Day: February 8, 2019

The Richmond Symphony, auditioning six music-director finalists during the 2019-20 season, will launch the season on Sept. 21 and 22 with the most stellar of its conducting alumni, Marin Alsop.

Alsop, who was associate conductor of the Richmond Symphony in the late 1980s, today is one of the world’s most prominent female conductors. She serves as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Brazil’s São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, and has guest-conducted many of the world’s leading orchestras.

The symphony’s coming season also will feature the orchestra, joined by the Sphinx Virtuosi chamber orchestra, participating in the 2020 Menuhin Competition for young violinists. Finalists and winners of the competition will perform, with guest conductor Andrew Litton, in the symphony’s final Masterworks programs on May 23 and 24.

Other public concerts in the Menuhin Competition, which will run from May 14 to 24, will be announced later.

The six music director finalists – Roderick Cox, Paolo Bortolameolli, Ankush Kumar Bahl, Laura Jackson, Valentina Peleggi and Farkhad Khudyev – will each lead a program in the Masterworks series and conduct another program in the Metro Collection, Symphony Pops or LolliPops series, along with other interactions with the symphony’s constituents and the public.

For information on the candidates’ backgrounds, visit https://letterv.blog/2018/09/25/symphony-names-six-music-director-finalists/

Guest soloists in the symphony’s 2019-20 classical season include Anthony McGill, principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic, playing Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto; the Korean violinist Inmo Yang, winner of the 2015 Premio Paganini Competition, playing Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1; the Georgian pianist Miriam Batsashvili, winner of the 2014 Franz Liszt Competition and a 2017-18 BBC New Generation Artist, playing the Piano Concerto in A minor that the teen-aged Clara Wieck wrote before she married Robert Schumann; cellist Julian Schwarz, who teaches at Shenandoah Conservatory of Shenandoah University in Winchester while pursuing an international performing career, playing Tchaikovsky’s “Rococo Variations;” and the Colombian Eduardo Rojas, one of the leading pianists in Latin America, playing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1; and soprano Brandie Sutton, a rising operatic star, singing Samuel Barber’s “Knoxville, Summer of 1915” and an aria from Gustave Charpentier’s “Louise.”

Symphony principals performing as soloists, all in Metro Collection and Rush Hour concerts, include concertmaster Daisuke Yamamoto and principal violist Molly Sharp in Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante in E flat major, principal cellist Neal Cary in Schumann’s Cello Concerto, principal clarinetist David Lemelin in Copland’s Clarinet Concerto, and principal flutist Mary Boodell and principal harpist Lynette Wardle in Toru Takemitsu’s “Toward the Sea II.”

Major repertory to be performed includes two works by Rachmaninoff, the Symphonic Dances and “The Bells,” his rarely performed vocal-orchestral setting of the poem by Edgar Allan Poe, the latter featuring the Richmond Symphony Chorus; Mahler’s First, Bruckner’s Seventh and Brahms’ Fourth symphonies; Stravinsky’s “Firebird” Suite; Bartók’s “Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta;” Respighi’s “The Pines of Rome;” Tchaikovsky’s “Francesca da Rimini;” Janáček’s “Taras Bulba;” and, in Metro Collection and Rush Hour concerts, Beethoven’s Second and Mozart’s 39th symphonies, Dvořák’s Serenade in D minor for wind ensemble, and Ravel’s “Ma mère l’Oye” (“Mother Goose”) Suite.

The Richmond Symphony Pops series will feature “The Music of Elton John,” featuring singer Michael Cavanaugh; the pop-revival group Jeans ’n Classics in “The Apollo Hall of Fame,” a revue of vintage rhythm and blues; “Journey into the Cosmos,” a sampler of music inspired by outer space; and the annual “Let It Snow!” Holiday pops program with the Symphony Chorus.

For ticket orders and other information on the Richmond Symphony’s 2019-20 season, call the orchestra’s patron services desk at (804) 788-1212 or visit http://www.richmondsymphony.com/ticketing/seasonsubscriptions/

Programs, artists, venues and ticket prices for the symphony’s coming season:

MASTERWORKS
Carpenter Theatre, Dominion Energy Center
8-concert subscription: $187-$567
5-concert subscription: $118-$366
single tickets: $10-$100 (Sept. 21-22, May 23-24), $10-$82 (other concerts)

Sept. 21 (8 p.m.)
Sept. 22 (3 p.m.)
Marin Alsop conducting
Alexander von Zemlinsky: Psalm 23, Op. 14
Richmond Symphony Chorus
Paganini: Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major
Inmo Yang, violin
Brahms: “Variations on a Theme by Haydn”
Stravinsky: “The Firebird” Suite

Oct. 26 (8 p.m.)
Roderick Cox conducting
Tchaikovsky: “The Tempest” Fantasy-Overture
Charpentier: “Louise” – “Depuis le jour” (“Since the Day”)
Barber: “Knoxville, Summer of 1915”
Brandie Sutton, soprano
Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances

Nov. 16 (8 p.m.)
Nov. 17 (3 p.m.)
Paolo Bortolameolli conducting
Bartók: “Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta”
Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major
Eduardo Rojas, piano
Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor

Jan. 11 (8 p.m.)
Ankush Kumar Bahl conducting
John Adams: “The Chairman Dances”
Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622
Anthony McGill, clarinet
Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 in E major

Feb. 1 (8 p.m.)
Laura Jackson conducting
Michael Gandolfi: “The Garden of Cosmic Speculation” (selections)
Tchaikovsky: “Variations on a Rococo Theme”
Julian Schwarz, cello
Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in D major

March 7 (8 p.m.)
March 8 (3 p.m.)
Valentina Peleggi conducting
Rossini: “La gazza ladra” (“The Thieving Magpie”) Overture
Respighi: “The Pines of Rome”
Joan Tower: “Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman” No. 2
Clara Wieck Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor
Miriam Batsashvili, piano
Tchaikovsky: “Francesca da Rimini”

April 18 (8 p.m.)
April 19 (3 p.m.)
Farkhad Khudyev conducting
Rachmaninoff: “The Bells”
soloists TBA
Richmond Symphony Chorus
Grieg: “Lyric Suite”
Janáček: “Taras Bulba”

May 23 (7:30 p.m.)
Andrew Litton conducting
Menuhin Competition senior finalists
repertory TBA

May 24 (5 p.m.)
Andrew Litton conducting
Michael Abels: “Delights and Dances”
Sphinx Virtuosi
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major – I. Allegro moderato
other repertory TBA
Menuhin Competition junior and senior winners
Falla: “The Three-Cornered Hat” Suite No. 2

* * *

METRO COLLECTION
3 p.m., Blackwell Auditorium, Randolph-Macon College, Ashland
subscription: $70
single tickets: $22

Oct. 20
Roderick Cox conducting
Dvořák: Serenade in D minor for winds
Copland: Clarinet Concerto
David Lemelin, clarinet
Mozart: Symphony No. 39 in E flat major, K. 543

Nov. 10
Paolo Bortolameolli conducting
Mozart: “Idomeneo” Overture
Elgar: Serenade in E minor for strings
Schumann: Cello Concerto in A minor
Neal Cary, cello
Beethoven: Symphony No. 2 in D major

Feb. 9
Laura Jackson conducting
Gabriela Lena Frank: “Concertina Cusqueño”
Mozart: Sinfonia concertante in E flat major, K. 364
Daisuke Yamamoto, violin
Molly Sharp, viola
Britten: “Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge”
Bartók: “Romanian Folk Dances”

April 26
Farkhad Khudyev conducting
Debussy-Büsser: “Petite Suite”
Toru Takemitsu: “Toward the Sea II”
Mary Boodell, flute
Lynette Wardle, harp
Prokofiev: “”Summer Day: Children’s Suite for Small Orchestra”
Ravel: “Ma mère l’Oye” (“Mother Goose”) Suite

* * *

SYMPHONY POPS
Carpenter Theatre, Dominion Energy Center
subscription: $92-$270
single tickets: $10-$82

Oct. 5 (8 p.m.)
Chia-Hsuan Lin conducting
Michael Cavanaugh, guest star
“The Music of Elton John”

Dec. 7 (8 p.m.)
Dec. 8 (3 p.m.)
conductor TBA
Richmond Symphony Chorus
“Let It Snow!” holiday pops concerts

Jan. 18 (8 p.m.)
Ankush Kumar Bahl conducting
“Journey into the Cosmos”

Feb. 29 (8 p.m.)
Chia-Hsuan Lin conducting
Jeans ’n Classics, guest stars
“The Apollo Hall of Fame”

* * *

LOLLIPOPS
11 a.m., Carpenter Theatre, Dominion Energy Center
subscription: $45 (adult), $34 (child)
single tickets: $20 (adult), $10 (child)

Nov. 2
Chia-Hsuan Lin conducting
“Wild Wild West”

Nov. 30
Chia-Hsuan Lin conducting
“The Snowman,” film with orchestral accompaniment

Jan. 25
Chia-Hsuan Lin conducting
“It’s a Symphony Sing-along!”

March 14
Valentina Peleggi conducting
School of the Richmond Ballet
Copland: “Appalachian Spring”

* * *

RUSH HOUR
6:30 p.m., Hardywood Park Craft Brewery
subscription: $60
single tickets: $20

conductors TBA
Oct. 17
Nov. 7
Feb. 6
April 23

* * *

SPECIAL CONCERT
7:30 p.m., Carpenter Theatre, Dominion Energy Center
single tickets: $20-$60

Dec. 6 (7:30 p.m.)
conductor TBA
Handel: “Messiah”
soloists TBA
Richmond Symphony Chorus

Feb. 7, Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond

In one of the most eagerly anticipated evenings on this season’s schedule of classical concerts in Richmond, Daniil Trifonov, the 27-year-old Russian piano virtuoso, delivered scorching, dynamic and at times haunting performances of works by Beethoven, Schumann and Prokofiev.

Trifonov’s technical facility and temperament have sparked comparisons with legendary keyboard figures of past generations, and after hearing his work in this concert it’s hard to gainsay the gusher of superlatives that preceded his appearance here. He showed, however, that some musical seasoning will be needed before he achieves full command of repertory that requires depth and interpretive discretion to balance (or outweigh) speed, brilliance and high-romantic expressiveness.

What he plays superbly and what he could play more convincingly was starkly evident in his performances of Beethoven’s “Hunt” Sonata in E flat major, Op. 31, No. 3, and Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 8.

Trifonov pounced on the many accents of the Beethoven, at times threatening to turn its big opening movement into a succession of exclamatory outbursts, and played its scherzo and presto finale at breathless paces. At more relaxed tempos, and in a reading of Beethoven’s “Andante favori” in F major, WoO 57, that preceded the sonata, he engaged in some remarkably subtle phrasing – dynamics within dynamics – enhancing the music’s lyricism and giving it an almost impressionistic quality.

This episodic, not to say schizophrenic, treatment of Beethoven contrasted sharply with a masterfully conceived, compellingly narrative reading of the Prokofiev, the last of the composer’s three “wartime” sonatas (No. 8 dates from 1944), which rank at or near the pinnacle of 20th-century solo-piano music.

Trifonov realized the richly atmospheric, yet sonically austere, character of the first movement of the Prokofiev, and made convincing emotional counterpoint of its turbulent passages. His treatments of the sonata’s waltz-like central movement and epic finale – alternate takes on the danse macabre – finely balanced pointed rhythm and lyrical flow.

Between the two sonatas, Trifonov summoned his seemingly inexhaustible store of virtuosity for Schumann’s “Bunte Blätter” (“Motley Leaves”), Op. 99, an infrequently performed sampler of short pieces that the composer had written over several decades, and the “Presto passionato,” the original finale of his Sonata in G minor, Op. 22 (discarded on the advice of the composer’s wife, Clara).

The pianist’s high-romantic chops, demonstrated in his recordings of Chopin, Liszt and Rachmaninoff, were on vivid display in the Schumann pieces. Really good performances of this composer’s solo-piano music should sound almost like improvisations, inspirations of the moment. Trifonov played with that kind of spontaneity and impetuosity.

Rewarded by a near-capacity crowd with a roaring ovation after the Prokofiev, Trifonov played a piano arrangement of Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14, as an encore.

* * *

UPDATE: Trifonov’s performance of the same program, minus the Schumann “Presto passionato” and with encores by Prokofiev and Chopin, on Feb. 9 at New York’s Carnegie Hall, can be seen and heard here (registration required):

http://www.medici.tv/en/concerts/daniil-trifonov-plays-beethoven-schumann-and-prokofiev/