The Classical Music Network (English) Sun, 15 Jun 2025 05:20:33 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/ http://www.concertonet.com/images/concertonet.jpg http://www.concertonet.com/
R. Strauss/E. van den Heever
(© Portrait by Max Liebermann (1918)/Chris Gonz)


“The human voice is the most beautiful instrument of all, but the most difficult to play.”
Richard Strauss


Not so long ago, the names Aram Khatchaturian and Richard Strauss were greeted with snorts, snickers and all‑out condescending laughter from the usual snobbish sophists. The former was “too exotic, too simple, too superficial” for serious listeners. Strauss was “too romantic, too 19th Century, too..., well, too beautiful.”


... Thu, 12 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16982
A. Khachaturian, K. Poghosyan (© Roger Pic/karineplays.com)


“I would describe Russian music as ‘light serious’ or ‘serious light’. It must be tuneful and comprehensibly tuneful, and must not be repetitious or stamped with triviality.”
Sergei Prokofiev


“Bright, joyous and optimistic.”
Aram Khatchaturian, on his 1962 Piano Sonata


Of the famed Soviet composer-troika, Aram Khatchaturian was easily the most joyous. Dmitri Shostakovich was sarcastic, gloomy, dismal, afraid of censorship, filling his music with codes, chimeras, sec]]>... Tue, 10 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16977
J.-M. Zeitouni, M.-N. Lemieux, E. Hasler (© Agence BigJaw)


Carmen is one of the most perfect operas in the repertoire, thanks to its inspired setting, its marvelous orchestration and its beautifully-conceived vocal parts. But most of all, Bizet’s masterwork still holds power thanks to its intense drama. It was highly‑admired by no less than Gustav Mahler, who championed the work while Director of the Vienna Court Opera. It’s thought of as an indestructible work, a glorious stage success no matter whose vision we are witnessing. Carmen herself could be interpreted by a mezzo or a soprano; dialogue can be spoken ]]>... Sat, 07 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16976
R. Mobley, G. Nha, L. Meunier (© Samuel A. Dog)


“I have always kept one end in view: To conduct my church music in the honor of God.”
Johann Sebastian Bach


“If God blesses us, we may make a profit. And a considerable one at that.”
Antonio Vivaldi


After their first 50 years, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s (the name comes from their initial church performance) is more golden than ever. Last night’s concerts may have had a few defects. But the orchestra strings themselves, under the baton-less speedy tempi of Lionel Meunier, radiated. ]]>... Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16968
S. Skelton, N. Stemme, K. Cargill (© Linda Holt)


This is Yannick Nézet‑Séguin’s year for Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde. This month, the indefatigable conductor and artistic director, who commutes between the Philadelphia Orchestra and New York City’s Metropolitan Opera, is leading two performances of the complete concert version in the City of Brotherly Love. The performances feature the warmth and power of the Philadelphia Orchestra (some 100 musicians), 40 men’s choristers from the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir (Donald Palumbo, director) and a spectacular cast of singers led by Nina Stemme.


]]>... Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16965
K. L. Bates/M. Kwon (© Schlesinger Library, Harvard University)


“I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear.”
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass


“The way to write American music is simple. All you have to do is be an American and then write any kind of music you wish.”
Virgil Thomson


With my imaginary druthers, I’d choose America the Beautiful as second choice for our National Anthem. (The first would be Woody Guthrie’s This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is My Land, but these days, the title sounds like chatter among Trump’]]>... Wed, 28 May 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16955
J. Wedman, S. Marino (© Dahlia Katz)


This concert promised to be a revelation. Venezuelan countertenor Samuel Marino, who’d already seduced Toronto two years earlier, returns with an eclectic selection of arias from the classical period. The concert alternated between orchestral pieces and operatic arias, not from the baroque era, as one would expect from a countertenor, but rather from the period of Sturm und Drang (late eighteenth century).


Some of the featured composers were familiar, such as Mozart, Haydn, Gluck and (to a lesser extent) Salieri, while others would have been unknown to the a]]>... Fri, 23 May 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16959
R. Thomas, M. Owens (© COC)


In the last days of its season, Toronto’s Canadian Opera Company offered a curiosity: Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana in a concert version. It’s an odd choice for this action‑packed verismo opera. For many, the main attraction was the announced Santuzza, to be performed by Anna Pirozzi, Italy’s sensational dramatic soprano, heard ici in La Gioconda in Catania. However, a couple of days before the performance, it was announced that Pirozzi was indisposed, to be replaced by American soprano M]]>... Fri, 23 May 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16957
K. Soper (© Marco Giugliarelli)


“If, as is always the case, music appears to express something, this is always an illusion, and not a reality.”
Igor Stravinsky


“There’s almost no content in terms of language at all. I don’t like using language to convey meaning. I’d rather use images and music.”
Philip Glass


If this week’s New York Philharmonic concerts presage next year’s Gustavo Dudamel stewardship, then New York should be ready for one of the dynamic (and probably accessible) season since Leonard Bernstein.


The th]]>... Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16948
(© Jessica Latouche)


Il trovatore is one of Verdi’s most enduring operas. Melodically rich, it’s built on the foundation of four great roles: Manrico, the Troubadour, a tenor; Leonora, a soprano; the gypsy Azucena, a mezzo; and il Conte di Luna, a baritone. The arias, duets and trios written for these voices eclipse much of Verdi’s previous operatic output.


Dramatically, it’s intense but highly implausible. It’s easy to ridicule an opera whose plot originates with a nobleman burning a gypsy woman at the stake, her daughter Azucena seeking revenge by attempting to burn alive the killer’s c]]>... Sat, 17 May 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16942
K. Puts (© David White)


“My first memory is of the brightness of light, light all around.”
Georgia O’Keeffe, quoted by Kevin Puts in The Brightness of Light


“We should always remember that sensitivity and emotion constitute the real meaning of art.”
Maurice Ravel


Renée Fleming’s last word sung from Kevin Puts’ The Brightness of Light was “Wonderful.” The stranger sitting next to me whispered “Wonderful.” And I thought to myself, “How could Kevin Puts’ song/orchestra cycle on the letters written by Georgia O’Keeffe be anything b]]>... Fri, 16 May 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16940
(© Ossama el Naggar)


Georgia is located in the Caucasus north of Turkey and South of Russia. Known to the Ancient Greeks as Colchis (Κολχίς), the kingdom of Medea and the Golden Fleece, it’s an ancient land with a rich culture. In the fourth century, it was one of the earliest nations to adopt Christianity. Its Golden Age was in the High Middle Ages under King David IV and Queen Tamar. After almost three centuries of Persian and Ottoman rule, it briefly became independent in 1747 before becoming a Russian protectorate in 1783 and eventual annexation in 1801. Only after the dissolut]]>... Sun, 11 May 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16943
G. Briccialdi: Wind Quintet (© Samuel A. Dog))


“Music is yet in its nonage in England is now learning Italian, which is its best master. Thus, being further from the sun, we are of later growth than our neighbor, and must be content to shake off our barbarity by degrees.”
Henry Purcell (1690)


“I don’t think I shall ever become a convert to Italian music. It is such trash.”

Richard Strauss (1886), later successfully sued for plagiarizing Funiculì funiculà


The single word describing four-fifths of this afternoon’s Met Chambe]]>... Sun, 11 May 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16935
L. Margison (© Vivien Gaumand)


Given its immense popularity, La bohème is probably the most frequently produced opera in the repertoire. I remember first seeing it in my early teens and being quite impressed. Ever since, I inevitably attend a performance or two annually, not necessarily out of desire, but to hear a favourite singer or to discover a new one. More often than not, I regret the time invested. Happily, this was not the case for this production, which, though imperfect, has a lot going for it.


L’Opéra de Montréal rented drab sets from Arizona Opera, but thanks to colourful cost]]>... Sat, 10 May 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16947
E. Ax (© Diana Antal)


Like Brahms, Witold Lutoslawski composed four symphonies, and there the comparison ends. Brahms’s life was relatively free from political and military strife. In contrast, the life of Polish composer Lutoslawski paralleled invasions and occupations by brutal Communist and Nazi forces through much of the 20th century. Talk about discord. He was born in 1913, shortly before World War I, and was only five when his father and uncle were executed by firing squad. There followed extraordinary events such as the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, and Communist influence and co]]>... Fri, 09 May 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16933
J. Biss/T. G. Davis
(© Peter Stevens-Wikimedia Commons/tysongholsdaviscomposer.com)


“‘Winter light’ like the artwork, is deeply contemplative in nature, providing a meditative and ethereal atmosphere in which the music flows through. While studying the canvas, it became apparent to me that the essence of ‘Winter Light’ is one of great concern to the expansion and development of a singular visual motive. Hues of bright golden bronze in the upper left of the canvas sweep in a downward fashion gradually to the right; this amorphous, draping background is influenced by muted dark shades of brown, green, and ]]>... Wed, 07 May 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16930
(© Simon Gosselin)


Faust might not be as popular as it was in its heyday but it’s still in the list of the world’s 50 most performed operas this season: interestingly, it is one place behind Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, which is enjoying a current vogue. For a classic piece, Faust is actually very difficult to get right onstage: too much and you kill it off, not enough and its C19th sentimentality can become cloying. So, credit to director Denis Podalydès for striking the balance just right, with a new production seen first in Lille and headed to the Opéra Comique with the assistance of the Palazzetto Br]]>... Mon, 05 May 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16934
P.-L. Aimard (© Alexander Savin/Wikipedia)


“Is not beauty in music too often confused with something which lets the ears lie back in an easy chair?”
Charles Ives


“My entire life has really revolved around music that was written about the time that I was born, 1908, to just before the First World War and shortly after it. This music I’ve always known, and it is that music that’s most important to me.”
Elliott Carter


Since Pierre-Laurent Aimard can play absolutely everything unerringly, Sunday afternoon he gave us everything. And more.
... Sun, 04 May 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16925
L. Fagan (© Michael Cooper)


Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin is the composer’s most popular opera and arguably the most popular Russian work of the operatic repertoire. This is understandable, as it’s rich in melody, affecting arias and wonderfully orchestrated dances (Act II’s Waltz and Act III’s Polonaise). It also affords the set designer a dazzling ball in Act III, a more modest saint’s day party in Act II, scenes in the Russian countryside, as well as a memorable letter scene, where Tatyana pours her heart out in a declaration of love.


It’s loosely based on Pushkin’s verse-novel about a b]]>... Fri, 02 May 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16953
T. Sokhiev, H. Zhang (© Diana Antal)


The distinctive conducting style of Russian maestro Tugan Sokhiev met the resilient musicianship of the Philadelphia Orchestra this weekend, sparking an exciting burst of energy in a program of classical standards.


Initially, I yawned as I considered that program: Wagner’s Overture to Tannhäuser, Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, “Dance of the Seven Veils”, and the Liszt “triangle” concerto (so‑called for the insouciant triangle hovering in the background of the score.) These tried‑and‑true works have enjoyed a history of bland]]>... Thu, 01 May 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16921
S. Young (© Bertold Fabricius)


“They want me to write differently. Certainly I could, but I must not. God has chosen me from thousands and given me, of all people, this talent. It is to Him that I must give account. How then would I stand there before Almighty God, if I followed the others and not Him?”
Anton Bruckner


““To send light into the darkness of men’s hearts–such is the duty of the artist.”
Robert Schumann


A mere four years passed between Arnold Schoenberg’s first placid night (Notturno) and his second transfigured night (Verklärte]]>... Thu, 01 May 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16920
M. Brueggergosman-Lee (© Lisa MacIntosh)


“Before I compose a piece, I walk round it several times, accompanied by myself.”
Erik Satie


“Once I know what the first page is, then the rest will come.”
William Bolcom


Two vital, essential, unexpendable reasons to go to Merkin Hall last night. One was to hear the orchestral magic of Franz Schreker live (not on YouTube). The second was to visit, for the third time in the past decade the indescribable, radiant, glowing, dramatic voice of Measha Brueggergosman-Lee.


I mean l]]>... Thu, 01 May 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16912
A. Briger, N. Car (© Jeff Busby for Opera Australia)


For any artist, returning to your home town for a performance must be a huge adrenalin boost. To return to a complete triumph and adulation of the like shown to Melbourne soprano Nicole Car on her return to Opera Australia must be especially sweet. After her rapturously beautiful Puccini Gala of 2024, she returns with husband Etienne Dupuis to offer this sumptuous catalogue of Verdi masterpieces.


This gala is programmed not as a showcase for the leading singers but rath]]>... Wed, 30 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16918
Y. Nézet-Séguin/S. Phillips
(© Nicholas Eastop - Scenkonstmuseet/Dario Acosta)


“As merry as a lark and as melodious as a nightingale.”
Paul Verlaine on Emmanuel Chabrier


“A saint.”
Arnold Schoenberg on Gustav Mahler


Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin has unerring taste in codifying his programs. Last night he conducted his Metropolitan Opera Chamber Orchestra in a concert which could be called Seven Metamorphoses in Three Acts.


First was a Baudelaire poem changing to a Manet painting and finally changing]]>... Mon, 28 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16908
(© Claudia Procopio)


Orff’s Carmina Burana (1937) is one of the most enduring works in the orchestral repertoire. It also has many detractors, possibly for this very reason. It was seen with suspicion by the Nazi regime due to its perceived lascivious content and irreverence. However, thanks to its popularity, it was accepted and even gained popularity under the regime, which soon became one of the criticisms of its detractors.


Carmina Burana’s biggest sin is its popularity. The fact that its melodies are simple and repetitive explain the disdain for it among “highbrow” music lover]]>... Sun, 27 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16919