Author: bfc-admin

“The Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s Saturday concert at Jordan Hall, ‘Klezmer Madness,’ [featured] two recent concertos for clarinet and orchestra [with] the outstanding klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer,” writes David Weininger in Sunday’s (11/24) Boston Globe. “Bookending the concertos were two [non-klezmer] orchestral works by the Israeli-born composer Avner Dorman … four very different works given committed and energetic readings by this intrepid ensemble under Gil Rose’s sure direction. Opening the evening was Dorman’s ‘Uriah’ (2009), a terse, blistering tone poem on the biblical story of King David and Bathsheba from the point of view of Bathsheba’s husband … Almost as impressive was Dorman’s ‘Ellef Symphony,’ named for the Hebrew word meaning one thousand…. The two concertos were Mathew Rosenblum’s ‘Lament/Witches’ Sabbath’ (2017) and Wlad Marhulets’ Concerto for Klezmer Clarinet (2008). Rosenblum’s work is grounded in his grandmother’s harrowing story of escaping from Ukraine in 1919…. A blazing cadenza for the soloist unleashed a stew of sorrow and incantation: here was the madness advertised in the concert’s title. Marhulets’ concerto is more modest in ambition … full of conventional klezmer-style melodies and rhythms…. It’s well scored and offered Krakauer the opportunity to put the soulful, lyrical side of his artistry on display.”

Posted November 27, 2019

“Gustavo Dudamel will lead the Berlin Philharmonic in four concerts as part of the cultural program for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games in June 2020,” reports Anthony Brown in Tuesday’s (11/26) MusicalAmerica.com (subscription required). “The orchestra will present three performances in Tokyo’s Bunka Kaikan concert hall and one free open-air performance in Shinjuku Gyoen Park. Repertoire for the concert hall includes Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (Resurrection) with soloists Anett Fritsch and Alisa Kolosova and the Tokyo Opera Singers, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. A third, special Olympic program will consist of works from all over the world. Dudamel and the Berliners will reprise the Beethoven Ninth in Shinjuku Gyoen Park for an anticipated audience of 10,000…. A special ‘Tokyo 2020 One World Chorus’ will feature singers from all continents. ‘Participating in the official cultural program of Tokyo 2020 is a great honor for us,’ noted Andrea Zietzschmann, general manager of the Berlin Philharmonic Foundation. ‘Music, like sport, can develop a tremendous power of understanding among peoples, … so it is especially important to us that the open-air concert brings together many nations on one stage.’ ”

Posted November 27, 2019

“The $27 million music venue set to go at the Banks has received all of the approvals needed from Cincinnati City Council to make the project a reality,” writes Chris Wetterich in Thursday’s (11/20) Cincinnati Business Courier. “City Council unanimously approved on Wednesday changes to the Banks’ concept plan and a development agreement that will allow for a music venue to be built on the mixed-use riverfront development. On Nov. 14, it approved an ordinance making major changes to the cooperative agreement with Hamilton County dividing up the remaining parcels between the city and county…. Under the agreement: The city accepts the air rights to Lot 27 from the county and then gives those rights to the music venue’s developer, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra subsidiary Music and Event Management Inc. The city acquires the air rights to Lot 23 from the county for $0 to build the park that will be used at times for outdoor performances with a capacity of up to 8,000…. Council also unanimously approved an ordinance appropriating $1.45 million to build a base park at Lot 23. Music and Event Management Inc. will match the city’s contribution.”

Posted November 27, 2019

“In all its 150 years, the Vienna State Opera has never staged an opera written by a woman,” writes Shaun Walker in Sunday’s (11/24) Guardian (U.K.). “That will change next month, with the premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s operatic version of Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando: A Biography. ‘I really want to shake up this old-fashioned, beautiful, wonderful place a bit,’ said Neuwirth…. Orlando … has been called the first English-language trans novel due to its playful exploration of gender fluidity…. Orlando begins Woolf’s novel as a young man in Elizabethan England, and ends it as a 36-year-old woman in 1928…. In Neuwirth’s 19-scene opera, the action will continue until the present day…. The role of Orlando’s child will be played by the transgender American cabaret artist Justin Vivian Bond, alongside a cast of classically trained opera singers…. All the key roles in creating Orlando were filled by women: Neuwirth wrote the libretto together with the playwright Catherine Filloux, the British director Polly Graham is in charge of staging the production, and performances will feature costumes designed by Rei Kawakubo…. The Vienna State Opera orchestra shares the pit with an electric guitar and two synthesizers … with some singers placed inside the opera house’s giant chandelier.”

Posted November 27, 2019

Photo of Olga Neuwirth by Harald Hoffmann

“The air of perfection that surrounded [Pierre] Boulez, who died in 2016 at 90, was daunting,” writes composer John Adams in Wednesday’s (11/17) New York Times. “There seemed to be nothing at which he didn’t excel: composing his dense, detailed, exquisitely honed music; conducting Wagner at the Bayreuth Festival; leading the New York Philharmonic; making revelatory recordings; founding, in Ircam and the Ensemble Intercontemporain, both a research laboratory and a virtuosic modern orchestra. And teaching, as we find in ‘Music Lessons,’ a new English translation of 16 lectures he gave at the Collège de France between 1976 and 1995. Readers can now take stock of the daunting, demanding Boulezian worldview and, whether they warm to his own works or not, appreciate him as one of the most important writers ever about music. Although Boulez was to live over 20 years after the final lecture, ‘Music Lessons’ has the feel of a vast expository Gesamtkunstwerk that ponders and probes musical experience to its very essence. It ranges over music’s fundamental building blocks—its modes of organization and how we perceive it, both acoustically and culturally… and on to matters of notation, style, idea, technology and tradition.”

Posted November 27, 2019

In photo: Pierre Boulez (left) and John Adams. Boulez photo by Israel Shenker / New York Times; Adams photo by Deborah O’Grady

Ohio’s Lima Symphony Orchestra is one of twelve recipients of 2019 Stand for the Arts Awards from Ovation TV, the arts television network. The Lima Symphony, which will receive $10,000 to support its efforts in community engagement, is the first orchestra to receive this honor in the three years since the awards began. Other 2019 recipients include Berkshire Museum (Pittsfield, MA), Dallas Black Dance Theatre (Dallas, TX), Kumu Kahua Theatre (Honolulu, HI), and Louisville Leopard Percussionists (Louisville, KY). The Lima Symphony was chosen for the award based on the “meaningful and creative work the symphony is doing in arts education, community engagement, and bringing diverse communities together in the Lima region,” according to a press release. Elizabeth Brown-Ellis, Lima Symphony Orchestra’s executive director, said, “For us to be able to impact our community in such meaningful ways through our Healing Through Music, Drumming Up Hope and Prison outreach programs and by dramatically increasing the number of children we are able to reach through a 500 percent expansion of our education programs is both a tremendous priority and a true privilege. To be recognized nationally and to be the first symphony orchestra to receive this award is overwhelming.”

Posted November 26, 2019

“For his final set of subscription concerts before the new year, music director Andris Nelsons has assembled a commendably exploratory program,” writes Jeremy Eichler in Saturday’s (11/23) Boston Globe. “Of the four works on the program, the only repertory staple in the mix is Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. Thursday’s program opened with the premiere of a work by Latvian composer Arturs Maskats entitled ‘My River runs to thee …’ co-commissioned by the BSO and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra…. The work takes its title, and a portion of its inspiration, from the poetry of Emily Dickinson. The score itself is for the most part earnestly lyrical and atmospheric, bookended by plaintive woodwind solos from clarinet (Thomas Martin) and English horn (Robert Sheena). Lasting about 15 minutes in length, the music makes its points with a pared back simplicity and directness of statement…. Nelsons and the BSO launched the new work with sincerity and care.” Also on the program was Shostakovich’s Second Symphony with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, which also performed in Galina Grigorjeva’s On Leaving, “a substantial and challenging eight-part [work].… The performance, led by TFC conductor James Burton … was compellingly shaped, sonically rich, and utterly haunting.”

Posted November 26, 2019

“This month we salute 30 exceptional women—from the fields of business, education, health care, arts, public service, philanthropy, religion and sports—each one of them a leader who makes a significant difference in the life of our community,” writes Nancy Schoeffler in Friday’s (11/21) Hartford Magazine (CT). Included are Carolyn Kuan, music director of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, and Rebecca Corbin Loree, founder of Corbin Advisors, who is chair of the orchestra’s five-year capital campaign. At the Hartford Symphony, “Kuan has sought ways to shake up the traditional classical repertoire with a wide variety of innovative and offbeat approaches. She’s paired music with visual presentations, woven in new music and world music, musically interpreted local culinary creations with chefs on stage [and] has taken the orchestra to many different venues.” As chair of the HSO’s $10 million capital campaign “that already has raised $8.6 million … Corbin Lee says she applied insights and experience from her own field to give the campaign its identity—‘Music Builds Community.’ The campaign aims to raise $2 million for innovation … $2 million to build patronage and engage the community; and $6 million for endowment ‘to solidify our future.’ ”

Posted November 26, 2019