper, and darkly synthetic.

It’s hard to tell in such a space what not to blame on the acoustic… a hall that is in no way adequate for the purpose of such concerts, a hall that kills more Brahms than it facilitates. The short and dirty of the evening: No Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto and Brahms First Symphony would have been better than under these conditions. To have been sitting way up front added chaos to muddle: As would be expected, the sound in the second row of that hall doesn’t come together at all, you hear individual bits and not all of them and those you hear are way off balance.

The noises emitted from the piano arrived in such erratic a state that critique or praise of the soloist—a joyously ardent, slightly overburdened Emre Şen—is impossible or at least inappropriate. The soloist’s comfort-level may have been expressed by the ponderously slow tempos that Goetzel adapted for the concerto, though. Interpretatively this was a heavy and cliché-flirting soup of high romanticism, passionately presented like Turkish desserts: dense and sweet… high fructose Rachmaninoff-syrup.

That there was no applause after the first movement was disappointing in one sense, namely that the music certainly asks for it and any audience not schooled in well-meaning but misguided concert etiquette would burst into applause. But it was understandably in another sense… in that it simply hadn’t been a rousing affair at all in that all-dulling acoustic.

The idea of an encore under the circumstances scared me; the devil of Träumerei was perceptible on the walls. But Emre Şen didn’t go down the path over-travelled, he chose a spunky piece unfamiliar enough to baffle me entirely (perhaps Saygun or Ulvi Cemal Erkin?), that reminded me of another superb encore piece, Rzewski’s Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues.

J.Brahms, Symphonies 1-4, G.Wand / NDRSO RCA

Moving all the way back to row Z for the Brahms Symphony paid some dividends. The harsh dynamic remained; much of the ungainly, flattened, and luster-lacking string sound too, but the severe imbalances were rectified. The second movement and the hectic, fluctuating, intriguing finale very discernable as having been well played, in an altogether exclamation-mark dotted performance for which Sascha Goetzel, a man visibly enjoying his grand gestures, employed mercifully quick tempos.

A week later, the orchestra prepared for the next concert, at a different, marginally better hall: Holst (Perfect Fool), Bernstein, and Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto with Victoria Mullova fiddling. The orchestra’s rehearsal space is the top floor of a BMW and Range Rover dealership, a good 15 miles and 30 minutes outside İstanbul, past the Belgrade forest and into the satellite towns illegally built and not likely to withstand the next earthquake,. As elevator doors on the third floor opened, the full musical brunt of Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story Symphonic Dances” hit me and an equally curious colleague from Finnish Television in the face.

What we saw and heard, eavesdropping on one of their 4 ½ hour rehearsals, was an orchestra no longer dismal but borderline glorious. The Borusan Philharmonic is still a decent wind section away from true glories, but here they worked with relaxed enthusiasm in an acoustic that sound like the Concertgebouw compared to the İş Sanat-İstanbul Hall. Bernstein’s little firecracker-piece seemed to suit the mentality of the orchestra better than Brahms, too, and Bernstein knew, of course, when not to resist the temptation for clap and razzle-dazzle.

With such nascent quality, it’s good to know that the orchestra is set to move into a new, promising concert hall within the next year. The Borusan Philharmonic might then be heard in the decent acoustic its concerts (and the orchestra itself) deserve.

In Brief: Giving Thanks Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to online audio, online video, and other good things in Blogville and Beyond. (After clicking to an audio or video stream, press the "Play" button to start the broadcast.)

• Watch clarinetist Martin Fröst with the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, under the baton of Giovanni Antonini, founder of the Il Giardino Armonico, with music by Kraus, Mozart, and Beethoven. [Medici.tv]


• The JACK Quartet played music by Mincek, Cage, Bianchi, and Robin and at the Festival Musica in Strasbourg in September. [France Musique]


• Have a listen to the winners of this year's Hamamatsu International Piano Competition. [Medici.tv]


• From the Auditorium du Louvre last month, a recital by violinist Ray Chen and pianist Julien Quentin. [France Musique]


• David Zinman conducts the Vienna Symphony in Bruckner's fourth symphony, and with Nelson Freire as soloist, in Schumann's A minor piano concerto. [Österreichischer Rundfunk]


• Listen to the NDR Radiophilharmonie perform music by Weill and Haydn under conductor Michael Sanderling, with violinist Daniel Hope in Bruch's first violin concerto. [France Musique]


• Michele Mariotti conducts Rossini's Matilde di Shabran at this summer's Pesaro Festival. [Österreichischer Rundfunk]


• The Maîtrise de Radio France performs sacred music from the 19th century in the Basilica of Sainte-Clotilde. [France Musique]


• Cornelius Meister conducts the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien in music by Dvořák and Srnka. [Österreichischer Rundfunk]


• Pianists Pascal Rogé and Amy Rogé join the Orchestre National de France, under conductor Andrew Grams, for a program of music by Poulenc and Mozart, from the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. [France Musique]


• Frans Brüggen conducts the Orchester des 18. Jahrhunderts in music by Bach and Rameau. [Österreichischer Rundfunk]


• The Ensemble Contraste joins mezzo-soprano Karine Deshayes for music by Gabriel Fauré, Ernest Chausson, and Guillaume Lekeu, from the Auditorium de Dijon. [France Musique]


• John Storgårds conducts the Helsinki Philharmonic in Nielsen's fourth symphony, plus Tchaikovsky with cellist Gautier Capuçon. [Österreichischer Rundfunk]


• Archival recordings of the Vienna Philharmonic in music of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. [Österreichischer Rundfunk]


• Music by Vierne, Fauré, Debussy, and Ravel from cellist Xavier Phillips and pianist Florent Boffard, from the Auditorium de Dijon. [France Musique]


• From this summer's Prague Early Music Festival the ensemble Forma Antiqva in music by José de Nebra, Santiago de Murcia, Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger, and Domenico Scarlatti. [Österreichischer Rundfunk]


• More Debussy and Ravel from the Auditorium de Dijon, with violinist David Grimal, cellist Xavier Phillips, and pianist Claire Désert. [France Musique]


• Also, a recital at the Auditorium de Dijon by mezzo-soprano Karine Deshayes and pianist Philippe Cassard. [France Musique]


• From September's Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, the song cycle Die schöne Müllerin with tenor Mauro Peter and pianist Helmut Deutsch. [Österreichischer Rundfunk]


• Mezzo-soprano Ida Aldrian and organist Sigrid Gartner team up for a program of music by Bach, Mozart, Brahms, and Mendelssohn. [Österreichischer Rundfunk]


• Listen to a performance of Bellini's I puritani recorded earlier this month at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, from the forces of the Opéra de Lyon under Evelino Pido. [France Musique]


• From 1959, Karl Böhm conducts Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Metropolitan Opera, with George London (Don Giovanni), Eleanor Steber (Donna Anna), Cesare Valletti (Don Ottavio), and Lisa Della Casa (Donna Elvira). [Österreichischer Rundfunk]

Briefly Noted: Drama Queens

Drama Queens (Handel, Hasse, Monteverdi, et al.), J. DiDonato, Il Complesso Barocco, A. Curtis (released on November 6, 2012) Virgin 5099960265425 | 67'54"

We are longtime fans of mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, especially for her contributions to the series of Handel opera recordings from the historically informed performance ensemble Il Complesso Barocco and conductor Alan Curtis. Sadly, the concert tour coinciding with the release of her new album of Baroque arias did not come through Washington this time: the experience of DiDonato's charming stage presence in live performance would likely increase one's enjoyment of this new disc. Certainly, it is all music beautifully performed, both the blazing vocal pyrotechnics of DiDonato, with florid embellishments worked out to maximum effect, and the refined, perfectly scaled sound of Il Complesso Barocco, all sensitively brought together under Curtis's direction. No complaints about the choice of repertory, either, as beyond two familiar arias by Handel (from Alcina and Giulio Cesare in Egitto), one from Haydn's Armida, and Octavia's showstopping "Disprezzata regina" from Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, the selection consists of composers rarely recorded, including Giuseppe Orlandini (two arias from Berenice, recently rediscovered), Giovanni Porta, Reinhard Keiser, Johann Hasse, Antonio Cesti, and Geminiano Giacomelli. At the same time, this disc does not strike me as standing out that much from what DiDonato has done before, certainly not to the degree that the many rapturous reviews thus far have seemed to indicate. It is a voice with many delights to offer, including pinpoint accuracy in the rapid passages, a simple, warm tone that can float at pianissimo, and also powerful zing at the top when it is at full bore -- in some ways, powered by the slightly obtrusive vibrato flutter that can mar intonation in the middle range and at softer dynamics. Worth a listen, definitely, but not a must-hear.

À mon chevet: Lennox Berkeley

À mon chevet is a series of posts featuring a quote from whatever book is on my nightstand at the moment.

The difficulty of assessing the value of contemporary works of art is well known. We can always seem to be either too close or too far away to see them in their true perspective. If we can understand or perhaps even speak their language, we are too close, too grateful for their expression of what we ourselves would express, while if we can only feel at home with the idiom of earlier periods, we fail to grasp their meaning. This is one of the reasons why such diverse and even contradictory opinions prevail on the subject of modern art. In music this divergence of opinion is perhaps not quite so apparent as in the other arts because people find themselves more easily out of their depth in discussing it, and are more prepared to leave the matter in the hands of experts. And yet, the desire for music and for a music that can adequately speak the language of today, is felt by many people at the present time.

[...]

Britten is in a sense an extremely traditional composer. The novelty of his music does not consist in any new discovery of musical language or form. He relies on the freshness and individuality of his musical thought rather than on deliberate innovation. True originality in an artist does not consist in his being peculiar, but in his being peculiar to himself. There is no new system here, but a personal and new use of an established one. It is sometimes said that certain composers, even some of the great ones, are a law unto themselves, outside the main stream of music. This can certainly be said of Stravinsky and to some extent of Debussy. Britten, on the other hand, belongs very much to the main stream.

-- Lennox Berkeley, essay on Benjamin Britten's first string quartet (The Listener, May 27, 1943), republished in Lennox Berkeley and Friends: Writings, Letters, and Interviews, ed. Peter Dickinson (Boydell Press, 2012)

Peter Dickinson has dedicated this new book, which includes transcripts of his interviews with musicians who knew Lennox Berkeley, to conductor Richard Hickox, who has made a series of excellent recordings of Berkeley's music. I am most familiar with Berkeley's liturgical music, from performing it, but after reading Dickinson's book, I am keen to hear more of his symphonic and chamber music. His son, Michael Berkeley, is also active as a composer.

Notes from Istanbul: With the Ears of an Ass

During my stay in İstanbul, I had the opportunity to see an opera in the charming little, 600 seat Süreyya Opereti opera house in the Kadıköy district, a quick commuter-ferry ride from the European side of the town. The house has a story of itself; built in the 1920s, it was never actually used for opera before becoming a movie theater in the 30s. Only in 2007, after extensive redevelopment, was it returned to its intended purpose and is now home to İstanbul’s State Opera and Ballet… at least as long the Atatürk Cultural Center with the city’s main opera house is being renovated.

Opera in İstanbul has a good deal of history, largely because the interests of the region’s primary jump-starter of (Occidental) Classical Music, Giuseppe Donizetti Pasha—Imperial Ottoman Instructor General of Music at the court of Sultan Mahmud II, ran in that direction. In his twenty-eight years in the city, until his death in 1856, the famous composer’s elder brother shaped the musical scene in then—Constantinople well beyond military music (where Turkey’s modern orchestral tradition started). The opera scene’s emphasis on Italian fare reflects that to this day.

On this occasion it wasn’t Donizetti jr. or early Verdi, but a homegrown, Turkish opera by Ferit Tüzün (1929-1977). I wouldn’t have pretended familiarity even with the name Tüzün, except that I did actually attend (and forget) a performance of his (exquisite) Capriccio à la turque a couple years ago. A cursory glance at his biography in Evin İlyasoğlu’s handy “71 Turkish Composers” proved promising: Munich educated, Tüzün studied with Fritz Lehmann and received moral support from Karl Amadeus Hartmann, and Carl Orff. My local chaperon, the founder and publisher of Andante (the country’s foremost, possibly only, classical müsik magazine) and seemingly infinitely knowledgeable about Istanbul’s fledgling classical music scene, also chimed in that Tüzün was a composer of very agreeable music.

Midas’ Ears (Midas'ýn Kulaklari), a satirical opera in two acts, is decidedly not such one. It’s a silly little thing; an operatic soufflé in the tradition of Italian musical farces (Donizetti et al.), with plenty dialogue (at least half the duration), easy to follow even without any grasp of Turkish or subtitles, and not a little ham-handed: “Gilbert & Sullivan go to Turkey”, except not very funny and musically not as compelling. While the veteran ears of my similarly dismayed accomplice heard simplistic Stravinsky, I heard lesser Rosza, and even then more in aspiration than achievement. There was a repeated oboe melody the chaps from Midsomer Murders might have inadvertently lifted, and a big, orchestral and choral climax: Let’s do a silly little dance and hop away to third rate Orff.

The eager production was droll; amiable at best. The lackluster dance numbers, the naturalistic costumes, the small stage (hardly anyone’s fault), the bad wigs: there were definite touches of a revue number as it might be described in Wodehouse, replete with scarlet tights and a frightful false beards. Charming, in a naïve sort of way.

The story, for completeness sake: Midas, evidently before his precious haptic affliction, is asked to judge a music contest between Apollo and Pan. Apollo goes first and every bystander pretends delight with the fair sounds. Only a barber admits to hear nothing. Frustrated with the others’ pretense he tricks a buddy into finally admitting as much: a case of The Emperor has no Notes. It’s not clear whether Midas really hears the music, perceptible only to sensitive and refined ears. When Pan plays, everyone can hear alright, but no one likes it. A clever, self-deprecating twist of Tüzün’s, who wrote a dodecaphonic virtuoso piece for Pan’s appearance. Midas gives the prize to Pan, anyway.

The synopsis suggests he does this just to mess with cocksure Apollo. My willful interpretation is that even a wild and queer music is better than merely imagined sounds. (In the underlying myth King Tmolus judged, awarded Apollo, and Midas, a follower of Pan, merely dissented too vigorously.) In any case, Apollo is not amused and gives Midas a set of donkey’s ears. In choppy small scenes, one after another, Midas goes through denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—only to have, just as he comes to terms with his new look, the ears taken away again, suggesting another course of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Fortunately the opera ends before that happens.

The singers were decent, which was enough given how little they had to sing. Among them, Sedat Öztoprak’s Midas still had the most to do. He isn’t a vocal wonder and somewhat past his prime, but a sonorous Verdi baritone can be detected beneath the veneer. Apollo’s voice (courtesy Zefer Erdaş) was that of a well worn bass with a still-pleasant timbre in the lower tessitura. The Barber’s is a speaking comedic rôle, performed by the retired tenor and audience-favorite Süha Yildiz who hammed it up like a 70s Bollywood actor. Tülay Uyar stole the Queen of the Night’s costume from a previous production of the Magic Flute and sang her short bit as Moon Goddess nicely. The quip that she not quit her day job would be apt, not malevolent in this case: she doubles as the company’s PR manager.

The opera’s moral suggests to “turn uniqueness (adversity) to strength” and that being “different is but a matter of fashion”. Tüzün’s opera fails on both counts: the opera can’t overcome the inherent weaknesses of the hokey form of the farce. And while he manages to sound different from any composer, eschewing most avant-garde trends, he fails to sound unique, much less fashionable. Tüzün is better served performing other works—like the Capriccio à la turque.

Read more »

WNO's Bite-Sized New Operas

(L to R) Yuri Gorodetzki, Julia Mintzer, Soloman Howard, María Eugenia Antúnez, Washington National Opera (photo by Scott Suchman)

One of the many benefits of Washington National Opera's merger with the Kennedy Center is that the company can now use the Terrace Theater and other venues for different kinds of productions, ones not likely to fill the Opera House. This summer, WNO created the American Opera Initiative, a project to foster young composers and librettists in the creation of new American operas. This is something, it is often repeated ad nauseam in certain quarters, that the word "National" inserted into the company's name, and the limited government support that comes with it, obliges WNO to do. Obligation or not, it is an admirable and welcome development, reviving the concept behind the company's presentation of Scott Wheeler's Democracy back in 2005 -- a smaller venue, young singers, a workshop creative process, and even conductor Anne Manson. The result was three 20-minute operas by young, but by no means unaccomplished composers and librettists, presented in a semi-staged concert format with a chamber ensemble of violin, viola, cello, flute, clarinet (and bass clarinet), bassoon (and saxophone), and a pile of percussion instruments.

As I have said many times, although there are some who do not like to hear me say it, most new works of music throughout history have been failures -- in the long term, that is. So, there is really no reason to expect new operas to be golden successes, especially considering that far fewer new operas ever see the light of day in our era than in previous ones. I am always glad to hear new works of music, because the vitality of the art depends on it, but I generally expect to hear such new pieces only once before they fade into oblivion. In a way, the format imposed by the American Opera Initiative dooms these works to failure. A 20-minute opera is unlikely ever to be produced anywhere else, except by small companies that specialize in pocket opera and reach a relatively limited audience. Even so, limits reveal strengths and weaknesses: a composer and librettist who can hold your attention in a short work may have a better chance of creating a durable longer work.

What great operas of the past should composers and librettists take as models for this sort of challenge? What characteristics do short operas that have stood the test of time have in common? Some of my favorites are Poulenc’s La voix humaine (40 minutes), Ravel’s L’heure espagnole (50 minutes) and L’enfant et les sortilèges (45 minutes), Schoenberg's Erwartung (30 minutes), Barber's A Hand of Bridge (10 minutes), Menotti's The Telephone (5 minutes) -- there are many more, but not all created equal. Most of these focus mostly or exclusively on one character, and in such a short time there is not much hope of developing more than that.

Other Reviews: Philip Kennicott, Grads of WNO’s American Opera Initiative present original works at Kennedy Center (Washington Post, November 21)

The best effort of the night -- Charon, with music by Scott Perkins and libretto by Nat Cassidy -- followed that example. The story was centered on the mythological character of Charon, ferrying an endless stream of condemned souls across the Styx and frankly getting a little tired of it. Perkins created a meaty title role for remarkable bass Soloman Howard, fresh off a main stage appearance as the Commendatore in WNO's Don Giovanni and frankly sounding in much better voice here. With its echoes of Sartre's Huis clos ("L'enfer, c'est les autres"), juxtaposition of grim humor and hellscape, and the most evocative use of the limited instrumentation by a long shot, it was a work not without shortcomings but which I would gladly hear again and take the chance to study the score.

The works on either side were, by comparison, instantly forgettable. Part of the Act, with music by Liam Wade and libretto by John Grimmett, was a skimpy bagatelle of a story, about an infidelity and the attempt to cover it up in a vaudeville club dressing room in the 1920s. It had some flashy vocal writing for soprano Shantelle Przybylo (Ginger, the striptease artist), a fateful quotation of the opening motif of Beethoven's fifth symphony, and a lot of derivative jazz and operetta styling. A Game of Hearts, with music by Douglas Pew and libretto by Dara Weinberg, tried to make something profound out of a meeting of hearts in a retirement community, but it ended up feeling like the libretto needing trimming -- quite a feat for a 20-minute work -- right around the time it reached its climactic duet. The musical style was again rather unimaginative, mostly Broadway but with operatic high notes and complicated harmonies in the trio, but with none of the memorable tunes of the great Broadway composers. Both of these operas seemed to bear too much of the imprint of composer Jake Heggie and librettist Mark Campbell, who served the three composers as mentors. At the podium, Manson made sure each work received an optimal reading, with some other standout vocal contributions from mezzo-soprano Julia Mintzer and soprano María Eugenia Antúnez.

WNO's America Opera Initiative continues this summer, with the staging of a new one-hour opera, The Tao of Muhammad Ali (A Ghost Story), by D. J. Sparr (June 8 and 9), in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

Notes from Istanbul: Saariaho World Premiere

The Borusan Culture & Arts Foundation, the artistic and charitable offshoot of the Borusan Holding Company has a “Music House” on İstanbul’s İstiklal Avenue, the downtown pedestrian zone in the Pera district, custom built to show off its modern art collection, but also the home to contemporary classical music. Artists and ensembles are invited to fill the six storey building with roof top terrace with sounds, and works are commissioned to make them unique sounds. The latest such work was penned by Kaija Saariaho: Frises for violin and electronics, inspired by Odilon Redon’s painted friezes

Richard Schmoucler, violinist in the Orchestre de Paris, first came in touch with Saariaho’s music during the Paris performances of L’Amour de loin. That led to a greater immersion in her sound world and finally, through the Borusan commission, to Frises, which Schmoucler specifically envisioned as part of a program including Bach’s Chaconne and Ysaÿe’s Second Sonata. On Friday, November 2^nd, he finally got to play it, with Mme. Saariaho at the mixing board pushing buttons and sliding sliders with fierce concentration.

K.Saariaho, Orchestral Works, various Ondine

After a long, mono-tonous [sic], quiet first movement, Frises develops and blooms into something quite beautiful, with long glassy marimba-like harmonies, echoes and halos. Schmoucler is asked to engage in self-recording himself at set intervals, then re-playing with himself, after his recorded alter ego's sound has been sent back with more or less manipulation along the way. The third of four movements, Pavage, is the most engaged, frantically chasing little echo-y runs up and down the instrument, and dotted with violent pizzicatos. It thrashes onward and forward until it finally runs out of steam and disemboguing into the Frise grise, which concludes this aural immersion with something akin to whale-song. If Saariaho’s works are often monochrome and austere; this is a joyously lively and colorful, thoroughly engaging treat.

The earlier works—Ysaÿe’s Sonata and the whole Second Partita of Bach, were a nice setup, very decently performed. In the Ysaÿe I wasn’t keen on the pauses or the terraced dynamics that make so much of the work’s Prelude. It wasn’t the cleanest performance, either, but then the Sonata (which Schmoucler finished with an uncommonly excellent Les furies) is a tough cookie to open the concert with. Even more so in a concert consisting entirely of difficult, unforgiving works that keep the performer out on a limb at all times. Schmoucler’s instrument shone in the Bach with a character-rich, dark, viola-like tone and resonance, even if the inherent necessity to play the work at hand, which Schmoucler had spoken about passionately just the night before, sadly eluded me. Until the Saariaho piece, at least.

See also Johannes Baumann's interview with Kaija Saariaho (video & transcript)

Classical Month in Washington (December)

Last month | Next monthClassical Month in Washington is a monthly feature. If there are concerts you would like to see included on our schedule, send your suggestions by e-mail (ionarts at gmail dot com). Happy listening!

December 1, 2012 (Sat)
2 pm
Lukáš Vondrácek, piano
WPAS
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

December 1, 2012 (Sat)
5 pm
21st Century Consort
Music by Brehm, Ives, Rush, Stravinsky
Smithsonian American Art Museum

December 1, 2012 (Sat)
5 pm
Washington Bach Consort
Music by Bach for Advent, Christmas
National Presbyterian Church

December 1, 2012 (Sat)
8 pm
National Symphony Orchestra
With Jonathan Biss, piano
Kennedy Center Concert House

December 1, 2012 (Sat)
8 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
With Mario Venzago (conductor) and Sol Gabetta (cello)
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

December 2, 2012 (Sun)
2 pm
Strauss, Die Fledermaus
Virginia Opera
GMU Center for the Arts

December 2, 2012 (Sun)
3 pm
Piano Society of Greater Washington [FREE]
Montgomery College Performing Arts Center (Silver Spring, Md.)

December 2, 2012 (Sun)
4 pm
Hermitage Trio
Phillips Collection

December 2, 2012 (Sun)
5:30 pm
Piotr Anderszewski, piano
Shriver Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

December 2, 2012 (Sun)
6:30 pm
Reformation Lutheran Church Choir [FREE]
National Gallery of Art

December 2, 2012 (Sun)
7 pm
Cantus
Dumbarton Oaks

December 2, 2012 (Sun)
7:30 pm
Bella Hristova, violin
JCCGW (Rockville, Md.)

December 3, 2012 (Mon)
7:30 pm
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
WPAS
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

December 3, 2012 (Mon)
8 pm
Cantus
Dumbarton Oaks

December 4, 2012 (Tue)
12:10 pm
Noontime Cantata: Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 62 [FREE]
Washington Bach Consort
Church of the Epiphany

December 4, 2012 (Tue)
7:30 pm
Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra
WPAS
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

December 5, 2012 (Wed)
10 and 11:30 am
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
The Nutcracker (children's concert)
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

December 5, 2012 (Wed)
7:30 pm
Nutcracker
Ballet West
Kennedy Center Opera House

December 5, 2012 (Wed)
8 pm
New Music at University of Maryland [FREE]
Clarice Smith Center

December 6, 2012 (Thu)
7 pm
National Symphony Orchestra
With Yuja Wang, piano
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

December 6, 2012 (Thu)
7:30 pm
Nutcracker
Ballet West
Kennedy Center Opera House

December 6, 2012 (Thu)
7:30 pm
Amernet String Quartet
Pro Musica Hebraica
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

December 6, 2012 (Thu)
7:30 pm
Christmas in Luxembourg
Embassy Series
Embassy of Luxembourg

December 6, 2012 (Thu)
8 pm
University of Maryland Wind Orchestra
Clarice Smith Center

December 7, 2012 (Fri)
10 and 11:30 am
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
The Nutcracker (children's concert)
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

December 7, 2012 (Fri)
7:30 pm
Nutcracker
Ballet West
Kennedy Center Opera House

December 7, 2012 (Fri)
7:30 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Handel, Messiah
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

December 7, 2012 (Fri)
8 pm
National Symphony Orchestra
With Yuja Wang, piano
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

December 7, 2012 (Fri)
8 pm
Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
University of Maryland School of Music
Clarice Smith Center

December 8, 2012 (Sat)
11 am
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Tchaikovsky, The Nutcracker
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

December 8, 2012 (Sat)
1:30 and 7:30 pm
Nutcracker
Ballet West
Kennedy Center Opera House

December 8, 2012 (Sat)
7:30 pm
Vienna Boys Choir
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

December 8, 2012 (Sat)
8 pm
A Palestrina Christmas
Chantry
St. Mary, Mother of God

December 8, 2012 (Sat)
8 pm
University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra
Clarice Smith Center

December 8, 2012 (Sat)
8 pm
Fairfax Symphony Orchestra
GMU Center for the Arts

December 8, 2012 (Sat)
8 pm
National Symphony Orchestra
With Yuja Wang, piano
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

December 9, 2012 (Sun)
1:30 and 7:30 pm
Nutcracker
Ballet West
Kennedy Center Opera House

December 9, 2012 (Sun)
3 and 7 pm
MCYO
With Nurit Bar-Josef and Jonathan Carney, violins
Music Center at Strathmore

December 9, 2012 (Sun)
3 pm
Festive Baroque
University of Maryland Chamber Singers
Clarice Smith Center

December 9, 2012 (Sun)
3 pm
Eclipse Chamber Orchestra
Music by Vivaldi, Bach
George Washington Masonic Temple (Alexandria, Va.)

December 9, 2012 (Sun)
4 pm
Jennifer Frautschi (violin) and John Blacklow (piano)
Phillips Collection

December 9, 2012 (Sun)
6 pm
What Makes It Great?
With Rob Kapilow, lecturer
Music by Dvořák
National Museum of Natural History

December 9, 2012 (Sun)
6:30 pm
Great Noise Ensemble [FREE]
National Gallery of Art

December 9, 2012 (Sun)
7 pm
Curtis On Tour
Jason Vieaux (guitar) and Roberto Diaz (viola)
Candlelight Concert Society
Smith Theatre, Howard Community College (Columbia, Md.)

December 9, 2012 (Sun)
7:30 pm
Kennedy Center Chamber Players
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

December 11, 2012 (Tue)
7:30 pm
Fine Arts Quartet
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

December 12, 2012 (Wed)
12:10 pm
Joseph Smith, piano [FREE]
National Gallery of Art

December 12, 2012 (Wed)
7:30 pm
Vinson Cole, tenor
Vocal Arts D.C.
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

December 13, 2012 (Thu)
6:30 pm
Matthias Pintscher, composer
Phillips Collection

December 14, 2012 (Fri)
8 pm
Folger Consort
Florence: Christmas Music of the Trecento
Folger Shakespeare Library

December 14, 2012 (Fri)
8 pm
Vienna Boys Choir: Christmas in Vienna
GMU Center for the Arts

December 15, 2012 (Sat)
2 pm
The Paganini Project
Peter Sheppard-Skærved, violin [FREE]
Library of Congress

December 15, 2012 (Sat)
5 pm
21st Century Consort
The Passion of Scrooge or A Christmas Carol
Music by Britten, Jon Deak
Smithsonian American Art Museum

December 15, 2012 (Sat)
5 and 8 pm
Folger Consort
Florence: Christmas Music of the Trecento
Folger Shakespeare Library

December 15, 2012 (Sat)
7 pm
U.S. Army Chorus
Châteauville Foundation (Castleton Farms, Va.)

December 15, 2012 (Sat)
8 pm
A Palestrina Christmas
Chantry
St. Bernadette's

December 16, 2012 (Sun)
2 and 5 pm
Folger Consort
Florence: Christmas Music of the Trecento
Folger Shakespeare Library

December 16, 2012 (Sun)
4 pm
Shai Wosner, piano
Phillips Collection

December 16, 2012 (Sun)
6:30 pm
Empire Brass with Elisabeth von Trapp, soprano [FREE]
National Gallery of Art

December 16, 2012 (Sun)
7:30 pm
Axelrod String Quartet
Music by Haydn, Barber, Mendelssohn
National Museum of American History

December 18, 2012 (Tue)
8 pm
Miró Quartet and Ricardo Morales, clarinet [FREE]
Library of Congress

December 19, 2012 (Wed)
12:10 pm
Kenneth Slowik, fortepiano [FREE]
National Gallery of Art

December 19, 2012 (Wed)
7:30 pm
18th Street Singers: Christmas Concert
Mansion at Strathmore

December 19, 2012 (Wed)
7:30 pm
Folger Consort
Florence: Christmas Music of the Trecento
Folger Shakespeare Library

December 20, 2012 (Thu)
7:30 pm
Folger Consort
Florence: Christmas Music of the Trecento
Folger Shakespeare Library

December 21, 2012 (Fri)
2 and 7:30 pm
The Nutcracker
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Lyric Opera House (Baltimore, Md.)

December 21, 2012 (Fri)
7:30 pm
Humperdinck, Hansel and Gretel
Washington National Opera
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

December 21, 2012 (Fri)
8 pm
Folger Consort
Florence: Christmas Music of the Trecento
Folger Shakespeare Library

December 22, 2012 (Sat)
2 and 7:30 pm
Humperdinck, Hansel and Gretel
Washington National Opera
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

December 22, 2012 (Sat)
2 and 7:30 pm
The Nutcracker
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Lyric Opera House (Baltimore, Md.)

December 22, 2012 (Sat)
2 and 5 pm
Folger Consort
Florence: Christmas Music of the Trecento
Folger Shakespeare Library

December 23, 2012 (Sun)
2 pm
Humperdinck, Hansel and Gretel
Washington National Opera
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

December 23, 2012 (Sun)
2 pm
Folger Consort
Florence: Christmas Music of the Trecento
Folger Shakespeare Library

December 23, 2012 (Sun)
6:30 pm
Jennifer Lane (soprano) and Kenneth Slowik (fortepiano) [FREE]
National Gallery of Art

December 30, 2012 (Sun)
3 pm
Strauss Symphony
New Year's Concert
Embassy of Austria

December 30, 2012 (Sun)
6:30 pm
National Gallery of Art Vocal Ensemble [FREE]
National Gallery of Art