The Word of the Day
A recital by soprano Danielle Woerner and pianist Sylvia Buccelli will
include a 100th birthday season tribute to composer Otto Luening (1900-96),
consisting of songs dating from 1918 to 1984. Luening, one of the fathers
of electronic music, but also composer of more traditional music, donated
his music to the New York Public Library shortly before his death. The programme,
entitled The Word of the Day: Composers and the Poetry of Their Time,
also includes songs by Mozart, the French composers Chausson, Debussy and
Fauré, by Alma Mahler, and Schönberg's Vier Lieder, Op
2.
You have two chances to hear this recital: 30 November, 8pm at Bard College,
Annandale, New York, and 7 December, 7pm at the New York Public Library
for the Performing Arts at The Great Hall, Cooper Union, East 7th Street,
NYC (part of the library's 1999-2000 concert series Treasures of the
Music Division). Both performances are free. Further information from
Leslie Gerber, Parnassus Records, +1 914 246 3332.
Woerner and Buccelli have recorded Luening's songs: She Walks in Beauty:
Soprano Danielle Woerner Sings Chamber Music and Songs of Otto Luening and
Robert Starer was released in January on the Parnassus label (PACD 96012),
and has already gone to a second pressing.
'Luening's idiom is basically tonal and highly melodic...[His] songs
with piano are all quite lovely... Woerner has a high, bright soprano of
considerable technique along with perfect diction...all of the singing is
quite lovely....Recommended.' (John Story writing in Fanfare.)
Pettersson, Lidholm and Stenhammar
Nils-Eric Sparf will be the soloist in Allan Pettersson's Concerto for
Violin and String Quartet at the Uppsala Chamber Soloists' concert in the
Alfvénsalen, Uppsala, Sweden on 2 December, 7.30pm. Also on the programme
is Ingvar Lidholm's Music for strings and Wilhelm Stenhammar's Quartet
No 6. Tickets: 077-1707070.
Living Music
The Living Music Foundation Concerts in Bucharest, Romania, featuring
works by various American-based composers, including Aaron J Rabushka, will take place 6-7 December 1999,
at the Sala Enescu, Bucharest, Romania.
Festival of Love
Tonhalle Düsseldorf's New Years Day concert, Romeo und Julia,
features soprano Lucia Alberti, who is at home on some of the World's most
important opera stages - the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, London's
Covent Garden, the Deutsche Oper Berlin and La Scala Milan. She will be
joined by the Georgian tenor Shalva Mukeria, winner of numerous prizes.
Son of professional musicians, Mukeria studied clarinet before the discovery
of his extraordinary voice. Conducting the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker
will be Martin Fischer-Dieskau, who has appeared with more than fifty orchestras
worldwide, including the Berlin Philharmonic, London's Royal Philharmonic
and the Moscow State Orchestra. The concert includes music by Gounod, Bernstein,
Bellini, and Prokofiev, with arias from the operas of Verdi and Puccini.
1 January 2000, 8pm. Tickets (35-70DM) from +49 (0)211 89 96 123.
and previously published news ...
Grimes on Bartok Radio
Balazs Kovalik's new production of Peter Grimes,
with Andras Molnar in the title role, will be broadcast in Hungarian on
Bartok Radio (Hungarian Radio 3) on Friday 26 November between 7 and 10pm.
Tamas Busa sings Balstrode, Katalin Pitti Ellen Orford, Annamaria Kovacs
Auntie, and Maria Sudlik Mrs. Smedley. The conductor is the Hungarian State
Opera's music director, Janos Kovacs.
St Ceciliatide International Festival
The 5th St Ceciliatide
International Festival of Music takes place at Stationers' Hall in the
City of London 20-28 November. The Lindsay Quartet plays Beethoven on the
26 November and Fiori Musicale reappear on 27 and 28 November with James
Bowman presenting two choral works by Zelenka and Bach Cantata 54 (Widerstehe
doch der Sunde).
1999/2000 season in Budapest
The Budapest Philharmonic's 1999/2000 season includes music by Liszt,
Mozart and Tchaikovsky (13-14 December, conducted by Zuohang Chen, with
Barry Douglas, piano); Mozart, Brahms and Beethoven (31 January, with the
Beaux Arts Trio); Bach, Mozart and Bartók (28 February); Mahler's
3rd Symphony (20-21 March); Sibelius (3-4 April); Beethoven's Symphonies
1 and 9 (15-16 May).
Budapest Opera features Britten's Peter Grimes
(staged by Balazs Kovalik - 28 November and 18, 20 January), Three Sisters
by Peter Eotvos (based on Chekhov, staged by Istvan Szabo - 2, 5 April)
and Bizet's Carmen (staged by Mikos Szinetar - 20, 21, 23, 25, 27,
30 May).
Other events in Budapest include the Nureyev Ballet Competition (16 March
finals, 17 March gala. Opera House).
Ten-day tour
The Northern Sinfonia, which is based in Newcastle, UK, is shortly off
on a ten-day tour of Germany - 22 November - 3 December - with Evelyn Glennie,
the UK's foremost solo percussionist. Cities to be visited are Düsseldorf,
Köln, Stuttgart, Hannover, Berlin, Bielefeld and Osnabrück.
Tallis Scholars
The UK-based Tallis Scholars under their founder and conductor Peter
Phillips visit Italy 24-28 Nov (Rome, Bolsena, Frosinone, Grotta Ferrata,
Milan), and the Netherlands 12-13 January (Rotterdam and Enschede). Full
info on their recordings at www.gimell.com.
Palm-Sunday
A BBC commission for The Cardinall's Musick to Michael Finnissy has produced
a ten-minute work entitled Palm-Sunday, based in part on Bruckner's
motet Vexilla Regis. The première is to be heard in a BBC
concert in Worcester Cathedral on 27 November celebrating musical landmarks
of the Millennium. Andrew Carwood conducts the Finnissy motet, and the rest
of the concert engages the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales under
Richard Hickox.
Song at St John's
The 30th Anniversary Season commencing in October at St John's Smith
Square, London, contains Song at St John's, a blossoming of solo
song with piano. Four Russian evenings commence on 27 November with Galina
Gorchakova. A Millennium Song Series, 'Across Time and Space', explores
themes of time, culture and society. There will be a Study Day led by Roderic
Swanston on 16 January with the first recital on 7 February bringing Susan
Bickley and Paul Robinson for a programme drawn from Italy, Spain, Russia
and the UK. Finally, on 17 March Rosalind Plowright and the Mastersingers
Company introduce a Celebrity Song Series. Box office: +44 (0)20 7233 1618
Galliard Ensemble
The Galliard
Ensemble Wind Quintet will play in London's Purcell Room as part of 'Fresh Young Artists Platform' on
7 December, 7.30pm. The ensemble will give the world première of
a work written for them - Paul Patterson's Westerley Winds, the European
première of Philip Bimstein's Casino for quintet and tape,
and music by Berio, Briccialid, Pärt and Tinoco. Tickets GBP 10 (GBP
8, concessions) from boxoffice@rfh.org.uk
or phone +44 (0)171 960 4242. Other Galliard Ensemble appearances include
27 November, 11am (Birtwistle, Olsen, Lindberg, Tinoco and Ligeti - Huddersfield
Festival, St Paul's Hall); 6 February 2000, 9pm (Cambini, Briccialdi, Holst,
Ibert, Pärt, Ligeti and Patterson - Balliol College Oxford).
Montsalvatge
Budapest's Vigad Concert Hall is the venue for the Hungarian Chamber
Symphony Orchestra's interesting programme on 28 November, 7.30pm. Soprano
Katalin Pitti and pianist Gabriel Gorog join the orchestra, and Alberto
Santana conducts Prokofiev's Classical Symphony Op 25, Anton Rubinstein's
Piano Concerto No 4, Op 70 in D minor, Tres postals illuminades by
Xavier Montsalvatge and Mignons Lied, Die drei Zigeuner and
Die Loreley by Liszt. Info: lialba@mail.matav.hu
The Burning Bush
A distinctive integration of traditional musics
will be heard at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall on 28 November. Lucie
Skeaping, Arab folk musicians and the The Burning Bush, an ensemble
specialising in traditional Jewish world music, will present it using a
wide array of exotic instruments.
Even jazz
'Jazz on the level' will be a series at St David's Hall in Cardiff, Wales
on Tuesdays at 8.30: Just East of Jazz, 30 Nov; John Etheridge's Sweet Chorus,
25 Jan; Tony Coe Trio, 15 Feb; Marlene Verplank and her Musicians, 7 March.
Box Office: +44 (0)1222 878444.
Yehuda Kanar recital
Cellist Yehuda Kanar and pianist Julian Jacobson play Max Bruch's Kol
Nidrei, Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata, Fauré's Elégie
and Rachmaninov's Sonata on 1 December, 8pm at Regent Hall, 275 Oxford Street,
London W1. Info: +44 (0)20 8952 2009.
News of the New
James Macmillan, whose Easter Triptych on record was reviewed
in Music & Vision earlier this year, will conduct the Scottish Chamber
Orchestra in his new Symphony No. 2 in Scotland in early December Ayr (and
BBC broadcast) 2 Dec, Glasgow 3 Dec and Edinburgh 4 Dec. Macmillans new
Magnificat for choir & orchestra will be broadcast live from Wells Cathedral
on 2 Jan. He has a large-scale Mass in preparation for Westminster Cathedral
on 22 June next.
The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra has appointed Macmillan as its new Composer/Conductor
from September 2000.
Warwick Arts Society
Buoyed up by the Lindsays, Warwick Arts Society's 20th Anniversary year concerts in
the British Midlands continue with the Skampa Quartet (Dec 3), who set Suk's
Meditation and Richter's Divertimento alongside Dvorak in the newly refurbished
Royal PumpRooms, Leamington Spa. Events at St.Mary's, Warwick include the
Wren Baroque Soloists (30 Nov). December showcases two mediaeval-inspired
groups - The City Waites (Dec l0) and Sirinu (Dec l6) - at the Lord Leycester
Hospital, Warwick, while the Mellstock Band revives raucous memories of
Thomas Hardy's Wessex in the historic village of Salford Priors (Dec 15).
Next year's Warwick and Leamington Festival will be on 1-l5 July 2000.
Full details : 01926-410747 /496277.
RD
Medieval Feast
York's involvement in early music is increasing progressively through
the activities of their Early Music Foundation. On 3 December is held a
Medieval Feast for the Archbishop of York, a re-creation of the celebration
in 1437, and on 17 December a programme of Christmas music by the group
Passacaglia. There is more pre-Christmas and Christmas music. Info boxoffice@yorkearlymusic.org
English Fancie Camarada
The English Fancie Camarada presents a retrospective series of 20th century
chamber music at the Holywell Music Room, Oxford, UK, all starting at 7.30pm.
The series includes many Camarada commissions and first performances. On
4 December, 'War years - the aftermath', 29 January - 'New directions' (with
a 6.30pm pre-concert talk by Richard Rodney Bennett) and 3 March - 'towards
the millennium' (6.30pm pre-concert talk by Howard Skempton).
Tickets cost GBP 7 (concessions GBP 5) per concert, from The Playhouse,
Beaumont Street, Oxford, +44 (0)1865 798600 or at the door. Info: +44 (0)1252
727240.
Epic Journey
Sir Colin Davis conducts a Berlioz Odyssey commencing on 5 December.
This is described as an 'epic journey' and will involve the London Symphony
Orchestra, various soloists and choirs. Full information on +44 (0)845 60
60 888.
Forgotten genius of Renaissance Spain
A native of Flanders, Philippe Rogier (c1561-1596) lived and worked mostly
in southern Spain, and his music reflects both styles. Magnificat 's final concert of Rogier's music in London
this Autumn is at St James, Piccadilly, 10 December, 7.30pm: Missa Domine
Dominus Noster - also featuring The Wallace Collection in Rogier's festive
polychoral Christmas music.
Going Dutch
The Dutch composer Louis Andriessens 60th birthday is acknowledged on
10 December with a Barbican concert from the BBC Symphony Orchestra under
Martyn Brabbins. Included is the UK première of De Tijd, exploring
the phenomenon of time. Also as accompaniment to a screening of Peter Greenaway's
film will be the music for M is for Man, Music, Mozart.
About Time in Ely
On Sunday 12 December a BBC Millenium concert will take place in Ely
Cathedral presenting The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Birmingham
Contemporary Music Group conducted by Sir Simon Rattle in a programme including
Haydn's Te Deum and Beethoven's Ninth plus the première of
Mark-Anthony Turnage's About Time. Info: +44 (0)1353 660349.
Uppsala Choral Symphony
Soprano Gunilla Stephen-Kallin, mezzo Ulrika Tenstam, tenor Lars Cleveman,
bass Gunnar Lundberg, the Störkyrkans Kor, and the Uppsala Chamber
Orchestra will be conducted by Gustaf Sjökvist in a performance of
Beethoven's Symphony No 9 at Universitetets Aula, Uppsala, Sweden on 16
December, 7.30pm. Tickets: 077-1707070.
Adam lay y bounden
Howard Skempton's carol setting of Adam lay y bounden is to be
premièred by the choir of St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh
on 28 December.
Classics and lasers
The Munich Philharmonic has chosen an existential theme - 'Man between
Earth and Cosmos' - for its New Year's Eve concerts. The programme is in
three parts: vox mundana/music of the earth, vox humana/music
of mankind and vox coelestis/music of the cosmos. Music performed
will include La Création du monde by Milhaud, Scriabin's Le
Poème de l'extase, Wotan's Farewell and the Magic Fire
Music from Wagner's Die Walküre and Also sprach Zarathustra
by Richard Strauss. Laser choreography will be provided by Laserland (who provided impressive laser-lit performances
for the handing over of Hong Kong to China, and at the Earth Summit in Rio
de Janeiro). The two events are in the Munich Philharmonia at the Gasteig,
Munich, Germany, 30 December, 7pm and 31 December, 5pm.
Danielpour Première
The illustrious Guaneri String Quartet, which has a residency at the
University of Maryland, is to première a Concerto for string quartet
and orchestra by Richard Danielpour with the National Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Leonard Slatkin at Washington's Kennedy Center on 13, 14, and
15 January 2000 then in New York at Carnegie Hall on 25 January.
Oreste and Oresteia
The English Bach Festival Opera presents a short season in January at
the Linbury Studio Theatre of the Royal Opera in London. Oreste by
Handel, not heard in England since 1734, will be staged on January 14 and
22 at 7.30 and 16 and 23 at 4. At the reverse end of the chronological scale
Xenakis' Oresteia will be given its first performance in England
of the new complete version. Dates: Jan 15,18,19,21 at 7.30.Box office:
+44 (0)207 304 4000.
The Sixteen in sixteen cathedrals
From February to November 2000, The Sixteen will perform in 16 of England's
finest cathedrals. Starting in York and ending in Canterbury, the choir
will sing some of the best renaissance music by Byrd, Taverner and Tallis
- composers connected historically with the cathedrals. Watch out for a
new page on The Sixteen
website, which (by the end of October) will give further information
and booking details.
Uncommon Artistry
The Plymouth Music Series in Minneapolis has announced its 1999-2000
season, called 'Uncommon Artistry'. Witness will be partially African American
with a song cycle from John Williams and Dream N. the Hood, a rap
symphony by Gregory T.S.Walker to be programmed in Orchestra Hall on 19
Feb; The Kings Singers will present Aha! Cappella at Wooddale Church
on 7 April; Czech composer Jan Jiraseks reworking of Bach's St Luke's Passion
will be sung on 12 May at the Ted Mann Concert Hall. Info: +1 612 624 2345.
What Next?
Elliot Carter's recently premièred one act comic opera What
Next? is at the Deutsche Staatsoper Unter den Linden, 25 and 31 March
2000. With text by Paul Griffiths (after Jacques Tati's film Traffic),
What Next? is conducted by Daniel Barenboim and directed by Nicolas
Brieger, with decor by Gisbert Jaekel.
A variety of conductors
The Philharmonia Orchestra's Spring/Summer 2000 concerts at the Royal
Festival Hall in London bring a variety of conductors to the rostrum. Leonard
Slatkin (Principal Guest), Vladimir Ashkenazy, Junichi Hirokami, David Zinman,
Vladimir Conta, Richard Hickox; and Valery Gergiev conducting four concerts
devoted to works associated with Diaghilev (two with the Kirov Orchestra).
Mikhail Pletnev plays Tchaikovsky's complete works for piano and orchestra
in two concerts. Slatkin will present two American concerts, including a
première.
<< Music &
Vision homepage Other news >>
|