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TSO Announces Resident Conductor and Affiliate Composer

By Newswire on 18 June 2012 Arts Industry, Newswire, Orchestral

************************************** THE TSO ANNOUNCES RBC RESIDENT CONDUCTOR SHALOM BARD AND RBC AFFILIATE COMPOSER KEVIN LAUJune 18, 2012 – TSO Music Director Peter Oundjian proudly announces Canadian artists, conductor Shalom Bard as the TSO’s RBC Resident Conductor and composer Kevin Lau as the TSO’s RBC Affiliate Composer. In their roles, Shalom and Kevin will be fully integrated into all areas of the organization, with full access to the inner workings of a major symphony orchestra. Earlier this year, the TSO had an open call for applications which was met with an overwhelming response. Both highly sought-after positions, these two-year residencies represent an…

Nielsen Third a First for Austin, Texas

By Paul E. Robinson on 14 June 2012 Concert Reviews, Orchestral, Piano

by Paul RobinsonStanton: Triple Venti LatteRachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor Op. 18Nielsen: Symphony No. 3 Op. 27 “Espansiva”Jon Nakamatsu, pianoAustin Symphony OrchestraPeter Bay, conductorLong Center for the Performing ArtsAustin, TexasJune 2, 2012Carl Nielsen’s Third Symphony, which premiered in Copenhagen (Denmark) just over 100 years ago, had its first-ever performance in Austin this month. Long over due? Absolutely. This is a great symphony by one of the major composers of the Twentieth Century; “kudos” to Maestro Peter Bay and the Austin Symphony, not only for finally bringing this music to Central Texas, but also for the quality of the…

Austin Symphony and Conspirare Partner to Present Psalm Settings by Stravinsky and Bernstein

By Paul E. Robinson on 28 May 2012 Baroque and Early, Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Orchestral

by Paul RobinsonMaestro Peter BayBach/Stokowski: Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565*Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms**Bach-Stokowski: Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor BWV 582**Bernstein: Chichester Psalms*Conspirare Symphonic ChoirAustin Symphony OrchestraCraig Hella Johnson/ conductor*Peter Bay/ conductor**LongCenter for the Performing ArtsAustin, TexasIt was a clever idea to program together two important Twentieth Century musical settings of psalms, one by Igor Stravinsky and the other by Leonard Bernstein. While the texts are drawn from the same source, the music could hardly be more different. Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms is cool and austere while Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms” is emotional and more popular in style.…

Van Zweden/DSO Triumph with Concert Version of Beethoven’s Fidelio

By Paul E. Robinson on 24 May 2012 Classical, Concert Reviews, Orchestral

by Paul RobinsonLisa Milne, Leonore (Fidelio)Robert Dean Smith, FlorestanRobert Bork, PizarroArthur Woodley, RoccoSimona Saturova, MarzellineMarcel Reijans, JacquinoDetlef Roth, Don FernandoDallas Symphony Chorus (Joshua Habermann, director)Dallas Symphony Orchestra/Jaap van Zweden, conductorMeyerson Symphony CenterDallas, TexasMay 13, 2012On the face of it, opera “in concert” is a near impossibility. Opera is an art form that combines live theatre and music, with sets, costumes and the whole nine yards; to present it in concert form is to eliminate most of what makes it what it is; on the other hand, the music alone in many operas is so magnificent that the elimination of a full theatrical presentation can easily be justified, and in…

Hans Graf/HSO: Two Faces of Shostakovich in Houston

By Paul E. Robinson on 15 May 2012 Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Orchestral

by Paul RobinsonPhoto by Craig Chesek/Carnegie HallShostakovich/Milman: Anti-Formalist RayokShostakovich: Symphony No. 11 in G minor Op. 103 “The Year 1905”Mikhail Svetlov, bassHouston Symphony/Hans GrafJones HallHouston, TexasMay 3, 2012Over 44 years ago, Leopold Stokowskiconducted the first North American performance of the Symphony No. 11 byShostakovich. Stokowski was then music director of the Houston Symphony Orchestra (HSO) and had already conducted a number of important Shostakovich (photo: right) premieres. Around the time of those 1958 performances of Symphony No. 11, Stokowski and the HSO also made the first commercial recording of the piece.Hans Graf, the current music director of the Houston Symphony, is…

Jaap van Zweden/DSO: Cogent and Compelling Bruckner Eighth in Magnificent Meyerson

By Paul E. Robinson on 11 May 2012 Concert Reviews, Orchestral, Romantic

by Paul RobinsonBruckner: Symphony No. 8 in C minor (1890 version)Dallas Symphony Orchestra/ Jaap van Zweden, conductorMeyerson Symphony CenterDallas, TexasFriday, April 27, 2012For Dallas listeners who got to know Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony through one of the many Karajan recordings made between 1957 and 1988, Jaap van Zweden’s tempo for the Scherzo must have come as a shock. Where Karajan takes a very measured tempo – some would say slow and ponderous – van Zweden takes off like a rocket. Who is right? Well, for the record, the score is marked “Allegro moderato;” van Zweden clearly has the score on his side.It is interesting to note…

Van Zweden/DSO “Passion” a Performance for the Ages!

By Paul E. Robinson on 9 April 2012 Baroque and Early, Choral, Concert Reviews, Orchestral

Author : (Paul E. Robinson)

J.S. Bach: St. Matthew Passion BWV 244 John McVeigh, tenor Morgan Smith, baritone (Christus) Camilla Tilling, soprano Jennifer Johnston, alto Johannes Chum, tenor (Evangelist) Alistair Miles, bass Dallas Symphony Chorus, Joshua Habermann, director Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas, Cynthia Nott, director Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Jaap van Zweden, conductor Meyerson Symphony Center Dallas, Texas Friday, March 29, 2012 Jaap van Zweden, recently named “Conductor of the Year” by Musical America, has been recognized by music-lovers in Dallas since 2008 – the start of his music directorship of the DSO – as an extraordinary leader of musicians. He has impressed audiences and critics alike in the “Big D” with his…

From Theory to Practice: A conversation with instrument maker Stephen Fox

By Marc Chénard on 3 April 2012 Education, Interviews, Winds

(This is a continuation of the article in the April 2012 issue of this magazine. Read the article here.) Nora-Louise Müller / Photo: Thomas Berg Based in Toronto, Stephen Fox is a trained clarinettist who decided to go into instrument making over 20 years ago. In a recent e-mail interview, he provided some added background on this on-going vocation of his (he also maintains a career as a performer). In the following exchange, he briefly traces his beginnings as a maker of clarinets in both the traditional tempered system and, more recently, the microtonal one developed by HeinzBohlen and John Robinson Pierce.La Scena Musicale: You started building clarinets in…

Sounds Unlikely: The Bohlen-Pierce System

By Marc Chénard on 1 April 2012 Classical Music, Contemporary, Interviews

Author : (Marc Chénard)

The story of microtonality might be as old as music itself. In non-Western music traditions, e.g. Indian Carnatic music or Arabic melismas, its use is commonplace. Western concert music, in contrast, is built on fixed pitches no closer together than the semitone and now commonly played with twelve-tone equal temperament, a device that effectively ‘rounded off’ minute tone differences. While still confined to its margins, microtonality is gaining new acceptance in our culture, as witnessed by a steadily growing body of works exploring these timbral possibilites. The Russian Ivan Wyschnegradsky was a true pioneer in this respect, writing piano…

Denyce Graves: A Superstar Survivor

By Paul E. Robinson on 11 March 2012 Concert Reviews, Orchestral, Romantic

by Paul E. RobinsonBerlioz: Roman Carnival OvertureRavel: ShéhérazadeLalo: Le Roi d’Ys “De tous côtés j’aperçois dans la plaine”Saint-Saens: Samson et Dalila “Mon Coeur s’ouvre à ta voix”Saint-Saens: Samson et Dalila “Bacchanale”Bizet: Carmen “Près des remparts de Séville” (Seguidilla)Bizet: Carmen “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” (Habanera)Ravel: La ValseDenyce Graves, mezzo-sopranoAustin Symphony Orchestra/Peter Bay, conductorLong CenterAustin, TexasFriday, March 2, 2012What does it take for a young singer to make it to the stage of the Metropolitan Opera? What does it take to triumph in leading roles with colleagues like Placido Domingo and James Levine? Having achieved all that, what does it take to stay there at the height of operatic superstardom?In the 1990s, Denyce Graves (photo: right) was…

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