MEMETERIA by Thomas May

Music & the Arts

February 24, 2016 • 5:02 am Comments Off on Handel Discovey

Handel Discovey

In time for Handel’s birthday on Tuesday, Gramophone magazine reports on the upcoming premiere in April of a cantata by the composer from his early period in Italy. The score was recently discovered in the private collection of early-music figure Ton Koopman:

Koopman’s website explains: ‘It is an earlier but very different version of the cantata [‘Tu fedel? Tu costante?’, HWV 171]. Only the first aria is substantially the same, while the three remaining arias are entirely new. HWV 171a, as the cantata will be known, also differs from the later version in calling for an oboe in addition to two violins and basso continuo. There can be no doubt about Handel’s authorship, because of numerous motivic connections with his other works, including the opera Almira, performed in Hamburg in 1705, before the composer left for Italy.

Filed under: Handel, music news

January 10, 2016 • 11:43 am Comments Off on Mozart in the Jungle: Ego, Sex, and Music

Mozart in the Jungle: Ego, Sex, and Music

 

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My latest piece on Rhapsody:

At first glance, when Amazon Studios’ series Mozart in the Jungle launched in December 2014, it suggested little more than a mashup of the bed-hopping and gossip from Sex and the City with the ambience of Carnegie Hall.

Back in the 1980s Amadeus became a phenomenon because it portrayed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as a wild-and-crazy guy who just happened to write immortal music. Peter Shaffer (whose play was adapted for the hit film) revealed a Mozart addicted to life and physical pleasures — which would be iconoclastic only to those who think of classical composers and musicians as “people so lofty they sound as if they shit marble,” as Shaffer’s character puts it.

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Filed under: media, music news

December 28, 2015 • 8:10 pm Comments Off on Top 10 Classical Releases of 2015

Top 10 Classical Releases of 2015

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For Rhapsody subscribers: along with the Top 10 Classical Discoveries of 2015, here’s a repertory-focused list of picks for the Top 10 Classical Releases of 2015.

Epic orchestral panoramas, intimate meditations from the keyboard, exquisite singing: all of these and more are captured on this year-end overview of classical music releases across the centuries — including music being written today by the noted young American composer Andrew Norman.

Along with a thrilling account by star conductor Andris Nelsons of Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony, a 20th-century masterpiece, the list includes the Miró Quartet’s transcendent performance of chamber music by Schubert, reclusive pianist Grigory Sokolov communing with Chopin, the gorgeous vocalism of soprano Diana Damrau, and a seldom-heard opera by a Baroque polymath.

Christoph Eschenbach conducts Olivier Messiaen’s massive orchestral homage to the natural beauty of the American landscape. Another gem released in 2015 is the early-music ensemble Alamire’s collection of music favored by Anne Boleyn, the doomed Tudor queen. Another Russian piano great, Daniil Trifonov, brings his astonishing touch to Rachmaninoff. And French pianist Alexandre Tharaud explores the inexhaustible riches of J.S. Bach.

Filed under: music news

December 26, 2015 • 12:46 pm 1

Top 10 Classical Discoveries of 2015

Thomas May's avatarMEMETERIA by Thomas May

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Reposting this with list and accompanying blog post.

My list for the Rhapsody service:

Top 10 Classical Discoveries of 2015

Best of 2015: Top 10 Classical Discoveries

Forget about dead white guys for the moment: Classical music isn’t just what was written centuries ago, and it’s definitely not all in the past. Let’s pay tribute to the creative imagination of composers at work today — all of them are very much alive and pushing the boundaries of musical expression.

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Filed under: music news

December 18, 2015 • 11:34 am Comments Off on VAN Beethoven

VAN Beethoven

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The Los Angeles Philharmonic is playing with virtual reality:

Orchestra VR is the first virtual reality experience produced by the LA Phil, and one of the first of its kind in the world. Be transported to our iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall for a 360° 3-D performance featuring the opening of Beethoven’s timeless Fifth Symphony performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and conducted by Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel.

Originally produced for the VAN Beethoven tour, Orchestra VR is a free app you can download and experience for yourself.

Writes David Ng for the Los Angeles Times:

The goal was to capture sound as “it bounces around, and to create the audible sensory feeling of being there,” said Pietro Gagliano, a partner and executive creative director at Secret Location, the Toronto-based digital studio that worked with the orchestra on the project.

Users are able to detect subtle shifts in sound as they turn their heads to view different parts of the hall.

Incidentally, Mark Swed points out, “from Berlin to Beijing, Beethoven has had, for whatever reason (be it salability or spiritual sustenance), a very big year” — including in LA. In addition to the LA Phil’s VAN Beethoven project, “the new year began with Michael Tilson Thomas’ compelling Los Angeles Philharmonic performance of Missa Solemnis. The fall season began with Gustavo Dudamel’s Beethoven symphony cycle — shared by the L.A. Phil and Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela — that demonstrated a young conductor’s profoundly deepening understanding of the composer.”

Filed under: Beethoven, music news

December 9, 2015 • 7:13 pm Comments Off on RIP Heinz Fricke

RIP Heinz Fricke

Fricke_63169Heinz Fricke (1927-2015), who died on 7 December, was a remarkable musician who lived a remarkable life that brought him, after years behind the Iron Curtain in East Berlin, to the capital city of the capitalist superpower.

I was incredibly fortunate to get to know him during his early years at Washington National Opera. In fact Mr. Fricke became the first conductor I met and observed close up. Here’s one of my earliest pieces for the Washington Post, a profile of Heinz Fricke from 1997:

THE BRIGHT LIGHT IN DOMINGO’S SHADOW

Well into its first season with the world-renowned tenor as artistic director, the Washington Opera has been abuzz with talk of its ambitious vision for the future. That includes next season’s expansion to eight productions and the selection of a world-famous architectural firm to convert the historic downtown Woodward & Lothrop building into the opera’s new Valhalla.

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Filed under: conductors, music news

December 9, 2015 • 9:46 am Comments Off on After Ebola: Bringing Hope to Life

After Ebola: Bringing Hope to Life

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Gus Denhard

A recent report in Foreign Policy described the dire ongoing effects of West Africa’s Ebola crisis on the survivors. More than 16,000 children have been left without food or shelter.

As they did last year, Seattle’s Early Music Guild is presenting a benefit concert this Saturday, December 12, at 3 pm. Titled After Ebola: Bringing Hope to Life, this family-friendly benefit performance will feature the Trio Guadalevín: Abel Rocha (harp, guitars, vocals), Antonio Gomez (percussion), and EMG Executive Director August Denhard (lutes and guitar).

The benefit will raise money for Liberian Transcontinental Christian Ministries of Kent’s program to provide housing, food, clothing, and education for children who have been orphaned as a result of the recent Ebola crisis.

Trio Guadalevín takes its name from the ancient river and gorge that divides the city of Rhonda in Andalusia. Denhard says the aim of the concert, in addition to benefiting these efforts, is to bring people together with a program “reminding us of cultural connections we share as we face the challenges before us.”

Tickets — available here — are $10 for adults (18 and older) and $5 for children and seniors over 65, plus a service fee. The benefit will take place on Sat., December 12, at 3 pm at the Carco Theatre, 1717 Southeast Maple Valley Highway, Renton, WA.

Filed under: music news

December 7, 2015 • 10:22 am Comments Off on 2016 Grammy Nominees in Classical

2016 Grammy Nominees in Classical

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Here’s the complete list (including a release from the Seattle Symphony’s Dutilleux project):

2016 Grammy Nominees in Classical categories

Filed under: music news, Seattle Symphony

December 1, 2015 • 8:09 am Comments Off on New Artist of the Month: Director James Darrah

New Artist of the Month: Director James Darrah

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Finding a suitable label to encompass James Darrah’s artistic practice is not easy. He has directed operas in more or less conventional spaces, yet this represents only one sliver of his work. You’re also likely to experience Darrah’s art in the concert hall. Indeed, seeing the multimedia staging of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis this past June by the San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas brought me one of the year’s most lasting revelations.

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Filed under: directors, music news

November 27, 2015 • 7:33 am Comments Off on Street Symphony’s Messiah Project

Street Symphony’s Messiah Project

Street Symphony, the LA-based ensemble of musicians who bring their art to prisons, Skid Row, and other marginalized groups, has posted this story of homeless combat veteran Don Garza and how he was affected by Handel’s music (hat tip: Ayana Haviv):

Filed under: Handel, music news

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