The Classical Music Network (English) Sun, 13 Apr 2025 20:34:31 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/ http://www.concertonet.com/images/concertonet.jpg http://www.concertonet.com/
P. Kopatchinskaja/J. Hrůsa (© Courtesy of the Artist/Petra Klacková)


“Chemiluminescence is the emission of light (luminescence) as the result of a chemical reaction, i.e. a chemical reaction results in a flash or glow of light. A standard example of chemiluminescence in the laboratory setting is the luminol test. Here, blood is indicated by luminescence upon contact with iron in hemoglobin.”
Wikipedia


“I do not like the term ‘neoclassicism’. The word is overused. It means nothing at all. The composer can re‑use the past and at the same time move in a forw]]>... Wed, 09 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16872
R. Gleadow (© Robert Hugh Wesley)


The entire plot of Mozart’s fabled opera Le nozze di Figaro (1786), based on Beaumarchais’s play La Folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro (1784), takes place in one day. The frenzied action in Lorenzo Da‑Ponte’s exceptionally well‑written libretto makes it one of the most dramatically compact and successful operas. A brilliant performance makes one feel this relentless pacing. The opera has five major characters: Figaro; his soon‑to‑be wife Susanna; the Count and Countess Almaviva; and the adolescent page, Cherubino. It also features six secondar]]>... Wed, 26 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16853
B. Bernheim, M. Viotti (© Vincent Pontet)


French operas of the nineteenth century were once among the most popular in the repertoire. In the last half century, they’ve fallen out of fashion. One reason is the loss of national singing schools, especially the French, in this globalized opera world. Without an understanding of the French style, and without the required elegance and clear diction, for the audience these operas are a painful exercise in dated mannerisms or, more commonly, sadly generic pieces utterly lacking in style.


Luckily, there have been a few singers over the years, few native ]]>... Sat, 22 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16850 Just over a month ago, I saw Patrice Chéreau’s staging of Elektra at Berlin’s Staatsoper. Only in Germany’s capital with its three opera houses may one see two exceptional productions of Strauss’s opera with first‑rate singers within such a short period. As the recent production was truly amazing, I didn’t expect to be as overwhelmed mere weeks later, but I was.


Austrian poet/playwright Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874‑1929) managed to abridge his own play Elektra (1903), making the opera (based on Sophocles) more suited for another art form. The result is probably the most intense work ever written for the operatic stage. A Berlin]]>... Sat, 22 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16845
L. Tézier (© Jenny Bohse)


“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” wrote Lord Acton (1834- 902). Power may have its advantages, but it’s also a huge burden. Those who hold it may gratuitously abuse it, but even the most virtuous must oppress and castigate to maintain it. Simon Boccanegra was a fourteenth century Genovese pirate who managed to get elected as Doge of Genova, then a major maritime power. Boccanegra’s interest in this powerful position was elevating his station to be worthy of Maria, daughter of the patrician Giacopo Fiesco. Disapproving of his daughter’s affair with Boccanegra, ]]>... Fri, 21 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16848
F. Lazarevitch (© Jean‑Baptiste Millot)


Lorsque François Lazarevitch a fondé l’ensemble Les Musiciens de Saint‑Julien en 2005, s’imaginait‑il que l’aventure durerait toujours vingt ans après ? De leur premier disque, consacré à des danses issues du cœur des campagnes françaises au Moyen Age sur les thèmes des bergers et du loup, au plus récent disque, rassemblant des airs de cour du XVII^e siècle (Robert de Visée, Jean‑Baptiste Lully, Honoré d’Ambruis...) en passant par leur superbe recueil « Le Berger poète » ou leur tr]]>... Sat, 15 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16825
M. Bengtsson, P. Jekal (© Monika Rittershaus)


Detractors of Richard Strauss (1864-1949) are wont to note the composer’s arrogance and tendency to flaunt his personal life and success, citing his symphonic poems Ein Heldenleben (1899), Sinfonia domestica (1904) and his opera Intermezzo (1924) as proof of this supposed self-aggrandisement. But more impartial observers sympathize with the inherent challenges facing successful artists privy to incessant chatter and gossip – especially famous ones. Since his symphonic poem Don Juan (1889) premiered when he was all of twenty‑five, Strauss w]]>... Thu, 13 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16846
J. Osborn, N. Alaimo (© Jonathan Berger/Opéra royal de Wallonie)


It’s generally acknowledged that Rossini’s final opera, Guillaume Tell (1829), is his greatest. Most unusually, Rossini declared it to be his last opera while composing it, though he was only in his thirties (he was to live nearly four more decades). This decision may explain the composer’s great efforts and superlative results. Having lived in Paris since 1824, he’d absorbed the musical trends of the city of lights, then the musical centre of the world. Guillaume Tell is indeed a grand opéra rather than a typical bel canto one. It p]]>... Wed, 12 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16842
(© Agathe Poupeney/Opéra national de Paris)


The Sleeping Beauty (1890), the second of Tchaikovsky’s three ballets, is much less frequently performed than Swan Lake (1877) and The Nutcracker (1892). It’s also the most “French” of the three; the other two take place in Germany and The Nutcracker is based on Nussknacker und Mausekönig (1816), a tale by German writer E.T.A. Hoffmann (1766‑1822).


Prince Ivan Alexandrovitch Vsevolojsky (1835-1909), Director of the Imperial Theatres and an ardent Francophile, is said to have specifically chosen the story of Slee]]>... Sat, 08 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16857
(© Bettina Stöss)


While the advance of time is inevitable, few are able to accept its progression, nor the subsequent changes to one’s surroundings. Many can identify with this statement, considering the often radical changes to their own societies, downfalls in their social standings or the decline of their nation’s power. Such was the predicament of the most talented and prolific composer-librettist team in operatic history, rivaled only by Mozart and Da Ponte. Austria’s Hugo von Hofmannsthal, the major poet, novelist and playwright, was Richard Strauss’s coveted librettist, and their fruitful collaboration yielded ]]>... Fri, 07 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16841
Y. Lim (© Ralph Lauer/The Cliburn)


“I made up my mind that I will live my life only for the sake of music, and I decided that I will give up everything for music... I want my music to become deeper, and if that desire reaches the audience, I’m satisfied.”
Yunchan Lim


Two 20th Century Titans were on the program for the second London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) last night. And one of the Titans was probably unknown to much of the audience.


Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto is a titanic job for any pianist even if the main theme is dreary. Wi]]>... Thu, 06 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16809
C. Unterreiner, K. Lindsey (© Wiener Staatsoper/Michael Pöhn)


Werther is one of Massenet’s more robust operas, unlike its protagonist’s emotional state which is far from stable. But the story is simple and believable – these are real people with relatable problems – and the music is direct. Having set the scene, the opera gets on with things in its bourgeois fashion and the audience does not have to grapple with some of Massenet’s wilder exoticisms apparent in works such as Esclarmonde or Thaïs, which came either side of Werther. It does mean that Werther has to convince the viewer a]]>... Wed, 05 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16818
A. Pappano, J. Jansen (© Musacchio & Ianniello-EMI Classics/Lukas Beck)


“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything, Rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul.”
Plato


“Musical innovation is full of danger to the State, for when modes of music change, the laws of the State always change with them.”
Plato


Harvard-trained Leonard Bernstein and self-educated Franz Liszt were both at home translating unmusical authors–Plato. Petrarch, Shakespeare, Goethe, Dante and Vo]]>... Wed, 05 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16806
Musica Viva NY (© Musica Viva.com)


“A need to concentrate on each sound, so that every blade of grass would be as important as a flower. I could compare my music to white light which contains all colours. Only a prism can divide the colours and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener.”
Arvo Pärt


When I first heard the Latvian Radio Choir several years ago, it became apparent that Latvia–and Estonia and Lithuania–probably had choral singers rivaled only by the choirs of Wales. Musica V]]>... Sun, 02 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16801
R. Muti (© Todd Rosenberg)


“Music does not know the difference between people; it only speaks to their hearts. It is the only form of communication that can bring this terrible world together.”
Riccardo Muti


“One single cymbal clash by Bruckner is worth all the Brahms symphonies, with the serenades thrown in.”
Hugo Wolf


In a predictably sumptuous, rich concert by Riccardo Muti and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, four notes stood out. Anton Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony had the heavenly themes, those grand climaxes to make the firmament ring, ]]>... Fri, 28 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16798
Y. Nézet‑Séguin, J. Wolfe (© Allie Ippolito)


A gripping presentation of Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 concluded a long, but immersive concert by the Philadelphia Orchestra on February 28. Led by Yannick Nézet‑Séguin in the orchestra’s home in Marian Anderson Hall, the program began with a powerhouse statement on the objectification of women and shifted into an effusively romantic 19th century symphony before concluding with the Brahms. Hélène Grimaud was the piano soloist as the Philadelphia Orchestra launched into one of the most startling renditions of the Brahms First that I can recall. It wasn’]]>... Thu, 27 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16800
R. Willis-Sørensen, A. Isaev (© Camilla Greenwell)


The Royal Opera has a problematic relationship with Il trovatore and never gets it right: productions come and go almost as swiftly as their casts. Adele Thomas obviously had many good ideas for her staging (revived efficiently by Simon Iorio), but ultimately they fall flat. The opera’s programme is littered with paintings by Hieronymus Bosch, erupting with enjoyably grotesque creatures and hideous perversities. Thomas has attempted to replicate this dystopian nightmare onstage, and talks about “a world in which monsters and heaven and hell are not mere concepts....w]]>... Wed, 26 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16793
L. Kavakos, F. Luisi (© Diana Antal)


Can the Philadelphia Orchestra’s concerts get any better? I’ve been attending performances for half a century and continue to be amazed, even enthralled, by the quality and variety of the music and the organization’s anticipation of and responsiveness to social issues impacting the musical arts.


A case in point was the February 21, 2025, program featuring Leonidas Kavakos, the celebrated Greek violinist, and Fabio Luisi, leader of three major orchestras and a popular guest conductor on the international scene. The program kicked off with Evening Land, a stir]]>... Fri, 21 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16782
S.-J. Cho/S.-M. Rouvali (© Mariusz Kubik/Marco Borggreve)


“The 15th symphony is about loneliness and death, It is radically horrible and cruel.”
Conductor Kurt Sanderling


“The first movement is like a child’s toyshop under a cloudless sky. It was a work which simply grabbed me, one of the few which appeared in my mind with total clarity from first note to last.”
Dmitri Shostakovich


Every composer had protean moments. But they couldn’t come more protean than Dmitri Shostakovich in this week’s New York Philharmonic concert. Grant]]>... Thu, 20 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16786
J. Pohjonen (© Caroline Bittencourt)


“Everywhere is here. Every when is now.”
Dante Alighieri


“My sole ambition as a composer is to hurl my javelin into the infinite space of the future.”
Franz Liszt


It seems like a millennium, we had only three two nights between the duo of Wang and Olafsson and the recital last night of Juho Pohjonen for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Square.


The former was a dazzling display of the esoteric and the familia]]>... Thu, 20 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16779
V. Olafsson/Y. Wang (© Ari Magg/Norbert Kniat)


“Classical music is far from boring. It has all the blood, energy, the sinister dark side, rhythm that rock music has, and all the refined, subtle sensuality that one can ask for.”
Yuja Wang


“I like being ahead of the game and not let the industry define me, but rather tell the industry who I am and who I want to become.”
Víkingur Olafsson


So what can anybody rationally say? Two of the foremost pianists in the world, from opposite sides of the earth. Both charismatic in their own way. Both outgoing]]>... Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16776
J. Egglestone, W. Fyfe, C. Hillier (© Melbourne Opera)


The Royal Exhibition Building is UNESCO World Heritage listed and has been central to the story of Melbourne for over 140 years. Built by the father of Australian superstar soprano Dame Nellie Melba for the 1880 Melbourne International Exhibition, it epitomised the wealth, opulence, excitement, energy and spirit of “Marvellous Melbourne” at the height of the gold‑rush era. Together the 1880 and 1888 International Exhibitions attracted over three million visitors, brought cultures, technology and ideas from across the world to Melbourne. The Exhibition Building dee]]>... Sun, 16 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16771
K. Canellakis/V. Eberle (© Mathias Bothor/Stefan Grau)


“My faith is the grand drama of my life. I’m a believer, so I sing words of God to those who have no faith. I give bird songs to those who dwell in cities and have never heard them, make rhythms for those who know only military marches or jazz, and paint colors for those who see none.”
Olivier Messiaen


“The best music always comes from Ecstasies of Logic.”
Alban Berg


Death, Prayer, Love, The Sea. That could have been the title of a Cavafy poem. Instead it encapsulated the four w]]>... Thu, 13 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16774
P. Hillier with Theater of Voices (© Birgit Ternberg)


“My hope is that the music creates a strange, beautiful, overwhelming–sometimes even frightening–landscape, and invites you to get lost in it.”
John Luther Adams


“Vishnu Schist/two billion years/gray, gray, dark gray, black”
Last words from Mr. Adams’ A Brief Descent into Deep Time


No metaphors can capture the complexity and clarity of Paul Hillier’s Theater of Voices. Perhaps the weaving of a Bukhara carpet or Pythagorean music of the stars. But hearing them last night with three New]]>... Tue, 11 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16759
Ensemble Connect (© Fadi Kheir)


“That damned work! I wish it were burned.”
Ludwig van Beethoven, on his Septet in E‑flat major


“The relation between practical and spiritual spheres in music is obvious, if only because it demands ears, finger, consciousness and intellect.”
Luciano Berio


“I don’t like your classical (sic) music,” said a Hong Kong acquaintance several years ago. “It’s so serious.”


Probably next to CantoPop, that could be true. But next to other classical (sic) music, the concert by the Co]]>... Mon, 10 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16757