Libera is delighted to announce details about for Summer USA Tour:
Sunday 1st August 7.30pm
Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church, Dallas
Admission Free – a goodwill offering will be taken
Monday 2nd August 7.30pm
Arborlawn Methodist Church, Fort Worth
Admission Free – a goodwill offering will be taken
Thursday 5th August 7.30pm
Cathedral Basilica, St Louis
Tickets $37/$27/$17 - buy tickets here
Sunday 8th August 7.00pm
Brentwood Methodist Church, Nashville
Admission Free – a goodwill offering will be taken
Tuesday 10th August 7.00pm
Peachtree Presbyterian Church, Atlanta
Tickets $10/$20
"Here are two recent entries in what is shaping up to be the most engaging Beethoven quartet cycle in recent memory. Each ensemble that comes to this music does so with its own interpretive mien, and the Artemis’s can be described as a fusion of two different quartet traditions: one that emphasizes sonic beauty (like the Alban Berg Quartet) and one that sees drive and intensity as paramount (such as the Juilliard or Emerson). In finding a meeting point between the two extremes, the Artemis has managed the difficult task of finding something new and vital to say about these well-examined works.
You can hear it in the weight and seriousness they impart to the two early quartets from Op. 18, and it’s also present in the slow movements of the late quartets, especially the Cavatina of Op. 130 and the “Heiliger Dankgesang’’ of Op. 132: Both sound plush and gorgeous, yet the quartet resists the temptation to play them too slowly and lose the underlying momentum. But their approach pays its largest dividends in the “Grosse Fuge,’’ which often sounds like an unruly sample of early Expressionism. The Artemis, though, makes it amazingly transparent and logical, like the contrapuntal conversation it actually is." - David Weininger
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Starting today with the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth in an Austrian-Czech village on July 7, 1860, the commemorations will roll on beyond the centenary of his death on May 18, 2011. Mahler has become, in recent decades, the most popular symphonist in the concert repertoire.
Two sets of the complete works on 16 or 18 CDs from the largest record companies, Universal and EMI, contain indispensable performances. Neither, however, is the final word. Having listened to almost all 2,000 discs over 30 years of intensive Mahler research, my tips for starters are these:
2nd Symphony, “Resurrection” (1895): Klemperer (EMI, 1962) is inarguable, while Gilbert Kaplan in Vienna (DG/Universal 2003) has the most authentic score. Paavo Jarvi, with dream soloists Alice Coote and Natalie Dessay (EMI, 2010), is my current cinch.
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Whether you're a constitutional scholar, someone who yells "USA! USA! USA!" at sporting events, or both, you'll agree that America — the country, not the soft-rock band behind "A Horse With No Name" — is worth at least one day off a year. From representative democracy and free speech to the ingenuity that gave the world deep-fried cheese and Slankets, America deserves a continuous music mix extolling her virtues.
As Flag Day gives way to July 4 festivities, it's the finest time of the year to hoist a flag, ignite some shoddily manufactured fireworks (imported, of course) and sit at your computer while streaming a whole bunch of music that sings the praises of our great land.
The Playlist:
Selections by Cathy Fuller from WGBH
"America, The Beautiful," Harry Allen, Tenors, Anyone? [Jazz24]
"Stephen Foster: Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair," Chanticleer (Teldec 49702) [APM]
"Virgil Thomson: Allegro, from Symphony On A Hymn Tune," Eastman-Rochester Orchestra; Howard Hanson, conductor (Mercury 434310) [APM]
"Medley No. 2," Uncredited Orchestral with Percival Mackey, conductor; Paul Robeson, bass-baritone (Angel/EMI 15586) [WNYC]
To read more playlist selections, click here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105623389
GIUSEPPE VERDI
Requiem
By: Dan Davis
If you love Verdi's Requiem as much as I do you can get awfully picky about modern recordings of the work. But there's not much to be picky about in Antonio Pappano's excellent version; he straddles the line between the work's theatrical and "spiritual" sides and conveys important structural features without slighting details. In that respect he reminds me of Guilini--not in the famous EMI recording, but in the BBC Live performances that have more spark and dynamism. Pappano here commands a wide dynamic range and is about as idiomatic a Verdian as we have today.
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New Name, Same Talent: Yundi At WNYC
June 15, 2010
The artist formerly known as Yundi Li is a superstar in his native China. His face shows up on billboards and ads almost as much as that of his colleague and contemporary, Lang Lang, but the young pianist has dropped his family name and now goes by his given name only. As Yundi, he told us that he hopes to offer a friendlier, more accessible profile to his sizable global audience.
One thing that has not changed is the almost effortless grace and elegance that Yundi brings to the keyboard. Like a number of great pianists before him, Yundi has just recorded all of Chopin's Nocturnes. He points out that the Nocturnes run from the beginning of Chopin's career in Paris to the last years of his brief life, thus offering a kind of yardstick of the composer's development.
In the studio, Yundi played arguably the two most famous Nocturnes: the Nocturne in E-flat from Opus 9 and the dramatic Opus 48 No. 1, which has a middle section that, if indeed nocturnal, portrays a pretty dark and stormy night. What struck me is that you don't need to be a classical-music expert to recognize that this is terrific playing.
I don't think Yundi needed to shorten his name to offer a friendly, accessible profile. Playing like this will take care of that for him.
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Yannick Nézet-Séguin has been announced today as Music Director Designate of the Philadelphia Orchestra with immediate effect, and will take up the full title of Music Director from the 2012-2013 season.
His appointment with the Philadelphia Orchestra will run concurrently with his other titles.
He became Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Principal Guest of the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the start of the 2008-2009 season. He has been Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal since 2000.
In his first season as Music Director (2012-2013), Mr. Nézet-Séguin will conduct 6 weeks of concerts. This will increase to 15 weeks of concerts by the 2015 and 2016 seasons.
Mr Nezet-Seguin has made three recordings with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra for EMI Classics, including the Edison Award winning recording of the music of Ravel, and EMI Classics continue to plan future collaborations with these forces.
EMI Classics congratulates Mr Nezet-Seguin on this prestigious appointment, and look forward to continuing to work with him in the coming years.
A pianist’s golden Chopin; a tenor’s brilliant Gluck
By David Weininger, Matthew Guerrieri, and David Perkins
THOMAS ADÈS: TEVOT, VIOLIN CONCERTO, AND OTHER WORKS Anthony Marwood, violin Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain Simon Rattle, Thomas Adès, Paul Daniel, conductors EMI
Thomas Adès was only 26 when he wrote his 1997 orchestral work “Asyla.’’ That piece, which would go on to win the prestigious Grawemeyer Award, served notice that Adès was one of the most gifted young composers of his era. The two largest works in this new collection — the orchestral piece “Tevot’’ and the violin concerto “Concentric Paths’’ — indicate that he has gone from wunderkind to modern master.
Where “Asyla’’ moved in fits and starts, each more dazzling than the last, “Tevot’’ — commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic in 2007 — proceeds in broad, well-defined arcs. Adès’s orchestral writing pits various choirs of the orchestra against each other, making a tightly organized plan sound as if it’s on the verge of chaos. But “Tevot’’ — a Hebrew word meaning both vessel and a bar of music — balances darker elements with a series of open, heartfelt melodies. The clash is only resolved at the work’s improbably optimistic ending.
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