#morninglistening: Tigran Hamasyan, Luys I Luso

#morninglistening to Tigran #Hamasyan on @ECMRecords w/Yerevan State Chamber Choir #class… http://t.co/WKZNzFLLY3 pic.twitter.com/UNg2f0OOAn

— Jens F. Laurson (@ClassicalCritic) September 30, 2015

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BSO Off the Cuff

Lecture-concerts -- with that losing combination of half the music and twice the talk -- are generally not my thing. So the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's decision to double down on its "Off the Cuff" concerts, to which two of its four performances are devoted this week, seemed mysterious to me. Best not to judge such things without experiencing them, however, so Friday evening found me braving the monsoon rains to get to Strathmore for the latest concert in the series. If the chatty format is meant to make newcomers to classical music feel more comfortable, all while charging the same ticket price without having to play the week's entire program, one would hope there are more seats filled at the Music Center in weeks without a hurricane looming off the east coast.

The rest of my weekend review schedule meant that this performance of Markus Stenz's first concert as the BSO's Principal Guest Conductor, focused on excerpts from Mozart's Don Giovanni, was my only option. Stenz was charming and generally informative in the half-hour lecture, an introduction of the opera's music and story with live orchestra examples, complete with Tcherman accent and amusing minor grammatical errors. His ideas about the opera seemed influenced by the René Jacobs recording, with some rather fast tempo choices, strings light on vibrato, crisp articulation over legato phrasing, and timpani and brass allowed to push into the foreground at loud moments.

Other Reviews: Tim Smith, BSO offers kinetic Mozart program with Stenz, Meade (Baltimore Sun, October 2)

Another reason to brave the weather was the chance to hear soprano Angela Meade, who made a powerhouse Donna Anna, albeit without the most suave floating tone at the top, so crucial for the musical characterization of Anna's innocence. Likewise, soprano Jennifer Black, who sang Donna Elvira at the Castleton Festival last year, did not really have the vocal force for that character's vengeful harshness. (Not for the first time, I wondered what the opera would sound like if you switched these voice types around in casting.) Pureum Jo made a noteworthy BSO debut as Zerlina, a role that did not come off as mousy at all with her voice, and Thomas Richards was a strong Leporello, outshining the Don Giovanni of Morgan Smith in the Act II finale.

Dip Your Ears, No. 207 (Bach Metamorphosed)

J.S.Bach, various transcriptions, A.Nebel Hänssler CLASSIC J.S.Bach, various transcriptions, A.Nebel Hänssler CLASSIC

Probing the Unknown

Recitals of little known transcriptions of less-than-famous pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach are just what excites me. Throw in Walter Braunfels with his sumptuous, quasi-orchestral rendition of the Prelude & Fugue BWV 536 as the recital opener, and I’m sold.

Almost: It takes Angelika Nebel’s stately, regal navigation of the liturgical year via the appropriate chorales that seals the deal on Metamorphosis. She does a similar thing in the follow-up album Illuminations, only that she adds her own transcriptions this time, which works out very nicely indeed.

Like Tzimon Barto’s Goldberg Variations [I love it; Charles’ review here], this CD ends with a transcription of the Chorale “Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland”, but here for two pianos. I cry either way. Two more quality releases from the recently sold Hänssler label. [See Forbes: Merger Reunites Classical Music Labels Of Father And Son.]

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On Forbes: Merger Reunites Classical Music Labels Of Father And Son

Merger Reunites Classical Music Labels Of Father And Son

Because the Christian Media Foundation (“Stiftung Christliche Medien”, SCM) based in Holzgerlingen near Stuttgart, Germany, no longer cared for having a classical music label on their hands – which, let’s face it, isn’t exactly the type of business that would be raking in profits or even breaking even without considerable effort – they wanted to dump the storied and well-reputed hänssler CLASSIC label. Now SCM has found someone to take it off their hands that will continue the wonderful work the label has been doing for well over 40 years. The taker-over? The smallish label Profil, which publishes most of its releases in the “Edition Günter Hänssler“. As the name suggests, the latter label is run by Günter Hänssler. And yes, he is related to the Hänssler in “hänssler CLASSIC”: He is the son of the founder and has long worked with the former label before founding his own. Now the mothership is with the son; a classical family-reunion story, you might say...

Full review on Forbes.com.

Runnicles with the NSO

R. Strauss, Four Last Songs (inter alia), J. Eaglen, London Symphony Orchestra, D. Runnicles (2000) Elgar, Enigma Variations, London Symphony Orchestra, C. Davis (2007)

The National Symphony Orchestra is looking for a successor to their current music director, Christoph Eschenbach, who will step down at the end of next season. Figuring high on my list would have been Scottish conductor Donald Runnicles, whose recordings I have much admired and who had an excellent run at San Francisco Opera. His term as music director of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra ends next year, although he will apparently continue leading the Deutsche Oper Berlin for now. This week's NSO concerts offered the first chance to hear Runnicles live, and the experience far exceeded expectations.

The overture to Mozart's The Magic Flute featured sharp ideas, with the beat crisply marked by the baton in Runnicles' left hand. All those critical "knock" chords, the Masonic signature, were clearly defined and unified, with beautifully balanced tutti sound, and all sections paid close attention to delineating the repeated-note theme of the fast section, which bubbled with energy, if some occasional ensemble disagreements, all minor.

Russian soprano Olga Peretyatko, who had to cancel her local debut with the Washington Concert Opera one year ago, made an exemplary NSO debut in Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs, a piece we would gladly hear once a year. We have been following her via online streaming, and the reports of our European correspondent have been enthusiastic. Little surprise, then, that this is a voice worth hearing, firm and earthy at the middle and bottom, clear and unrestrained at the top. The latter quality made the end of the third song, Beim Schlafengehen, particularly beautiful, as the soul yearns to soar in the magic wreath of the night. Runnicles, who made a fine recording of these songs with Jane Eaglen some years ago, here had a voice more uniformly up to the task (and an improvement over the last singer to perform them here, Renée Fleming in 2010). The NSO responded with intense violin solos, not overly lachrymose, from concertmaster Nurit Bar-Josef and a luscious, poignant horn solo from outstanding principal player Abel Pereira at the end of the second song, September.

Other Reviews: Anne Midgette, The NSO starts its regular season with a promising debut (Washington Post, October 2) Kate Molleson, BBCSSO/Runnicles review – warm, bold and incisive (The Guardian, September 30)

Without doing any kind of official count, I probably have issues with the NSO's string sections most often in my reviewing. What a delight to hear the strings sounding so good in Elgar's Serenade for String Orchestra, op. 20, the violas purring on the little energetic motif running through the first movement and the first violins weaving a single, limpid thread of sound. The second movement, taken not too slow and therefore more heartfelt than schmaltzy, was lush and tender, capped by a genial third movement, in no way agitated, which felt completely opposite from the approach often taken by Eschenbach.

Edward Elgar and His World, ed. Byron Adams (Bard Music Festival, 2007)

The same was true with the larger orchestra playing for the Enigma Variations, far surpassing the merely quirky rendition from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra earlier this month. Runnicles carefully measured every crescendo, and the fast movements rollicked and thundered, grabbing the listener by the collar, brief and coordinated bursts of sonic wallop. The eighth variation, depicting the ladies of the Worcester Philharmonic Association, was graceful and passionate, leading into the famous ninth variation by a fragile sustained violin note, a moment marred by the crash of something at the back of the hall. Given the title "Nimrod," this graceful piece represents Elgar's beloved friend August Jaeger (German for hunter, thus the biblical hunter of the title), who encouraged Elgar in a moment of despondency, so the minor-mode theme, representing the loneliness of composition, is transformed into major. (Elgar used to sign letters with the first four notes of the mysterious theme, and now every time I hear the piece, I think of those first four notes sung to the words "Edward Elgar.") Runnicles brought out all sorts of details, like the delicate solos on viola and flute, the latter in its silvery low range, in the tenth variation.

This concert repeats tonight and tomorrow night, in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Through a special promotion, $20 tickets on the orchestra level are available for both performances.

#morninglistening: Conrad Tao, Pictures

#morninglistening to #Takemitsu #Carter #mussorgsky etc. w/@conradtao on @warnerclassics … http://t.co/KeSAHrNaw0 pic.twitter.com/2ySF1zx80m

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

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On Forbes: Gergiev Starts Munich Tenure With Mahler

Gergiev Starts Munich Tenure With Mahler

On September 19^th, Valery Gergiev began his tenure as Music Director with the Munich Philharmonic – more than two and a half years after he signed his contract. If the occasion – a performance of Mahler’s grand Second Symphony – didn’t quite feel like the event it was, it was perhaps because his extensive presence (to the extent that the elusive, fast-paced Gergiev can be said to be truly present anywhere) with the city of Munich’s orchestra in the previous years: He had a number of guest appearances in town, conducting a complete Shostakovich cycle, for example, but also helping the orchestra out when their last music director, Lorin Maazel, died before the end of his scheduled tenure...

Full review on Forbes.com.

#morninglistening: Everything Itzhak Perlman on Warner

#morninglistening to everything* @PerlmanOfficial! Welcome to my home, Itzhak! #classical… http://t.co/WhBmSuBzXA pic.twitter.com/ONaRf2PiDa

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

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