Monthly Archives: February 2010
The Met Announces 2010-11 Season
The Metropolitan Opera has announced its 2010-11 season, continuing its progressive approach of attracting new audiences and exciting the current ones. Some highlights of the season are: • Seven NEW productions, including the first two parts of a new Wagner … Continue reading
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Filed under Classical Music News, Opera
Review: The King’s Singers
Is it ever possible to be too perfect? The King’s Singers, the six-man vocal ensemble from Britain, is on the tail end of their current U.S. tour and made a concert stop in Knoxville at Church of the Ascension last … Continue reading
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Filed under Performance Reviews, Vocal Performance
Freebies from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, which performed a couple of Carnegie Hall concerts this month, has an intriguing offer: free downloads of live performances from their website. There are ten works being offered–all repertoire favorites: Schubert’s “Unfinished,” Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2, … Continue reading
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Filed under Classical Music News
In Performance: UT Symphony “Orchestral Romance”
At Sunday’s UT Symphony concert, I overheard some audience members converse in passing: “Well, they should sound great. Half the [expletive deleted] Knoxville Symphony violin section is playing.” Now wait a minute…that was just plain hyperbole—there were only four “guest” … Continue reading
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Filed under Orchestral, Performance Reviews
In Metro Pulse: An “Orchestral Romance”
Mozart wrote his Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra in A Major, K. 622, not for the conventional clarinet of his day, but for an unusual basset clarinet constructed by the Viennese clarinet virtuoso Anton Paul Stadler. A restored version of … Continue reading
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Filed under Classical Music News, Orchestral
Confessions of a Bachophile, Chapter 4
Mm! how sweet the coffee tastes, More delicious than a thousand kisses, Mellower than muscatel wine. Coffee, coffee I must have, And if someone wishes to give me a treat, Ah, then pour me out some coffee! Lieschen’s aria, J.S. … Continue reading
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Filed under Confessions of a Bachophile
REVIEW: “An Age of Enlightenment”
I admit that I have taken a few good-natured jabs at this season’s UT Faculty Chamber Music Series, Music of the Ages, for the rather esoteric connections between the concert sub-titles and the works on the programs. Yesterday’s concert, titled … Continue reading
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Filed under Chamber Music, Instrumental Ensembles, Performance Reviews
“Bach and Friends” Completed and Available
In a post last fall, I mentioned the documentary, Bach and Friends, by filmmaker Michael Lawrence. The film has been completed and is now available on DVD. The film contains commentary and performances by a vast number of artists from different … Continue reading
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Filed under Classical Music News
FYI: List of 2010 Classical Grammy Winners
Best Engineered Album: Mahler: Symphony No. 8; Adagio From Symphony No. 10 Michael Tilson Thomas and San Francisco Symphony Classical Producer of the Year: Steven Epstein Produced- Adams: Doctor Atomic Symphony (David Robertson & Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra) Bernstein: Mass (Marin … Continue reading
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Filed under Classical Music News
