Music scene isn't slowing down yet for the summer
For the third week in July, the local classical music scene looks remarkably active.
Naturally, the lion's share of activity is at An die Musik, where concerts seem to go on around the clock. At 8 tonight (the 20th), the third and final event in a Haydn/Mendelssohn series by Camerata Philadelphia will be offered, featuring the ensemble's founding director, cellist Stephen Framil. He'll play two solo works at the center of the program -- Ligeti's Sonata and a folksy showpiece by Mark Summer called Julie-O (see below for a performance of this cool item). Quartets by Haydn and Mendelssohn frame the program.
At 7 p.m. Thursday, young players from the International Music Institute and Festival USA at Mount St. Mary's University will give a concert (faculty at this summer institute include such well-known Baltimore-area musicians as Jonathan Carney, Jose Miguel Cueto and Brian Ganz).
Pianist Thomas Pandolfi, a Juilliard grad, wraps up the An die Musik week with a recital at 2 p.m. Saturday. Interesting program: Liszt's Dante Sonata, pieces by Chopin and Scriabin, Rhapsody in Blue and ...
Pandolfi's own improvisations on Gershwin tunes.
The free Roland Park Chamber Music Series wraps up with an exceptionally enticing pairing of works: the original 13-instrument version of Copland's Appalachian Spring and an early work of Vaughan Williams, the romantic C minor Piano Quintet from 1903. Vaughan Williams didn't think enough of it to have it published -- his distinctive stylistic voice hadn't yet emerged fully -- but it has since won favor as an attractive, well-crafted composition. (An excerpt is below.) The concert is at 7 p.m. Tuesday Roland Park Presbyterian.
This would be enough to make for a solid, off-season week, but there's also the BSO's performances of Beethoven's Ninth led by Gunther Herbig Thursday (Strathmore) and Friday (Meyerhoff). And, if you don't mind a bit of a schlep, consider Wolf Trap Opera's production of Monteverdi's Homer-inspired The Return of Ulysses, one of history's earliest examples of the operatic art, opening Friday (repeats Sunday and July 28).
Now, here's that Mark Summer cello work, which has a great summer-listening flavor, and a taste of the rhapsodic Vaughan Williams Piano Quintet:
