The Classical Music Network (English) Mon, 20 Jan 2025 21:56:36 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/ http://www.concertonet.com/images/concertonet.jpg http://www.concertonet.com/
N. Stutzmann (© Rand Lines/Atlanta Symphony Orchestra)


“The whole ‘Ring’ will become–I am not ashamed to say–the greatest work of poetry ever written.”
Richard Wagner


“The characters of ‘The Ring’ are nothing but thieves, liars and blackguards.”
Sir Arthur Sullivan


One likes to imagine Lorin Maazel, that superb Wagnerian, after hearing the Ring as background for everything from Bugs Bunny to Apocalypse Now, decided to feed us the whole 15‑hour operatic tetralogy in a single 78‑minute gulp.


]]>... Thu, 16 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16701
J. Heggie & J. Hopkins with picture of Hopkins’ sister and her children (© Zoe Tarshis)


“I have known two women who were murdered, both by jealous former romantic partners, so the killing of Joshua’s sister resonated with me. But I could not promise anything: with songs and poems, they either arrive or they don’t. I then wrote the sequence in one session. I made the ‘sisters’ plural because they are indeed–unhappily–very plural. Sisters, daughters, mothers. So many.”
Jake Heggie


“It is a funny thing, but when I am making music, all the answers I seek for in life seem to be ther]]>... Wed, 15 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16695
L. Viotti (© Desiré van den Berg)


Highly admired by Alban Berg, who in a letter to Anton Webern wrote of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony: “Es gibt doch nur eine VI. trotz der Pastorale” (“There is only one Sixth, notwithstanding [Beethoven’s] Pastoral”). It is thought by many to be Mahler’s most structurally perfect symphony. In contrast to Mahler’s other major symphonic works, which end in either triumph or transcendence, Mahler’s Sixth ends tragically. Nicknamed “The Tragic,” it was not thus titled by Mahler. However, its association with tragedy became entrenched due his wife Alma’s stat]]>... Mon, 13 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16694
I. Levit (© Felix Broede)

“Behold, he goes up like clouds,
And his chariots like the whirlwind;
His horses are swifter than eagles.”
Jeremiah 4:13


“This event in my life has remained my greatest pride, the palladium of my whole career as an artist. I tell it but very seldom and only to good friends!”
Franz Liszt, describing Beethoven’s compliment on his piano-playing


During Johann Sebastian Bach’s fugue after the Chromatic Fantasy, I forgot the composer, forgot pianist Igor Levit and forgot the piano itself. The arch of the work, the s]]>... Sun, 12 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16688
I. Leonard (© Samuel A. Dog)


“Do not hold grain waiting for higher prices when people are hungry.”
Zoroaster


“Poor shadows of Elysium, hence, and rest
Upon your never-withering banks of flowers:
Be not with mortal accidents opprest;
No care of yours it is; you know ‘tis ours.”
William Shakespeare, Cymbeline


That fine young German conductor Kevin John Edusei, in his Philharmonic debut, took the orchestra through all three Greek worlds last night, Starting with a noisy over‑world in Elysium, co]]>... Thu, 02 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16682
(© Ossama el Naggar)


I’ll always remember the first time I attended this popular event two decades ago. For years, New Year’s Eve at the Cairo Opera House has been an incontournable, a “must‑see” event, one that’s on everyone’s social calendar in this bustling city of 22 million inhabitants. As is now tradition, the evening is dominated by the music of Johann Strauss, whose waltzes and polkas are synonymous with this perennially celebrated winter evening.


As was the case last year, after the events in Israel and Gaza, the usually carefree atmosphere at this concert was decidedly subdued. ]]>... Tue, 31 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16683
(© Ossama el Naggar)


German writer Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1766‑1822) is widely considered to be the originator of the literary genres now known as science fiction and horror. His influence on literature and on culture in general cannot be underestimated. Offenbach’s opera Les Contes d’Hoffmann uses three of his works: Der Sandmann (1816); Rath Krespel (Councillor Krespel or the Cremona Violin, 1818); and Das verlorene Spiegelbild (The Lost Reflection, 1814) as the basis for its three acts, with Hoffmann as protagonist.


Hoffman’s influence was pe]]>... Thu, 26 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16676
(© Ossama el Naggar)


For connoisseurs of orchestral music, Cairo is known for some particularly wonderful 1951 recordings by the Berlin Philharmonic under the baton of the legendary Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886‑1954). These historical treasures date from one year before the end of a period known as Egypt’s “Golden European Century,” which in fact lasted 150 years. The country was then decidedly European in orientation as well as aspiration. While it may have been golden for its many European and foreign residents, it was the exact opposite for the overwhelming majority of Egyptians.


The period thus]]>... Sat, 21 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16670
I. M. Dan, H. Montague Rendall


Six years ago, La Scala gave its first performance of the most popular Viennese operetta, Die Fledermaus (1874). Last December was the famous operetta’s debut at Madrid’s Teatro Real. Barcelona’s venerable El Liceu, more open to the idea, has produced it a few times since the early sixties. However, its last time there was in 1984.


The dichotomy between opera and operetta may have lasted too long in Mediterranean countries. A Spanish form o]]>... Wed, 18 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16665
(© Brescia e Amisano/Teatro alla Scala)


German writer Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1766‑1822) is widely considered to be the originator of the literary genres now known as science fiction and horror. His influence on literature and on culture in general cannot be underestimated. Offenbach’s opera Les Contes d’Hoffmann uses three of his works: Der Sandmann (1816); Rath Krespel (Councillor Krespel or the Cremona Violin, 1818); and Das verlorene Spiegelbild (The Lost Reflection, 1814) as the basis for its three acts, with Hoffmann as protagonist.


Hoffman]]>... Wed, 18 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16693
(© Giacomo Orlando)


The plays of Victor Hugo (1802-1885) are the second most popular source for opera libretti after Shakespeare. Among the many operas based on his plays are Donizetti’s Il castello di Kenilworth (1829), based on Leicester, ou le château de Kenilworth and Lucrezia Borgia (1833); Pacini’s Maria, regina d’Inghiterra (1843) after Marie Tudor; Verdi’s Ernani (1844) and Rigoletto (1851), after Le roi s’amuse; Marchetti’s Ruy Blas (1869); Ponchielli’s Marion Delorme (1885); Franz Schmidt’s Notre Dame (1914); Mercadante’s Il giuramento]]>... Fri, 13 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16652
S. Hernández (© David Ruano)


Of Puccini’s most frequently performed operas (Manon Lescaut, La Bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Turandot), Madama Butterfly is the opera that has fared the poorest over time, in terms of posterity. The “Orientalist” view of the victimized Asian girl was not considered patronizing at the time of the opera’s creation, but times have changed. Even after European countries lost their colonial empires in Africa and Asia, this outdated view prevailed for much of the second half of the twentieth century. The Korean and Vietnam Wars continued to confirm this]]>... Sun, 08 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16664
M. Werba, M. Mariotti (© Fabrizio Sansoni/Teatro dell’Opera di Roma)


Since the end of WWII, Rome’s Teatro all’Opera has been an afterthought in Italy’s musical life. Oddly, Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, Venice’s La Fenice, Naples’ San Carlo, Florence’s Maggio Musicale and Bologna’s Teatro Comunale have all eclipsed that of Italy’s capital. This was the case in opera and even more so for orchestral music. However, I’m pleased to report this has changed in the past few years.


Michele Mariotti (b.1979) is the instigator of this amelioration. Rome’s opera house and its orchestra are indeed fortunate that he i]]>... Sun, 08 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16643
L. Tézier, B. Jagde (© Brescia e Amisano/Teatro alla Scala)


La forza del destino is a problematic opera. Among Verdi’s mature operas (his middle period, from Rigoletto onward), its libretto is the weakest. If it can be imagined, the story is even more implausible than that of Il trovatore.


In the mid eighteenth century, Don Alvaro, a nobleman of mixed blood from South America, has fallen in love with the daughter of the Marquis of Calatrava of Seville. The Marquis is vehemently opposed to this relationship. The two are interrupted while attempting to elope and the father is acciden]]>... Sat, 07 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16650
K. Yamada (© Jean-Charles Vinaj/Monte Carlo Symphony Orchestra)


“The ‘Concerto In E Minor’ is for the most part a series of rambling passages, with one or two pretty motivi, which but little is done.”
London Times, 1855


“I was glad to be once again among a thorough genius, not one of those half‑virtuosos, half‑classics who would like to combine in music the honors of virtues and the pleasures of vice.”
Felix Mendelssohn


The ultimate test for music professors, pedants, pedagogues, critics and reviewers is not Stockhausen or Bou]]>... Wed, 27 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16624
L. Salsi, E. Buratto (© Fabrizio Sansoni/Teatro dell’Opera di Roma)


Genova, where Simon Boccanegra takes place, is rarely featured in opera. Despite its glorious history and stunning monuments, it rarely registers with tourists visiting Italy. Many know Genova as the birthplace of Christopher Columbus (1451‑1506) and as the origin city for the culinary magic of garlic, pine nuts, basil leaves and grated cheese, known as pesto. Yet, the ubiquitous blue jeans that we wear are named after bleu de Gênes, the French appellation of a blue dye made in a nearby town and exported through Genova. The materi]]>... Sun, 24 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16636
Sir S. Hough (© Sim Canetty-Clarke)


“One of the things that touches me most when I play for an audience is that although we may be unable to communicate in words or have diametrically opposed views on hot‑button issues, while the music sounds we can be at peace, we can be friends. The vibrations that fill an auditorium have no passports, and they unite ears when hearts may be divided.” Stephen Hough


Should Ken Burns ever decide to make a sequel to last month’s documentary on Leonardo Da Vinci, Sir Stephen Hough would obviously be the subject. Da Vinci was th]]>... Sun, 24 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16615
K. Mäkelä (© Marco Borggreve)


“If you try to be anyone else when you’re holding a baton and you assume a different persona, it won’t work. A sense of authority can’t be created by external, artificial means.”
Klaus Mäkelä


“Music is only understood when one goes away singing it and only loved when one falls asleep with it in one’s head, and finds it still there on waking up the next morning.”
Arnold Schoenberg


I once asked a very esteemed Dutch conductor why, with Mahler’s German/Jewish/Austrian/Czech heritage, the only country which continuous]]>... Sat, 23 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16610
Cassatt String Quartet (© David Acosta)


“For some reason, people think that music must tell us only about the pinnacles of the human spirit, or at least about highly romantic villains. Most people are average, neither black nor white. They’re gray. A dirty shade of gray. And it’s in that vague gray middle ground that the fundamental conflicts of our age take place.”
Dmitri Shostakovich


From the first dark fugues of the late Dorothy Rudd Moore’s Modes for String Quartet through a Shostakovich Quartet with secret symbols, to Lawrence Kramer’s pre‑universe sounds]]>... Wed, 20 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16606
K. Petrenko (© Monika Rittershaus)


“My musical creed may be called the inspired idea. With what displeasure one hears this concept nowadays! And nevertheless: how could the artificial construction, the most exact musical mathematics, triumph over the moving principle of the inspired idea!”
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (Interview, May 1926)


“To have a wonderful idea is nothing special. The idea comes of its own accord and, if it’s fine and great, man cannot take the credit for it. But to take a fine idea and make something great of it, that is the hardest thing to do; that is what real art is!... Sun, 17 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16601
E. Madore (© Vivien Gaumand)


Premiered in Paris in 1868, Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet has since been forgotten, save for Ophelia’s mad scene, familiar to Callas lovers through live and studio recordings (Milan 1956; Athens 1957; Paris 1958). In the 1980’s, it was revived for Dame Joan Sutherland, en fin de carrière, and to a lesser extent for American baritone Sherrill Milnes. Since then, it’s mainly been a vehicle for star baritones, such as Bo Skovhus, Thomas Allen and Simon Keenlyside. This is understandable, as Hamlet is a role in which the baritone, a voice reserved for villains and fathers, can go full̴]]>... Sat, 16 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16622
J. Adams (© The Kennedy Center)


“I’m trying to inject new energy into an art form that I don’t think is dead but needs to show its relevance to the world we live in. I don’t pick these subjects to be controversial. I pick them because I think they are at the psychic center of our collective consciousness.”
John Adams


“I try to put in all the emotions, but joy is the one I care most about. It’s the joy that I experience from the natural world and, honestly, the joy of making music.”
Gabriella Smith


Memorial ... Lost ... Quiet ... Dark ...<]]>... Thu, 14 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16599
O. Herbert, M. Uchida, B. Guterman Chu, S. Zyzak (© Samuel A. Dog)


“I realized I should compose in the way that felt right to me, not to others, that I should seek the truth.”
Győrgy Kurtag


“I am interested in music as ecstasy, as something that transports you away from the every day to another place.”
Mitsuko Uchida


Like repeatedly walking down the same forest path, each Mitsuko Uchida performance is a singular experience. Yet her one essential quality is poetry. Not dreamy poetry, not lounging over the keys or giving excess peda]]>... Tue, 12 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16594
(© Roman Boldyrev)


Flamenco likely comes to mind when one thinks of Spain. It’s indelibly associated with it, along with such singular pursuits as tauromachy (bullfighting) or such culinary delights as paella. This irks some Spaniards, especially those not native to the south (Andalusia), from which this genre originates. However, this aversion is rooted not only in regional differences, but also in class and political orientation. When Flamenco became known in the early nineteenth century, the bourgeoisie viewed it with suspicion and contempt as vulgar and lascivious. During the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, many Flamenc]]>... Sun, 10 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16626
Gesualdo Six at Byrd Table (© Courtesy of the Artists)


“Since singing is so good a thing/I wish that all the world would sing.”
“My mind to me a kingdom is; Such perfect joy therein I find/That it excels all other bliss/That God or Nature hath assign’d"
William Byrd


“I’m sure you share my belief in universal human rights, but Byrd whispers something beyond belief.”
Bill Barclay, Creator/Director The Gesualdo Six,


How do you turn the 20-minute William Byrd masterpiece, Mass for Five Voices, into a full questionable hour? Cre]]>... Sat, 09 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0100 http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=16588