Letter V

noon-3 p.m. EST
1600-1900 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
http://wdce.net

Elgar: “Polonia”
Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Andrew Davis
(Chandos)

Anton Rubinstein: Piano Concerto No. 4 in D minor
Anna Shelest, piano
The Orchestra NOW/Neeme Järvi
(Sorel Classics)

Rachmaninoff: Prelude in B minor, Op. 32, No. 10
Yuja Wang, piano
(Deutsche Grammophon)

Past Masters:
Dvořák: “Symphonic Variations on an Original Theme,” Op. 78
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra/Rafael Kubelik
(Deutsche Grammophon)
(recorded 1974)

Haydn: Quartet in D major, Op. 64, No. 5
Danish String Quartet
(Cavi Music)

Mieczyslaw Weinberg: Fantasia for cello and orchestra
Claes Gunnarsson, cello
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra/Thord Svedlund
(Chandos)

Sibelius: “The Wood-Nymph”
Lahti Symphony Orchestra/Osmo Vänskä
(BIS)

Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3 in C minor (“Organ”)
Paul Jacobs, organ
Utah Symphony/Thierry Fischer
(Hyperion)

“A Lemony Snicket Mystery,” the Richmond Symphony’s next LolliPops concert, will be open free to federal employees affected by the current government shutdown.

Each eligible patron may obtain up to four tickets for the concert, which begins at 11 a.m. Jan. 19 at Dominion Energy Center’s Carpenter Theatre, Sixth and Grace streets. A pre-concert festival begins at 10 a.m. in the center’s Rhythm Hall.

Chia-Hsuan Lin will conduct the concert, which is tailored to children and families.

Go to https://www.richmondsymphony.com/event/lemony-snicket-mystery/2019-01-19/ Click “buy tickets,” and select the federal government employees price code. At the theater’s will-call window on the concert date, present a federal employee identification to receive the free tickets.

For more information, call the symphony’s patron services desk at (804) 788-1212.

Letter V Classical Radio returns on Jan. 23.

Musical anniversaries of 2019: No major composer’s birthday (à la Leonard Bernstein in 2018), but this is an anniversary year for a range of well-known works – Franz Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet, Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto, Manuel de Falla’s “The Three-Cornered Hat,” Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto, and more.

noon-3 p.m. EST
1600-1900 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
http://wdce.net

Offenbach: “Gaîté Parisienne” – cancan
Boston Symphony Orchestra/Seiji Ozawa
(Deutsche Grammophon)

Schubert: Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667 (“Trout”)
Martin Helmchen, piano
Christian Tetzlaff, violin
Antoine Tamestit, viola
Marie-Elisabeth Hecker, cello
Alois Posch, double-bass
(Pentatone)

Falla: “Three Dances from ‘The Three-Cornered Hat’ ”
London Symphony Orchestra/Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos
(IMP Classics)

Past Masters:
Weber: “Invitation to the Dance”
(orchestration by Hector Berlioz)
Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Fritz Reiner
(RCA Red Seal)
(recorded 1957)

Respighi: “La Boutique fantasque”
(after Gioachino Rossini)
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra/Jesús López-Cobos
(Telarc)

Prokofiev: “Overture on Hebrew Themes”
Elena Bashkirova, piano
Berlin Soloists
(Apex)

Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
London Symphony Orchestra/André Previn
(Sony Classical)

Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor
Leif Ove Andsnes, piano
Berlin Philharmonic/Mariss Jansons
(Warner Classics)

Jan. 6, St. Luke Lutheran Church

Pianist Alexander Paley, in the winter concert of his Richmond music festival, etched a high musical contrast as he played the Op. 28 preludes of Frédéric Chopin and “Ten Pieces from ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ ” Op. 75, by Sergei Prokofiev.

Chopin’s set of 24 preludes, written between 1835 and 1839, likely modeled on or inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach’s cycles of preludes and fugues in “The Well-Tempered Clavier,” are a cycle that systematically works through all the major and minor keys. The faster pieces also serve as virtuoso keyboard showpieces. Several of the preludes rank among the greatest examples of Chopin’s tone- and mood-painting.

Whether the set was intended to be played in full in public performance, as Paley did in this concert, is debated by musicologists. What’s not debatable is that the whole set can be heard as a nearly comprehensive sampling of the tonal, textural and spiritual effects that Chopin produced in his piano music, and in generations of keyboard writing that followed.

Paley gave full vent to his often explosive temperament in the faster and more note-heavy preludes, such as No. 3 in G major, No. 8 in F sharp minor and No. 16 in B flat minor, at times taxing the capacity of St. Luke’s Cristofori baby grand to project dense clusters of tone without congestion. He coaxed more agreeable and subtly colored tone in more reflective pieces, notably the well-known Prelude No. 15 in D flat major (known as the “Raindrop”) and the epically solemn Prelude No. 20 in C minor.

Prokofiev’s piano reduction of selections from his greatest ballet score presents a different set of challenges. “Romeo and Juliet” was one of the composer’s most masterful orchestral works, and many of that orchestration’s coloristic and expressive effects do not translate readily to the keyboard. The listener is often reminded in this score that the piano is a percussive instrument.

While the most familiar of the pieces, “The Montagues and the Capulets,” survives the transition from orchestra to keyboard with its grimly heavy march tread intact, dances such as the Minuet and “Dance of the girls with lilies” are markedly more angular than in the orchestration, and moodier sections, such as “Young Juliet” and “Romeo and Juliet before parting,” are almost different pieces of music in the piano version.

Paley played the Prokofiev score with audible fluency and affection, and without hurrying its more turbulent passages.

The New York Times’ Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, focusing on a recital by clarinetist Marton Fröst and pianist Henrik Mawe as part of the “Live Music Meditation” series at Princeton University, examines the constructive role of silence both within music and around performances of it:

David Felberg, a violinist and conductor who directs a similar series, Chatter, in Albuquerque, tells Fonseca-Wollheim that silence serves as “a bit of a palate-cleanser. It’s almost like you’re fresh and ready to listen to the music.”

I can attest to that from personal experience. Some years ago, while working on assorted household projects, I heard no music for nearly three days. After that fast, the first music I was exposed to – keyboard sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, as it happened – I heard as I had not heard music for many years.

After writing about that experience, I was invited by the University of Richmond’s Jennifer Cable to help her students replicate that experience. Few managed it. Music was omnipresent in their environment – they couldn’t escape, even for a few hours.

These days, silence has to be programmed.

Classical performances in and around Richmond, with selected events elsewhere in Virginia and the Washington area. Program information, provided by presenters, is updated as details become available. Adult single-ticket prices are listed; senior, student/youth, group and other discounts may be offered.

In and around Richmond: Pianist Alexander Paley plays Chopin and Prokofiev in the winter installment of his Richmond music festival, Jan. 6 at St. Luke Lutheran Church. . . . Pianist Orion Weiss joins Steven Smith and the Richmond Symphony for Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto (No. 5), sharing the program with Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, Jan. 12 and 13 at the Carpenter Theatre of Dominion Energy Center. . . . The Seraph Brass performs in the next program of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Rennolds Chamber Concerts, Jan. 19 at VCU’s Singleton Arts Center. . . . The Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia presents a quartet of artists playing Shostakovich and Messiaen, Jan. 20 at First Unitarian Universalist Church. . . . The University of Richmond’s Tucker-Boatwright Festival continues with Steven Smith and the Richmond Symphony, joined by Balinese gamelan performers, in a program of Mozart, Debussy, Evan Ziporyn and Dewat Alit, as well as a re-creation of the Javanese music performed at the 1889 Paris Exposition, which profoundly influenced Debussy’s style. Some of the same works, as well Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s Overture in C major, will be played by the symphony in a Rush Hour casual concert on Jan. 24 at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery and a Metro Collection program on Jan. 27 at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland.

Noteworthy elsewhere: Pianist Leon Fleisher marks his 90th year playing Mozart with Peter Oundjian and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Jan. 5 at Strathmore in the Maryland suburbs of DC. . . . The Canadian Brass performs some of the quintet’s greatest hits in a Jan. 11 visit to Christopher Newport University’s Ferguson Arts Center in Newport News. . . . Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony, joined by pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, explore Olivier Mesiaen’s epic “Turangalîla” Symphony in an Off-the-Cuff talk and performance on Jan. 11 and a complete performance on Jan. 13, both at Strathmore. . . . Soprano Renée Fleming joins Gianandrea Noseda and the National Symphony Orchestra in a program of Schubert and Schubert reimagined by Luciano Berio, Jan. 18 and 20 at Washington’s Kennedy Center. . . . Thomas Wilkins, a Norfolk native and former associate conductor of the Richmond Symphony, currently music director of the Omaha Symphony Orchestra and Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, returns to Hampton Roads to conduct the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, with guest violinist Sirena Huang, in a program of Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Rossini, Jan. 25 at Ferguson Arts Center in Newport News, Jan. 26 at Chrysler Hall in Norfolk and Jan. 27 at Sandler Arts Center in Virginia Beach. (Wilkins also will receive the orchestra’s Dreamer Award during a Jan. 20 Martin Luther King Jr. tribute concert at Norfolk’s Second Calvary Baptist Church.) . . . Behzod Abduraimov, a Tashkent-born pianist with a fast-rising international profile, plays Wagner, Liszt and Prokofiev in a Tuesday Evening Concerts program on Jan. 29 at the University of Virginia’s Old Cabell Hall in Charlottesville. . . . Pianist Jeremy Denk plays sets of variations by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Bizet, Schumann and John Adams, Jan. 29 at the Kennedy Center.

Jan. 5 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Peter Oundjian conducting
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 12 in A major, K. 414
Leon Fleisher, piano
Brahms: Symphony No. 2 in D major
$35-$90
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
http://www.strathmore.org

Jan. 6 (3 p.m.)
St. Luke Lutheran Church, 7757 Chippenham Parkway, Richmond
Alexander Paley, piano
Chopin: 24 préludes, Op. 28
Prokofiev: “Ten Pieces from ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ ” Op. 75
donation requested
(804) 665-9516
http://paleymusicfestival.org

Jan. 6 (7:30 p.m.)
Hofheimer Loft, 2818 W. Broad St., Richmond
Classical Revolution RVA
“Classical Incarnations at the Hof”
program TBA
donation requested
(804) 342-0012
http://www.classicalrevolutionrva.com/events

Jan. 11 (8 p.m.)
Ferguson Arts Center, Christopher Newport University, Newport News
Canadian Brass
Hudson & Coletti: “Renaissance Fireworks”
Handel-Allen: “Solomon” – “Arrival of Queen of Sheeba”
Bach-Romm: Fugue in G minor (“Little”)
Coletti & Ridenour: “Brahms on Brass” (selections)
Lennon & McCartney-Dedrick: “Penny Lane”
DaCosta-Henderson: “Tuba Tiger Rag”
Mozart-Frackenpohl: “Rondo alla turca”
Gershwin-Henderson: “Porgy and Bess” (selections)
Newton-Henderson: “Amazing Grace”
Kompanek (arr.): “Tribute to the Ballet”
$32-$57
(757) 594-8752
http://fergusoncenter.org

Jan. 11 (7:30 p.m.)
Jan. 13 (2 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Washington National Opera American Opera Initiative Festival
Lidiya Yankovskaya conducting
Kamala Sankaram & Jerre Dye: “Taking Up Serpents”
Alexandria Shiner (Kayla)
Eliza Bonet (Nelda)
Timothy J. Bruno (Daddy)
Hannah Hagerty (Reba/Young mother/Holiness congregation member)
Marlen Nahhas (Save Mart customer/Queer kid/Holiness congregation member)
Arnold Livingston Geis (Save Mart customer/Bus driver/Preacher)
Alison Moritz, stage director
in English
$35-$45
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org

Jan. 11 (8:15 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop conducting & speaking
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
Nathalie Forget, ondes Martenot
“Off the Cuff: Messiaen’s ‘Turangalîla’ Symphony”
$35-$90
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
http://www.strathmore.org

Jan. 12 (8 p.m.)
Jan. 13 (3 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Dominion Energy Center, Sixth and Grace streets, Richmond
Richmond Symphony
Steven Smith conducting
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major (“Emperor”)
Orion Weiss, piano
Mahler: Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor
$10-$82
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
http://www.richmondsymphony.com

Jan. 12 (7 and 9 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Washington National Opera American Opera Initiative Festival
Steven Osgood conducting
Matt Boehler & Laura Barati: “75 Miles”
Alexandra Nowakowski (Avery)
Alexandra Christoforakis (Marianne)
Joshua Conyers (Jason)
Molly Joyce & James Kennedy: “Relapse”
Amanda Palmeiro (Marina)
Alexandra Nowakowski (Jessie)
Alexander McKissick (Aaron)
Samson McCrady (Nurse)
Nicolas Lell Benavides & Marella Martin Koch: “Pepito”
Alexandra Nowakowski (Camilla)
Alexandra Christoforakis (Angie)
Joshua Blue (David)
Samuel Weiser (Pepito)
Andrea Dorf McGray, stage director
in English
$19-$35
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org

Jan. 12 (7:30 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Cornell University Glee Club
Robert Isaacs directing
150th Anniversary Concert
program TBA
$20-$40
(301) 581-5100
http://www.strathmore.org

Jan. 13 (7 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Dominion Energy Center, Sixth and Grace streets, Richmond
Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra Program:
String Sinfonietta
Christie-Jo Adams conducting
Soon Hee Newbold: “Honor and Glory”
Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez: “Let It Go”
Rhea Prakash, Madisyn Willis & Isaac Wilson, soloists
Richard Meyer: “Terra Nova”
Camerata Strings
Rebecca Jilcott conducting
Warren Benson: “Themes and Excursions”
Elena Roussanova Lucas: “Contemplation”
Soon Hee Newbold: “Iditarod”
YOP Wind Ensemble
Christopher Moseley directing
John Kinyon: “Flurry” for winds and percussion
John Moss: “British Master’s Suite”
Mark Williams: “Grant County Celebration”
Youth Concert Orchestra
Sandy Goldie conducting
Robert W. Smith: “The Tempest”
Haydn: Symphony No. 104 in D major (“London”) – I: Adagio – allegro
Albinoni: Adagio
Hyla Stuntz, violin
Soon Hee Newbold: “Warrior Legacy”
free
(804) 592-3330 (Dominion Energy Center)
http://www.richmondsymphony.com

Jan. 13 (3 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop conducting
Messiaen: “Turangalîla” Symphony
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
Nathalie Forget, ondes Martenot
$35-$90
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
http://www.strathmore.org

Jan. 14 (7:30 p.m.)
Chrysler Museum of Art, 1 Memorial Place, Norfolk
Feldman Chamber Music Society:
Trio Karénine
Debussy: Piano Trio in G major
Schumann: Trio in D minor, Op. 63
Ravel: Piano Trio in A minor
$30
(757) 552-1630
http://www.feldmanchambermusic.org

Jan. 15 (8 p.m.)
Williamsburg Library Theatre, 515 Scotland St.
Chamber Music Society of Williamsburg:
Trio Karénine
Debussy: Piano Trio in G major
Schumann: Trio in D minor, Op. 63
Ravel: Piano Trio in A minor
$20 (waiting list)
(757) 258-8555
http://chambermusicwilliamsburg.org

Jan. 18 (8 p.m.)
Ferguson Arts Center, Christopher Newport University, Newport News
Jan. 19 (8 p.m.)
Chrysler Hall, 215 St. Paul’s Boulevard, Norfolk
Virginia Symphony Pops
Gonzalo Farias conducting
Alicia Hall Moran & Nicholas Spangler, guest stars
“Broadway A to Z . . . ABBA to Les Miz”
$25-$100
(757) 892-6366
http://virginiasymphony.org

Jan. 18 (8 p.m.)
Jan. 20 (3 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Gianandrea Noseda conducting
Schubert: “Rosamunde” – Overture and incidental music
Schubert: orchestrated songs (various arrangers)
Renée Fleming, soprano
Luciano Berio: “Renderings” (based on Schubert’s sketches for a Tenth Symphony)
$15-$89
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org

Jan. 19 (11 a.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Dominion Energy Center, Sixth and Grace streets, Richmond
Richmond Symphony LolliPops
Chia-Hsuan Lin conducting
“A Lemony Snicket Mystery”
$10-$20
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
http://www.richmondsymphony.com

Jan. 19 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Rennolds Chamber Concerts:
Seraph Brass
program TBA
$35
(804) 828-1169
http://arts.vcu.edu/music/events

Jan. 19 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Markus Stenz conducting
Wagner: “Siegfried Idyll”
Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D major
Baiba Skride, violin
Haydn: Symphony No. 104 in D major (“London”)
$35-$90
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
http://www.strathmore.org

Jan. 20 (4 p.m.)
First Unitarian Universalist Church, 1000 Blanton Ave. at the Carillon, Richmond
Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia:
Grace Park, violin
James Wilson, cello
Bryan Crumpler, clarinet
Terrence Wilson, piano
Shostakovich: Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67
Messiaen: “Quartet for the End of Time”
$28
(804) 304-6312
http://cmscva.org

Jan. 20 (7 p.m.)
Second Calvary Baptist Church, 3920 Corpew Ave., Norfolk
Virginia Symphony Orchestra
Gonzalo Farias conducting
“Songs of a Dreamer: a Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”
program TBA
free
(757) 892-6366
http://virginiasymphony.org

Jan. 22 (7 p.m.)
Jan. 23 (8 p.m.)
Jan. 24 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra Pops
Steven Reineke conducting
“Star Wars: Return of the Jedi,” film with live orchestral accompaniment
$34-$149
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org

Jan. 23 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
Tucker-Boatwright Festival:
Richmond Symphony
Steven Smith conducting
Debussy: “Pagodes”
Debussy: “La boîte à joujoux”
Evan Ziporyn: “Ngaben” for Balinese gamelan and orchestra
Dewa Alit: “Open My Door”
Mozart: Symphony No. 25 in G minor, K. 183
Sumarsam’s reconstruction of Javanese music heard by Debussy at 1889 Paris Exposition
$36
(804) 289-8980
http://modlin.richmond.edu

Jan. 24 (6:30 p.m.)
Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, Overbrook Road at Ownby Lane, Richmond
Richmond Symphony Rush Hour
Steven Smith conducting
works by Debussy, Mozart, others
$15 (seating limited)
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
http://www.richmondsymphony.com

Jan. 24 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Pops
Jack Everly conducting
Ben Crawford & Ted Keegan, guest stars
“Rodgers & Hammerstein”
$35-$95
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
http://www.strathmore.org

Jan. 25 (8 p.m.)
Ferguson Arts Center, Christopher Newport University, Newport News
Jan. 26 (8 p.m.)
Chrysler Hall, 215 St. Paul’s Boulevard, Norfolk
Jan. 27 (2:30 p.m.)
Sandler Arts Center, 201 S. Market St., Virginia Beach
Virginia Symphony Orchestra
Thomas Wilkins conducting
Rossini: “La gazza ladra” (“The Thieving Magpie”) Overture
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor
Sirena Huang, violin
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A major
$25-$110
(757) 892-6366
http://virginiasymphony.org

Jan. 25 (8 p.m.)
Jan. 26 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra Pops
Steven Reineke conducting
Brandy, guest star
$39-$139
(800) 444-1324
http://www.kennedy-center.org

Jan. 26 (7:30 p.m.)
Altria Theater, Main and Laurel streets, Richmond
Richmond Symphony
conductor TBA
“Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” film screening with live orchestral accompaniment
$52.50-$82.50
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
http://www.richmondsymphony.com

Jan. 26 (8 p.m.)
Jan. 27 (3 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
National Philharmonic
Piotr Gajewski conducting
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor
Hoachen Zhang, piano
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E minor
$34-$88
(301) 581-5100
http://www.strathmore.org

Jan. 27 (3 p.m.)
Blackwell Auditorium, Randolph-Macon College, 205 Henry St., Ashland
Richmond Symphony
Steven Smith conducting
Debussy: “La boîte à joujoux”
Dewa Alit: “Open My Door”
Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel: Overture in C major
Mozart: Symphony No. 25 in G minor, K. 183
$22
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
http://www.richmondsymphony.com

Jan. 29 (7:30 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Tuesday Evening Concerts:
Behzod Abduraimov, piano
Wagner-Liszt: “Tristan und Isolde” – “Isoldes Liebestod”
Liszt: Sonata in B minor
Prokofiev: “Ten Pieces from ‘Romeo and Juliet’,” Op. 75
$12-$39
(434) 924-3376
http://tecs.org

Jan. 29 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Jeremy Denk, piano
Beethoven: “Five Variations on ‘Rule Brittania’ ”
John Adams: “I Still Play”
Bizet: “Variations chromatiques”
Mendelssohn: “Variations sérieuses,” Op. 54
Beethoven-Liszt: “An die ferne Geliebte”
Schumann: “Fantasy in C major, Op. 17
$70
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts)
http://www.washingtonperformingarts.org

Jan. 31 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop conducting
Jennifer Higdon: Low Brass Concerto
Helen Grime: Percussion Concerto
Colin Currie, percussion
Respighi: “Brazilian Impressions”
Respighi: “The Pines of Rome”
$35-$90
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
http://www.strathmore.org

The Habsburg Sock Hop, our expansion of the traditional New Year’s Viennese waltz program, with a wide variety of dance forms, in their folk roots and classical branches, from the Central European lands once ruled by the Habsburg dynasty.

noon-3 p.m. EST
1600-1900 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
http://wdce.net

Johann Strauss II: “On the Beautiful Blue Danube”
Anima Eterna Orchestra/Jos van Immerseel
(Zig Zag Territories)

Mozart: German Dance No. 6 in D major, K. 571
Concentus Musicus Wien/Nikolaus Harnoncourt
(Sony Classical)

Schubert:
Minuet in D minor, D. 89, No. 3
Minuet in C major, D. 89, No. 5
Isabelle Faust & Anne Katharina Schreiber, violins
Danusha Waskiewicz, viola
Kristin von der Goltz, cello
James Munro, double-bass
Lorenzo Coppola, clarinet
Javier Zafra, bassoon
Teunis van der Zwart, natural horn
(Harmonia Mundi)

Josef Lanner: “Die Schönbrunner Waltzes”
Concentus Musicus Wien/Nikolaus Harnoncourt
(Sony Classical)

Richard Strauss: “Der Rosenkavalier” Suite
(arrangement by Artur Rodzinski)
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra/Manfred Honeck
(Reference Recordings)

Liszt: “Hungarian Rhapsody” No. 2 in C sharp minor
(orchestration by Franz Doppler)
Vienna Academy Orchestra/Martin Haselböck
(cpo)

Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 1 in G minor
(arrangement by Miskától Borzó)
Andreas Ottensamer, clarinet
Leonidas Kavakos & Christoph Koncz, violins
Antoine Tamestit, viola
Stephan Koncz, cello
Ödon Rácz, double-bass
Predrag Tomic, accordion
Oskar Ökrös, cimbalom
(Deutsche Grammophon)

Jenő Hubay: “Hullámzó Balaton, Scène de la Csárda,” Op. 33, No. 5
(arrangement by Pavel Šporcl & Lukáš Sommer)
Civitas Ensemble
Gipsy Way
(Çedille)

anon.:
“Magyar Dance”
“Cyganji Dance”
“Hanac”
(arrangements by Vittorio Ghielmi & Graciela Gibelli)
Vittorio Ghielmi, pardessus de viole & director
Dorothee Oberlinger, flute
Marcel Comendant, cimbalom
Il Suonar Parlante Orchestra
(Alpha)

György Ligeti:
“Passacaglia ungherese”
“Hungarian Rock” (Chaconne)
Justin Taylor, harpsichord
(Alpha)

Bartók: “Dance Suite”
Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Pierre Boulez
(Deutsche Grammophon)

Dvořák: Piano Trio in E minor, Op. 90 (“Dumky”)
Alexander Melnikov, piano
Isabelle Faust, violin
Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello
(Harmonia Mundi)

anon. (Pestrý zborník manuscript, Slovakia, c. 1676): Suite
Stephen Stubbs, baroque guitar
Milos Valent, violin
Erin Headley, viola da gamba
Maxine Eilander, harp
(ECM)

Karol Józef Lipiński: “Rondo alla polacca”
(arrangement by Andrzej Wróbel)
Konstanty Andrzej Kulka, violin
Andrzej Gębski, Aurelia Liwanowska-Lisiecka, Anna Orlik & Wojciech Proniewicz, violins
Grzegorz Chmielewski, viola
Andrzej Wróbel, cello
Radosław Nur, double bass
(CD Accord)

Jan. 15 – At St. Luke Lutheran Church, pianist Alexander Paley devoted the winter installment of his Richmond music festival to two works firmly on his high-romantic interpretive wavelength, Schumann’s “Carnaval” and Liszt’s Sonata in B minor.

March 25 – At the University of Richmond’s Jepson Theatre, UR’s resident new-music sextet, eighth blackbird, joined by singer Iarla Ó Lionáird and fiddler Dan Trueman, gave one of the first performances of “Olagón: a Cantata in Doublespeak,” a reworking of an Irish legend of love and death by Trueman and poet Paul Muldoon, in a strikingly moody production that visually and sonically melded the ancient and post-modern.

June 1 – At St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, Capitol Opera Richmond, with the Jefferson Baroque ensemble, staged a production of Henry Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas,” marked by stylish baroque vocalizations from Gabrielle Maes, Anne O’Byrne and Tracey Welborn and novel choreography realized by dancers from the Latin Ballet of Virginia.

Sept. 21 – At Dominion Energy Center’s Carpenter Theatre, pianist Lang Lang, performing with Steven Smith and the Richmond Symphony on his comeback tour after a more than yearlong hiatus due to an arm injury, played a Chopin encore with his trademark superstar flashiness, but made a more lasting impression with a searching interpretation of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491.

Sept. 30 – At UR’s Perkinson Recital Hall, a Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia cast – clarinetist Bryan Crumpler, violinists Kobi Malkin and Brendon Elliott, violist Max Mandel and cellist James Wilson – played Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115, and Osvaldo Golijov’s “Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind,” works separated by a century in time and several generations in musical style, but surprisingly complementary in performance.

Oct. 21 – At the Carpenter Theatre, Steven Smith, outgoing music director of the Richmond Symphony, conducted the most potent interpretation of Beethoven in his Richmond years in an epic performance of the Symphony No. 3 in E flat major (“Eroica”), along with a sonically rich, stylish and rollicking reading of Zoltan Kodály’s “Dances of Galanta.”

Nov. 4 – At Virginia Commonwealth University’s Singleton Arts Center, members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center – violinist Paul Huang, violist Paul Neubauer, cellist Keith Robinson, double-bassist Xavier Foley and pianist Orion Weiss – revived the combination of virtuoso pyrotechnics and substantive musicality of old-time recitals in a duo-trio-quintet program of Beethoven, Schubert and Giovanni Bottesini.

Nov. 9 – At UR’s Camp Concert Hall, the Danish String Quartet made its Richmond debut in an unusually meaty program of Schubert, Beethoven and Hans Abrahamsen, played with highly focused tone, rich sonority and conversational spontaneity.

Nov. 11 – At the Carpenter Theatre, Steven Smith led the Richmond Symphony and Richmond Symphony Chorus, with soprano Martha Guth and bass-baritone Darren Stokes, in an extraordinarily moving, emotionally turbulent account of Brahms’ “A German Requiem,” performed alongside George Butterworth’s “The Banks of Green Willow” and Samuel Barber’s Adagio for strings in a program marking the 100th anniversary of the armistice ending World War I.

Dec. 3 – At River Road Church, Baptist, Peter Phillips’ Tallis Scholars presented “A Renaissance Christmas,” a collection of seasonal works by Giovanni Palestrina, Hieronymus Praetorius, William Byrd and John Nesbett, that reached heights of the sublime both in composition and performance.

HMV (His Master’s Voice), one of the world’s best-known retailers of recordings, has gone into administration, the British equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, as sales of DVDs and compact discs plunged in Britain’s Christmas shopping season.

The 97-year-old chain, which operates 125 stores in the UK, had been rescued from bankruptcy five years ago. Its current troubles mirror those of other “high street” stores reeling from competition from online retailers, as well as reduced spending by consumers worried about an economic slump as Britain faces Brexit, its coming separation from the European Union, The Guardian’s Angela Monaghan reports:

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/dec/28/hmv-on-brink-second-collapse-administration