Forbes Classical CD of the Week

…As every clever Scarlatti disc or recital should, this one has had some thought put into the selection and arrangement of the sonatas, rather than just willy-nilly lumping together personal favorites. True, the pudding-proof is in the listening, not the admiration of the thought behind it. But it’s worth mentioning all the same in this case, especially since on Claire Huangci’s disc it works so particularly well: The pianist (whom I heard at the 2011 ARD International Music Competition, where she came second, then still performing as Tori Huang) arranged bundles of sonatas in the form of baroque suites (disc 1) and classical sonatas (disc 2), as laid out by her lucid, well-written, and refreshingly level-headed liner notes:…

-> Classical CD of the Week: Scarlatti Classical And En Suite

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Perchance to Stream: Class of 2016 Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to online audio and online video from the week gone by. After clicking to an audio or video stream, you may need to press the "Play" button to start the broadcast. Some of these streams become unavailable after a few days.

• William Christie leads Les Arts Florissants in a concert of "airs sérieux et à boire" by Charpentier, Lambert, Le Camus, and Moulinié, recorded last month at the Philharmonie de Paris. [France Musique]


• From the Royal Opera House in London, listen to a performance of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, starring Diana Damrau (Lucia), Charles Castronovo (Edgardo), and Ludovic Tézier. [Ö1]


• Watch Christophe Rousset conduct a performance of Mozart's Mitridate, Re di Ponto in Brussels. [De Munt]


• Watch Peter Dijkstra lead a performance of Bach's Mass in B Minor, with Concerto Köln and the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks. [ARTE]


• From St John's Smith Square, London, Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the Philharmonia Orchestra and Voices in music of Stravinsky, including the Requiem Canticles, the Mass, and other works. [BBC3]


• The BBC Singers and St James's Baroque perform Handel's oratorio Saul, recorded in April at Milton Court in London. [BBC3]


• Watch Daniel Harding lead the Orchestre de Paris in Berg's violin concerto, with Isabelle Faust as soloist, and Mahler's fourth symphony, recorded at the Philharmonie de Paris. [Philharmonie de Paris]


• From the Vienna Konzerthaus, pianist Till Fellner plays a recital of music by Mozart, Bach, Schumann, and Stankovsky. [France Musique]


• Listen to Yuja Wang's Sydney recital debut, with music by Scriabin, Chopin, and Balakirev. [ABC Classic]


• Watch the competitors at this year's Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. [ARTE]

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Salonen, Out of Nowhere

E.-P. Salonen, Violin Concerto / Nyx, L. Josefowicz, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, E.-P. Salonen (Deutsche Grammophon, 2012)

Attentive readers will recall that my last pick for the Top 25 concerts of this season was the National Symphony Orchestra's program slated for the first weekend of June. Along with symphonies by Haydn and Schumann, Leila Josefowicz was going to give the world premiere of a new violin concerto by Sean Shepherd. About five months ago it became apparent that Shepherd was not going to finish this commission in time, and the new concerto was postponed, replaced by Esa-Pekka Salonen's relatively new violin concerto, as noted in my June concert picks. Josefowicz reportedly offered to play a few options from her repertory instead of the Shepherd piece, and Christoph Eschenbach and the NSO wisely chose Salonen's violin concerto, one of the best new pieces of recent years, heard at the Friday performance. A little bird tells me that the Shepherd concerto, when finally completed, will get an NSO performance, not next season obviously but soon thereafter.

At some point along the way Salonen's violin concerto has lost its subtitle, "Out of Nowhere," referring to the way that the solo part begins in media res. The constant stream of notes, accompanied by celesta, glockenspiel, and vibraphone, gives the impression of a pixie flitting about spraying fairy dust everywhere, with Josefowicz's harmonic notes somehow imitating the metallic sounds around her. A marvelous part for contrabass clarinet reinforces the entrance of the bass instruments on long notes (marked "stagger breath"), sounding like a tidal surge but given the first movement's title ("Mirage") may refer to the visual waves produced by extreme heat. The first inner movement ("Pulse I") is framed by sections of artificial harmonics in the solo part, showcasing Josefowicz's impeccable E string technique, through which she produced a perfectly tuned sound that could cut through any texture but never be harsh.

In both the pulse movements, playful rhythmic patterns became the focus, with the timpani in "Pulse I" pounding on the beat and then, through a sleight of hand, off the beat, for example. Wooden percussion and brass provided the impulse in "Pulse II," eliciting more wooden, hollow sounds from Josefowicz's tremolos. Salonen uses the orchestra for subtle, coloristic purposes for much of the piece until, at the end of the third movement, the ensemble goes on a wild rampage, with the solo shrieking along in crazy glissandi. ("Something very Californian about this," Salonen noted, laconically, in his composer's note.) The composer's affecting farewell to his former band, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is heard in the fourth movement ("Adieu"), with the most tender, introspective music of the concerto, including a rising scalar motif, almost like a jet slowly taking off from LAX. Salonen, for his part that "this is not a specific farewell to anything in particular," although later he admitted that "it is not a coincidence that the last movement is called 'Adieu'."

Other Reviews: Anne Midgette, A maverick soloist offers a classic new work (Washington Post, June 3)

Eschenbach, who was laser-focused while conducting the Salonen, returned to his over-expressive gestural mode in both of the more familiar symphonies. Schumann's fourth symphony had a welcome return, not played by the NSO since 2003. (The program notes, for some reason, were on the topic of the second symphony.) The differentiation of sound through attention to balances seemed to show careful reflection, but Eschenbach could not seem to settle on one tempo, shifting the speed in different sections of the first movement, for example. Schumann's heavier re-orchestration, in the revised version of the symphony played here, gives a lugubrious quality to the slow introductions of first and last movements. The composer still made missteps, like giving the slow movement's main theme to the solo cello and oboe together, a combination that is not easy to keep in tune, although Nurit Bar-Josef was in excellent form in the solo triplets of the B section. The famous scherzo was the high point, set at just the right tempo and beautifully shaped, with some oozing rubato in the trio section, while the warlike finale, with its martial dotted rhythms, was heroic.

Sadly, Haydn's Symphony No. 104, the last of the series of twelve for the London visit, where he was when he composed it, seemed like an afterthought at the start of the concert. Eschenbach took the greatest number of liberties, often seeming to work against the score's best interests, stretching out the slow introduction of the first movement and then pushing the fast section to the edge, not seeming to have convinced the musicians of what he wanted to do. The second movement felt over-mannered, every articulation exaggerated but without the necessary precision in attacks or in the ends of sounds. The trio of the third movement had the best results, with a relaxed tempo and approach to dynamics producing an elegant sound, while the finale was spirited but not really witty.

This concert repeats this evening, in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.

Latest on Forbes: Headphone Exploration At Munich's HIGH END

Something out of reach for every budget…

…The HIGH END trade fair in Munich, which takes place every May, is the place to be for audiophiles. If you are going there to be inspired, it helps to have deep pockets, of course – and if they are, they won’t be deep for long, after having taken a whiff at all the new toys and gadgets that serve to empty them with the promise of aural bliss. But even in the audiophile segment of high prices and diminishing returns for value (think a pair of speakers for 20k or 200k or the like), there are pockets (as it were) for modest budgets…

-> Headphone Exploration At Munich's HIGH END

Fleming and Emerson Quartet's Austrian Evening

A. Berg, Lyric Suite / E. Wellesz, Five Sonnets, R. Fleming, Emerson Quartet (Decca, 2015)

Charles T. Downey, Renée Fleming, Emerson String Quartet present a rapturous recital of Austrian songs (Washington Post, June 3)

Renée Fleming will soon draw the curtain on her mainstream operatic career, as productions of “Der Rosenkavalier” at Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera next season will be the American soprano’s last. On Thursday night in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, Fleming teamed up with the Emerson String Quartet to reprise pieces by Austrian composers Alban Berg and Egon Wellesz they recently recorded for Decca.

A musicologist and composition student of Arnold Schoenberg, Wellesz composed his “Five Sonnets” for soprano and string quartet in 1934, before the Nazi annexation of Austria forced him to flee to England. Set to selections from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Sonnets From the Portuguese,” these songs are strikingly dissonant and violent... [Continue reading]

Renée Fleming, soprano
Emerson String Quartet
Fortas Chamber Music Concerts
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

Westside-Eastside Story from Mats Ek: 'Juliet and Romeo'

Mariko Kida (Juliet) and Anthony Lomuljo (Romeo) in Juliet and Romeo, Royal Swedish Ballet (photo by Gert Weigelt)
In recent interviews Swedish choreographer Mats Ek has been saying that not only will he soon retire, but he will also withdraw his works from public performance. If that turns out to be the case, the Royal Swedish Ballet's U.S. tour of Ek's Juliet and Romeo, which opened last night at the Kennedy Center Opera House, will be one of the last chances to see his work. Ek is known for modernizing both story and steps in his ballets, and it is likely that balletomanes with expectations for Romeo and Juliet -- the famous Prokofiev score, the Russian classicism -- will be disappointed. For anyone not averse to seeing ballet characters drawn from people we might actually meet and who enjoys a story being told evocatively through movement without getting hung up on tradition, this is well worth seeing.

Mats Ek, Juliet and Romeo, Royal Swedish Ballet (C Major, 2014)

Rather than an integrated score, like that of Prokofiev, Ek put together a medley of bits and pieces from various symphonic works by Tchaikovsky, arranged by Högstedt. The fact that all of the music is by one composer, and a composer who has a style that is recognizably the same in almost every piece, helps avoid the impression of a Frankenstein monster of "bleeding chunks" (to borrow the Shavian phrase) sewn together. Even so, it is jarring to go from piece to piece when one is familiar with the first piano concerto, the fifth symphony, the third suite, the Capriccio Italien, the Manfred symphony, and others I could not quite place my finger on, which in itself took away from my enjoyment of the ballet. Oddly, as far as I could tell, none of the themes from the most obvious Tchaikovsky choice, the Fantasy-Overture from Romeo and Juliet, made it into Ek's score, nor did another natural option, the heavy-handed "Fate" theme of the fourth symphony.

Ek places the action in a modern urban space, a city divided by walls, set pieces that look like corrugated metal and are moved around by the dancers (sets and costumes by Magdalena Åberg). Muted lighting (Linus Fellbom) and regular injections of fog create a smoky impression filled with shadows, and the stage wings, left open to the audience, enhance the sense of an industrial world. Romeo, danced with earnest strength and joy by Anthony Lomuljo, comes from the wrong side of the tracks and falls first for the severe Rosaline of Daria Ivanova, who does not even appear to notice him. Mariko Kida, who created this Juliet, is a bundle of energy, pixieish in stature and buoyant when she is paired with Lomuljo. In the first act, when her oppressive parents (Arsen Mehrabyan and Nadja Sellrup) try to pair her with the somewhat clueless Paris (Oscar Salomonsson), her gestures and stiffness make it clear that she is having none of it. In a memorable scene, Kida lies on the floor and her parents and nurse hold Paris horizontally above her, making the point of what her obligation is, but even prone she is like ice beneath him.

Other Articles: Sarah L. Kaufman, Royal Swedish Ballet offers an innovative ‘Juliet and Romeo’: One for today (Washington Post, June 2, 2016) ---, Mats Ek — the Swedish rebel choreographer who’s ‘allergic to pretty’ (Washington Post, May 27, 2016) Laura Cappelle, Why Mats Ek is Retiring—and Taking his Ballets With Him (Dance Magazine, February 29, 2016) ---, Interview: Swedish choreographer Mats Ek (Financial Times, January 15, 2016) Roslyn Sulcas, Mats Ek, the Swedish Choreographer, Says His Goodbye Isn’t Quite a Farewell (New York Times, January 12, 2016) Luke Jennings, Mats Ek’s vivid spin on Shakespeare (The Guardian, September 27, 2014) Sarah Crompton, Juliet & Romeo, Sadler's Wells, review: 'fluid and thrilling' (The Telegraph, September 25, 2014)

The strength of Ek's version is the life given to the minor characters, starting with the delightful Nurse danced by the choreographer's wife and muse, Ana Laguna. In the first act, Laguna's playful gestures, cuddling Juliet like a doll or holding up her red skirt for Juliet to scamper under, made it clear that the Nurse is still child-like herself and has the closest relationship to Juliet. Jérôme Marchand takes the skinhead punk character of Ek's Mercutio and runs with it, launching his tall frame through the air with explosive rage -- at one point, he mouths the word "Fuck" multiple times to a twittering flute motif -- and yet a vulnerable feminine side as he sports a black tutu, shirtless and with several tattoos, rather than the black hoodie and leather pants he wears elsewhere. When he is killed by the pitiless, swaggering Tybalt of Dawid Kupinski, the theme of gay-bashing is in the background. Mercutio's scene with the softer Benvolio of Hokuto Kodama, accompanied by a tender violin solo played with panache by concertmaster Oleg Rylatko, is a sweet moment.

Ek would probably have done well to eliminate the role of Peter, danced capably by Jörgen Stövind, whose costume made him too easily confused with Romeo and who does not add anything to the story. The other part of the ballet that falls short is the ending, tied up quickly in a short second act, as Juliet's death is caused directly by her father's violent anger and Romeo takes his own life in despair. After so much promise in how the characters are delineated, the tragedy of the ending did not satisfy, visually or musically.

In some ways, Ek should have just stuck with the Prokofiev score, as his conception of the Capulets, among other facets, is drawn largely from Lavrovsky's choreography for that ballet. For example, Tybalt openly dances with Juliet's mother, who mourns his death just a little too emotionally for a mere aunt. In the jagged court dance scene in the Capulet home, it is hard not to imagine Prokofiev's Dance of the Knights instead of the tamer Tchaikovsky used here. The Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, fresh from their superlative performances in Wagner's Ring Cycle, were just as excellent in this patchwork, less worthy score, under the capable hands of conductor Eva Ollikainen. Pianist Bengt-Åke Lundin admirably tailored the solo part of the first piano concerto to the needs of the dancers on stage, the work's famous opening-chord motif serving for the awkward leg kicks of the hapless and ineffective Prince (Andrey Leonovitch) of this divided city.

This performance by the Royal Swedish Ballet will run through June 4, at the Kennedy Center Opera House. Some seats in the orchestra section have been reduced to $49.

Britten's 'Rape of Lucretia' Coming to Wolf Trap

Giulio Romano, Tarquin and Lucretia, 1536, fresco panel in the Palazzo Ducale, Mantua
In her fascinating book SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, historian Mary Beard traces how a culture so staunchly opposed to the idea of kings could have ended up an imperial state. In its early years, Rome was ruled by a series of kings, something written about by early Roman historians but only accepted by modern historians after the discovery of an inscription, containing the word "RECEI," under some black stone in the Roman Forum in 1899. Livy, in his history Ab urbe condita, wrote of a series of six monarchs after the legendary founding of the city under Romulus and Remus. The last of them, Tarquinius Superbus, was a "paranoid autocrat," as Beard writes, "who ruthlessly eliminated his rivals, and a cruel exploiter of the Roman people, forcing them to labor on his fanatical building projects. But the awful breaking point came, as such breaking points did more than once in Roman history, with a rape -- this time the rape of the virtuous Lucretia by one of [the] king's sons (p. 93)." Beard later goes on:

This rape is almost certainly as mythic as the rape of the Sabines: assaults on women symbolically marking the beginning and the end of the regal period. [...] But mythic or not, for the rest of the Roman time the rape of Lucretia marked a turning point in politics, and its morality was debated. The theme has been replayed and reimagined in Western culture almost ever since, from Botticelli, through Titian and Shakespeare, to Benjamin Britten; Lucretia even has her own small part in Judy Chicago's feminist installation The Dinner Party, among some 1,000 heroines of world history. [...]

This was seen as a fundamentally political moment, for in the [Livy] story it leads directly to the expulsion of the kings and the start of the free Republic. As soon as Lucretia stabbed herself, Lucius Junius Brutus -- who had accompanied her husband to the scene --took the dagger from her body and, while her family was too distressed to speak, vowed to rid Rome of kings for ever. This was, of course, partly a retrospective prophecy, for the Brutus who in 44 BCE led the coup against Julius Caesar for his kingly ambitions claimed descent from this Brutus. After ensuring the support of the army and the people, who were appalled by the rape and fed up with laboring on the drain [the Cloaca Maxima], Lucius Junius Brutus forced Tarquin and his sons into exile (pp. 121-23).

Britten, The Rape of Lucretia, I. Bostridge, S. Gritton, A. Kirchschlager, Aldeburgh Festival, O. Knussen (released on February 5, 2013) Virgin 50999 60267221 | 105'33"

The Benjamin Britten work mentioned by Beard is the English composer's opera The Rape of Lucretia, which Wolf Trap Opera will perform later this month (June 10, 12, 15, and 18). Readers of these pages are no strangers to the work as we have reviewed recordings, DVDs, and live performances of this work (Castleton Festival and Peabody Chamber Opera, both in 2007). Its proportions, as one of Britten's "chamber operas," are ideal for the Barns, and it is an affecting work, too rarely staged, that always makes a dramatic impact.

The only weird part of the opera is the Christian-tinged frame narrative, told by a Male and Female Chorus in an introduction and epilogue. Livy was not the primary source of librettist Ronad Duncan, who based his text on a modern French play, André Obey's Le Viol de Lucrèce (adapted separately in English by Thornton Wilder), itself based on Shakespeare's adaptation, The Rape of Lucrece. In the opera the virtuous wife Lucretia's suffering and suicide, following her rape at the hands of Sextus Tarquinius, is related through the prism of the redemption offered by Jesus Christ.

Production starts at 03:45 --

Phillips Camerata Marks the Phillips Terquasquigenary

Stravinsky, Dumbarton Oaks Concerto (inter alia), Orchestra of St. Luke's, R. Craft

Charles T. Downey, Phillips Collection reproduces 1941 inaugural concert of weekly series (Washington Post, May 31)

The Phillips Collection presented its first public concert in 1941. On Sunday afternoon, the museum marked the 75th anniversary of its weekly concert series by reproducing the music played at that first concert, a program of pieces for two pianos. The Phillips Camerata, the venue’s resident ensemble, performed some of the pieces in the same format and others in expanded arrangements.

Pianists Audrey Andrist and Lisa Emenheiser played the ­two-piano pieces, and previous partnerships together, for the 21st Century Consort, gave them a solid ensemble footing. The daunting technical challenges of Saint-Saëns’s “Variations on a Theme of Beethoven, Op. 35,” were not exactly smooth in this performance, but the duo never played it safe, perhaps taking the funeral march variation a tad too fast to savor its harmonic vagaries... [Continue reading]

Phillips Camerata
With Audrey Andrist and Lisa Emenheiser, pianists
Phillips Collection