21C Media Group’s Classical Music Preview 2013-2014
AUGUST 2013
Aug 20 Deutsche Grammophon releases Anna Netrebko — Verdi, the Russian soprano’s fifth solo studio recording for the label and her first since 2008. The new album, which coincides with the bicentennial of Verdi’s birth, shows ANNA NETREBKO venturing into bold new repertoire and offers a sneak peek at several roles she will be debuting this season, including Giovanna d’Arco, Leonora, and Lady Macbeth.
Aug 28 The RICHARD TUCKER MUSIC FOUNDATION celebrates the 100th anniversary of the great Brooklyn-born tenor’s birth by presenting events citywide and online as part of its second annual Richard Tucker Day in NYC. The foundation is dedicated to perpetuating the artistic legacy of its namesake by nurturing the careers of talented young American opera singers and by taking opera into the community.
SEPTEMBER
Sep (tbd) On his second solo recording for Nonesuch records, JEREMY DENK performs Bach’s “Goldberg Variations,” a work with which the pianist has had a close relationship throughout his career. His debut album for the label, Ligeti/Beethoven, was named one of the best recordings of 2012 by the New Yorker, Washington Post, NPR Music and others.
Sep 3 – Dec 21 Five-time Tony Award-winning singer and actress AUDRA McDONALD reunites with the San Francisco Symphony and its Music Director, Michael Tilson Thomas, for a gala concert to open the orchestra’s 2013-14 season. The performance also kicks off McDonald’s 22-city North American concert tour, during which the two-time Grammy-winner travels to places including Ann Arbor (Sep 15), Toronto (Sep 23), Chicago (Oct 12), Houston (Oct 19), Los Angeles (Oct 26), St. Louis (Nov 15), Kansas City (Nov 16), and Phoenix (Dec 21). On many of the dates along the tour, the soprano will sing songs from her new Nonesuch album, Go Back Home.
Sep 5, 7 After delivering an acclaimed performance at 2012’s Last Night of the Proms, Maltese tenor JOSEPH CALLEJA returns to the London festival for two performances this summer. First he headlines a gala concert at the Royal Albert Hall celebrating Verdi’s 200th birthday, and then he marks the Last Night of the Proms in an open-air concert at Hyde Park, with Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music and now Great Gatsby fame. [London, UK]
Sep 5 – Dec 26 TRINITY WALL STREET presents Celebrating Britten, a festival honoring the centennial of the British composer’s birth. The retrospective includes performances by the Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Trinity Youth Chorus and NOVUS NY, all led by Julian Wachner, as well as guest artists including tenor NICHOLAS PHAN, cellist MATT HAIMOVITZ, chamber group The Declassified, the Jack Quartet, and the piano duo of Grace Cho & Alejandro Hernandez. Many of the concerts will present Britten’s work alongside that of his contemporaries such as Berg, Gershwin, Rachmaninoff and Poulenc. [TC; Sep 5, 8, 12, 19, 26; Oct 3, 10, 17, 24, 31; Nov 7, 14, 21, 22, 26; Dec 5, 9, 12, 19, 26]
Sep 6 – Oct 2 ILDAR ABDRAZAKOV headlines the opening night of the San Francisco Opera’s 2013-14 season by making his staged role debut as the title character in Boito’s Mefistofele. Patricia Racette is Margarita and Ramon Vargas is Faust in the revival of this production by Robert Carsen. San Francisco Opera Music Director Nicola Luisotti conducts. [San Francisco, CA; Sep 6, 11, 14, 17, 20, 24, 29; Oct 2]
Sep 7 – 11 Pioneering cellist MATT HAIMOVITZ joins his longtime collaborator, pianist Christopher O’Riley, at the International Beethoven Project’s Beethoven Festival: LOVE 2013, where they will perform all five Beethoven sonatas for piano and cello using a “Classical” setup of gut strings and fortepiano. During the festival, the duo also gives a performance at a local club of Shuffle.Play.Listen, the touring program they recorded on disc last year that juxtaposes contemporary classical masterpieces (by Stravinsky, Hermann, Bartók, etc.) with O’Riley’s transcriptions of rock and pop music (by Radiohead, John McLaughlin, Arcade Fire, and others). [Chicago, IL]
Sep 11 – 15 Having recorded two acclaimed all-Britten albums for the Avie label, tenor NICHOLAS PHAN presides over the 2013 Collaborative Works Festival: “The Heart of the Matter: 100 Years of Benjamin Britten.” Presented by the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago, of which Phan is Artistic Director, the festival presents performances by Phan and special guests including countertenor David Daniels, soprano Kiera Duffy, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano, pianist Martin Katz, the sextet eighth blackbird, and harpist Nuiko Wadden. Info about the festival is available here: http://www.caichicago.org/collaborative-works-festival.html. [Chicago, IL]
Sep 12 – 14 ALAN GILBERT returns to the podium of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for the first of two subscription weeks this season. The program includes Lutosławski’s Symphony No. 4, Thomas Zehetmair playing Janáček’s Violin Concerto, “Putování dušičky” (The Pilgrimage of a Little Soul), and Bartók’s Wooden Prince ballet. [Berlin, Germany; Sep 12, 13, 14]
Sep 15 – 27 Soprano DEBORAH VOIGT returns to a favorite role when she takes on Isolde in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde at Washington National Opera, where she debuted two seasons ago. Voigt first sang Isolde in 2003 in a new production at the Vienna State Opera, and then more recently at the Met. In October, Voigt becomes the first Artist-in-Residence in the WNO’s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program. In this newly created role, she will work with young artists, giving individual coaching sessions, presenting group classes on a variety of repertoire, and leading career roundtable discussions. [Washington, DC; Sep 15, 18, 21, 24, 27]
Sep 18 The METROPOLITAN OPERA GUILD kicks off another season of special public events with a tribute to the mezzo-soprano Risë Stevens, who died earlier this year. Hosted by Frederica von Stade, “Risë: A Celebration of Risë Stevens” will include rare video footage of her performances and tributes to this great star of the Met, film and television by her fellow artists and friends. [Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College]
Sep 19 – 21 FABIO LUISI opens the Cleveland Orchestra’s 2013-14 season at Severence Hall, leading Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto with Hélène Grimaud as soloist. The three performances mark the first installment in the Cleveland Orchestra’s season-long cycle of the complete Beethoven piano concertos. Mahler’s Fourth Symphony rounds out the program on Thursday and Saturday; Schumann’s First Symphony, “Spring,” closes the Friday concert. [Cleveland, OH; Sep 19, 20, 21]
Sep 20, 21 As part of The Art of the Score: Film Week at the New York Philharmonic, ALAN GILBERT conducts the music to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey for a big-screen presentation of the film. The score includes excerpts from Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra, György Ligeti’s Atmospheres, Lux Aeterna, Requiem and Aventures, as well as Johann Strauss, Jr.’s The Blue Danube. [AFH]
Sept 22 Violinist Itzhak Perlman opens the 2013-14 season at STANFORD LIVE with his Perlman Music Program, which offers a musical community for young virtuoso musicians. Perlman hosts and conducts this concert featuring some of today’s most remarkable young string players. “Bing Concert Hall has indeed been transformational for music at Stanford and on the Peninsula,” says executive director Wiley Hausam. “Stanford Live’s second season will advance an exciting new era for the arts at Stanford. In particular, Bing is an ideal environment for the nuanced, delicate, and complex textures of the string quartet literature, and next season we will focus our chamber music program around a deep exploration of that repertoire.” [Stanford, CA]
Sep 23 – Oct 19 ANNA NETREBKO makes history as the first soprano to headline three consecutive Met opening-night galas. This season, she gives her first New York performances as Tatiana in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, singing in her native tongue at the Met for the first time since she made her company debut in 2002 as Natasha in Prokofiev’s War and Peace. The Oct 5 performance will be transmitted to movie theaters worldwide as part of the Met’s Live in HD series. [Met; Sep 23, 26; Oct 1, 5, 9, 12, 16, 19]
Sep 24 ANGEL HEART, a music storybook, is released in deluxe CD packaging and as an interactive iPad app. The multi-media project is a collaboration involving best-selling children’s author Cornelia Funke, composer Luna Pearl Woolf, Oxingale Records, and Mirada, “purveyors of handmade stories.” Actor Jeremy Irons narrates; singers Frederica von Stade, Lisa Delan, Daniel Taylor, Sanford Sylvan, and the late Zheng Cao are featured in arrangements of lullabies and folk songs interspersed with Woolf’s original music performed by MATT HAIMOVITZ’s all-cello ensemble, Uccello. The visual storytelling and graphic design is by Mirada, a multi-platform company that was founded by Mathew Cullen and Pan’s Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro to integrate classic storytelling with new technologies.
Sep 24 – May 8 Isabel Leonard, the recipient of the RICHARD TUCKER MUSIC FOUNDATION’s 2013 Richard Tucker Award, returns to the Met to reprise her portrayal of Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte. Fellow Richard Tucker Award-winner Matthew Polenzani portrays Dorabella’s lover, Ferrando; SUSANNA PHILLIPS is Fiordiligi; and James Levine conducts. [Met; Sep 24, 28; Oct 2, 5; Apr 23, 26 (Live in HD), 30; May 3, 8]
Sep 25 MUSIC ACADEMY OF THE WEST goes East to showcase, for the first time, the winners of the Academy’s annual Marilyn Horne Song Competition in recital in New York City. Soprano Tracy Cox and pianist Maureen Zoltek, the 2012 winners, will perform music by Verdi, Richard Strauss, Poulenc, Mark Carlson, and Gabriel Kahane. The awards are given each summer to a singer and a pianist who excel in the performance of song repertoire and show a distinctive gift for communicating with an audience. [National Opera Center]
Sep 25 – Oct 1 ALAN GILBERT launches his fifth season as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. The opening gala program on Sep 25 has Yo-Yo Ma as soloist in Brunetti’s arrangement of Piazzolla’s Suite from La serie del Ángel and Golijov’s Azul; Gilbert also leads the orchestra in two works by Ravel. The following night, in their first subscription program of the season, Gilbert and the orchestra are joined by Artist-in-Residence Yefim Bronfman to perform Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, and the concert is rounded out with works by Bernstein and Ravel. [AFH; Sep 25, 26, 27, 28, Oct 1]
Sep 26, 27, 29 Pianist ALESSIO BAX returns to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra under Jaap van Zweden for Samuel Barber’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, 50 years after the piece won the Pulitzer Prize for music. “Bax has matured into a one of the most compelling pianists around. … There’s dazzling virtuosity where called for, but more impressive is his way of shaping the music, warmly caressing phrases” (Dallas Morning News). [Dallas, TX; Sep 26, 27, 29]
Sep 26 – 29 EASTMAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC presents the Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative (EROI) Festival 2013: Spectrum of Sounds. This year the festival will focus on aspects of 20th– and 21st-century organ composition and performance. William Bolcom joins the festival in his 75th birthday year to offer masterclasses and a presentation on his organ music. The 4-day event includes talks, workshops, masterclasses, and performances, all by world-renowned performers and scholars. [Rochester & Ithaca, NY; Sep 26, 27, 28, 29]
Sep 27 – Oct 4 American baritone THOMAS HAMPSON and JOSEPH CALLEJA reprise their respective roles in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra, at Vienna State Opera. To coincide with the appearances, Decca releases a recording of the work presented last season – with Hampson and Calleja both in the cast – at the Vienna Konzerthaus. [Vienna, Austria; Sep 27; Oct 1, 4]
Sep 28 – April 2 FABIO LUISI, in his second season as General Music Director of the Zurich Opera, leads a variety of repertoire in 2013-14. He premieres important productions of Fidelio (Dec 8 – Jan 11) and Aida (March 2 – April 1), and revivals of Don Carlo (Feb 15 – Mar 1), Les contes d’Hoffmann (March 21 – April 2), and Bellini’s La straniera (Sep 28 – Oct 22). He will also conduct four orchestral programs with the Philharmonia Zurich. [Zurich, Switzerland]
OCTOBER
Oct (date tbd) The WFMT Radio Network launches a new nationally syndicated radio series about the AMERICAN PIANISTS ASSOCIATION, an organization with a unique, holistic approach to competitions. The four-part series tracks five finalists vying to become the APA’s 2013 DeHaan Classical Fellow, a two-year fellowship valued at more than $100,000, including a cash prize of $50,000.
Oct 4 – 6 An advocate for contemporary composers, American master violinist GIL SHAHAM joins the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and music director Leonard Slatkin for the world premiere of a new violin concerto by Chinese-American composer Bright Sheng at the orchestra’s season-opening concert. [Detroit, MI]
Oct 6, 21 ANGEL HEART, the CD storybook and iPad app released in September (see Sep 24 above), comes to life in a multi-media event at Cal Performances Hertz Hall in Berkeley, and at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in New York. Cellist MATT HAIMOVITZ and his all-cello ensemble, Uccello, are joined by singers Frederica von Stade, Lisa Delan, Daniel Taylor, and Sanford Sylvan – as well as by children’s choirs from Oakland, CA and New York respectively – in lullabies, folk songs and original music by Luna Pearl Woolf. The story is by best-selling children’s author Cornelia Funke. [Oct 6: San Francisco, CA; Oct 21: ZH]
Oct 9 STANFORD LIVE and Music at Stanford once again co-present the annual Harmony for Humanity: Daniel Pearl World Music Days Concert, which honors the life and memory of the slain Wall Street Journal reporter, musician, and Stanford graduate. Performers are faculty members and students from Stanford’s music department, including the St. Lawrence String Quartet. The event is presented in partnership with the Office for Religious Life at Stanford University. [Stanford, CA; Oct 9]
Oct 10 ILDAR ABDRAZAKOV returns to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for performances of Verdi’s Requiem with his frequent collaborator Riccardo Muti on the podium, to celebrate Verdi’s bicentennial. The Russian bass’s 2010 live recording of the work with Muti and the CSO won them two Grammy awards. [Chicago, IL]
Oct 10 – 12 Described by the Financial Times as “indecently gifted,” the great American baritone THOMAS HAMPSON gives his first U.S. performances of the season in Washington DC, joining Christoph Eschenbach and the National Symphony Orchestra for a concert version of Act III of Wagner’s Parsifal. [Washington, DC]
Oct 10 – 13 LEIF OVE ANDSNES, the “excellent Norwegian pianist [who] plays with a rare blend of fluidity and control” (Boston Globe), returns to California to resume his survey of Beethoven’s piano concertos with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, on this occasion playing Concerto No. 4 (Oct 10 & 11) and No. 2 (Oct. 12 & 13). [Los Angeles, CA]
Oct 12 – 26 FABIO LUISI returns to his native Italy to lead a star-studded revival of Verdi’s Don Carlo at the Teatro alla Scala, where Luisi made his debut in 2012. René Pape brings his celebrated portrayal of Filippo II, while Martina Serafin and Ekaterina Gubanova play Elisabetta and Eboli. [Milan, Italy; Oct 12, 16, 19, 23, 26]
Oct 13 – April 27 Stanford’s Grammy-nominated resident ensemble, the St. Lawrence String Quartet, presents its annual “Sundays with the St. Lawrence” series, beginning with a program of works by Haydn and Beethoven and a new string quartet by Stanford alumnus Sam Adams. The SLSQ returns twice more during the season: on Jan 12, with San Francisco Symphony principal violist Jonathan Vinocour, and on April 27, performing a new work by George Tsontakis with soprano Jessica Rivera. All three concerts take place at BING CONCERT HALL. [Stanford, CA; Oct 13, Jan 12, April 27]
Oct 14 – June 16 TRINITY WALL STREET’s popular Bach at One series returns for another season. The Grammy-nominated Trinity Baroque Orchestra and Choir of Trinity Wall Street under the direction of Julian Wachner continue their presentation of Bach’s complete cantatas. [SPC; Mondays Oct 14 – June 16]
Oct 17 – Nov 6 The French pianist PIERRE-LAURENT AIMARD joins the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and music director Riccardo Chailly on tour in Europe. The all-Brahms program, with Aimard playing the first piano concerto, opens at the orchestra’s home in Leipzig and then travels to London’s Barbican Hall, Paris’s Salle Playel, and Vienna’s Musikverein. [Oct 17: Leipzig; Oct 29: London; Nov 1: Paris; Nov 6: Vienna]
From November 2013 to August 2014, Aimard takes a performance sabbatical. During these months away from the stage, he will immerse himself in the study of J.S. Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier, the focus of his next DG recording. While Aimard is celebrated as a leader in contemporary music, his 2008 recording of Bach: The Art of Fugue was a tremendous critical and commercial success, topping the classical music charts of both Billboard and iTunes.
Oct 17, Nov 21 MATT HAIMOVITZ performs Britten’s Suite No. 1 and other solo works at TRINITY WALL STREET as part of “Beyond Bach,” his exploration of solo music for cello. [TC; Oct 17; Nov 21]
Oct 18 – Nov 9 HOUSTON GRAND OPERA opens its 2013-14 season with a revival of Verdi’s Aida. In the title role is Liudmyla Monastyrska, who recently portrayed the Egyptian queen in her first U.S. appearances at the Met, where she made “a triumphant house debut” (New York Times). Mezzo Dolora Zajick defends her title as “the Amneris of our day” (Opera Today), while Texas baritone and HGO Studio alumnus Scott Hendricks sings Aida’s father, Amonasro. [Houston, TX; Oct 18, 20, 26, 29; Nov 1, 3, 9]
Oct 24, 28 Soprano ANGELA MEADE takes her portrayal of Bellini’s Norma to the Met for the first time. After her first staged performances as the Druid priestess at Washington National Opera last season, she was honored as the company’s Artist of the Year, having “thrilled WNO devotees with her nearly mind-blowing mastery of Bellini’s most challenging music.” (Washington Times) [Met; Oct 24, 28]
Oct 25 – Nov 10 For the first time in 30 years, HOUSTON GRAND OPERA produces Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss, Jr. SUSAN GRAHAM, “America’s favorite mezzo” (Gramophone) and HGO’s Lynn Wyatt Great Artist for 2013-14, sings one of her celebrated trouser roles as Prince Orlofsky. HGO Studio alumnus Liam Bonner makes his role debut as Eisenstein, and Wendy Bryn Harmer brings her “bright pealing soprano” (Wall Street Journal) to her first Rosalinde. Thomas Rösner – Vienna-born-and-bred – conducts. [Houston, TX; Oct 25, 27; Nov 2, 8, 10]
Oct 26 MATT HAIMOVITZ performs Philip Glass’s Cello Concerto No. 2, “Naqoyqatsi,” with the Emory University Symphony Orchestra and conductor Richard Prior. In spring 2013, Haimovitz released the world-premiere recording of the work – an adaptation of the score to Godfrey Reggio’s documentary Naqoyqatsi: Life as War – on the Orange Mountain Music label with Dennis Russell Davies and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. [Atlanta, GA]
Oct 29 Conductor SIR JOHN ELIOT GARDINER, one of the foremost authorities on and interpreters of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, has written a book about the composer with whom he is most closely associated. Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven, representing the fruits of Gardiner’s lifelong immersion in Bach’s music, will be published in the U.S. by Alfred A. Knopf. It explains in detail how Bach worked, how his music is constructed, how it achieves its effects, and what it can tell us about Bach the man.
NOVEMBER
Nov 1 The San Francisco Opera’s October 2012 presentation of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s opera Moby-Dick will be televised nationwide on PBS’s Great Performances. The high-definition live-to-tape broadcast stars Richard Tucker Award-winning tenor STEPHEN COSTELLO as “a bright-toned, sympathetic Greenhorn” (San Francisco Chronicle), in the role he created for the Dallas Opera’s world-premiere production, when Opera magazine hailed him as “a tenor of ineffable sensitivity, with unfailing elegance in singing and a disconcerting ease in producing notes in head-voice.” Costello reprises the role when he makes his Washington National Opera debut in February 2014.
Nov 3 – 17 ILDAR ABDRAZAKOV joins the London Symphony Orchestra and its Principal Conductor, Valery Gergiev, for concert performances of two works by Hector Berlioz: his opera La Damnation de Faust and his “symphonie dramatique” Romeo et Juliette. Performances take place in London’s Barbican Hall and at Paris’s Salle Pleyel. [London: Nov 3 (DF), 6 (RJ), 7 (DF), 13 (RJ); Paris: Nov 17 (RJ)]
Nov 7 – 13 Praised by the New York Times as “a pianist you want to hear no matter what he performs,” JEREMY DENK joins the San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas for Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25, both in the orchestra’s home at Davies Hall and at Carnegie Hall. [San Francisco, CA: Nov 7, 8, 9, 10; CH: Nov 13]
Nov 8 GIL SHAHAM and composer John Williams have been friends for more than 20 years and have collaborated on countless concerts and recording projects. They team up again in November, this time with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, to play Williams’s Violin Concerto, with the legendary film composer conducting. [Chicago, IL]
Nov 9 – 29 THOMAS HAMPSON reprises a favorite role, Amfortas, in director John Caird’s new production of Wagner’s Parsifal for Lyric Opera of Chicago. [Chicago, IL; Nov 9, 13, 17, 22, 25, 29]
Nov 10 The Choral Arts Society of Washington opens its 2013-14 season with the East coast premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer STEVEN STUCKY’s Take Him, Earth (2012), written to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy with settings of texts by Prudentius, Aeschylus, and Shakespeare. The 170-voice Choral Arts Chorus appears with the Choral Arts Orchestra and guest artists under the baton of Scott Tucker. [Washington, DC]
Nov 11 “Welcome Home, Jimmy!” The honoree of the METROPOLITAN OPERA GUILD’s 79th Annual Luncheon is none other than James Levine. The celebration of the return of the Met’s Music Director will take place in the Grand Ballroom of New York’s Waldorf-Astoria. [Waldorf-Astoria]
Nov 12 – Feb 9 In August, the string quartet BROOKLYN RIDER teams up with 14-time Grammy-winning banjo legend BELA FLECK on a new DG recording of original music titled The Impostor. In November, the artists embark on a North American tour, taking a program of new music by Fleck and other Brooklyn Rider favorites to Indianapolis, Washington DC, Toronto and other U.S. cities. The “banjo quintet” reunites in the New Year for another multi-city tour, which includes stops in Philadelphia, Seattle and Las Vegas. [Nov 12 Akron OH; Nov 15 Indianapolis IN; Nov 16 Danville KY; Nov 18 Birmingham AL; Nov 19 Clemson SC; Nov 22 Newport News VA; Nov 23 Washington DC; Nov 24 Ann Arbor MI; Nov 26 Toronto; Jan 29 Worcester MA; Jan 30 Manchester NH; Jan 31 Keene NH; Feb 1 Philadelphia; Feb 3 Bellingham WA; Feb 4 Seattle; Feb 6 Chico CA; Feb 7 Northridge CA; Feb 8 Las Vegas; Feb 9 Ogden UT]
Nov 14 – 16 NICHOLAS PHAN, a passionate advocate of the music of Benjamin Britten, performs the composer’s War Requiem with Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. These are Phan’s first performances of the work, coming just a week before Britten’s 100th birthday on November 22. [Nov 14, 15: Baltimore, MD; Nov 16: North Bethesda, MD]
Nov 16, 17 ALESSIO BAX makes his Los Angeles debut as soloist with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra under Hans Graf, performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C minor, K. 491, one of a pair offered on the pianist’s 2013 concerto disc for Signum Classics. “Leeds International Competition winner Alessio Bax here extends his repute as a performer of gossamer brilliance with a Mozart disc dear to his own heart” (Audiophile Audition). [Los Angeles, CA]
Nov 16, 22 Led by David Robertson, soprano SUSANNA PHILLIPS joins the St. Louis Symphony for performances of Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes on Nov 16 in St. Louis and on the composer’s birthday, Nov 22, at Carnegie Hall. [Nov 16: St. Louis, MO; Nov 22: CH]
Nov 17 The RICHARD TUCKER MUSIC FOUNDATION presents a special gala concert, with many of the biggest names in opera celebrating the centenary of the Brooklyn-born tenor’s birth. Singers already confirmed for the event include Renée Fleming, Joyce DiDonato, ANGELA MEADE, AILYN PÉREZ, Matthew Polenzani, and STEPHEN COSTELLO, all of whom are past winners of the foundation’s biggest prize, the Richard Tucker Award. [AFH]
Nov 19 ALESSIO BAX shares the keyboard with his frequent duo partner and wife, pianist Lucille Chung, on a dance-themed disc for Signum Classics that presents Stravinsky’s original four-hand version of Petrouchka (the complete ballet), Brahms Waltzes, Op. 39, and a selection of zesty tangos by Piazzolla. View Fred Child’s “Libertango” video
Nov 20 – Dec 20 JOSEPH CALLEJA returns to the Lyric Opera of Chicago, where he won accolades for his performances as Rodolfo in La bohème last season, to sing Alfredo in a new staging of Verdi’s La traviata directed by Arin Arbus. [Chicago, IL; Nov 20, 23, 27, 30, Dec 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 20]
Nov 21 – 23, 26 ALAN GILBERT and the New York Philharmonic celebrate Britten’s 100th birthday with three concerts (Nov 21 – 23) presenting two works by Britain’s most celebrated 20th-century composer: the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings (with Philip Myers, horn; Paul Appleby, tenor), and the Spring Symphony, with soprano Kate Royal (NY Phil debut), mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. A further concert on Nov 26 pairs the Serenade with two Mozart symphonies. [AFH]
Nov 22 The 100th birthday of BENJAMIN BRITTEN is celebrated with performances of his music from Aldeburgh to New Zealand, including a concert performance of Peter Grimes at Carnegie Hall, with David Robertson conducting the St. Louis Symphony and Anthony Dean Griffey in the title role (see Nov 16, 22 above), and a performance by the New York Philharmonic with ALAN GILBERT conducting (see previous entry).
Nov 24 – March 27 ALESSIO BAX, recipient of Lincoln Center’s 2013 Martin E. Segal Award, plays both solo piano and chamber music on his home turf under the aegis of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center on multiple occasions this season. His solo performances at Alice Tully Hall include Liszt’s “Dante” Sonata in November and Beethoven’s Piano Sonata, Op. 110 in February. CMS inaugurates a recital series in March in the Rose Studio, where Bax offers Beethoven’s monumental “Hammerklavier” Sonata, Op. 106 and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. [ATH: Nov 24, Feb 7; RS: March 27]
Nov 29, 30 The “adventurous and brilliant” (New York Times) violinist DANIEL HOPE makes his Philadelphia Orchestra debut, where he will play an all-time favorite, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, under the direction of noted early music specialist Richard Egarr. [Philadelphia, PA]
Nov 29 – Dec 22 In a season that sees the soprano venturing into new repertoire, ANNA NETREBKO makes her role debut as Leonora in Verdi’s Il trovatore at the Berlin Staatsoper under Daniel Barenboim, and opposite Plácido Domingo in his first performance in the baritone role of the Conte di Luna. [Berlin; Nov 29, Dec. 4, 7, 11, 15, 19, 22]
DECEMBER
Dec 6 – Jan 11 ANGELA MEADE portrays Alice Ford in the Met’s new production of Verdi’s Falstaff, under the baton of James Levine. Verdi is a staple in the young American soprano’s fast-rising career. The Dec 14 performance will be transmitted to movie theaters worldwide as part of the “Met: Live in HD” series. [Met; Dec 6, 9, 14 (HD), 18, 21, 27, 30; Jan 3, 6, 11]
Dec 7 Two of classical music’s especially popular recording stars, violinist DANIEL HOPE and pianist Simone Dinnerstein, join forces for a rare duo recital appearance. The varied program includes music by Bach, Brahms and Juilliard-based composer Philip Lasser. [Detroit, MI]
Dec 7 – 18 The New York Times has given TRINITY WALL STREET’s annual performances of Handel’s Messiah the highest acclaim. Trinity, “largely on the strength of its extraordinary choir, pierced the heart,” said one recent review. Julian Wachner leads the Choir of Trinity Wall Street and Trinity Baroque Orchestra in two performances of the oratorio, at Trinity Church and in their return to Alice Tully Hall for the third consecutive year. [TC: Dec 7, 8; ATH: Dec 18]
Dec 12 – 15 Soprano DEBORAH VOIGT rings in the holiday season out West, headlining four Christmas concerts with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. [Salt Lake City, UT; Dec 12, 13, 14, 15]
Dec 13, 14 DANIEL HOPE thinks of pianist Menahem Pressler in a number of ways: as a mentor, colleague (most notably when they were both members of the Beaux Arts Trio), and friend. Celebrating the legendary elder musician’s 90th birthday, Hope joins Pressler, David Finckel, Wu Han, and the Emerson String Quartet for a program of works by Schubert and Dvořák, presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in both Indiana and New York. [Dec 13: Bloomington, IN; Dec 14: ATH]
Dec 15 ALESSIO BAX teams up with his duo partner at the keyboard and in life, pianist Lucille Chung, for a recital in Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series. The program features Stravinsky’s four-hand version of Petrouchka. To cite the UK magazine Music and Arts, “Theirs is a marriage of wondrous colours and dextrous aplomb, subtly balanced to make a musical performance sound as one.” [WRT]
Dec 17 Husband and wife STEPHEN COSTELLO, tenor, and AILYN PÉREZ, soprano, team up with pianist Ken Noda for an evening of music at the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater. Costello, a Philadelphia native, met Pérez while both were students at the city’s Academy of Vocal Arts. [Philadelphia, PA]
Dec 26 – Jan 6 Highlights of TRINITY WALL STREET’s Twelfth Night Festival – New York’s Winter Early Music Festival – include the Choir of Trinity Wall Street and Trinity Baroque Orchestra under Julian Wachner in seasonal Bach cantatas, and the Trinity Youth Chorus in Britten’s Christmas-themed St. Nicolas. In special guest performances, Gotham Early Music Scene will present the medieval Play of Daniel (Dec 27 – 29), and the Clarion Music Society will perform Rachmaninoff’s Vespers (Dec 31 – Jan. 1). And in a groundbreaking collaboration, Gotham Chamber Opera will join forces with the Choir of Trinity Wall Street and Trinity Baroque Orchestra to perform Charpentier’s Orphée (Jan 1, 3, 5). [various dates; TC & SPC]
Dec 31 – Feb 22 For her third Met engagement of the new season, SUSANNA PHILLIPS sings Rosalinde in Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, headlining a new production by two-time Tony Award-winner Jeremy Sams. The opening night’s performance will serve as the highlight of the company’s New Year’s Eve gala. [Met; Dec 31; Jan 4, 7, 11, 15, 18; Feb 3, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 20, 22]
2014
JANUARY
January (date tbd) The WFMT Radio Network releases a nationally syndicated special about the MUSIC ACADEMY OF THE WEST, the renowned classical music school and summer festival in Santa Barbara, California. Academy alumni include Marilyn Horne, who runs the Vocal Program, Thomas Hampson, Susanna Phillips, Cynthia Phelps, David Shifrin, Pamela Frank, Donald Weilerstein, and members of major orchestras and ensembles worldwide.
Jan 9 – Feb 1 ANNA NETREBKO reprises her Adina in Bartlett Sher’s production of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, which opened the Met’s 2012-13 season. [Met; Jan 9, 13, 17, 21, 25, 29; Feb 1]
Jan 14 – 30 Marking his first New York performances of the season, JOSEPH CALLEJA returns to the Met to reprise his critically acclaimed portrayal of Rodolfo in Puccini’s La bohème. [Met; Jan 14, 18, 22, 25, 30]
Jan 18 – Feb 2 HOUSTON GRAND OPERA presents the North American premiere of The Passenger by exiled Polish-Jewish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg, based on the novel by Auschwitz survivor Zofia Posmysz. Although Weinberg completed his score in 1968, the opera was not performed until 2006 and not fully staged until 2010. The production, by David Pountney, stars South African mezzo Michelle Breedt in the role she created in Austria and Canadian tenor Joseph Kaiser. Patrick Summers will conduct. [Houston, TX; Jan 18, 22, 25, 31; Feb 2]
Jan 22 – Feb 10 The Choir of TRINITY WALL STREET joins Harry Bicket and his venerable period-instrument ensemble, The English Concert, for the world tour of a concert version of Handel’s Theodora. The tour kicks off in Mexico City and includes a Feb 2 performance at Carnegie Hall, as well as stops in London and Paris. [Jan 22: Mexico City; Jan 25: Sonoma Cty, CA; Jan 27: Orange Cty, CA; Jan 30: Chapel Hill, NC; Feb 2: CH; Feb 6: Birmingham, UK; Feb 8: London, UK; Feb 10: Paris, France]
Jan 24, 25 Lauded for his “powerful, luscious tone” (New York Times) GIL SHAHAM is the featured soloist in Korngold’s Violin Concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra and its Music Director Franz Welser-Möst during the orchestra’s annual Miami residency. [Miami, FL; Jan 24, 25]
Jan 24 – Feb 9 HOUSTON GRAND OPERA revives Verdi’s Rigoletto in a production directed by Harry Silverstein and conducted by HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers. Ryan McKinny, whose powerful bass-baritone “drips with gold” (Opera News), returns to sing his first Rigoletto, while STEPHEN COSTELLO makes his long-awaited HGO debut as the Duke of Mantua. [Houston, TX; Jan 24, 26, 29; Feb 1, 7, 9]
Jan 25 MATT HAIMOVITZ returns to his Bach roots with a rare performance of all six of Bach’s Suites for solo cello at Dumbarton Concerts. [Washington, DC]
Jan 25, 26 In its first appearance at the recently opened Bing Concert Hall, the Hungarian Takács Quartet, one of the world’s pre-eminent interpreters of Bartók’s string quartets, brings the composer’s entire cycle to Stanford in two evenings presented by STANFORD LIVE. [Stanford, CA; Jan 25, 26]
Jan 30 – Feb 1 ALAN GILBERT returns for the second time this season to the podium of the Berlin Philharmonic, this time leading Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with soloist Truls Mørk, and reprising a work he has conducted to great acclaim with the New York Philharmonic at home, on tour and on a medici.tv webcast: Magnus Lindberg’s Kraft. [Berlin, Germany; Jan 30, 31; Feb 1]
Jan 31, Feb 4 AILYN PÉREZ returns to the Royal Opera House in 2014 for two performances as the title character in Massenet’s Manon. She performs opposite fellow Richard Tucker Award-winner Matthew Polenzani as Des Grieux, while Emmanuel Villaume conducts. [London, UK; Jan 31; Feb 4]
FEBRUARY
Feb 6, 11 The Boston Symphony Orchestra and conductor Bernard Haitink present STEVEN STUCKY’s Funeral Music for Queen Mary (1992), first at the orchestra’s home in Boston and then at Carnegie Hall. The piece is an orchestration of three works by Henry Purcell that were played at the funeral of Mary II of England in 1695. [Feb 6: Boston, MA; Feb 11: CH]
Feb 6 – March 8 In his only Met appearance this season, ILDAR ABDRAZAKOV sings the title role in Borodin’s Prince Igor in a new production by noted Russian director Dmitri Tcherniakov, marking the first time the opera will have been presented at the Met since 1917. To coincide with the Russian bass’s performances, Delos releases his debut solo recording. The album presents a selection of bass arias from the Russian repertoire performed with the Kaunas Symphony Orchestra under Constantine Orbelian. [Met; Feb 6, 10, 14, 17, 21, 24; March 1, 4, 8]
Feb 8 The AMERICAN PIANISTS ASSOCIATION showcases its newly selected competition winner, 2013 DeHaan Classical Fellow Sean Chen, at the Jazz Kitchen in Indianapolis, with 2008 Jazz Fellow Dan Tepfer. View Chen’s performance of Bartok’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in the Gala Finals of APA’s yearlong competition. Chen also won third prize at the Cliburn competition in June, becoming the first American to reach the finals since 1997. [Indianapolis, IN]
Feb 8 – 16 A frequent performer on the city’s most venerable concert platforms, NICHOLAS PHAN returns to the New York opera stage in the title role of Johann Christian Bach’s rarely staged Endimione. The production, presented by NYC Opera, has four performances at El Museo del Barrio on Fifth Avenue. [El Museo del Barrio; Feb 8, 12, 14, 16]
Feb 12 – April 9 LEIF OVE ANDSNES takes an all-Beethoven program on a spring tour of Europe, the U.S. (including Carnegie Hall), and Japan. [Feb 12 – March 14 and March 26 – 29: European cities; March 16 – 19: U.S.; April 4 – 9: Japan] [see also March 16 – 19]
Feb 16, 18 Soprano ANGELA MEADE makes her Frankfurt Opera debut as Fidelia in Puccini’s Edgar, opposite fellow Beverly Sills Award-winner and Academy of Vocal Arts alum Bryan Hymel, who sings the title role. Marc Soustrot conducts two concert performances of Puccini’s rarely heard early work. [Frankfurt, Germany]
Feb 17 – March 10 In AILYN PÉREZ’s second show of the season at London’s Royal Opera House, she makes her role debut as Liù in Puccini’s Turandot. Pérez joins Iréne Theorin as Turandot and Alfred Kim as Calaf, with Nicola Luisotti in the pit. [London, UK; Feb 17, 20, 25, 28; March 4, 7, 10]
Feb 19 Van Cliburn Competition Silver Medalist and Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient JOYCE YANG makes her Seattle debut in recital at Meany Hall for the Performing Arts. The program includes repertoire from her upcoming Avie solo CD, Wild Dreams: Schumann, Bartók, Rachmaninoff, and Earl Wild’s arrangement of Rachmaninoff’s “Dreams.” [Seattle, WA]
Feb 21, 23 EASTMAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC presents pianist LEON FLEISHER in a masterclass open to the public (Feb 21) and in a performance of Brahms’s Piano Quintet with the Ying Quartet (Feb 23). [Rochester, NY]
Feb 21 – March 1 The New York City Ballet presents the world premiere of MARC-ANDRÉ DALBAVIE’s first ballet, which will be choreographed by NYCB’s ballet master-in-chief, Peter Martins. These world-premiere performances will be conducted by the French composer himself. [David H. Koch Theater; Feb 21, 26; March 1]
Feb 22 – March 29 STEPHEN COSTELLO makes his Washington National Opera debut as Greenhorn in Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick. Costello remains in DC after that to reprise the role of Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore. When he performed this role at Glyndebourne in 2011, The Times remarked: “The best voice on stage belongs to Stephen Costello.” [Washington, DC; Moby-Dick: Feb 22, 25, 28; March 2, 5, 8; L’elisir: March 20, 23, 24, 26, 28, 29]
Feb 26 – March 20 The Met’s Baroque fantasy, The Enchanted Island, returns after its acclaimed first run in 2011-12. The opera brings together the music of Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau, Purcell, and others, set to a new English libretto inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This time, the all-star cast is led by SUSAN GRAHAM as Sycorax, with David Daniels, Danielle de Niese, and Plácido Domingo reprising their respective roles as Prospero, Ariel, and Neptune. [Met; Feb 26; March 1, 5, 8, 12, 15, 20]
MARCH
March 6 – 22 Praised by the New York Times for his “ceaseless curiosity,” THOMAS HAMPSON adds another role to his wide-ranging repertoire: the title role in Berg’s Wozzeck. In the Met production, conducted by James Levine, Hampson joins DEBORAH VOIGT, who is also making a role debut as Marie. [Met; March 6, 10, 13, 17, 22]
March 7 – 9 JOYCE YANG returns to Fort Worth, where in 2005 at age 19 she became the youngest person ever to win a medal in the Cliburn competition. Yang plays Gershwin’s Concerto in F with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, led by Miguel Harth-Bedoya. [Fort Worth, TX; March 7, 8, 9]
March 7 – 23 Continuing its presentation of American musical theater on an operatic scale, HOUSTON GRAND OPERA brings Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music to the Wortham Center. Fashion legend Isaac Mizrahi designed the production (marking his first time working in opera), and headlining the all-American cast are soprano Elizabeth Futral, HGO Studio alumnus and company regular Chad Shelton, and mezzo Joyce Castle. Musical direction is by HGO’s own associate music director, Eric Melear. [Houston, TX; March 7, 9, 13, 15, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23]
March 11 Pianist JOYCE YANG releases her second solo CD for Avie Records. In Wild Dreams, she explores the imaginative worlds of Schumann’s Fantasiestücke, Bartók’s Out of Doors Suite, selections from Hindemith’s In einer Nacht, Earl Wild’s arrangements of Rachmaninoff’s “Dreams,” “The Little Island” and “Vocalise,” and the Russian composer’s Piano Sonata No. 2. On the same day, Foghorn Classics releases a disc of the Brahms and Schumann Piano Quintets performed by Yang and the Alexander String Quartet.
March 14 – 21 HOUSTON GRAND OPERA presents the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s A Coffin in Egypt, with a libretto by Leonard Foglia based on Horton Foote’s play of the same name. Foglia also directs the production. Mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade comes out of retirement to star in this monodrama. A Coffin in Egypt will mark HGO’s 52nd world premiere since 1973. [Houston, TX; March 14, 16, 21]
March 16 The Korngold Violin Concerto figures prominently in GIL SHAHAM’s 2013-14 season. New York audiences will get a chance to hear the violin master take on this virtuosic work, which draws on Korngold’s own film scores from the Golden Age of Hollywood, when Shaham joins the Vienna Philharmonic and conductor Zubin Mehta at Carnegie Hall. [CH]
March 16 – 19 LEIF OVE ANDSNES’s extensive spring recital tour makes several stops in the U.S. He takes his all-Beethoven program to Chicago, IL (March 16), Princeton, NJ (March 17), and New York’s Weill Recital Hall (March 18) and Carnegie Hall (March 19).
March 18 NICHOLAS PHAN performs at EASTMAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC as part of its Kilbourn Series. Phan was named one of NPR’s “Favorite New Artists” in 2011 and described as a “sweet, soaring tenor” by the New York Times, which also included his CD Britten: Vocal Works on its list of Best Classical Music Recordings of 2012. [Rochester, NY]
March 19, 26 During its week-long residency at the University of Texas at Austin, BROOKLYN RIDER presents two diverse programs. First, the quartet plays music from its recent recording A Walking Fire, including Béla Bartók’s second string quartet and new works by Lev “Ljova” Zhurbin and Brooklyn Rider’s violinist Colin Jacobsen. The second concert features soprano Dawn Upshaw, and includes music inspired by the ensemble’s namesake, Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), a Munich-based artistic collective whose members included Kandinsky and Schoenberg, and by the Blue Rider Almanac. [Austin, TX; March 19, 26]
March 20 DANIEL HOPE returns for his eleventh season as Associate Artistic Director of the multi-genre Savannah Music Festival, presenting chamber music favorites alongside new works commissioned for the festival. [Savannah, GA; dates tbd]
APRIL
April 4 – 25 JOSEPH CALLEJA returns to the Royal Opera House in the title role of Gounod’s Faust in a revival of Sir David McVicar’s lavish 2004 production. The all-star cast includes ANNA NETREBKO as Marguerite, Bryn Terfel as Mephistopheles, and Simon Keenlyside as Valentin. [London, UK; April 4, 7, 11, 14, 17, 22, 25]
April 6 DANIEL HOPE returns to the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for “Destination America,” a program of music by 20th-century composers who found a home in America; a highlight is Korngold’s Quintet in E major. [ATH]
April 11 DEBORAH VOIGT is presented by STANFORD LIVE, which offers nearly 40 music, dance, and multimedia events between September 22 and May 16 on the Stanford University campus. The soprano gives a recital in the recently opened Bing Concert Hall. [Stanford, CA]
April 11 – 26 Marking an important company milestone, HOUSTON GRAND OPERA launches its first presentation of Wagner’s Ring cycle, starting with Das Rheingold in a “visually dazzling” (Los Angeles Times) production from La Fura dels Baus. Previously staged only in Europe, this “genuinely original conception” (Music-Web International) employs acrobats in tableaux of human scenery and cutting-edge visual imagery to create “a veritable symphony in pictures” (Opera News). Scottish bass-baritone Iain Paterson makes his house debut in his first performances as Wotan. Singing opposite him as Fricka is American mezzo Jamie Barton, who has recently won the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, and Slovak tenor Stefan Margita reprises the role of Loge. Patrick Summers will lead from the pit. [Houston, TX; April 11, 13, 17, 23, 26]
April 13 Hundreds of opera fans, many cultural and social luminaries among them, gather in New York City for the ninth annual OPERA NEWS AWARDS gala, celebrating the achievements of distinguished honorees selected for their invaluable contributions to the art form. [The Plaza]
April 21 It takes three to tango. Violinist Augustin Hadelich is joined by pianist JOYCE YANG and guitarist Pablo Sáinz Villegas for a multimedia recital at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater. Tango, Song, and Dance presents works by Previn, Rodrigo, Falla, Piazzolla, Ginastera, Ysayë, and Villa-Lobos. [Washington, DC]
April 21 – May 10 FABIO LUISI leads performances of Rossini’s comedy La Cenerentola at the Met, where he holds the title of Principal Conductor, with a cast boasting Juan Diego Flórez, Luca Pisaroni and Joyce DiDonato. The May 10 performance will be transmitted live to movie theaters around the world as part of the Met’s Live in HD series. [Met; April 21, 25, 28, May 2, 6, 10 (HD)]
April 24 – 27 Recognized as being “one of the most imaginative programming concepts in years” (Musical America), GIL SHAHAM’s long-term exploration of the violin concertos of the 1930s continues this season. In Los Angeles he plays Bartók’s second concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Shaham’s recording of the work with Pierre Boulez and the Chicago Symphony was greeted by Time magazine as a “soaring interpretation, at once fiery and nobly lyrical … A near perfect realization of a modern masterpiece”; Time went on to christen Shaham “the outstanding American violinist of his generation.” [Los Angeles, CA: April 24, 25, 27, Costa Mesa, CA: April 26]
April 25 – May 10 HOUSTON GRAND OPERA breathes fresh life into Bizet’s Carmen with the help of American director/choreographer Rob Ashford. A Tony, Emmy, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award winner – with nominations for a further seven Tonys and five Olivier Awards – Ashford makes his opera debut with this new production. In her role debut as Bizet’s heroine is Ana María Martínez. Opposite her, Richard Tucker Award-winner Brandon Jovanovich portrays Don José. Escamillo is sung by bass-baritone Ryan McKinny. [Houston, TX; April 25, 27, 30; May 2, 4, 10]
April 25 – May 31 With these performances of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 4, JOYCE YANG completes her multi-year cycle of the Russian composer’s concertos with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra under Edo de Waart. But Yang and de Waart have more Rachmaninoff up their sleeves: Piano Concerto No. 2 is the vehicle for her debut with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic in Belgium in May. [Milwaukee, WI: April 25, 26, 27; Antwerp, Belgium: May 30, 31]
MAY
May 1 – 4 JOYCE YANG teams up with conductor Thomas Dausgaard and members of the Houston Symphony – violinist Frank Huang and cellist Brinton Smith – for her first Beethoven “Triple” Concerto. [Houston, TX; May 1, 3, 4]
May 6 – 20 AILYN PÉREZ and STEPHEN COSTELLO return to Covent Garden to portray Violetta and Alfredo in a revival of Richard Eyre’s production of Verdi’s La traviata. Last season at the same house, Pérez stepped in for an ailing colleague at the last minute, opposite Costello, for their first performance in the opera together. They join Simon Keenlyside, and Dan Ettinger conducts. [London, UK; May 6, 12, 17, 20]
May 7 – 18 Soprano ANGELA MEADE makes her Italian debut as Mathilde in Rossini’s Guglielmo Tell, opposite Carlos Álvarez in the title role. Teatro Regio di Torino’s music director Gianandrea Noseda conducts the new Graham Vick production. [Torino, Italy; May 7, 11, 18]
May 15 – 18 FABIO LUISI leads the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in three performances at its Amsterdam performance hall. The program consists of Honegger’s Rugby, Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole with violinist Vesko Eschkenazy, and Saint-Saëns’s Symphony No. 3, “Organ”. [Amsterdam, Netherlands; May 15, 16, 18]
May 18 GIL SHAHAM returns to Carnegie Hall’s main stage for the second time this season with another of Europe’s most celebrated orchestras: the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of chief conductor Mariss Jansons. Shaham explores another Violin Concerto of the 1930s: Alban Berg’s concerto “To the Memory of an Angel,” a work written shortly before the composer died in 1935. [CH]
May 28 – June 7 In one of the most anticipated events of the season, ALAN GILBERT and the New York Philharmonic launch their inaugural “NY Phil Biennial.” Inspired by art biennials held around the world, this kaleidoscopic and wide-ranging exploration of today’s music includes world, U.S. and New York premieres of symphonies, concertos, oratorios, chamber music and solo works by more than 50 composers including Peter Eötvös, Steven Mackey, Julia Wolfe, Matthias Pintscher, Elliott Carter, Pierre Boulez and George Benjamin. The festival showcases an array of curatorial voices as well as partnerships with venues both on and off the Lincoln Center campus. Among the many highlights will be Gilbert conducting the world premiere of Composer-in-Residence Christopher Rouse’s Symphony No. 4, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, on June 5 and 7. [Various venues including AFH]
JUNE
June 11 – 28 ALAN GILBERT and the New York Philharmonic team up with Artist-in-Residence Yefim Bronfman for “A Philharmonic Festival,” which explores all five Beethoven piano concertos and the composer’s “Triple Concerto” with Glenn Dicterow, violin, and Carter Brey, cello. [AFH; June 11 – 14: Concertos No. 1 & 4 with a new work by Anthony Cheung (world premiere o