LEON FLEISHER performs with the Emerson String Quartet for the Celebrity Series in May. |
BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA music director James Levine will be back in February to continue his survey of Beethoven and Schoenberg with Metropolitan Opera diva Deborah Voigt in Beethoven’s “Ah! perfido” and Schoenberg’s Erwartung (“Awaiting”), along with Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture and Eighth Symphony (Symphony Hall, February 1-3). He follows this with nothing less than Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust, with French mezzo-soprano Yvonne Naef, American tenor Paul Groves, and the great Belgian baritone José van Dam (February 8-10). Other standout programs include Mahler’s Third Symphony with powerhouse mezzo Stephanie Blythe (March 15-17) and Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio, with a starry cast including sopranos Karita Mattila and Jennifer Welch-Babidge, tenors Johann Botha and Matthew Polenzani, bass-baritone James Morris, and bass Kurt Moll (March 23, 25, 27). Levine will also conduct new American works by Charles Wuorinen, along with Haydn and Brahms (February 15-17), and Gunther Schuller, along with Mozart (with pianist Alfred Brendel) and Ravel (March 29-31).Before he returns, the BSO guest conductors will include Robert Spano, with violinist Joshua Bell (January 4-6, 9); David Zinman, with John Harbison’s Canonical American Songbook and Radu Lupu playing Mozart’s D-minor Piano Concerto (January 11-13, 16); Sir Colin Davis leading Mozart and Haydn symphonies and Imogen Cooper in Mozart’s C-minor Piano Concerto (January 18-20, 23) and the Sixth Symphonies by Beethoven and Vaughan Williams (January 25-27). Also visiting: Jukka-Pekka Saraste and cellist Anssi Karttunen, in a mostly Finnish program (February 22-14, 27); Ingo Metzmacher doing Bruckner’s Sixth and Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2, with Leonidas Kavakos (March 2, 3, 6); Charles Dutoit in a program of Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky, and the Beethoven First Piano Concerto with phenomenal superstar pianist Martha Argerich (March 8-10, 13). Call 617.266.1200 or visitwww.bso.org.
KARITA MATTILA performs with the BSO in March and gives a Celebrity Series recital in April. |
More superstars return in the (formerly Bank of America) CELEBRITY SERIES, which is bringing us violinist Hilary Hahn (January 12) and a trio of pianists: Lang Lang (January 28), Garrick Ohlsson (February 10), and Alexander Kobrin (March 25). Soprano Dawn Upshaw is on the roster (February 25), as are the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, under the too-long-absent Riccardo Chailly with young piano virtuoso Yundi Li (February 28), and the National Philharmonic of Russia, with Vladimir Spivakov and pianist Olga Kern (March 16). Beloved Broadway star turned classic American song stylist Barbara Cook will be more than welcome (March 24), and so will Finnish soprano Karita Mattila (April 13). Chamber-music highlights include violist Roger Tapping with the Prazák String Quartet (March 17) and (get your tickets early) pianist Leon Fleisher with the Emerson String Quartet (May 12). Subscriptions are a bargain; call 617.482.2595 or visitwww.celebrityseries.org.EMMANUEL MUSIC (617.536.3355) got its series of concert performances of Handel operas based on Ariosto off to a spectacular start last fall with Orlando. Next up is the tragic/heroic Ariodante, lesser known but with some of Handel’s most expressive arias (January 27), with Michael Beattie conducting. Last will be the magical and moving Alcina, with Craig Smith on the podium (April 21).
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Russian, Spanish, American . . ., Loved these but not those, Flirting with Beethoven, More 
- Russian, Spanish, American . . .
What everyone is looking forward to this fall is the return to the podium of Boston Symphony Orchestra music director James Levine.
- Loved these but not those
Of the great international orchestras, perhaps the one that's most unfairly overlooked is the London Symphony Orchestra. Yet a handful of the very greatest orchestral performances I've ever heard have been with the LSO.
- Flirting with Beethoven
It is said that Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) “got around.” Even today, the old dog arouses the interests of performers and seduces listeners.
- Beethoven summer
The only music festival in Maine to be mentioned in the New York Times "Summer Stages" segment, this spectacular music fest can be appreciated by classical connoisseurs and novices alike.
- Diva-gations
Last week's Boston Symphony concert was a snaggle of contradictions. British guest conductor Mark Wigglesworth was substituting for the exciting but erratic Russian maestro Yuri Termirkanov, who'd cancelled all his American appearances.
- Baroque and beyond
Ten-best lists usually come at the end of the season, but this year the Phoenix has asked its critics to provide a calendar of 10 events that, at least on paper, might wind up on an end-of-season Top 10. Boston, in case you didn't know it, is a great city for classical music, so it's not easy to keep the list short. But here goes.
- Expressions of war
One of the best string quartets in the world will be within a D-string's distance from Portland, come Monday night.
- Lift every voice!
Opera is the big word for 2009.
- Boston feasts
The Boston Symphony Orchestra, Celebrity Series, Emmanuel Music, Boston Early Music Festival, and more.
- Taking chances
The most extraordinary event at last week’s extraordinary Boston Symphony Orchestra concert was the one the fewest people heard.
- From Knoxville to Swan Lake and back
As our most prestigious classical-music institution, the Boston Symphony Orchestra ought to be every year’s headliner, and once again, under the adventuresome direction of James Levine, it is.
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Music Features
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