Events and Festivals

EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL PREPARES FOR NEW START
August 31, 2010

Now in its thirteenth year, the city’s groundbreaking Early Music Festival returns on September 5. Every fall, vibrant performances of its refined ensembles evoke, embody and revive the long-lost noble spirit of St. Petersburg.

The fierce music of Estonia, Latvia
August 27, 2010

Tanglewood meets Robinson Crusoe here at the Nargen Festival, an out-of-the-comfort-zone break from the venerable concert halls of Tallinn as well as an immersion into Estonian identity. It leaves little question why tiny Baltic republics, particularly Estonia and Latvia, have become a fierce force in classical music - a force heard with increasing frequency in Philadelphia, leaving audiences both startled and entranced.

UK's first classical music festival mixes mud and Mozart
August 27, 2010

At first glance it looks like a rock festival. Hardy campers in wellies and odd hats traipse from event to event determined to have a good time. There's a double decker cider bus and food stalls are selling curries and burgers. And, of course, there's lots and lots of mud.

But it sounds nothing like Glastonbury or the Big Chill. A soprano is belting out an aria from a soggy yurt while further on a choir is being coaxed through a tricky bit of Mozart in a wind-battered marquee. Over on the main stage a full orchestra is tuning up.

MUSIC IN THE NEWS

Top Headlines MetTalks Discussion Series Kicks Off on Sept. 22 with Lepage and Terfel on Das Rheingold September 02, 2010 MetTalks, a series of panel discussions with the casts and creative teams of the Met's new productions, will begin Sept. 22 with a conversation about Das Rheingold. Director Robert Lepage and star Bryn Terfel chat with Met General Manager Peter Gelb.   Van Cliburn piano competition unfolds at the keyboard and behind the scenes in new documentary August 31, 2010 This isn’t "American Idol." It’s more like "Global Idols at the Ivories," a glorious mix of virtuosity and great music documenting 29 young pianists in their drive to win the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The outcome of this 90-minute film (airing Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. EDT on PBS; check local listings) is hardly a secret, despite its coy title, "A Surprise in Texas." The contest, closely followed in classical music circles every four years, took place in May 2009.   Recent Headlines Rugby choir attracts 10,000 fans for no-frills anthem Santa Fe Opera Preps for 2011 Season, With New Chief Conductor Frédéric Chaslin From Zero To Hero: Seraphic Fire's Viral Monteverdi NYC Opera to Feature Works of Schwartz, Bernstein et al. in '10-'11 Midori's Far-Reaching Message Of Music More critics weigh in on the Rosenberg/Cleveland Orchestra/Plain Dealer case A Fortissimo First for the Philharmonic Donald Rosenberg, ousted Plain Dealer classical-music critic, talks about court loss Staff Favorites Renee Fleming Sings 'Lucrezia Borgia' Brian Wilson Takes On George Gershwin Quaver or not … should orchestras use vibrato? How Vaughan Williams captured a country with strings Schumann At The Source: 'Genoveva' At The Gewandhaus

Ensemble and Performer News La Monnaie to Kick Off Brussels Season With Yvonne September 02, 2010 Brussels' opera La Monnaie opens its season Sept. 9 with Philippe Boesmans' Yvonne, Princess of Burgundy, starring Mireille Delunsch, Paul Gay and Dorte Lyssewski. Full season details announced.   Composer News BBC Composer of the Week: Johannes Brahms September 02, 2010 After 20 years of turbulent friendship, the relationship between Brahms and Joseph Joachim finally snapped at the beginning of the 1870s. But for once it wasn't the fault of the infamously rude and argumentative composer.   Reviews Prom 62: Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester/ Blomstedt, Royal Albert Hall September 02, 2010 Like the Matthias Grünewald paintings that inspired it, Paul Hindemith’s Symphony “Mathis der Maler” sounds somehow, and quite miraculously, to be illuminated from within.