papsrus

I have some lined up this winter. Perhaps others might like to comment on concerts, festivals, operas, etc., that they are either planning to attend, or have recently attended, with their observations, impressions, etc. The biggies this winter for me are as follows: Jan. 29: New York Philharmonic with Emanuel Ax, piano; David Robertson, conductor; Avery Fisher Hall Rachmaninoff -- Vocalise Chopin -- Piano Concerto No.2 Stravinsky -- The Song of the Nightingale Bartok -- The Miraculous Mandarin Suite Jan 30: Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Riccardo Muti, conductor; Carnegie Hall Mendelssohn -- Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage Overture Debussy -- La Mer Scriabin -- Symphony No.3, "The Divine Poem" Friday Feb. 27: Cleveland Orchestra -- Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Miami Beethoven Symphony No. 3, ("Eroica") Shostakovich Symphony No. 6 Saturday Feb. 28: Cleveland Orchestra -- Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Miami Beethoven Symphony No. 5 Shostakovich Symphony No. 10 These are the out of town concerts I've got tickets for so far. I'm particularly looking forward to the NYPO and Ax with the Chopin piece. I toyed with the idea of taking Amtrack down to Philadelphia while I'm in New York to see the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Kimmel Center, but didn't want to push it. Also have tickets for a bunch of stuff locally after the new year, which I'll chime in with as they occur (if anyone shows any interest here). Among those I'm looking forward to are two string quarter performances at the Sarasota Opera House that are part of La Music Festival, which takes place here each spring.

Might make for a good audio upload to the old blog ...

Hm. This came off the rails a bit. I don't really feel qualified to offer an opinion, but I was looking forward to seeing what others had to say. The example Larry posted is a lovely. I have a question (likely a dumb one): is it always sung in alto?

Yeah I'm looking forward to it. Scanned a few reviews before jumping on it, and the price was too good to pass up. Thanks Deepak.

I'll take it! PM sent

Hey, welcome Hutch. And do check out the classical music threads here. Lots of good stuff. And a hearty welcome to all other AAJ refugees. I myself am a refugee from some time ago. There are lots of members here who have a real depth of experience and understanding of music, I find. Anyways, welcome all!

Agree with those endorsing "Forces in Motion." Also worth getting some (or all) of the associated CDs Coventry Birmingham and London.

When I see these stories about successful dudes who are accused of this sort of thing, I think: "You're successful, reasonably attractive to the opposite sex, presumably, and more than likely well capable of arranging any sort of mutually agreeable tryst you want -- so wtf? But, I suppose, it's all part of a pathology that goes hand in hand with over-inflated ego, a sense of entitlement, coupled with no sense of responsibility at all for one's actions, plus the allure of "risky" behavior. (High risk, high reward -- something like that?) I can just hear the little voices inside these guys' heads: "Hey, there's an attractive women. I'd really like to get to know her better. I know! I'll drug her, assault her, and kick her to the curb with a few grand hush money. Perfect evening."

Nice article. Thanks for posting it. Enjoyed the photo gallery, too (although the one guy captured while blowing his nose probably wishes that one was not included )

Went to a performance of "Pagliacci" last night; enjoyed it from a forward balcony seat where the music from the orchestra and stage is wonderful. (I find myself especially attentive to the overtures played prior to the curtain rise). "Pagliacci" was Ruggero Leoncavallo's one and only big hit, apparently, premiering in early 1890s to enthusiastic audiences across Europe and the United States. (Leoncavello was a rival of Puccini). It's a snappy little production that zips along in under 2 hours -- your typical love triangle / tragedy about a traveling theater company, so some of the characters become other characters, but it's not hard to follow along. The tenor (Michael Robert Hendrick) who played the head of the theater company was to my ear quite clearly the strongest voice; the soprano lead female role was less compelling. A couple of roles were played by a studio artist and an apprentice, and both acquitted themselves quite well, I thought. There's not a lot of action in this one as far as people running around on stage, so I just sat back, closed my eyes and listened for stretches. Wonderful. The only drawback was someone in the row right behind me -- a German woman I think -- who kept picking away at some sort of plastic-wrapped snacks the whole time, but I managed to tune her out. All in all, a great time. Not a terribly involved production, but musically thrilling for me.

Indeed, considered one of the best. It's on the must-do list for sure Also, Tanglewood

The Chicagoans do have this going for them. I suppose there's nothing like having a cozy relationship with the Viennese to keep the orchestra invigorated!

What concert halls have you found to be either impressive acoustically, or conversely, bad? I'm interested particularly in Larry's impressions (or anyone else's) of Orchestra Hall in Chicago; Philly's Verizon, too, as I'm toying with the idea of heading up there. Or any comments members might have on more provincial venues around, such as I'm about to describe below. Here, the Sarasota Opera House (1,190 capacity) is really quite good, acoustically. The hall is compact enough that even from the rear balcony, the stage is quite close. Intimate and elegant without being ostentatious, probably the best place in town to experience music. The hall quite satisfactorily possesses that combination of both clarity and warmth in its acoustics. The Historic Asolo Theater is another nice, albeit small venue. Built in Asolo, Italy in the 18th Century, the theater (about 300 capacity) was dismantled and put into storage in the 1930, then purchased by the Ringlings in 1949 and eventually reassembled inside a modern building here in Sarasota, where it sits today. The venue is used for chamber music performances (I attended a lovely concert by the Morgenstern Trio there last week -- they pulled off Schubert's Adagio Nottunor in E flat Major in a (pp) whisper quite beautifully indeed, and the hall cooperated in that regard very sympathetically.) The Asolo Repertory Theater stages select performances there as well, although they mainly use their larger venue next door. The main barn in town, the Van Wezel -- home to the Sarasota Orchestra -- is acoustic mud. One of those fan-shaped places where sound goes to die. The place seats 1,743, so not enormous, but it was designed, I'm sure, to squeeze the maximum number of butts into the available space, rather than with any thought about acoustics in mind. We need a new hall. How's the hall in your town?

I'm sure this one would be no trouble at all to maintain:

Well going to the opera is always great, even if most of the time it falls short in some way. You are surely right to go to see Le Nozze di Figaro, one of the greatest of all operas, even if productions are often a bit twee. My second pick would be Don Carlos, which is very hard to cast - they will struggle - and which will also require good production and direction to keep it alive. I strongly suggest that you go and see it, it is a huge undertaking for them, and you can be certain that it will fall short by international standards, but it is the company's big venture of the season and I'd say you should be in the best seats supporting them, appreciating their guts, and hoping for some real magic and a triumph. Thank you for the insights. I'm encouraged by both you and king ubu concerning Don Carlos. I'll go to each of these, in all likelihood. As for the level of the production itself -- I should say that as a general proposition, I'm rarely disappointed at just about any performance I'm interested enough in to go see. I basically go to these things, set the receptors to wide open, sit back and enjoy the performance on its own terms. Unless the stage collapses or someone falls into the front row, I'll have a swell time. And even in those cases, I'd have a swell time (as long as I'm not sitting in the front row -- which there's no chance of that!) Original French version. Not sure about how many acts, but the box office said it was 5-plus hours with two intermissions.

This season's fare: Marriage of Figaro (Mozart) Pagliacci (Ruggero Leoncavallo) Tosca (Puccini) The Golden Cockerel (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov) Don Carlos (Verdi) No class to familiarize myself with the material this year. Will have to study up on my own. Have a ticket to Figaro. Not sure what to make of the rest of it, although I know Don Carlos is a marathon (5 hours, only two intermissions). I'll likely end up going to all five. By the way -- some talk upthread about how expensive attending the opera is. While I'm sure that's the case at the Met and other large outfits, I can snag a center seat in the balcony at the cozy Sarasota Opera House for $19. That's about half the price of the cheapest seats at the symphony. As far as being put off by the so-called elitism associated with the opera, I could care less. Most of the crowd here is of the blue-haired, Midwestern transplant variety -- they all made their gobs of money inventing stuff like paper clubs and animal crackers -- although I did see one long-haired dude in a colorful dress sitting front and center last season. He stood out for sure. Anyways, if anyone has any thoughts on the above schedule, feel free ....

Oh my ... forgot about BB.

Very sad news. I always enjoyed his posts and his blog, of course. He will be missed.

Indeed. A little while ago I suddenly found myself digging through what was left of my dad's once large collection. A lot of his vinyl is in excellent condition, I must say. Some are 30 to 40 years old with nary a pop to be heard. Some unopened! And there's a vinyl shop a few blocks from my house that has a growing selection of both jazz and classical. I've found, though, that amazon sellers tend to know the condition of their vinyl a lot better than the two stores I've visited here and in Tampa, where I think they often just visually inspect the vinyl and basically mark most everything VG whether they've listened to it or not. Also, since embarking on the vinyl frontier, I've found a mom and pop store in my neighborhood that sells fairly high-end stereo equipment. Guy seems to know his stuff and has some really nice Pro-Ject tables, drool-wrothy tube amps, etc. I have a Pioneer plug and play turntable with built in pre-amp now, but am inevitably going to upgrade soon, probably to the Pro-Ject table. NP:

Thanks. NP:

I was just looking at this one at amazon. One reviewer said the sound quality was kind of rough. Your thoughts?

Schubert Octet in F Major, Op 166 -- New Vienna Octet