Forbes Classical CD of the Week

#CDoftheWeek on @ForbesOpinion: https://t.co/mhnRYO2udi @#Mozart je ne sais quoi! on @Hae… https://t.co/VFeKtYZNww pic.twitter.com/zLptbSLL3U

— Jens F. Laurson (@ClassicalCritic) May 12, 2016

…Given all these factors, it’s not that often that a recording of Mozart’s Violin Concertos comes my way that truly wows me... Now just such a recording of lapel-grabbing beauty, je ne sais quoi–possessing and all, has come around!…

-> Classical CD of the Week: Mozart With Je Ne Sais Quoi

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James MacMillan Leads the NSO

J. MacMillan, The Sacrifice, C. Purves, L. Milne, Welsh National Opera, A. Negus (Chandos, 2010) Vaughan Williams, Complete Symphonies, London Philharmonic, New Philharmonia, A. Boult (Warner, 2012)

This month is all about the Wagner in Washington, but the area's two top orchestras are both offering excellent programs, too. Last night Scottish composer James MacMillan made his debut at the helm of the National Symphony Orchestra. As he did when he conducted the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2008, MacMillan brought some of his own music, which the NSO last played in 2013, when they presented the local premiere of his third piano concerto.

Welsh National Opera gave the 2007 world premiere of MacMillan's second opera, The Sacrifice. The libretto by Michael Symmons Roberts, derived from the Mabinogion, the Welsh national folk epic, tells the story of a woman torn away from her love to be given in a politically advantageous marriage. MacMillan extracted Three Interludes from the opera to make a rather pleasing symphonic work, played here for the first time by the NSO. The large orchestration creates the impression of a tribal world, with violent twists provided by blaring low brass and plenty of percussion. The first movement ("The Parting") opens with a wild clamor of sound, after which a menacing melody rises through the orchestra. The second movement ("Passacaglia") presents the eponymous bass pattern in the pizzicato double basses, where it stays, eventually doubled by low brass. Heavy use of high woodwinds often gives a screeching effect, perhaps to evoke fifes or other folk instruments. The third movement is faster and martial, the low brass and reeds thumping away on a march pattern, ending in a Shostakovich-like finale accompanying the murder of the couple's young son.

Along with Scotland and Wales, the British program included pieces by two English composers, beginning with Elgar's poignant cello concerto. Alisa Weilerstein has played this concerto, so associated with Jacqueline du Pré, in recent years with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and also the NSO, in 2013. Cellist Alban Gerhardt brought an intense, moody approach to the solo part, rising up forcefully on the A string to bring in the full orchestra in the first movement, and with a big pizzicato sound in the transition to the faster section. He played fast and furious in the Allegro molto conclusion to the second movement, with MacMillan carving out enough sonic space and subtlety of color for his soloist's sometimes small sound. Gerhardt's strengths lay in a tender and introspective interpretation, rather than broad strokes, to which this concerto is nicely suited, making the third movement's delicate softness the high point rather than the heady sweep of the finale.

Other Reviews: Anne Midgette, The NSO goes to Britain (Washington Post, May 13)

More performances of the Vaughan Williams symphonies are generally welcome, and MacMillan led the NSO's first performance of the composer's fourth symphony since Leonard Slatkin conducted it in 1999. (The last Vaughan Williams symphony played by the NSO was the 'London' Symphony in 2013.) The fourth is founded on a dissonance, a minor 2nd that opens the first movement with a bracing clash, part of a chromatic motif (F, E, G-flat, F) reportedly drawn from Beethoven's ninth symphony and disturbingly similar to the BACH name motif. MacMillan relished the general loudness of the piece, allowing the gnarled mass of lines to clot upon itself in the first movement, but also coaxed lush string playing and cooing brass accompaniment in the second theme.

The harmonic palette of the second movement sounded not unlike that used by MacMillan in his interludes from The Sacrifice, with a beautiful concluding flute solo over the movement's dying embers. The chromatic theme (and a second quartal theme) runs throughout all four movements, showing the influence of Beethoven as Vaughan Williams transformed it into a dancing scherzo theme in the third movement and a triumphant call in the fugato finale. MacMillan again marshaled the NSO forces impressively in the slightly maniacal fourth movement, with a hint of Shostakovich-style banality, as the chromatic theme was obsessively repeated and altered through many diminutions and augmentations, seething with tension.

This concert repeats tonight and tomorrow, in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.

#morninglistening: Ashkenazy's Legendary Études

#morninglistening to #Chopin w/the young Ashkenazy on the legendary 50s Etudes finally re-… https://t.co/VE0eS2rqkv pic.twitter.com/UQzjpbgffd

— Jens F. Laurson (@ClassicalCritic) December 4, 2015

Next to Pollini, these are th op.10 Études to have!

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Forbes Classical CD of the Week

#CDoftheWeek on @ForbesOpinion: https://t.co/nzawFlZA5Z @BR_Klassik #Braunfels magnificen… https://t.co/V9RB8L53jP pic.twitter.com/zb2LJ2jsrS

— Jens F. Laurson (@ClassicalCritic) May 4, 2016

Alongside Mieczysław Weinberg (Passenger and especially Idiot), Walter Braunfels is the greatest among least known opera composers. (Needless to say, he was given an overdue chapter in the new, second edition of Surprised by Beauty, Robert Reilly’s “Listener’s Guide to the Recovery of Modern Music” for which it was my privilege to contribute this particular chapter.) Recordings of Jeanne D’Arc and at last a new recording of The Annunciation show Braunfels at his best…

-> Classical CD of the Week: Revelation Of A Mystery Play

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Classical Music Agenda (July/August 2016)

Yuja Wang

Not much classical music happens in Washington in the hottest months of the year. Many locals travel to music destinations -- Santa Fe Opera is presenting Barber's Vanessa, Strauss's Capriccio, and Puccini's La Fanciulla del West -- but if you are stuck in town, here is where you can hear some good music.

ORCHESTRAS:
The National Symphony Orchestra returns to Wolf Trap for its usual summer fare, sometimes good and sometimes not. In the good category we would place the visit by Yuja Wang and Lionel Bringuier (July 8), the Firebird performance with the Handspring Puppet Company (July 23), and the Debussy-Ravel program led by conductor Stéphane Denève (July 29). Also count me in for the screening of Raiders of the Lost Ark with Emil de Cou conducting the live score (July 9).

From the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the concert led by Nicholas Hersh should be tolerable, with music by Bernstein, Bach, and Gershwin, featuring pianist Charlie Albright and other soloists (July 28).

WOLF TRAP:
Going out to Wolf Trap is almost like getting out of town, and there are some good musical events going on there this summer, starting with the visit by American Ballet Theater to perform Romeo and Juliet (July 14 to 16), including one performance starring Misty Copeland.

Wolf Trap Opera Company's second production is a rare staging of Florian Gassmann's L'Opera Seria, a 1769 farce sending up the conventions of tragic opera (July 15 to 23). It will be performed in the Barns, so no worries about the mosquitoes, heat, or rain. Grant Gershon will also lead a single staged performance of Puccini's La Bohème (August 5) with the National Symphony Orchestra in the Filene Center.

CHAMBER MUSIC:
The Washington Metropolitan Philarmonic Association is presenting a Sunday series of concerts at the Lyceum in Alexandria. Starting with a recital by pianist Christopher Schmitt (July 3) -- actually starting on June 12 -- it runs through the second week of September.

The Steinway Series has free Sunday afternoon concerts in both July and August, with the Lysander Piano Trio (July 10) and pianist Sejoon Park (August 14). Hear some music and enjoy the air conditioning in the basement auditorium of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

LAGNIAPPES:
Jonathan Pryce stars in the Shakespeare's Globe on Tour production of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, which comes to the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater (July 27 to 30).

Wynton Marsalis leads a concert by Jazz at Lincoln Center at Wolf Trap (August 19).

#morninglistening: Iddo and the Mazurkas

#morninglistening to #Chopin Mazurkas on Mirare w/Iddo Bar-Shaï.#classical #classicalmus… https://t.co/KrVaPTlQf2 pic.twitter.com/FeSJ4VhC0D

— Jens F. Laurson (@ClassicalCritic) December 3, 2015

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BSO Plays More World Premieres

A. Clyne, Night Ferry / M. Bates, Alternative Energy, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, R. Muti (CSO-Resound, 2014)

Charles T. Downey, World Premieres Spice Centennial Of Baltimore SO
Classical Voice North America, May 11

NORTH BETHESDA, Md. – One hundred years ago, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra played its first public concert. It is remarkable enough that the ensemble pulled through the economic crisis in 2008 and even more that it continues to thrive in today’s climate of declining audiences. Marin Alsop, who became music director in 2007, and the BSO are celebrating the centennial with a series of new commissions. After debuting pieces by Kevin Puts and Christopher Rouse, the first of which the BSO played at Carnegie Hall in April, the orchestra gave two more world premieres in the Music Center at Strathmore.

The evening opened with Joan Tower’s Sixth Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, adding to her most famous work, launched in 1987 and completed in five parts in 1993...

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Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
World Premieres by Joan Tower, Anna Clyne
With Alexandra Soumm, violin
Music Center at Strathmore

SEE ALSO:
Robert Battey, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra debuts two works from two ‘uncommon’ women (Washington Post, May 9, 2016)

Charles T. Downey, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra finds its rhythm in Thursday’s concert (Washington Post, September 19, 2015)

---, Slatkin and the NSO, As If He Never Left (Ionarts, November 12, 2011)

---, A Classical Makeover In Baltimore (Washington Post, September 11, 2008)

#morninglistening: Schumann Homage to Bach

#morninglistening to #Schumann w/A.Staier on @harmoniamundi#classical #classicalmusic #R… https://t.co/phKshk7Tno pic.twitter.com/uZUWWuGPgB

— Jens F. Laurson (@ClassicalCritic) December 1, 2015

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