Out West Arts has reviewed Simon Keenlyside’s recent Santa Monica recital (without mentioning Malcolm Martineau, who I believe was the pianist).
October 30, 2011
October 28, 2011
Matthew Polenzani’s Wigmore Hall Live CD
Wigmore Hall Live: Matthew Polenzani & Julius Drake (CD)
Songs by Schubert, Beethoven, Britten and Hahn
Performers
Matthew Polenzani, tenor
Julius Drake, piano
Released in United Kingdom 24 October 2011
Label: Wigmore Hall Live
Recorded: 1 May 2010
Number of Discs: 1
Total time: 76.09
CD, amazon.com
CD, amazon.co.uk
Songs By Schubert, Beethoven, Britten and Hahn – Matthew Polenzani & Julius Drake
Track listing
Franz Schubert
01 Im Frühling — 04.47
02 Fischerweise — 03.08
03 Der Einsame — 04.25
04 Nachtstück — 05.23
05 An Silvia — 03.17
Ludwig van Beethoven: An die ferne Geliebte, Op. 96
06 Auf dem Hügel sitz ich spähend — 02.35
07 Wo die Berge so blau — 01.51
08 Leichte Segler in den Höhen — 01.45
09 Diese Wolken in den Höhen — 00.58
10 Es kehret der Maien, es blühet die Au — 02.53
11 Nimm sie hin denn, diese Lieder — 04.51
Benjamin Britten: Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, Op. 22
12 Si come nella penna (Sonnet XVI) — 02.05
13 A che più debb'io mai (Sonnet XXXI) — 01.28
14 Veggio co'bei vostri occhi (Sonnet XXX) — 03.36
15 Tu sa', ch'io so (Sonnet LV) — 01.49
16 Rendete agli occhi miei (Sonnet XXXVIII) — 01.57
17 S'un casto amor (Sonnet XXXII) — 01.15
18 Spirto ben nato (Sonnet XXIV) — 05.29
Reynaldo Hahn: Venezia — Chansons en dialecte vénitien
19 Sopra l'Acqua Indormenzada — 03.10
20 La Barcheta — 03.41
21 L'Avertimento — 01.31
22 La Biondina in Gondoleta — 03.47
23 Che Pecà! — 02.12
24 La Primavera — 02.42
Encore
Traditional
25 Danny Boy — 03.52
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October 28, 2011
Anthony Tommasini reviews the Metropolitan Opera's Siegfried for the New York Times.
—
Simon Keenlyside’s recital in San Francisco is reviewed at The Opera Tattler.
—
“Bernard Haitink and the CSO conjure up a heavenly 'Creation'”–Chicago Sun-Times
October 27, 2011
October 27, 2011
Vancouver Sun review of Vancouver, British Columbia, recital by Simon Keenlyside, baritone, and Malcolm Martineau, piano
—
“If I never hear another concert I will die a contented music lover,
having heard the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus perform
Beethoven’s Missa solemnis under Colin Davis and Britten’s
War Requiem under Gianandrea Noseda last weekend,” writes Sedgwick Clark
for Musical America .
—
Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, on Mariusz Kwiecien in Met’s Don Giovanni
—
October 25, 2011
October 24, 2011
War Requiem
Excellent performance of Britten’s War Requiem on Sunday afternoon (yesterday) at Avery Fisher Hall in New York: London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, with soloists Sabina Cvilak, Ian Bostridge, and Simon Keenlyside.
Don Giovanni at Met
I saw Don Giovanni at the Metropolitan Opera on the night of Saturday October 22, 2011. The sets and costumes for this new production, set in the eighteenth century, were OK but nothing very special. A bit too much of the façades à la Hollywood Squares. No gratuitous displays of flesh, no dancing around in underpants, and no changing of shirts, as in so many recent productions here and there, but I don’t need to see any of that at the opera.
Ramón Vargas as Don Ottavio was by far the best member of the cast. He ranks among the best singers to perform the role, IMHO. Excellent projection and lovely sound. Barbara Frittoli as Donna Elvira and Marina Rebeka as Donna Anna also projected their voices very well. The other singers–among them Peter Mattei as Don Giovanni and Luca Pisaroni as Leporello–seemed not quite up to the size of the Met. They would have made more impression for me in a house with 3,000 seats or fewer, not the Met’s 4,000 or so. On the whole, though, a very satisfactory performance, just somewhat lacking in pizazz. The singers were not always singing, in the recitatives in particular, as if they expected the audience to hear and understand the words. And I suppose much of the audience would not have understood them. The audience laughed, when it laughed, at the translations on the little screens, not at the singer’s delivery of the words. Still the performance would have more punch if the singers did more to sing as if the words were to be heard and understood.
I also wonder whether bits of the recitatives were excised in a few places, but I can’t really say for sure. Maybe. Maybe not. For example, I don’t recall hearing the exchange:
MASETTO
Io, per servirla.
DON GIOVANNI
Oh bravo! Per servirmi;
questo è vero parlar da galantuomo.
Maybe there were such cuts, or maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention.
Missa Solemnis
I attended a performance of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis at Avery Fisher Hall in New York on Friday October 21, 2011. Outstanding performances from the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, conductor Sir Colin Davis, and alto soloist Sarah Connolly. The other three vocal soloists were OK but not especially interesting.
A performance by the same artists at the Royal Albert Hall in London last month can be seen and heard at youtube. Thanks to melodiaavis at Twitter for letting me know.
October 17, 2011
Calendars for 2012
Change of pianist for upcoming Boston Symphony Orch. concerts
Pianist Yefim Bronfman has been advised by his doctors to take one week to rest and recuperate from an injury to one of his fingers, and will not be able to perform Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in the Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts of October 20, 21, and 22, 2011. Pianist Nicholas Angelich will perform the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 for these performances, making his BSO debut. The program will begin with the Piano Concerto No. 2, and will conclude with Brahms’s Symphony No. 3.
BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PROGRAM LISTING, OCTOBER 20-22, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 10:30 a.m. (Open Rehearsal)
Thursday, October 20, 8 p.m.
Friday, October 21, 1:30 p.m.
Saturday, October 22, 8 p.m.
Kurt Masur, conductor
Yefim Bronfman, piano
ALL-BRAHMS PROGRAM
Piano Concerto No. 2
Symphony No. 3
NICHOLAS ANGELICH
Award-winning pianist Nicholas Angelich has been praised for his impressive interpretations of classical and romantic repertoire. The Daily Telegraph raved, “Angelich always compels with his concentration and coloristic subtlety, and his illumination of Brahms’s intricate contrapuntal textures.”
His chamber collaborations include critically acclaimed performances with Dimitri Sitkovetsky, Joshua Bell, Alexander Kniazev, Jian Wang, Paul Meyer, and Gautier and Renaud Capuçon. His recording of the Brahms Trios with the Capuçons for Virgin Classics was awarded the German Record Critics’ Prize. Mr. Angelich has also released recordings for Harmonia Mundi, Lyrinx, and Mirare.
In the 2010-11 season Mr. Angelich made his recital debut with the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Concert and Lecture series, and his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut under Stéphane Denève.
