A few suggestions for another musically overloaded weekend
Let's start with the Baltimore Symphony. Fresh back from a well-received Carnegie Hall visit last weekend (except for one out-of-town reviewer who allowed only that it sounded "pretty decent"), the orchestra has an extremely attractive program that is only being performed once at Strathmore, once at Meyerhoff.
The mysterious ways of BSO scheduling elude me sometimes, although I know lots of variables are in play when the calendar is planned. (This particular schedule is the main source of my own personal consternation over what to catch, and what will be missed as a consequence.)
Anyway, Gunther Herbig is back to conduct, always a reason in itself to attend, and he's tackling one of the greatest 20th-century symphonies, the Tenth by Shostakovich. The program also contains Ravel's "Mother Goose" and Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 (with Tianwa Yang).
Saturday night finds
Sunday afternoon at Towson U's Center for the Arts, Pro Musica Rara offers a colorful assortment of works for cello and piano by Beethoven and his little known contemporary Joseph Wolfl, along with keyboard pieces by Mozart and Clementi. Along with Pro Musica artistic director/cellist Allen Whear, the concert features Christopher Hammer at the fortepiano. If you haven't checked out this organization lately, you're missing some fine music-making on period instruments, a terrific way to shift aural gears.
Back to the BSO. Several of its players will be participating in a typically wide-ranging program as part of the Chamber Music by Candlelight series at Second Pres -- works by Beethoven, Poulenc, Piazzolla, Robert Muczynski (heard a lot of Muczynski lately?) and the orchestra's own Jonathan Jensen.Speaking of chamber music, go back to Saturday. That afternoon, in the gem of a theater at the Evergreen Museum, the Claremont Trio plays a 20th century program of Ravel, Shostakovich and more.
Now, the vocal side. I'll write a proper review of Peabody Opera Theatre's production of Massenet's romantic classic "Manon" as soon as I can, but let me hasten to say now that it's well worth considering. Remaining performances are Friday and Saturday evenings, Sunday afternoon.
And wouldn't you know -- there's more opera this weekend. UM's excellent Maryland Opera Studio presents the regional premiere of Daniel Catán's "Florencia en el Amazonas," a work based on the writings of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The opera, about a famed diva's boat ride down the Amazon, turned out to be the most popular of more than two dozen premieres by Houston Grand Opera (I was quite taken with it myself there back in 1996). The UM production, using a chamber orchestra reduction of the original score, opens Friday evening, repeats Sunday afternoon and Monday and Tuesday nights.
Also on the vocal front, consider a concert Sunday afternoon that will traverse several centuries of choral music, from Galuppi and Haydn to Howells and Hovhaness, featuring the choir of Grace and St. Peter’s Parish, led by organist/choirmaster John Martin Marks.
Not bad for one weekend, and that's just the classical side.
FILE PHOTOS OF GUNTHER HERBIG, CHRISTOPHER HAMMER
Comments
Good to see a rare Alan Hovhaness performance on Sunday ... a composer too little known, and next year is his birth centennial.
Posted by: David | November 24, 2010 10:23 AM