Classical

Lift every voice!

Classical goodies for 2009

By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | December 30, 2008

090102_classical_mian
SWEET SINGING: Metropolitan Opera soprano Barbara Frittoli performs two programs with the BSO, including Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra.

Opera is the big word for 2009. The touring TEATRO LIRICO D'EUROPA brings back good old-fashioned opera with big voices and full-bodied choruses in Verdi's Aida (January 16-18) and Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci (Cutler Majestic Theatre, March 6-8; 617.824.8000). OPERA BOSTON's The Nose (Shostakovich) should be nothing to sneeze at, with Gil Rose conducting baritone Stephen Salters (Cutler Majestic, February 27 + March 1, 3; 617.451.9944). With his BOSTON MODERN ORCHESTRA PROJECT, for John Harbison's 70th birthday, Rose leads a long-overdue performance of Harbison's Shakespeare opera, A Winter's Tale (Jordan Hall, March 20; 617.585.1260). BOSTON LYRIC OPERA has glamorous soprano Marquita Lister in Dvorák's moonstruck Rusalka (Shubert Theatre, March 20-31; 617.542.6772). Sir Roger Norrington and the HANDEL AND HAYDN SOCIETY offer a rare shot at Haydn's Orfeo opera, L'anima del filosofo (Symphony Hall, January 23, 25; 617.262.1815).

To see live HD telecasts of METROPOLITAN OPERA productions, go on line to find the nearest movie theater. But what I'm most looking forward to is Verdi's glowering Simon Boccanegra, with James Levine leading the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA and the Met's star Verdi soprano, Barbara Frittoli, tenor Marcello Giordani, legendary baritone Josû van Dam, and bass James Morris (Symphony Hall, January 29, 31, February 3; 617.266.1200). Levine and Frittoli return for two Mozart arias on a program with Gunther Schuller's new commission, Where the World Ends, and some Brahms (February 5-7).

Levine concludes his appearances with three programs of Mozart symphonies, early (February 12-13 and 14, 17) and late (February 19-21). BSO guests include Dutch cellist Pieter Wispelwey playing the Haydn Second Cello Concerto under Bernard Labadie, who also leads music from Mozart's Idomeneo and a rare performance of Handel's complete Water Music (January 15-17). Kurt Masur conducts only Mendelssohn (January 22-24, 27). Stylish pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet plays the Liszt Second Concerto under Yannick Nûzet-Sûguin (February 26-28). Alan Gilbert, the new NY Philharmonic director, leads Sibelius, Rachmaninov (with pianist Stephen Hough), and Ives (March 5-7, 10). Herbert Blomstedt delivers the Goode (Richard, that is) in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 18 (March 12-14, 17). Hans Graf returns with the Brahms Double Concerto (Janine Jansen and Alisa Wallerstein) and Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 (March 19-21, 24). Charles Dutoit has a Franco-Russian program with violinist Lisa Batiashvili (March 26-28).

The CELEBRITY SERIES OF BOSTON brings two incisive and insightful international artists, German violinist Christian Tetzlaff and Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, in their first Boston appearance together — a varied program of Mozart, Brahms, Janácek, and Schubert (Jordan Hall, January 31; 617.482.6661). The London Symphony Orchestra under Valery Gergiev plays Profofiev's Fifth Symphony and accompanies pianist Alexei Volodin in Beethoven's Emperor Concerto (Symphony Hall, March 25). Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble return in two concerts (Symphony Hall, March 8-9). Celebrity Series chamber groups include Philharmonia Quartett Berlin, the principal string players of the Berlin Philharmonic, in Mozart, Lutoslawski, and Schubert (Jordan Hall, January 23), and the Orion String Quartet with clarinettist David Krakauer playing Wolf, Del Tredici, Golijov, and Beethoven (Jordan Hall, April 18). Live chamber music will surely be a part of the Mark Morris Dance Group's spring visit (Cutler Majestic, March 19-22). Mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter joins jazz pianist Brad Mehldau for an evening combining classical and jazz (Sanders Theatre, February 13). The Celebrity pianists are Angela Hewitt (Jordan Hall, February 22), Lang Lang (Symphony Hall, March 1), and Murray Perahia (Symphony Hall, March 29).

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Related: Contertizing, Erwartung . . ., French kiss, More

Contertizing
Boston Lyric Opera follows up Dvorák’s moonstruck Rusalka, with Christopher Schaldebrand in the title role of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, the BSO and much more.
Erwartung . . .
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).
French kiss
Productions I attended at the Opéra and Opéra Comique would be rare in New York, let alone Boston — though some of the performers would be familiar.
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.
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.
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.
Schnozzola!
By the time you read this, you've either seen or missed one of Boston's most exciting opera productions, Opera Boston's brilliant version of Shostakovich's The Nose .
World music
There’s more to Boston’s classical music scene than the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
The show goes on
Soprano Renée Fleming visits the PSO
Anniversaries and other occasions
Anniversaries, however fabricated, can still be useful. This year commemorates the 200th birthday of Felix Mendelssohn, the 150th birthday of Victor Herbert (both recently celebrated with intensive "orgies" on WHRB), the 200th anniversary of Haydn's death, and the 250th anniversary of Handel's death.
A song to sing, O!
Seiji Ozawa returns to the BSO, Boston Early Music Festival's 17th-century chamber operas, the Bostonians' Yeomen of the Guard
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Topics: Classical , Entertainment, Music, Robert Lowell, More

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ARTICLES BY LLOYD SCHWARTZ

CREATIONISTS | November 18, 2009
Simon Rattle and the BPO, Fabio Luisi and the BSO, John Harbison and Emmanuel Music

ALMOST | November 12, 2009
The Boston Lyric Opera comes maddeningly close to having a good Carmen . (The production continues at the Shubert Theatre through November 17.) Keith Lockhart leads a superb orchestra and chorus and a cast of plausible singers/actors in a compelling if not spine-tingling performance.

BLESSINGS: MIXED AND OTHERWISE | October 28, 2009
By odd coincidence, in recent weeks we’ve had performances of two important operatic rarities, landmark early works a century apart: 30-year-old Handel’s Amadigi (1715) and 20-year-old Rossini’s Tancredi (1813, his 10th opera!).

IN THE SWIM | October 14, 2009
My head’s swimming.

THE ROAR OF THE CROWD | October 13, 2009
I wasn’t there, but the opening-night dissatisfaction with the Met’s new Tosca was widely reported.

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