Noted Endeavors with Jenny Bilfield – Tips for “Meet and Greets”

April 17th, 2015

Jenny Bilfield, President and CEO of Washington Performing Arts, talks with Noted Endeavors founders Eugenia Zukerman and Emily Ondracek-Peterson about tips for success at “meet and greets.”

Noted EndeavorsAs President and CEO of WPA (and in her previous stint as as Artistic and Executive Director of Stanford Live), Bilfield has seen her share of “meet and greets” and the successful outcomes that can arise from relationships that develop from these sometimes stressful and exhausting post-concert fetes. Bilfield suggests that artists ask questions and learn about those in attendance as a way of developing relationships that might prove beneficial for both parties.

For more about Washington Performing Arts, go to:
washingtonperformingarts.org

For more about Noted Endeavors (including more videos), go to:
notedendeavors.com

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New York Phil’s 21st-century Tour

April 17th, 2015

By Sedgwick Clark

Repertoire for international orchestra tours is usually so ho-hum that Alan Gilbert’s tour with the New York Philharmonic, which began on April 16 in Dublin, came as a jolt to me. If you’ve been going to his concerts the past few weeks, you’ll have heard the music—and noted, I should add, the top-notch level of performances.

The majority of the works are early 20th century—Stravinsky, Ravel, Debussy, Bartók, and Richard Strauss—but work their way up to Shostakovich’s Tenth (1953) and then to downright contemporary fare: Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Nyx, the world premiere of Peter Eötvös’s Senza sangue, and five composers on one of Gilbert’s new-music CONTACT! concerts of whom only Salonen is well known.

Being of critical mien, I might have had my druthers to strut the Phil’s stuff to the world, beginning with a couple of Carl Nielsen’s works that Gilbert led so magnificently earlier this season—the Fifth or Sixth symphonies or the Clarinet Concerto with the orchestra’s superb new principal clarinet, Anthony McGill. But perhaps the maestro has chosen the great Dane’s effervescent Maskarade Overture as an encore.

I suppose the programs of largely familiar fare below will daunt a few concertgoers in some backward bergs, but only the Cologne concert on May 1might be chancy for New York subscribers. The distinguished German, Viennese, French, and Russian orchestras bring their music here (although rarely do the British ones, which should change with the onset of Simon Rattle at the LSO). So now Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic are giving them a taste of their own music the way we do it over here.

 

 

New York Philharmonic/Alan Gilbert: EUROPE / SPRING 2015 tour (April 16–May 1)

 

April 16

Dublin, Ireland

National Concert Hall

Esa-Pekka Salonen: Nyx

Ravel: Shéhérazade (with Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano)

Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales

R. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier Suite

 

April 17

London, England

Barbican Centre

Esa-Pekka Salonen: Nyx

Ravel: Shéhérazade (with Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano)

Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales

R. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier Suite

 

April 18

London, England

Milton Court Concert Hall

CONTACT! 

Daníel Bjarnason: Five Possibilities

Timo Andres: Early to Rise

Missy Mazzoli: Dissolve, O My Heart

Esa-Pekka Salonen: Homunculus for string quartet

Shulamit Ran: Mirage for five players

 

April 19

London, England

Barbican Centre

Young People’s Concert

Stravinsky: Petrushka (staged)

Doug Fitch, director/designer

Edouard Gétaz, producer

A Production by Giants Are Small

Tom Lee, puppetry director

 

April 19

London, England

Barbican Centre

Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin Suite

Debussy: Jeux

Stravinsky: Petrushka (staged)

Doug Fitch, director/designer

Edouard Gétaz, producer

A Production by Giants Are Small

Tom Lee, puppetry director

 

April 21

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Royal Concertgebouw

Esa-Pekka Salonen: Nyx

Ravel: Shéhérazade (with Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano)

Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales

R. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier Suite

 

April 22

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Royal Concertgebouw

Stravinsky: Petrushka (original 1911 version)

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10

 

April 23

Luxembourg

Philharmonie Luxembourg

Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales

Ravel: Shéhérazade (with Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano)

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10

 

April 25

Paris, France

Philharmonie de Paris

Esa-Pekka Salonen: Nyx

Ravel: Shéhérazade (with Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano)

Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales

R. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier Suite

 

April 26

Paris, France

Philharmonie de Paris

Stravinsky: Petrushka (original 1911 version)

Debussy: Jeux

Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin Suite

 

April 28

Frankfurt, Germany

Alte Oper Frankfurt

Stravinsky: Petrushka (original 1911 version)

Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales

R. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier Suite

 

April 30

Cologne, Germany

Kölner Philharmonie

Stravinsky: Petrushka (original 1911 version)

Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales

R. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier Suite

 

May 1

Cologne, Germany

Kölner Philharmonie

Esa-Pekka Salonen: Nyx

Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin Suite

Peter Eötvös: Senza sangue (world premiere of New York Philharmonic co-commission,

with Anne Sofie von Otter, mezzo-soprano & Russell Braun, baritone)

 

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Anna Bolena in Vienna

April 13th, 2015

Anna_Bolena_76655[1]When hearing a soprano sing the title role of Donizetti‘s Anna Bolena, it is impossible not to draw comparisons with Maria Callas, who helped ensure the work’s re-entry into the repertoire with a La Scala performance in 1957.

And indeed, the star of a revival production at the Vienna State Opera this month has been called today’s answer to the legendary singer-actress. Dark-eyed and seductive, a fierce stage animal, Anna Netrebko may loom even larger within her time thanks to globalization (although her allegiance to Vladimir Putin has sullied her reputation).

Where Callas—whom I of course only know via recording—made the 16th century Queen fragile and heartbreaking, Netrebko brings a dose of dark tragedy. The voice flows like uncrushable velvet, resigned to her fate even through floating high notes. Seen April 10, the soprano was at her peak in the final scene after being condemned to death by Henry VIII for her alleged adultery.

Unravelling in a mad scene which foreshadows that of the more mature Donizetti opera Lucia di Lammermoor, she was affecting in the slow aria “Oh! chi si duole?” in which she pines for her beloved Percy, furious in the ensuring cabaletta in which she offers her mercy to the King and the to-be-crowned Jane Seymour.

Netrebko was not convincing in the first act cavatina “Come innocente giovane,” however, failing to convey a sense of vulnerability as she lamented the loss of the King’s love. While her Italian diction has only improved over the years, her vowels often suffer from a throaty timbre that—at least to the listener—compromises the authenticity of her performances.

But this was generally an evening of fine singing, at least for today’s standards, set against the stark but tasteful production of Eric Génovèse. A grey scaffolding conveys the sinister confines of the King’s court, while Anna’s bedroom is all warm blue tones (sets: Jacques Gabel and Claire Sternberg). Luscious period costumes by Luisa Spinatelli bring a dose of regal authenticity.

As the king, the bass Luca Pisaroni an authoritative presence, both musically and dramatically, his sculpted tone setting him apart from the rest of the cast. The Jane of Ekaterina Semenchuk, in her house debut, started out strong with fiery, booming tone but her high notes turned shrill in the second act and her diction was often muddied.

Celso Albelo brought a ringing tenor to the role of Percy, and the mezzo Margarita Gritskova was a stand-out as Anna Bolena’s smitten household musician. The Vienna Philharmonic under Andriy Yurkevych provided buoyant accompaniment, crisp strings and glowing brass making the orchestra a star in its own right during the overture, but the musicians also lived up to their reputation for playing too loudly in the opera pit.

Fore more by Rebecca Schmid, visit www.rebeccaschmid.info.

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Is It Still Illegal If I Don’t Get Caught?

April 9th, 2015

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq.   

Dear Law and Disorder:

Our organization has engaged a foreign musician whose European agent is balking at the artist having to obtain an O-1 visa that we know he needs. We want to do this right, so I’m getting my ducks in line to tell him no and part of making that case is knowing what potential penalties the organization might face for allowing him to work without the proper visa. I hope there is an easy answer that you can give me off the top of your head—or maybe there is something you can refer me to that would provide the answer.

A lot of artists and their managers balk at the U.S. visa process for artists. I understand. It’s illogical, inane, impractical, unpredictable, arbitrary, and expensive…and those are just the high points. Nonetheless, it’s the one we’re stuck with.

The “easy answer” is simply that “it’s illegal.” Artists are not permitted to perform in the U.S. without an artist visa (most often, either an O or P), regardless of whether or not tickets are sold, regardless of whether or not the artist is paid or who pays the artist, regardless of whether or not the performance is for a 501(c)(3), regardless of whether or not the performance constitutes “training” or is “educational”, and regardless of just about any scenario you can conceive of. What you are really asking is: what are the consequences for breaking the law and what are the odds of getting caught?

Both United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and United States Customs and Border Patrol (USCBP) have been increasingly scrutinizing artists over the last year or so. As a result, artists who have previously managed to perform illegally in the U.S. in the past without the proper artist visa are now being caught with ever greater regularity—resulting in significant consequences for both the artists as well as the presenters and venues who allowed them to perform. Last year, a violinist who had been performing in the U.S. for the past five years without a visa was caught and is now banned from the U.S. for three years. I am aware of a conductor who was turned away at the border when the immigration official discovered that he was coming to perform by “googling” his name. Another artist was advised by his management to enter the U.S. on a visitor visa to perform a promotional tour for a new album, was detained at the airport for 5 hours, and then refused entry. His ESTA/Visa Waiver privileges have been revoked and he must now visit a U.S. Consulate any time he wants to enter the US—even as a visitor. Even more significantly, a management company was caught submitting a fraudulent visa petition to USCIS and is no longer allowed to serve as a petitioner for its own artist’s visas. Large presenters, venues, and festivals are being audited with increasing regularity to determine whether or not all artists have proper artist visas.

The consequences for employing an artist illegally are the same as for any employer who employs an illegal alien. Theoretically, this can include anything from fines and economic penalties to criminal prosecution. However, from a practical perspective, the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice lack the resources to prosecute and investigate every venue or presenter who facilitates an illegal performance. This is why most enforcement tends to be focused on the artist at the time of entry. After the artist has entered the U.S., it’s much less likely that DHS would discover the performance unless there is an audit or the performance is reported to them. Audits are much more likely to occur either in the case of larger institutions or employers who already employ foreign workers in other capacities or in the case of prominent or significant venues or performances which are more likely to garner media attention.

In short, whenever a venue contemplates employing an artist without a proper visa or an artist contemplates performing with a proper visa, it’s akin to running a red light. It’s illegal under any circumstances. Whether or not you get caught depends on whether or not there is a camera or cop at the intersection. Whether or not it’s advisable depends on the circumstances and how lucky you feel.

If cost and inconvenience is a factor, and the artist has other U.S. engagements, a potential solution might be an itinerary-based visa covering multiple engagements. I am increasingly and puzzlingly seeing artists obtaining multiple visas rather than coordinating them amongst all of the artist’s presenters. There is no reason for this other than the visa process being all too often delegated to the “new kid” in the office.

__________________________________________________________________

For additional information and resources on this and otherGG_logo_for-facebook legal, project management, and business issues for the performing arts, visit ggartslaw.com

To ask your own question, write to lawanddisorder@musicalamerica.org.

All questions on any topic related to legal, management, and business issues will be welcome. However, please post only general questions or hypotheticals. GG Arts Law reserves the right to alter, edit or, amend questions to focus on specific issues or to avoid names, circumstances, or any information that could be used to identify or embarrass a specific individual or organization. All questions will be posted anonymously and/or posthumously.

__________________________________________________________________

THE OFFICIAL DISCLAIMER:

THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE!

The purpose of this blog is to provide general advice and guidance, not legal advice. Please consult with an attorney familiar with your specific circumstances, facts, challenges, medications, psychiatric disorders, past-lives, karmic debt, and anything else that may impact your situation before drawing any conclusions, deciding upon a course of action, sending a nasty email, filing a lawsuit, or doing anything rash!

 

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Boulez on CD

April 3rd, 2015

By Sedgwick Clark

Pierre Boulez turned 90 last week, on March 26. At first he struck fear in the ears of traditional concertgoers. But by his eighties he was hailed as a grand old man of music, in demand by all the major orchestras of the world. Fortunately, Boulez’s performing career is well documented, and his recording companies have celebrated his birthday in rare form with several box sets that include nearly his entire recorded output.

Boulez the Enfant Terrible. He revealed the lineage of 20th-century composition like no one else. His earliest recordings, dating from 1958-67, are with Domaine Musical, the French ensemble he formed in 1954. Works by Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Varèse, Messiaen, Stravinsky, and his own music (including two recordings of Le Marteau sans Maître) dominate the recorded Domaine repertoire. A smattering of his modernist contemporaries, Pousseur, Stockhausen, Berio, Henze, Cage, and others are included. Also included is a performance of Stravinsky’s Agon, with Hans Rosbaud conducting the Orchestre du Sudwestfunk, Baden-Baden. Deutsche Grammophon has handily gathered all these recordings on a 10-CD set, allowing us to jettison our crackly budget LPs at last.

The New York Philharmonic Years. Columbia Records signed Boulez in 1967 to record 20th-century repertoire, which is now all available on Sony Classical on a 67-CD set, primarily performed by the New York Philharmonic and London’s BBC Symphony. Boulez felt that before audiences could understand the music of the present, they must be conversant with contemporary composers’ historical forebears. Hence, these recordings concentrate on the works of Debussy, Ravel, Bartók, Berg, Schoenberg, Webern, Varèse, and Stravinsky; several of Boulez’s own works and Luciano Berio’s are included as well. Sony missed an opportunity, however, to include a never-before-released Boulez recording of Debussy’s Symphonic Fragments from The Martyrdom of St. Sebastien. Unedited tapes of a New York Philharmonic studio recording lie fallow in Sony’s icebox, never released for lack of an LP discmate; I recall the live performance as luminous. Sony’s CD reissues back in the ’80s by George Kadar were not transferred from the original analogue master tapes and betrayed light hiss levels that could have been avoided. Sony’s p.r. release for the box set claims that the recordings were mastered from original sources. I’m skeptical, but I’ll suspend judgment until I’ve heard the box set.

Warner’s Erato Set. Boulez’s departure as music director of the New York Philharmonic in 1977 for Paris to head up the contemporary-music organization IRCAM effectively ended his Columbia contract. The French label Erato stepped in during the 1980s to fill gaps in the conductor’s discography by Stravinsky (Pulcinella, Le Rossignol, L’Histoire du soldat), Schoenberg (Violin and Piano Concertos), and several important Boulez works—all now available in a 14-CD box released by Warner Classics. Perhaps one of these days Warner will also reissue Boulez’s early-1970s EMI recordings of Bartók’s Piano Concerto Nos. 1 and 3 with Daniel Barenboim and Berg’s Violin Concerto and the two Bartók Violin Rhapsodies with Yehudi Menuhin.

DG’s Class Act. In 1990, Deutsche Grammophon signed the composer/conductor to undoubtedly the most fruitful of his recording contracts. DG pulled out all the stops for Boulez, enlisting the Chicago Symphony for Bartók and Stravinsky, the Berlin Philharmonic for Ravel and Webern, the Cleveland Orchestra for Debussy and Stravinsky, the Vienna Philharmonic and Cleveland for Mahler’s symphonies and the song cycles, and the Ensemble Intercontemporain for his own works and those by Ligeti and Birtwistle. The Columbia recordings were very impressive for their revelation of Boulez’s incredible ear for detail, but I well recall being blown sideways by DG’s addition of spectacular digital sonics and Rolls Royce orchestras. I’m still amazed.

Not all the works recorded by the New York and BBC orchestras on Columbia in the late 1960s and ’70s were re-recorded by DG. Boulez never got around to re-doing Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder, for example, but he did re-record a superb Moses und Aron with none other than the Royal Concertgebouw! Thus, Boulez fans will need all these commemorative sets on their shelves.

DG has also released an elegantly designed seven-CD set of all of Boulez’s music, which includes the Erato recordings of Boulez works that he never recorded for DG to make this set note-complete.

 

Domaine Musical recordings (1958-1967) on Deutsche Grammophon

 

CD 1: Le concert du 10è anniversaire

Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928 – 2007)

Kontra-Punkte Opus 1

Pierre Boulez, Solistes du Domaine Musical

 

Luciano Berio (1925 – 2003)

Serenata 1 Pour Flûte Et 14 Instruments

Severino Gazzelloni, Pierre Boulez, Solistes du Domaine Musical

 

Pierre Boulez (1925 – )

Le Marteau sans Maître

Jeanne Deroubaix, Solistes du Domaine Musical, Pierre Boulez

 

Olivier Messiaen (1908 – 1992)

Oiseaux Exotiques

Yvonne Loriod, Rudolf Albert, Orchestre Du Domaine Musical

Total CD Playing Time: 1:07:47    

 

CD 2: Les références françaises

Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918)

Syrinx Pour Flûte Seule 

 

Edgar Varèse (1885 – 1965)

Densité 21, 5, Pour Flûte Seule 

Severino Gazzelloni

 

Hyperprisme, Pour Petit Orchestre Et Percussions 

Pierre Boulez, Orchestre Du Domaine Musical

 

Octandre 

Pierre Boulez, Jacques Castagner, Claude Maisonneuve, Guy Deplus, Marcel Naulais, André Rabot, André Fournier, Roger Delmotte, René Allain, Jacques Cazauran

 

Intégrales, Pour Petit Orchestre Et Percussion

Pierre Boulez, Orchestre Du Domaine Musical

 

Olivier Messiaen (1908 – 1992)

Cantéyodjaya

Yvonne Loriod

 

Sept Haikai

Les Percussions De Strasbourg, Orchestre Du Domaine Musical, Pierre Boulez, Yvonne Loriod

Total CD Playing Time: 1:02:37    

 

CD 3: Le compositeur Pierre Boulez

Pierre Boulez (1925 – )

Structures, Livre 1 et 2 Pour 2 Pianos

Aloys Kontarsky, Alfons Kontarsky

 

Sonatine Pour Flûte Et Piano

Severino Gazzelloni, David Tudor

 

Piano Sonata No.2

Yvonne Loriod

Total CD Playing Time: 58:09    

 

CD 4: Les compagnons de route

Mauricio Kagel (1931 – 2008)

Sextuor à cordes

Pierre Boulez, Solistes du Domaine Musical

 

Luigi Nono (1924 – 1990)

Incontri, Pour 24 Instruments

Pierre Boulez, Orchestre Du Domaine Musical

 

Hans Werner Henze (1926 – 2012)

Concerto Per Il Marigny

Yvonne Loriod, Rudolf Albert, Orchestre Du Domaine Musical

 

Henri Pousseur (1929-2009)

Madrigal III

Guy Deplus, Gérard Jarry, Michel Tournus, Jean-Charles Francoise, Diego Masson, Fabienne Boury

 

Mobiles, Pour 2 Pianos

Aloys Kontarsky, Alfons Kontarsky

 

Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928 – 2007)

Zeitmasse, Op.5

Jacques Castagner, Claude Maisonneuve, Paul Taillefer, Guy Deplus, André Rabot

 

Klavierstück VI, Op.4/II

David Tudor

Total CD Playing Time: 1:12:45    

 

CD 5: Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky (1882 – 1971)

Concertino pour 12 instruments

Pierre Boulez, Jacques Parrenin, Pierre Penassou, Jacques Castagner, Claude Maisonneuve, Paul Taillefer, Guy Deplus, André Rabot, Jean-Pierre Laroque, Pierre Pollin, Jacques Lecointre, René Allain, Maurice Suzan

 

Three Pieces for solo Clarinet

Guy Deplus

 

3 Pieces for String Quartet

Quatuor Parrenin, Jacques Parrenin, Jacques Ghestem, Michel Wales, Pierre Penassou

 

Symphonies d’instruments à vent

Orchestre Du Domaine Musical, Pierre Boulez

 

Renard

Pierre Boulez, Jean Giraudeau, Louis Devos, Louis Jacques Rondeleux, Xavier Depraz, Elemer Kiss, Orchestre Du Domaine Musical

 

Agon – Ballet (1957)

Orchestre Du Sudwestfunk Baden-Baden, Hans Rosbaud

Total CD Playing Time: 1:01:39    

 

CD 6: L’école de Vienne I. De 1899 à 1912

Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951)

Verklärte Nacht, Op.4 – Version for String Sextet

Jacques Parrenin, Marcel Charpentier, Denes Marton, Serge Collot, Pierre Penassou, Michel Tournus

 

Anton Webern (1883 – 1945)

Six pieces for orchestra, Op.6 – Original version (1909)

Orchestre Du Sudwestfunk Baden-Baden, Hans Rosbaud

 

Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951)

Three Pieces for Chamber Orchestra (1910)

Pierre Boulez, Orchestre Du Domaine Musical

 

Pierrot Lunaire, Op.21 (1912)

Pierre Boulez, Helga Pilarczyk, Maria Bergmann, Jacques Castagner, Guy Deplus, Louis Montaigne, Luben Yordanoff, Serge Collot, Jean Huchot

Total CD Playing Time: 1:14:08    

 

CD 7: L’école de Vienne II. De 1906 à 1943

Alban Berg (1885 – 1935)

Sonate Pour Piano Op. 1

Yvonne Loriod

 

3 Pieces for Orchestra, Op.6 (Revised version of 1929)

Hans Rosbaud, Orchestre Du Sudwestfunk Baden-Baden

 

Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951)

Kammersymphonie N° 1 Op.9

Pierre Boulez, Solistes du Domaine Musical

 

Anton Webern (1883 – 1945)

2 Songs op.8 for voice and eight instruments

Pierre Boulez, Orchestre Du Domaine Musical, Jeanne Héricard

 

4 Songs op.13 for voice and orchestra

Jeanne Héricard, Orchestre Du Domaine Musical, Pierre Boulez

 

I. Kantate op.29 for soprano, mixed chorus and orchestra

 

II. Kantate op.31 for soprano solo, bass solo, mixed chorus and orchestra

Chorale Elisabeth Brasseur Versailles, Orchestre Du Domaine Musical, Pierre Boulez, Ilona Steingruber, Xavier Depraz

Total CD Playing Time: 1:13:51    

 

CD 8: L’école de Vienne III. Le sérialisme

Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951)

Serenade for Septet & Bass Voice, Op.24

Pierre Boulez, Guy Deplus, Louis Montaigne, Paul Grund, Paul Stingl, Luben Yordanoff, Serge Collot, Jean Huchot, Louis Jacques Rondeleux

 

Suite, Op.29

Pierre Boulez, Jacques Ghestem, Marcel Naulais, Guy Deplus, Louis Montaigne, Luben Yordanoff, Serge Collot, Jean Huchot

 

Anton Webern (1883 – 1945)

Variations for Piano, Op.27

Yvonne Loriod

 

Symphony, Op.21

Pierre Boulez, Orchestre Du Domaine Musical

Total CD Playing Time: 1:10:06    

 

CD 9: IIIè concert – Saison 1956

Giovanni Gabrieli (1553 – 1612)

Canzon duodecimi toni a 8, No 5, C. 174

Canzon septimi toni à 8 (Sacrae symphoniae 1597, No.3)

Igor Stravinsky (1882 – 1971)

Symphonies of Wind Instruments

Rudolf Albert, Orchestre Du Domaine Musical

 

Hans Werner Henze (1926 – 2012)

Concerto Per Il Marigny

Olivier Messiaen (1908 – 1992)

Oiseaux Exotiques

Yvonne Loriod, Rudolf Albert, Orchestre Du Domaine Musical

 

Jean-Claude Eloy (1938 – )

Equivalences

Pierre Boulez, Solistes du Domaine Musical, Les Percussions De Strasbourg

Total CD Playing Time: 46:56    

 

CD 10: Une histoire d’amitiés…

1. La genèse / [Le Domaine Musical]

2. Domaine musical, année zéro / [Le Domaine Musical]

3. Le répertoire / [Le Domaine Musical]

4. Les références / [Le Domaine Musical]

5. Les compagnons de route / [Le Domaine Musical]

6. Les interprètes / [Le Domaine Musical]

Pierre Boulez, Claude Samuel

 

Pierre Boulez (1925 – )

Le Marteau sans Maître

Pierre Boulez, Solistes du Domaine Musical, Marie-Thérèse Cahn

Total CD Playing Time: 1:19:30    

 

 

Pierre Boulez Recordings (1967-1977) on Sony Classical

DISC 1:
Berg: Wozzeck, Op. 7. From the drama by George Büchner (beginning)

DISC 2:
Berg: Wozzeck, Op. 7. From the drama by George Büchner (conclusion)

DISC 3:
Messiaen: Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum
Messiaen: Couleurs de la Cité Céleste

DISC 4:
Debussy: La Mer
Debussy: Prélude a l’après-midi d’un faune
Debussy: Jeux

DISC 5:
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14

DISC 6:
Berlioz: Lelio, ou Le Retour a la vie, Op. 14b

DISC 7:
Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (Sz 106)
Stravinsky: The Firebird Suite (1910)

DISC 8:
Berg: Chamber Concerto for Violin, Piano & 13 Wind Instruments
Berg: Three Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6
Berg: Altenberg Lieder, Op. 4

DISC 9:
Debussy: Images pour Orchestra
Debussy: Danses sacrée et profane

DISC 10:
Stravinsky: Le sacre du printemps (original version)

DISC 11:
Mahler: Das klagende Lied

DISC 12:
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67
Beethoven: Cantata – “Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage,” Op. 112
Mahler: Symphony No. 10 – Adagio

DISC 13-15:
Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande, Drame lyrique en 5 actes

DISC 16:
Boulez: Pli Selon Pli (“fold according to fold”)

DISC 17:
Debussy: Nocturnes
Debussy: Printemps
Debussy: Première Rhapsodie for Clarinet and Orchestra

DISC 18:
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No. 2
Ravel: Pavane Pour une Infante Défunte
Ravel: Rapsodie Espagnole
Ravel: Alborada del Gracioso

DISC 19:
Stravinsky: Pétrouchka (1911 version)

DISC 20:
Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin, Op. 19
Bartók: Dance Suite (Sz 77)

DISC 21:
Ravel: Concerto in G Major for Piano and Orchestra
Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D Major

DISC 22:
Berlioz: Benvenuto Cellini (excerpt)
Berlioz: Les Troyens (excerpt)
Berlioz: Beatrice et Benedict (excerpts)
Berlioz: Le Carnaval Romain, Op. 9 – Concert Overture

DISC 23:
Berg: Seven Early Songs
Berg: Wozzeck. Act III

DISC 24:
Ravel: Une Barque sur L’Océan
Ravel: Valses Nobles et Sentimentales
Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin

DISC 25:
Boulez: Le Marteau sans maître
Boulez: Livre pour Cordes

DISC 26:
Wagner: Prelude to Act I from The Mastersingers of Nuremberg
Wagner: Tannhäuser and the Song Contest on the Wartburg Overture
Wagner: Faust Overture
Wagner: Prelude to Act I and Isoldes Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde

DISC 27:
Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra

DISC 28:
Ravel: La Valse
Ravel: Menuet Antique
Ravel: Ma Mère L’oye
Ravel: Boléro

DISC 29-30:
Schoenberg: Gurre-Lieder

DISC 31:
Handel: Water Music: Suite No.1 in F Major for Orchestra, HWV 348

DISC 32:
Stravinsky: The Firebird
Stravinsky: The Song of the Nightingale

DISC 33:
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé

DISC 34:
Berio: Nones
Berio: Allelujah II
Berio: Concerto for Two Pianos

DISC 35-36:
Schoenberg: Moses und Aron

DISC 37:
Falla: El sombrero de tres picos
Falla: Concerto for Harpsichord, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Violin and Cello

DISC 38:
Bartók: Bluebeard’s Castle, Op. 11 (Sz 48)

DISC 39:
Dukas: La Péri
Roussel: Symphony No. 3 in G minor, Op. 42

DISC 40:
Bartók: The Wooden Prince, Op. 13 (Sz 60)

DISC 41:
Varèse: Amériques
Varèse: Ionisation
Varèse: Arcana

DISC 42:
Berlioz: Les Nuits d’été, Op. 7
Berlioz: La Mort de Cléopâtre

DISC 43:
Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite
Stravinsky: Scherzo fantastique, Op. 3
Stravinsky: Symphonies of Wind Instruments

DISC 44:
Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21

DISC 45: Wagner: Das Liebesmahl der Apostel
Wagner: Siegfried Idyll

DISC 46:
Webern: Passacaglia for Orchestra, Op. 1
Webern: Entflieht auf leichten Kähnen, Op. 2
Webern: Six Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6
Webern: Zwei Lieder für mittlere Stimme und acht Instrumente, Op. 8
Webern: Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 10
Webern: Vier Lieder für Sopran und Orchester, Op. 13
Webern: Sechs Lieder für Singstimme und vier Instrumente, Op. 14
Webern: Fünf geistliche Lieder für Sopran und fünf Instrumente, Op. 15
Webern: Fünf Canons nach lateinischen Texten für Sopran, Klarinette und Baßklarinette, Op. 16
Webern: Drei Volkstexte für Singstimme und drei Instrumente, Op. 17
Webern: Drei Lieder für Singstimme, Es-Klarinette und Gitarre, Op. 18
Webern: Zwei Lieder für gemischten Chor und fünf Instrumente, Op. 19
Webern: Symphony for Chamber Orchestra, Op. 21

DISC 47:
Webern: Quartet for Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone, Violin and Piano, Op. 22
Webern: Concerto for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn, Trumpet, Trombone, Violin, Viola and Piano, Op. 24
Webern: Das Augenlicht für gemischten Chor und Orchester, Op. 26, Worte von Hildegard Jone
Webern: Cantata No. 1, Op. 29
Webern: Variations for Orchestra, Op. 30 (1940)
Webern: Cantata No. 2, Op. 31
Webern: Fünf Sätze für Streichquartett, Op. 5
Webern: Fuga No. 2 (Ricercata) a 6 voci from Musikalisches Opfer, BWV 1079, No. 5

DISC 48:
Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 (Version for String Orchestra, 1943)
Berg: Three Pieces from “Lyric Suite”

DISC 49:
Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks
Handel: Berenice, HWV 38
Handel: Concerto in F Major for 2 Wind Choirs and Strings, HWV 334

DISC 50:
Berg: Lulu – Suite
Berg: Der Wein

DISC 51:
Carter: Symphony of Three Orchestras
Carter: A Mirror On Which To Dwell – Six Poems Of Elizabeth Bishop

DISC 52:
Schoenberg: A Survivor from Warsaw, Op. 46
Schoenberg: Variations for Orchestra, Op. 31
Schoenberg: Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16
Schoenberg: Accompaniment to a Cinematographic Scene, Op. 34

DISC 53:
Wagner: Wesendonck Lieder
Mahler: Rückert Lieder

DISC 54:
Schoenberg: Serenade, Op. 24
Schoenberg: Lied der Waldtaube
Schoenberg: Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte, Op. 41

DISC 55:
Schoenberg: Die Jakobsleiter
Schoenberg: Erwartung, Op. 17
Schoenberg: Die glückliche Hand, Op. 18

DISC 56:
Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9
Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No. 2, Op. 38
Schoenberg: 3 Pieces for Chamber Orchestra
Schoenberg: Four Orchestral Songs, Op. 22

DISC 57:
Boulez: Eclat
Boulez: Multiples
Boulez: Rituel (In Memory of Bruno Maderna)

DISC 58:
Varèse: Equatorial
Varèse: Deserts
Varèse: Intégrales
Varèse: Hyperprism
Varèse: Octandre
Varèse: Offrandes
Varèse: Density 21.5

DISC 59:
Ravel: Shéhérazade
Ravel: Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé
Ravel: Chansons madécasses
Ravel: Don Quichotte à Dulcinée
Ravel: Cinq Mélodies populaires grecques

DISC 60:
Schoenberg: Suite for 2 Clarinets, Bass Clarinet, Violin, Viola, Cello and Piano, Op. 29
Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4

DISC 61:
Berg: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (To the Memory of an Angel)
Berg: Three Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6

DISC 62:
Boulez: Le Marteau sans Maître
Boulez: II Notations Pour Piano
Boulez: III Structures Pour Deux Pianos, Livre II

DISC 63:
Schoenberg: Friede Auf Erden, Op. 13
Schoenberg: Kol Nidre, Op. 39
Schoenberg: Drei Volkslieder, Op. 49
Schoenberg: Zwei Kanons
Schoenberg: Drei Volkslieder
Schoenberg: Vier Stücke, Op. 27

DISC 64:
Schoenberg: Drei Satiren, Op. 28
Schoenberg: Sechs Stücke, Op. 35
Schoenberg: Dreimal Tausend Jahre, Op. 50A
Schoenberg: De Profundis, Op. 50 B (Psalm 130)
Schoenberg: Moderner Psalm, Op. 50 C

DISC 65:
Berio: IL Ritorno Degli Snovidenia per solo violoncello e piccolo orchestra (1976)
Berio: Chemins II (su/after “Sequenza VI”) (1967)
Berio: Chemins IV (su/after “Sequenza VII”) (1975)
Berio: Corale (su/after “Sequenza VIII”) (1981)
Berio: Points On The Curve To Find… for piano and 22 instrumentalists (1974)

DISC 66:
Berg: Sieben frühe Lieder
Berg: Fünf Orchesterlieder von Altenberg Op.4
Berg: Jugendlieder (Selections)
Berg: Zwei Lieder
Berg: Er klagt, dass der Frühling so kurz blüht from Jugendlieder (Excerpt)

DISC 67:
Scriabin: Symphony No. 4, Le Poeme de l’extase, Op. 54
Bartók: Four Pieces, Op. 12 (Sz 51)
Bartók: Three Village Scenes (Sz 79)
Stravinsky: Suite No. 1 pour petit orchestre
Stravinsky: Suite No. 2 pour petit orchestra

 

 

Pierre Boulez on Erato (1980-1990)

CD 1

Stravinsky: Pulcinella. Le Chant du Rossignol

CD 2

Stravinsky: Le Rossignol. Quatre Chants paysans russes “Les Soucoupes”

Trois pieces pour quatuor à cordes. “Madrid.” Quatre Etudes pour orchestre

CD 3

Stravinsky: L’Histoire du soldat. Concertino for 12 instruments

CD 4

Schoenberg: Pelléas et Mélisande. Variations op. 31

CD 5

Schoenberg: Violin Concerto, op. 36. Piano Concerto, op. 42

CD 6

Messiaen: Et exspecto ressurectionem mortuorum. Couleurs de la Cité Céleste

CD 7

Berio: Sinfonia. Eindrücke

Xenakis: Jalons

CD 8

Donatoni: Tema for 12 instruments. Cadeau

Ligeti: Etudes for piano (Book 1)

Trio for violin, horn and piano

CD 9

Kurtág: Messages de feu Demoiselle R.V. Troussova

Birtwistle: …AGM…

Grisey: Modulations

CD 10

Carter: Concerto for Oboe. Esprit rude/Esprit doux

A Mirror on which to Dwell. Penthode

CD 11

Dufourt: Antiphysis

Ferneyhough: Funérailles I & II

Harvey: Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco

Höller: Arcus

CD 12

Boulez: Pli selon pli

CD 13

Boulez: Le Visage nuptial. Le soleil des eaux. Figures, Doubles, Prismes

CD 14

Boulez: Sonatine for flute and piano. Piano Sonata No. 1. Dérive I

Mémoriale (…Explosante-fixe…Originel). Dialogue de l’ombre double

cummings ist der Dichter

 

 

PIERRE BOULEZ: 20th CENTURY (1990-2013) on Deutsche Grammophon

 

CD 1–8 BÉLA BARTÓK

 

CD 1

4 Pieces for Orchestra op. 12 (Sz 51)

Concerto for Orchestra Sz 116

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

(P) 1993

 

CD 2

Dance Suite Sz 77

Two Pictures op. 10 (Sz 46)

Hungarian Sketches Sz 97

Divertimento for String Orchestra Sz 113

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

(P) 1995

 

CD 3

The Miraculous Mandarin op. 19 (Sz 73)

Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta Sz 106

Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (Sz 73)

 

CD 4

Cantata Profana Sz.94 – The Nine Splendid Stags

The Wooden Prince, Sz. 60 (Op.13)

John Aler, tenor, John Tomlinson, baritone

Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (Chorus Master: Margaret Hillis)

 

CD 5

The Piano Concertos

No. 1 Krystian Zimerman / Chicago Symphony Orchestra

No. 2 Leif Ove Andsnes / Berliner Philharmoniker

No. 3 Hélène Grimaud / London Symphony Orchestra

 

CD 6

Concerto for 2 Pianos, Percussion and Orchestra Sz 115

Tamara Stefanovich, piano 1

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano 2

London Symphony Orchestra

Violin Concerto No. 1 Sz 36

Gidon Kremer / Berliner Philharmoniker

Viola Concerto Sz 120

Yuri Bashmet / Berliner Philharmoniker

 

CD 7

Violin Concerto No. 2

Rhapsodies Nos. 1 + 2

Gil Shaham / Chicago Symphony Orchestra

 

CD 8

Bluebeard’s Castle Sz 48

Jessye Norman (Judith) · László Polgár (Bluebeard) · Nicholas Simon (Prologue)

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

 

 

CD 9–12 ALBAN BERG

 

CD 9

Chamber Concerto for Piano and Violin with 13 Wind Instruments

Daniel Barenboim, piano · Pinchas Zukerman, violin

Ensemble Intercontemporain

+

Lulu-Suite

Wiener Philharmoniker

 

CD 10–12

Lulu (Complete opera in 3 acts)

Stratas · Minton · Schwarz · Mazura · Riegel · Blankenheim · Tear · Pampuch

Orchestre de l’Opéra de Paris

 

 

CD 13 & 14 HARRISON BIRTWISTLE

 

CD 13

Theseus Game* 33:14

Earth Dances 33:17

*Brabbins, Valade, Diry, Kretschmer

Ensemble Modern

 

CD 14

Secret Theatre

Tragoedia

Five Distances

3 Settings of Celan*

Christine Whittlesey,*

Ensemble Intercontemporain

75:43

 

The Triumph of Time 27:43 (Decca) – see CD 37

 

CD 15–19 PIERRE BOULEZ

 

CD 15

Notations for piano solo (Aimard) 10:43

Structures pour deux pianos 22:06

…explosante-fixe… 36:43

Ensemble Intercontemporain, Pierre Boulez, Sophie Cherrier, Emmanuelle Ophele, Pierre Andre Valade

 

CD 16

Le Marteau sans maître (1953–1955)*

Dérive 1 (1984)

Dérive 2 (1988/2002)

Hilary Summers,* soprano

Ensemble Intercontemporain

 

CD 17

Pli selon Pli (1957–1989)

Christine Schäfer, soprano

Ensemble Intercontemporain

 

CD 18

Répons (1981–1984)

Vassilakis, Boffard, piano / Cambreling, harp / Bauer, vibraphone, CIampolini, xylophone & Glockenspiel / Cerutti, cimbalom

Ensemble Intercontemporain

Dialogue de l’ombre double (1985)

Alain Damien, clarinet

 

CD 19

Sur Incises

Messagesquisse

Jean-Guihen Queyras, Ensemble Intercontemporain

 

 

CD 20–21 CLAUDE DEBUSSY

 

CD 20

Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune

Images pour Orchestre

Printemps

The Cleveland Orchestra

 

 

CD 21

Trois Nocturnes*

Première Rhapsodie pour clarinette et orchestra

Jeux

La Mer

Franklin Cohen, clarinet

The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus*

The Cleveland Orchestra

 

See also CD 29

 

 

CD 22–23 GYÖRGI LIGETI

 

CD 22

Chamber Concerto for 13 instrumentalists (1969–70)

Ramifications for string orchestra or 12 solo strings (1968–69)

Aventures for 3 singers and 7 instrumentalists (1962)

Nouvelles Aventures for 3 singers and 7 instrumentalists

Jane Manning, soprano / Mary Thomas, mezzo-soprano / William Pearson, bass

Ensemble Intercontemporain

 

CD 23

Piano Concerto (1985-88)

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano

Cello Concerto (1966)

Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello

Violin Concerto (1992)

Saschko Gawriloff, violin

Ensemble InterContemporain

 

 

CD 24–25 OLIVIER MESSIAEN

 

CD 24

Poèmes pour Mi

Françoise Pollet, soprano

Le Réveil des oiseaux

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano

Sept Haïkaï

Joela Jones, piano

The Cleveland Orchestra

 

CD 25

Chronochromie

La Ville d’en haut

Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum

The Cleveland Orchestra

 

 

CD 26–29 MAURICE RAVEL

 

CD 26

Ma Mère l’Oye

Une Barque sur l’océan

Alborada del Gracioso

Rapsodie espagnole

Boléro

Berliner Philharmoniker

 

CD 27

Daphnis et Chloé*

La Valse

Rundfunkchor Berlin,* Berliner Philharmoniker

 

CD 28

Piano Concerto in G

Valses nobles et sentimentales

Piano Concerto for the Left Hand*

Krystian Zimerman, piano

The Cleveland Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra*

 

CD 29

Shéhérazade* · Le Tombeau de Couperin · Pavane · Menuet antique

*Anne Sofie von Otter, mezzo-soprano

+

CLAUDE DEBUSSY

Danses for Harp and Orchestra*

5 Poèmes de Charles Baudelaire**

3 Ballades de François Villon**

Alison Hagley, soprano** · Lisa Wellbaum, harp*
The Cleveland Orchestra

 

CD 30–33 ARNOLD SCHOENBERG

 

CD 30

Pelleas und Melisande op. 5

Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester

+

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 42

Mitsuko Uchida, piano

The Cleveland Orchestra

 

CD 31

Pierrot Lunaire op. 21

Herzgewächse op. 20

Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte op. 41

Christine Schäfer, soprano

David Pittman-Jennings, narrator

Ensemble InterContemporain

 

CD 32-33

Moses und Aron

Merritt · Pittman-Jennings, Fontana · Naef · Graham-Hall

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

 

 

CD 34–39 IGOR STRAVINSKY

 

CD 34

IGOR STRAVINSKY

Le Chant du rossignol

L’Histoire du Soldat – Suite

Scherzo fantastique

Le Roi des étoiles

The Cleveland Orchestra & Chorus

 

CD 35

The Firebird

Fireworks

4 Etudes for Orchestra

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

 

CD 36

Pétrouchka (Original Version: 1911)

Le Sacre du Printemps

The Cleveland Orchestra

 

CD 37

IGOR STRAVINSKY

Symphony of Psalms*

Symphony in 3 Movements

Symphonies of Wind Instruments

Rundfunkchor Berlin,* Berliner Philharmoniker

+

HARRISON BIRTWISTLE: The Triumph of Time 27:43 (Decca)

BBC Symphony Orchestra

478 4249, tr.  1

 

CD 38

IGOR STRAVINSKY

Ebony Concerto

3 Pieces for Clarinet Solo

Concertino for String Quartet

8 Miniatures

Concerto in E flat “Dumbarton Oaks”

Elégie for Viola Solo

Epitaphium

Double Canon for String Quartet

Michel Arrignon, clarinet

Ensemble InterContemporain

 

CD 39

Songs

Pastorale, 2 Poems by Paul Verlaine, 2 Poems by Konstanin Bal’mont, 3 Japanese Lyrics, 3 Songs (Recollections of my Childhood), Pribaoutki (4 Songs), 4 Cat’s Cradle Songs, 4 songs, Tilim-bom, Songs of Parasha (Mavra), 3 Songs from William Shakespeare, In memoriam Dylan Thomas, Elegy for J.F.K., 2 Sacred Songs from Spanisches Liederbuch / Hugo Wolf

Phyllis Bryn-Julson, soprano · Ann Murray, mezzo-soprano

Robert Tear, tenor · John Shirley-Quirk, baritone

Ensemble InterContemporain

 

CD 40 KAROL SZYMANOWSKI

 

CD 40

Violin Concerto No. 1 op. 35 (1916)

Symphonie No. 3 op. 27 »Song of the night · Piesn o nocy«

Christian Tetzlaff, violin · Steve Davislim, tenor

Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde Wien · Wiener Philharmoniker

 

CD 41 EDGARD VARÈSE

 

CD 41

Amériques

Arcana

Déserts

Ionisation

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

 

 

CD 42–44 ANTON WEBERN

 

CD 42

Passacaglia für Orchester op. 1

5 Movements op. 5 (Version for Orchestra)

6 Pieces for Orchestra op. 6

Im Sommerwind

Fuga (Ricercata)

German Dances

Berliner Philharmoniker

 

CD 43

Symphonie op. 21

Cantatas Nos. 1 & 2

3 Songs

Das Augenlicht op. 26

Variations op. 30

5 Pieces for Orchestra

Christiane Oelze, soprano · Gerald Finley, bass

BBC Singers, Berliner Philharmoniker

 

CD 44

Songs and Choruses

Piano Quintet (1907)

„Entflieht auf leichten Kähnen“ op. 2, 2 Lieder op. 8

5 Pieces for Orchestra op. 10

4 Lieder op. 13, 6 Lieder op. 14, 5 Sacred Songs op. 15, 5 Canons op. 16

3 Traditional Rhymes op. 17, 3 Lieder op. 18, 2 Lieder op. 19

Quartet op. 22

Concerto op. 24

Françoise Pollet, soprano (opp. 8, 13, 14) · Christiane Oelze, soprano (opp. 15 – 18)

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano

BBC Singers (opp. 2, 19)

Ensemble InterContemporain

 

 

 

 

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Winter Discs

March 31st, 2015

Hippolyte et Aricie at the Palais Garnier in Paris in 2012

By ANDREW POWELL
Published: March 31, 2015

MUNICH — Arts projects in Europe with any visual aspect to them nowadays migrate to DVD whether or not there is a need, partly to justify public subsidy through distribution. Many are operas filmed too often, like Nationaltheater Mannheim’s just-released Der Ring des Nibelungen, which joins DVD tetralogies from Barcelona, Copenhagen, Erl, Frankfurt, Milan, Stuttgart, Valencia and Weimar issued since 2002. (The same staging nearly bankrupted Los Angeles Opera yet could not be filmed in the movie capital for lack of funds.) Others are more worthy or at least cover rarer material, and generally record labels can license their adventurous content with only modest investment. Here are seven such DVD releases along with some live or live-related European CDs, mostly from recent seasons.

Ivan Alexandre’s staging of Hippolyte et Aricie premiered in 2009 in the intimate Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse. Its fluid interweaving of Rameau’s vocal and dance elements and credible Personenregie adapted to the composer’s pace earned it a transfer to Paris in 2012, now viewable on a 2-DVD Erato set. Alexandre approaches scenography using methods consistent with period practice and potential. Helped by handsome flat designs and tight control of color, the effects were intriguing and refreshing to watch in both cities’ theaters, and happily they advance the story equally well through the camera lens. Indeed the project is of a quality to set beside Jean-Marie Villégier’s legendary Montpellier production of Lully’s Atys and faithful to Rameau’s tragédie lyrique in a way the modish competing Glyndebourne DVD of 2013 could be only in its audio. Dynamic musicianship underpins the effort, with an admirable cast, notably Stéphane Degout as a mellifluous Thésée (pictured, right, aux enfers). Emmanuelle Haïm’s conducting, all elbows and fists, apparently suits her orchestra, Le Concert d’Astrée.

Warner Classics, the new EMI, has issued a Berlin Philharmonic CD pairing live 2012 and 2010 performances of Rachmaninoff’s Kolokola (Bells) and Symphonic Dances. Simon Rattle’s urbane and at times sultry reading of the cantata — the composer called it a choral symphony — disappoints, with his veteran soprano thin-voiced and only Mikhail Petrenko, his bass in the concluding Mournful Iron Bells, injecting much Russian flavor. But in the dances the conductor’s refinement creates an enthralling balance of power and grace, and he presents a progression from the bucolic first movement, through a hardened Andante con moto, to the contrasts and drama of the suite’s lengthy third part. The string sound has bloom and the woodwinds find a huge range of expression and character.

The Pergolesi tricentennial of 2010 did the Jesi-born Neapolitan composer proud, prompting Claudio Abbado’s priceless 3-CD survey of his choral music as well as a 12-DVD “tutto” collection of the operas, filmed in Jesi. Perhaps the richest single work is the comedy Lo frate ’nnamorato, written at the same time as Hippolyte et Aricie but a world away from it (and pointing forwards to Mozart rather than back at Lully). It is ably led by Fabio Biondi in the big set, but Teatro alla Scala in 1989 had a cast for this opera of charming da capo arias that won’t soon be equaled in technique or liveliness, and their RAI-televised work is currently an Opus Arte DVD. Several Italian singers at the start of good careers — Nuccia Focile, Luciana d’Intino, Bernadette Manca di Nissa, Alessandro Corbelli — energize the story of Ascanio (Focile), “the brother enamored” unknowingly of his two sisters and, luckily, a third woman too. It is unavoidably a larger-scale staging than the piece wants, but Roberto de Simone directs the action neatly on a revolving unit set. The orchestral playing has poise and discipline even if Riccardo Muti propels the score at a tad slower pace than would be ideal.

Twelve years after Cecilia Bartoli’s exploratory Decca disc of rare Gluck arias, the label has issued a companion CD introducing German lyric tenor Daniel Behle. Recorded under sponsorship in Athens in 2013, it leaps out of the loudspeakers. The Bavarian composer’s pre-reform music, now more familiar, can still startle in its inventive turns and loose palettes, and Behle, who sang a riveting Tito in the Mozart opera last fall here at the Staatsoper, opts for several pieces that lie high. In two contrasted arias from La Semiramide riconosciuta he copes manfully with technical demands while keeping power in reserve, as he did on stage. Se povero il ruscello from Ezio brings relaxed lyricism and a mellow timbre that caresses the line. The stunning scena that opens La contesa de’ Numi is duly dramatic. But who oversaw this project? Everything is closely miked. Period orchestra Armonia Atenea accompanies vigorously as led by George Petrou, right in your ear. Misplaced vowel sounds from Behle, in the context of generally accurate delivery, were not fixed. And we jump to French arias at the end, familiar ones, including a bizarrely jovial J’ai perdu mon Eurydice. Producers matter.

Stage director Pierre Audi in 2009 combined Iphigénie en Aulide and Iphigénie en Tauride for the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, and Christophe Rousset conducted imaginatively over an extended evening as Euripides’ heroine appeared first as teenager in a Greek port and then as adult exile somewhere in Crimea. Two years later Audi’s literally clunky conception — on metal steps and without backdrop — resurfaced in Amsterdam with a mostly changed cast and, alas, Marc Minkowski defining the music through irksome rhythmic stresses, missing much beauty. There it was filmed. Unenhanceable by camera blocking and with Aulide cut by thirty fine minutes, the production is now an Opus Arte 2-DVD set. Gluck’s first opera has the more lyrically inspired and stately score, with a terrific overture; in Tauride his musical frame is tauter and more overtly theatrical. Véronique Gens and Nicolas Testé excel as the young Iphigénie and her father, while Anne Sofie von Otter returns affectingly to Clytemnestre, a role she recorded 24 years earlier; Frédéric Antoun contributes a credible, unstraining Achille. Tauride revolves around the smart Mireille Delunsch, abetted by Yann Beuron (Pylade), Jean-François Lapointe (Oreste) and Laurent Alvaro (Thoas); all sing with imposing dedication.

The less rare Werther received an uncommonly strong cast at the Bastille home of the Opéra National de Paris in 2010, resulting in a 2-DVD Decca set that is reportedly selling well. Sophie Koch and Jonas Kaufmann impersonate Goethe’s awkward soulmates, both fresh of voice. Originally created for London, Benoît Jacquot’s innocuous yet intriguing, glum and sparse production presents the characters faithfully, the action plainly. Unusually Jacquot serves as video director too, lending style by shooting from behind the scenes and above the proscenium as well as from out front. These angles provide glimpses of the conductor, Michel Plasson, who unfortunately blunts the contrasts in Massenet’s score and weighs it down.

When the French, or at least the Franks, helped the Roman Church standardize chant cycles and structures for worship in order to make the liturgy operable and enforceable across regions, their effort left out Milan. Charlemagne’s 8th-century directives invoking St Gregory encouraged steps to document if not yet notate chants, but in the city where St Ambrose had promoted the Church’s adoption of Latin — his small corpse still lies there wondrously on display — a divergent liturgy prevailed. Canto ambrosiano has accordingly stood apart, its manuscripts complete in one place, unlike the scattered repositories of Gregorian chant. In 2010 the Arcidiocesi di Milano, manager of this legacy, commissioned a book and recordings to survey and better disseminate the chants.

The resulting Antifonale Ambrosiano is invaluable. It reproduces scores in early and modern notation. It details Milan’s chant practices in italiano and truly spans the subject: chants for the Ordinary of the Mass and for the Hours (Vigilie, Lodi, Prima, Terza, Sesta, Nona, Vespri, Compieta), chants proper to seasons and saints, chants with psalm and canticle texts — each in one musical line, most to be sung antiphonally. Although not free of audible splices, the recordings are vivid yet with a resonant aura. Italian women and men sing in glorious Latin (and the vernacular), a joy in itself. The three CDs hold about as much music as Parsifal and are issued, with the book, by Libreria Musicale Italiana, an academic body whose website offers a handy carrello and U.S. shipping.

Then there is Bejun Mehta’s Orlando. The countertenor first personified the mad soldier at Glimmerglass in 2003 and must relish the vocal fireworks and range Händel gives him. A performance in Brussels leaked onto video, but in 2013 the same team reconvened in Bruges for a studio recording that Forum Opéra justly hails as an “Orlando d’une époustouflante intensité.” Mehta rises to every ornamental challenge, adjusts his tone to paint words, sings with evenness from bottom to top, and sounds so believably on the fringes of sanity that a Zoroastrian mend is only logical. Senesino lives. But it is not a one-man show. The other principals likewise inhabit their roles even if they crush countless Italian consonants. Sophie Karthäuser: super trills, too closely miked. Sunhae Im: charm in the voice, sweet-sounding. Kristina Hammarström: a focused alto with smooth, masculine tones. Konstantin Wolff: assured and agile. The conducting lacks subtlety but René Jacobs does support his singers, and Ah! Stigie larve! … Vaghe pupille, the accompagnato climax to Act II, properly showcases Mehta. Engineers of the 2-CD Archiv set alas place the B’Rock Orchestra Ghent far forward, so that even the expertly played harpsichord can grate. Fine, fleet woodwinds announce themselves in the overture.

Equally brilliant on a 2012 disc of seldom-heard Mozart concert arias is Rolando Villazón, the tenor whose voice and career were supposedly kaputt. After streamed (and moving) portrayals of Offenbach’s Hoffmann here at the Staatsoper in late 2011, he went to Abbey Road to make this Deutsche Grammophon CD with the London Symphony Orchestra. There the sound engineers proved that the art of balancing musicians hasn’t been totally lost, and conductor Antonio Pappano proved a resilient foil in the bold, precocious, clever, sad, amusing scores, even gracing one aria with a dryly comic bass voice. The results are essential listening, largely because Villazón gets straight to the heart of every piece and finds all the color, truth and humanity anyone could wish for. Even the juvenile work sounds masterly.

Alexander Pereira’s long years as Intendant at Opernhaus Zürich (1991–2012) brought a wave of sponsors for the company and, significantly, its “cantonization,” making it the charge not just of the city but of a wealthy catchment area reaching to the German border. Pereira had a confident ear for talent, built an ensemble, and gave lead roles to unknown singers like the tenors Piotr Beczala (from 1997), Kaufmann (1999) and Javier Camarena (2007). Working with a quintet of conductors — Nikolaus Harnoncourt, William Christie, Nello Santi, Ádám Fischer and Franz Welser-Möst — he widened the audience for the small house through DVDs, ahead of a trend. Two such projects late in the tenure were Rossini operas led by veteran Muhai Tang, with Bartoli, Liliana Nikiteanu, and Camarena in stagings by Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser. These are now out on Decca after a delay, poles apart in nature but both vividly impressive.

Stendhal described Rossini’s Otello, ossia Il moro di Venezia, as “volcanic”; certainly it is an unsettling score and a contrast in sensibility to the other heroic operas. Zurich’s staging straddles the line between tragedy and melodrama, with credible interactions and an inner focus that does not let up. Sparse but graphically textured sets lend a tension of their own. Otello needs three tenors who can cope with a high tessitura and sing accurately through wild embellishments, and these it received when filmed in 2012. John Osborn is a duly martial moro, while the romantic role of Rodrigo is ardently taken by Camarena. The two are phenomenal in Ah vieni, nel tuo sangue, their bilious Act II clash. Edgardo Rocha is skilled as Iago (strictly “Jago”), a smaller role. Bass-baritone Peter Kálmán makes an imposing Elmiro (and Graham Chapman lookalike), but the capable women come across less ideally: Bartoli’s Desdemona machine-gun in delivery and Nikiteanu’s Emilia a deer in the headlights. Tang has the mood of the piece and conducts it with unfailing propulsion.

Great fun is Le comte Ory, a farce that brought down the Swiss house when premiered in Jan. 2011. Anyone who knows it through Bartlett Sher’s misfiring production for the Metropolitan Opera owes it to themselves to see Decca’s DVD: it is full of joie de vivre, keenly observed in its humor by the directing partners despite a seven-century advance in the action to 1950s France. Carlos Chausson sang hilariously at the premiere as the Gouverneur, who has a smug early scene, but he is alas replaced in the video (filmed later) by a discomfited Ugo Guagliardo. That said — and the Gouverneur does fade from the plot — there are outstanding musical turns from the other principals and all play the comedy straight. Bartoli moves from Isolier, the suitor role she sang in Milan long ago, to Adèle, Comtesse de Formoutiers, and is a stitch, literally, as directed, exuding dignity except where circumstance overtakes her. Rebeca Olvera essays a chain-smoking warrior of an Isolier. Nikiteanu is deadpan as Ragonde, making sparing use of emotive poses. Camarena smirks sweetly as the “ermite” but upholds due gravity as “Soeur Colette”; he and Oliver Widmer, the excellent Raimbaud, parade the virtues of ensemble acting as well as singing, not to mention comic timing. Tang and the orchestra breezily convey the score’s spirit.

Against the odds, Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten (1964) has become a repertory opera in German-speaking lands. The visionary magnum opus with its depraved storyline sanctions a grab bag of what are now Regietheater clichés, magnified by pluralism, simultaneous scenes and surround sound. Its 110 minutes embrace various musical forms and want a massive orchestra, plus jazz combo, such that, all told, the composer’s concept remains barely feasible. Recent stagings in Salzburg (2012), Zurich (2013*) and Munich (2014*) inevitably went their separate ways; the first, by Alvis Hermanis, is now a EuroArts DVD. Filmed in the Felsenreitschule and presenting a row of arched vignettes mimicking the venue’s rock-carved backdrop, it is preset for simultaneous drama. But once adjusted to the tritone stills of vintage porn backed by live-action images of walking horses, masturbating soldiers and Peeping Toms, the viewer tires of the left-and-right back-and-forth. A striking cast is headed by Laura Aikin as Marie; Ingo Metzmacher works magically with a somewhat backwardly balanced Vienna Philharmonic, not heard with the impact experienced at the venue.

[*Presumably in the DVD pipeline, worth or not worth the wait. Zurich’s has Marc Albrecht conducting a Calixto Bieito concept (less refinement, more degradation, spatially restricted and with lesser musical forces); Munich’s offers Kirill Petrenko on the podium and Andreas Kriegenburg directing traffic (less sex, more clichés). John Rhodes on the Swiss show: “Most sexual perversions and some torture were presented quite graphically … . Marie was in a constant state of undress. At the end she poured blood on herself and stood … as though crucified at the front of the stage.” In Munich the opening scene was overplayed, weakening what followed. Kriegenburg’s box-based staging offered unedifying and in the end unenlightening views, but Petrenko presided over an inflamed Bavarian State Orchestra and a superb cast centered on Barbara Hannigan’s Marie.]

Still image from video © Warner Classics

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See-Through Lulu
Petrenko Hosts Petrenko
Carydis Woos Bamberg

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Posted in Munich Times | Comments Closed

Auto-Correct: The Great Leveler

March 26th, 2015

By James Conlon

 

Question:

What do Arnold Schoenberg, Edouard Manet, Francois Rene Chateaubriand and Titus Andronicus have in common?

Answer:

My spell-check doesn’t recognize their names.

 

About eighteen months ago, bending under a barrage of criticism and pressure to start tweeting, I began.  Entering the world of social media was not my thing. Remarks like “Get with it, Dad!” were the last straw.

I called my friend and colleague Esa-Pekka Salonen, who was already a tweeter, to ask how it worked. His presence on Twitter lent the whole thing some respectability. He was very helpful and, feeling slightly more comfortable and marginally less embarrassed, I proceeded.

A short time ago I saw one of his tweets, which are highly imaginative and invariably humorous. He recounted that he had entered the word “Sudafed” in some text he was writing, and his spell-check corrected it to “Dudamel” (because, I suppose, the auto-correct on Esa-Pekka’s device had “learned” the word Dudamel and was helpfully “assuming” his true intent…).

I am constantly astonished at what my spell-check doesn’t recognize. It was certainly not created with classical music or musicians in mind. I started to collect examples, like artifacts.  After reading Esa-Pekka’s tweet, I decided to share some of my findings. I offer:

 

AN ABC OF AUTO-CORRECTION  (only the tip of an iceberg):

The composer is on the left (you knew that) and the suggested alternative on the right.

ADES                          HADES

BERLIOZ                     BELIZE

BRITTEN                     BRITTANY (AS IN FRANCE)

BRUCKNER                 TRUCKER

COPLAND                   SCOTLAND

DVORAK                     DORKS

FAURE                        FARCE

GERSHWIN                 GEARSHIFT

HINDEMITH                HINDERMOST/INDEMNITY

IBERT                         LIBERTY

JANACEK                    JAMAICA

KORNGOLD                CORNFIELD

LUTOSLAWSKI            GLUTTONS/LOUTS

MILHAUD                    MILKMAID

ORFF                          DOFF/RUFF

PROKOFIEV                 PORKPIE/PUFF

RACHMANINOFF         RANCHMAN/DRACHMA

SALONEN                    SALOON

SCHOENBERG             SCHEMER/SCORNER/SCHOONER

TAKAMITSU                STALAGMITES/THALAMUS

ULLMANN                   MULLIGAN/SULLIVAN

VARESE                      OVARIES

WEILL                         DWELL/SWELL

XANAKIS                    ANTACIDS/HANKIES

YSAYE                        SAUTE/SPAYED

ZWILICH                     ZILCH/ZIPLOC

 

I guess classic music hasn’t quite made it yet.  But neither have Matisse , Manet, Van Gogh, Pissaro, Toulouse-Lautrec.

I need a Sudafed!

 

JAMES CONLON           COLON/COLONY/COLOGNE

 

Posted in A Rich Possession | Comments Closed

A Glimpse at Jost and Aperghis

March 26th, 2015

By Rebecca Schmid

There has been too much music to keep up with between the Konzerthaus’ Festival Mythos Berlin and the contemporary music festival MärzMusik. At the Konzerthaus, I caught the premiere of Christian Jost’s BerlinSymphonie, an homage to the German capital in all is mercurial energy. The approximately 27-minute work for full orchestra creates a vivid enough landscape, blending minimalist textures with everything from sharp modernist gestures to snatches of smooth jazz.

Pulsating brass and a low string motive repeated above the hollow wooden sounds of a marimba capture the dark, mysterious side of Berlin—the bombed out churches, the abandoned banks of the Spree river—while lyrical woodwinds evoke its embracing thrill. Jost’s orchestration strikes an unusual balance between the accessible and the sophisticated, but it also recycles not so original ideas. A solo alto saxophone which emerges throughout the work as the soulful voice of the urban individual is at best clichéd.

The Konzerthausorchester Berlin gave a strong performance under its Music Director Iván Fischer, who since arriving in 2012 has brought the sections into impressive balance and softened the edges of an ensemble which has at times struggled with technical shortcomings. Whether or not one considers Jost a ground-breaking voice, the audience’s enthusiastic applause spoke to his communicative powers.

Georges Aperghis with the Klangforum Wien (c) Kai Bienert

Georges Aperghis with the Klangforum Wien

At the Philharmonie, MärzMusik offered contemporary music of a different breed. As part of an emphasis on the Greek composer Georges Aperghis, the ensemble Klangforum Wien performed his most recent large-scale composition 23 Situations (2013) under conductor Emilio Pomàrico. Written explicitly for the 23 musicians at hand, the work exploits a virtuosic array of extended techniques and theatrical elements.

The most compelling moments emerge with vignettes for individual players, such as the siren-like sighing of the violinists, the multiphonics of heckelphone which is then slapped, the celeste player’s absurdist chanting. In passages for full ensemble, Aperghis brings forth intricate webs of variegated timbres but also cacophonic chaos that is not kind to the ear. Shrieking piccolos and the banging chords of a piano do little to enhance the drama of this approximately one-hour work.

But when the full ensemble gives a final response to the Russian-speaking interjections of the accordionist, each instrument emerges with such immediacy that one has the sense of listening to a jumbled chorus, blurring the boundaries between word and sound, theater and reality.

Fore more by Rebecca Schmid, visit www.rebeccaschmid.info

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Don’t Be Shy About BMI

March 25th, 2015

By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq.

Dear Law and Disorder:

Hypothetical: A theatrical production company would like to produce a tribute musical production to a songwriter using only the songwriter’s music being performed by the cast of the production. The production would be held at a community theater which is not licensed by ASCAP or any licensing authority. The production company is unsure of its legal standing in carrying out this this production, and would like some general guidance. Where could they go to determine the requirements, if any.

If any? There are always requirements. I don’t know anything that doesn’t require something in return.

The production company has no legal standing to carry out this production without first obtaining the necessary licenses. If the songs are being performed as part of a “concert” style performance—that is, being sung without props or costumes and not as part of any plot, story, or narrative—then the producer would merely need to get a performance license from whichever one of the three major performance license agencies the songwriter belongs to: ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC. If the songwriter doesn’t belong to one of these (which is unlikely, but possible), then the licenses would need to be obtained from the songwriter directly.

It doesn’t matter whether or not the performance is being held at a community theater or whether or not the community theater holds a license with ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC. Performance licenses must still be obtained and either you (hypothetically, of course) or the theater must obtain them. There is no legal requirement that the venue be the one to obtain performance licenses. While its probably easier for the venue to obtain the licenses, it is the responsibility of all of the parties involved in a production—from the producer and performers to the venues and agents—to ensure that someone obtains the necessary licenses. Otherwise, everyone will be held responsible and, hypothetically, you don’t want that. Also, if this is a production which the production company envisions producing elsewhere, then it probably makes more sense for the production company to get the licenses itself.

If the production company wants to obtain the licenses, it would simply contact ASCAP, BMI, or SESEC directly. However, there are a few additional issues that could quickly change the simple to the sublimely complex:

1) If what you are “hypothetically” envisioning is not so much a concert “tribute”, but, rather, a “juke box musical” where the songs of one composer are used as the score of an actual musical drama or to tell a story (ie: Mamma Mia, Jersey Boys or Beautiful), then neither ASCAP, BMI or SESAC can help you. You will need dramatic licenses, not performance licenses. Dramatic licenses must be obtained directly from the songwriter or the songwriter’s publisher. If this is the case, you should be prepared for a resounding and thunderous “no.”

2) Even if you are planning a more traditional concert tribute such as Side-by-Side-by-Sondheim or An Evening of Andrew Lloyd Webber, many musical theater and other composers have restrictions preventing more than a specific number of their works from being performed as part of the same concert without obtaining additional rights directly from the publisher.

Nevertheless, contacting ASCAP, BMI and/or SESAC is always the best place to start on any licensing journey. Don’t be shy. They want to have their artists’ works get performed as much as you want to perform them. However, they also want to make sure their artists get paid, just like you do. Assuming, of course, that the production company expects to sell tickets, if any.

__________________________________________________________________

For additional information and resources on this and otherGG_logo_for-facebook legal, project management, and business issues for the performing arts, visit ggartslaw.com

To ask your own question, write to lawanddisorder@musicalamerica.org.

All questions on any topic related to legal, management, and business issues will be welcome. However, please post only general questions or hypotheticals. GG Arts Law reserves the right to alter, edit or, amend questions to focus on specific issues or to avoid names, circumstances, or any information that could be used to identify or embarrass a specific individual or organization. All questions will be posted anonymously and/or posthumously.

__________________________________________________________________

THE OFFICIAL DISCLAIMER:

THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE!

The purpose of this blog is to provide general advice and guidance, not legal advice. Please consult with an attorney familiar with your specific circumstances, facts, challenges, medications, psychiatric disorders, past-lives, karmic debt, and anything else that may impact your situation before drawing any conclusions, deciding upon a course of action, sending a nasty email, filing a lawsuit, or doing anything rash!

 

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Posted in Arts Management, Contracts, Copyrights, Law and Disorder: Performing Arts Division, Liability, Licensing, Music Rights, Presenters, Publishing, Venues | Comments Closed

Noted Endeavors with Cellist Joshua Roman – Relationships Pave the Way to Financing Projects

March 25th, 2015

Cellist Joshua Roman talks with Eugenia Zukerman and Emily Ondracek-Peterson of Noted Endeavors about the importance of relationships and how those relationships can open doors to realizing projects.

Noted EndeavorsJosh realized the importance of relationships early in his career. Projects such as “On Grace” with Anna Deavere Smith – a work for actor and cello featuring original music composed by Roman, which premiered in February 2012 at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral and is now performed around the country – were born from relationships. Josh discusses how to develop those relationships and to draw from them advice, a wider circle of contacts, and funding.

For more about Joshua Roman, go to:
www.joshuaroman.com

For more Noted Endeavors videos, go to:
www.notedendeavors.com

Posted in Noted Endeavors | Comments Closed

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