Free Tickets for Anne Schwanewilms Recital

Strauss, The Complete Songs, Vol. 2, A. Schwanewilms, R. Vignoles

German soprano Anne Schwanewilms is scheduled to give a recital later this month, with pianist Malcolm Martineau, at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater (January 30, 7:30 pm). The program, sponsored by the Vocal Arts Society, combines two of the singer's specialties, songs by Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler. Schwanewilms may be most familiar to American readers from her Marschallin in Chicago or from an incident in 2004, when she replaced Deborah Voigt in the title role of a production of Ariadne auf Naxos (Voigt had been fired for being too heavy for a little black dress that was part of her costuming). However, as one can tell from the audio embedded below (from a performance in Madrid), Schwanewilms is definitely more than just a pretty face, and her Strauss is not to be missed.

So, Ionarts readers, we inform you that Vocal Arts Society is offering some free tickets to this recital, available as long as the supply lasts. All you have to do to claim one for yourself is to contact Vocal Arts Society by phone (202-365-9064) or by e-mail (wowears at vocalartssociety dot org). Please do your part to fill the house for this remarkable singer.


Anne Schwanewilms singing "Es gibt ein Reich" from Strauss's Ariadne

DCist: NSO's Extraordinary January Continues

See my review of the Saturday performance of the National Symphony Orchestra's concert with Emanuel Ax and Michael Stern, published today at DCist:

DCist Goes to the Symphony (DCist, January 18):

The National Symphony Orchestra has been in a sort of leadership vacuum this season, with a carousel of guest conductors filling time until Christoph Eschenbach takes the helm next season. While the results have been varied, the month of January is shaping up to be, as expected, one of the best in recent memory for the hometown band. After a lovely performance of Elgar's violin concerto last week, with former NSO music director Leonard Slatkin, the podium featured the return of Michael Stern, who has been putting in some solid work as music director of the Kansas City Symphony. The exciting program combined two symphonies of the 20th century with an old favorite, Beethoven's second piano concerto, played by another old favorite, pianist Emanuel Ax.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Robert R. Reilly, Michael Stern at the NSO Helm (Ionarts, January 15)
  
• Charles T. Downey, Michael Stern Stirs a Tempest (Ionarts, January 14)
  
• Jens F. Laurson, A Survey of Sibelius Cycles (Ionarts, May 30, 2009)
  
• Charles T. Downey, From the BSO, a Heroic Approach to Sibelius (Washington Post, June 14, 2008)
  
• ---, NSO & Vladimir Ashkenazy, Staying True to Sibelius (Washington Post, May 30, 2008)
  
• Jens F. Laurson, Dip Your Ears, No. 57: Vladimir Ashkenazy's Sibelius cycle (Ionarts, May 5, 2006)

More Thoughts on 1610

Monteverdi, 1610 Vespers, Mass of Thanksgiving, Selva morale (excerpts), Madrigali guerrieri et amorosi, Taverner Consort, A. Parrott (released on August 25, 2009) Virgin Classics 9 66965 2 | 5 CDs

One performance of Monteverdi's Vespers for the Most Holy Virgin in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the 1610 publication of the remarkable collection in which it is found -- see my review of the Folger Consort at Washington National Cathedral -- was certainly welcome. A second performance, scheduled at the National Gallery of Art for this evening and featuring completely mostly different musicians, is an embarrassment of riches. While my taste is inclined to a recording of the work somewhat off the beaten path (the Kammerchor Stuttgart, conducted by Frieder Bernius), many versions have a place on my shelf. The latest to join them is this re-release of the recording made in 1988 by Andrew Parrott and the Taverner Consort, Choir, and Players. There is much to recommend it, especially the evenness of the choral singing and the polished playing of the instrumentalists.

Although the range of styles of performance in the Vespers includes simple parts on psalm tones and so forth, it is the most virtuosic pieces that determine the success or failure of a recording. Parrott certainly succeeds with his first soprano, the legendary Emma Kirkby. She is not quite matched by Tessa Bonner, which weakens the concerto Pulchra es (she also tends sharp in the Sonata sopra Sancta Maria), while tenor Nigel Rogers has his ups and downs, making Nigra sum, in particular, less attractive because of scooping, nasal tone, and intonation trouble (Audi coelum is much more pleasant). Parrott discovered the meaning of the disparity in clefs in the notation of the Magnificat and Lauda Jerusalem, believing that it was an indication that the pitch of all parts should be lowered by a fourth. In addition, he makes some interesting choices in his realization: besides choosing the more elaborate form of the Magnificat (which almost all conductors do), he adds plainchants from the Vespers for the Assumption of the Virgin and inserts three instrumental sonatas by Giovanni Paolo Cima. Unfortunately, Parrott's way with both the chant and the falsobordone sections is leaden and over-deliberate.

The thing that does make this re-release attractive is that the Vespers is bundled with three other discs of Monteverdi's music, performed by more or less the same forces. That includes Parrott's reconstruction of a Solemn Mass on the feast of Santa Maria della Salute, in thanksgiving for deliverance from the plague, with music by Monteverdi and several other composers, a reconstruction of a Venetian Vespers with music from Selva morale e spirituale, and selections from Monteverdi's eighth book of madrigals, the Madrigali guerrieri et amorosi. Among the performers, you can hear some names that became more famous later, like Rogers Covey-Crump (of the Hilliard Ensemble), lead violinist John Holloway, and flutist Lisa Beznosiuk, tenors John Mark Ainsley and Mark Padmore, and lutenist Jakob Lindberg.

The combined forces of ARTEK, the National Gallery of Art Vocal Ensemble, and the wind band Piffaro will perform the Monteverdi 1610 Vespers this evening (January 17, 6:30 pm) at the National Gallery of Art.

In Brief: I Have a Dream Edition

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

• Ceci n'est pas un but. Bad officiating decides Red Wings-Stars game yesterday on Steve Ott's shootout shot. That puck did not cross the goal line. [YouTube]


• Forcing Gustavo "Old Duffer" Dudamel to take a seat in the young conductors department is British teenager Alex Prior, just appointed to an assistant conducting position by the Seattle Symphony. [The Telegraph]


• Anne Midgette gives voice to some of the questions rumbling around town about the leadership of Plácido Domingo as General Director of Washington National Opera. [Washington Post]


• Critics and commenters pile on Plácido Domingo. [New York Times]


• Tim Rutherford-Johnson shares the unbelievable news that the Victoria and Albert Museum has decided to close its permanent collection of musical instruments, splitting up the holdings and sending them to a number of other institutions. [The Rambler]


• One of the most devastating images to come out of the disaster of the Haitian earthquake was that of the ruins of the cathedral of Port-au-Prince. Joseph Serge Miot, the archbishop of Port-au-Prince, was killed in the quake, and the 18th-century cathedral was mostly toppled. At last report, most of the students in the city's seminary were still trapped in the rubble of that building. Please consider a donation to Catholic Relief Services, to help the people of Haiti. [Whispers in the Loggia]


• Why is the media willing to show more graphic images of the Haitian earthquake than it has of other disasters in the past? [Philip Kennicott]


• Our favorite Milan opera blogger has an interview with violinist Hilary Hahn. [Opera Chic]


• Hilary Hahn, in turn, has another of her fascinating video interviews, this time with composer David Lang. [Sequenza21/]


• Don't forget that you can follow Ionarts on Twitter: it's that thing that all the kids were doing last year. [Twitter]

Daedalus Quartet Heads to the Barns

Sibelius / Stravinsky / Ravel, Daedalus Quartet (released on August 22, 2006) Bridge Records 9202 | 66'02"

The Daedalus Quartet returned to the Washington area last night for a concert on Wolf Trap's Discovery Series. As noted in my preview of this concert, when the quartet won the top prize at the 2001 Banff Competition, the jury also awarded them the Székely Prize, for the best performance of a Beethoven quartet during the competition. So it should come as no surprise that the final piece on the program, Beethoven's String Quartet No. 10 (E-flat major, op. 74), was the best part of the evening. The group's taut rendition ranged from a pensive Poco Adagio introduction, with some violent outbursts, to the vibrant, pizzicato harp motif that runs throughout the first movement and gives the quartet its nickname ("Harp"). The incandescent first violin sound of Min-Young Kim in the second movement glowed over the smoldering embers of the lower instruments, beautifully balanced. The third-movement Presto had a rollicking, occasionally stormy character, showcasing the quartet's admirable control and tonal range. Beethoven had the third movement fade out rather than reach a grand conclusion, somewhat unsatisfactorily, leading seamlessly (attacca) into the concluding variations. Hopefully, a complete Beethoven cycle is somewhere in the Daedalus Quartet's plans.

Lawrence Dillon, composer (photo courtesy of lawrencedillon.com)

At the center of the program was the world premiere of Lawrence Dillon's fourth string quartet, The Infinite Sphere, from his Invisible Cities cycle of six quartets. Dillon claims that his aim in this cycle is to explore traditional forms as a way to disprove "that the Western Classical tradition is outdated and irrelevant." To adapt folk and rock idioms in the fourth quartet as he did, however, seems to belie that concern. If the Daedalus Quartet's debut CD proved anything, especially in their exciting performance of Stravinsky's Three Pieces for String Quartet, it was that the group enjoys the challenges of modern music and they took to the task of premiering the Dillon piece with aplomb and energy. Dillon's ideas for the piece, inspired by a paradoxical statement about the geometry of the universe from Pensées (for Pascal, a sure sign of God's hand in the universe's creation was that the mind is lost in the contemplation of its vastness), focused on melodic shapes and musical forms that circle back on themselves. Even the overall form, seven sections in two movements, is chiastic -- violist Jessica Thompson described the form as ABCDCBA, while Jeffrey Jones's program notes identified it as ABACABA.

Other Reviews: Robert Battey, Daedalus Quartet dazzles in new Dillon, offers standard standards (Washington Post, January 18)

The virtuosity of such formal concerns requires that the piece of music, while founded on complex structures, is still interesting and beautiful to hear even if one does not understand what underlies it, and this is where Dillon falters. Of the two forms used throughout, the round was most evident on the surface, especially in the outer movements, in which a Dorian melody -- a little Scarborough Fair, a little Noël nouvelet -- stands out clearly. The rondos were not as clear to the ear, at least not by comparison to the last movement of the Mozart quartet that preceded the Dillon piece. There was a lot to enjoy, not least the pulsating repetition of the rock bacchanale sections and the buzzing tremolos of the fervent fifth movement, but although played very well it did not add up to much. The opening piece on the program, Mozart's String Quartet No. 22 (B-flat major, K. 589), was not up to the standards of this group, certainly not in terms of the sixth string quintet heard at their 2006 concert. Not only was the performance unpolished in terms of ensemble and intonation, the interpretative approach was fairly plain and straightforward, which might go well with the piece's sunny character. Still, there was no reason to rush the third movement, marked only Moderato, so that all the sixteenth notes got a little cloudy, especially in the substantial trio.

The next concert in Wolf Trap's Discovery Series will feature the Aspen Ensemble, playing music by Beethoven, Martinů, and Brahms (January 29, 8 pm).

Reviewed, Not Necessarily Recommended: Scarlatti Sonatas & Bach Concertos

Bach, 7 Keyboard Concertos, Feltsman / Orch. of St.Lukes Nimbus (Re-issue) .com .co.uk .de .fr

Scarlatti, 30 Sonatas, John Browning Nimbus (Re-issue) .com .co.uk .de .fr

Here are more of Nimbus’ re-releases from the Music Masters catalogue. Those unearthing-efforts were warmly welcome when they offered Vladimir Feltsman’s 1991 Goldberg Variations which are spunky and thoroughly gratifying. Those efforts are also welcome when it comes to Feltsman’s recording of the Bach Keyboard Concertos—wholly affable and with liner notes by Tim Page. The same can’t quite be said for the John Browning Scarlatti Sonata collection that Nimbus helped to an extended, budget-priced life-cycle.

Recorded about eight years before his final recital—at the US Supreme Court (Browning v. Chopin)—it is a fine testament to Browning’s unfussy, levelheaded playing. Everything is tasteful (almost too tasteful) and in place, there are no technical issues, and the sound is good. There’s nothing wrong with it, and is easy to derive great pleasure from the thirty popular sonatas Browning chose for the recording. But the enemy of the good is the perfection or, in this case, the very easy availability of more Scarlatti, performed more individualistic, more spiritedly, and indeed better—at less cost, still. Mikhail Pletnev’s two-disc Scarlatti album has rightly become the Alpha of all Scarlatti-on-the-piano discs, and is an inexorable element of any self respecting classical music collection. And after Pletnev, it’s still not Browning’s recital that vies for immediate attention. There are Yevgeny Sudbin ( BIS), Maria Tipo ( EMI), Vladimir Horowitz ( Columbia), Christian Zacharias ( EMI or MDG), Konstantin Scherbakov ( Naxos), and Ivo Pogorelich ( DG) to get to, first.

If you’re through those, or if you wish to familiarize yourself with John Browning’s playing, then the Nimbus disc will, and should, enter your radar, especially as it is a wonderful contrast to another great Browning recording, that of the Prokofiev Piano Concertos under Erich Leinsdorf ( Testament).

On to Feltsman’s Bach Concertos. Admittedly, there is no reason to replace Angela Hewitt’s slightly more complete (and considerably more expensive) recording ( Hyperion, also available on SACD), or András Schiff’s (Decca), or Murray Perahia’s ( Sony) with Feltsman. But if you have none of these recordings and you see Feltsman’s about, go ahead and grab it in the secure knowledge that you will have a very fine account at hand.

Feltsman includes the ‘standard 6’, BWV 1052-1056 and 1057, but not BWV 1057, the modified Fourth Brandenburg concerto and the incomplete BWV 1059—and he adds a performance of the Italian Concerto. Much of what I said about Browning—tasteful, levelheaded, technical efficacy—applies here, too, but at the other, upper end of the neutral-positive spectrum. The Orchestra of St. Luke’s, conducted by Feltsman, turns in a very spirited performance. And although it’s not a HIP band, their nimble forces and lissome playing make this 1993 recording sound modern which is to say: devoid of the 19^th and 20^th century romantic baroque opulence that had occurred here and there. Only in the opening Allegro of the F minor concerto (BWV 1056) is the orchestra minimally heavy footed; everywhere else tempos strike lively and natural. Terrific stuff that makes for happy listening.

- - - - -

Vladimir Feltsman will appear at the Music Center at Strathmore, courtesy of WPAS, on Friday, March 26, 2010 (8PM).

Michael Stern at the NSO Helm

Where there is Sibelius, chances are you can find Robert R. Reilly. Thanks to him for contributing to ionarts again with this review of the NSO's concert on Thursday. You can read his latest column for InsideCatholic here.

Thursday evening (1/14/10) at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, conductor Michael Stern, the music director of the Kansas Symphony, took the helm of the National Symphony Orchestra for a very appetizing program of Samuel Barber’s Symphony No. 1, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2, with soloist Emanuel Ax, and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2. It was a success. Stern is strong leader, and the NSO responded to his direction with first-rate playing.

Stern’s approach is that of a builder. He looks into the music, sees its endoskeleton, and very deliberately goes about constructing it so it can stand up straight. Sometimes, as in the Sibelius, he does this slowly, but the level of concentration he employs keeps things together. This interpretive approach may sacrifice some excitement and spontaneity, but it has its compensations. There is no exaggeration or flamboyance, but what you get is the integrity of the work itself, deliberatively presented. This works if you have individual musicians of a very high caliber to build the musical edifice. Exposed as they are, you either play brilliantly well, or fall flat on your face. Throughout every section, the NSO players chose the former.

This, of course, is a generalization, but it applies to the Barber Symphony performance. It lacked wildness, edginess and ache, but the climaxes were flawlessly built—as in the conclusion to the opening Allegro. In the Allegro molto, Stern had the NSO winds on point and captured the rhythmic vivacity of the movement. When the strings entered, they caught the telegraphic intensity perfectly. Kudos to the principal oboist, Nicholas Stovall, who floated the theme of the Andante tranquillo, with just a bit of vibrato, over the cushion of strings. When the strings took over, they set full sail into the most Romantic part of the work, which then achieved a grandness and opulence worthy of an American Respighi.

The Beethoven concerto was the exception to my generalization. Stern and the NSO, along with Emanuel Ax, utterly succumbed to the charm—a word not always associated with Beethoven—of this late Classical work, composed in 1795 before Beethoven hit his titanic stride. The scale is Mozartian and the content sometimes operatic. Like Mozart, it sings. Ax’s crystalline playing was infused with a spirit of delight and, where appropriate, a sense of playfulness. The NSO and he were partners in nuance; completely in synch. It was impressive to hear how fully the players were able to capture the Classical ethos, sandwiched as they were between two highly Romantic works. A sheer pleasure to listen to, this performance of Beethoven was worth going to for and by itself.

Stern clearly knows how to sustain the long line in Sibelius and inexorably build to the transcendent climaxes. The first movement was a lesson in how to get it architecturally exactly right. He and the NSO kept everything clear but not at the price of the underlying sense of mystery so essential to this music. The orchestra—brass and strings particularly—again excelled. In the heart of the second movement, Tempo andante, ma rubato, Stern held his dangerously slow tempi together by dint of his concentration, tethered always to the long line. The final movement made the tiered build up of the final, exultant climax felt, but less charged or exciting as it could be. This is not the only way to do this symphony, but it was interpretively coherent and brilliantly well delivered.

There were some empty seats and there should not have been. Anyone attracted by this program of works is in for a treat.

It repeats on Friday at 1:30 PM and Saturday at 8:00 PM. Charles' concert preview & CD Review of Stern's latest disc can be read here. A discography of Michael Stern can be found here.

Michael Stern Stirs a Tempest

Sullivan / Sibelius, Incidental Music for The Tempest, Kansas City Symphony, M. Stern (released on July 8, 2008) Reference Recordings RR-115 | 68'40"

In the carousel of guest conductors at the podium of the National Symphony Orchestra this season, this week's contestant may not appear to rank high on the list, but think again. Michael Stern has done yeoman's work as a guest conductor, earning part-time positions over the years with the Orchestre National de Lille, the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestre National de Lyon. Since 2005, Stern has been music director of the Kansas City Symphony, where he has garnered plaudits from critics, not least for his recordings with that ensemble. (Stern is also the son of legendary violinist Isaac Stern, although he does not trade on his family connections.) Michael Stern's earnest musicianship is noteworthy in a world of superstar conductors, and he is known for speaking warmly and admirably, as someone with impeccable East Coast credentials (studies at Harvard and the Curtis Institute, where his mentor was Max Rudolf), about the potential of a small-name orchestra (founded only in 1982) in what some might call "flyover territory" (as a Midwestern expatriate myself, I do not approve of the term).

The programming idea of Stern's debut disc with the Kansas City Symphony is ingenious, pairing two rather different sets of incidental music for Shakespeare's play The Tempest. True, Arthur Sullivan's set of seven movements, composed when he was only 19 years old, would not have been my first choice for the odd rarity slot, not with choices like John Weldon's music for the Dryden/D'Avenant adaptation (once attributed to Purcell) or Matthew Locke's for the Shadwell version or even Tchaikovsky's overture. Sullivan excelled as a melodist, and these little introductions to various scenes of the play are amiable and varied, but a great work it is not.

Direct comparison of the still-teenage Sullivan's attempt with the masterful suites of incidental music by Sibelius (some of this music was played by the NSO in 2005), then in his 60s and a veteran orchestrator, is just not fair. Stern shows a clear and sensitive hand in both works, with the alternately restrained and ebullient Sibelius showing exceptional promise for the Finnish composer's second symphony, on this week's schedule with the NSO. The Kansas City players acquit themselves nobly, with the only quibble being the lengthy reverb of the recording venue, the Community of Christ Auditorium in Independence, Mo. The acoustic, which rings in the silence after attacks or held chords, is cavernous, creating an effect on the CD that sounds almost canned.

See Michael Stern in action for yourself, beginning this evening and continuing through Saturday evening, at the helm of the National Symphony Orchestra tonight (7 pm), tomorrow afternoon (1:30 pm), and Saturday evening (8 pm). He will conduct two 20th-century symphonies, Barber's first and Sibelius's second, neither heard often enough, and Emanuel Ax will join for Beethoven's second piano concerto.