With a program that celebrated both grand ideals and dark musings, Leonard Slatkin began the final program of his 12-year tenure as music director of the National Symphony Orchestra last night. It would be well worth catching one the repeats, Friday or Saturday at the Kennedy Center. (Click here for info.) 

Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 3, a mini-drama about the struggle for liberty, got a bracing workout from the conductor, who did some subtle things with phrasing early on, and put extra bite into the massed chords and surging tempos of the coda. There were some slippery bits of articulation, but the NSO still came through in big-boned and vibrant fashion. Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 2, a work filled with ominous gestures, sardonic flashes and a touch of defiance, even rage, against the some dark force, provided a worthy vehicle for the NSO debut of Sol Gabetta. The Argentine-born cellist, still in her 20s, is understandably making a spash on the world scene. She didn't just demonstarte the requisite technical command, but really got deep into the music's undercoating. Her absorbing performance was matched by Slatkin's attentiveness to detail and a potent effort by the orchestra, especially the horns and percussion.

Slatkin closed the program with one of his specialties, Copland's Symphony No. 3, which also featured on the conductor's first concert at the NSO helm in 1994. This work should be as well known to American audiences as Dvorak's New World Symphony. The music conjures up open spaces, hearts and minds; it's at once rustic and urban, rugged and sensitive. Slatkin caught the full measure of the score and had the NSO operating impressively. The string section -- the conductor's greatest gift to the development of the orchestra -- shone with particularly warmth and power. For the big tune of the finale, Copland appropriated one of his own, best-known pieces, Fanfare for the Common Man. Hearing it resound so passionately last night suggested that it could also be considered, at least this weekend, a fanfare for an uncommon conductor.     

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Last night's Baltimore Symphony Orchestra season-finale was something of a mirror version of the opening program back in September -- a big contemporary American work, an even bigger item from the standard European canon. This time, instead of tackling some John Adams (Fearful Symmetries) and Mahler's Symphony No. 5, music director Marin Alsop focused on Joan Tower's Concerto for Orchestra and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. The results were much like they were in September, too -- a hot performance of the modern piece, an uneven account of the venerable classic. 

Tower, nearing 70, is a quintessential American composer in many ways. Her music is honest, welcoming and plain-talking, even when it's at its most complicated. It's all about taut strength and rhythmic vitality; it's not afraid to be downright entertaining at times. Her Concerto for Orchestra is full of activity, much of it derived from small cells of thematic motion. Wonderful sounds pour out from each group of instruments, and soloists within each group. The opening, Tower suggested in brief remarks to the packed Music Center at Strathmore, evokes a flat horizon suddenly animated by a moving object. Eventually that movement spins out in all sorts of directions to create melodic interest, just as the orchestral coloring keeps taking on fresh textures. The half-hour work was delivered with considerbale power and sensitivity by the BSO, led with the kind of attention to detail Alsop is famous for in contemporary music.

The conductor certainly noticed details in Beethoven's Ninth, too, but sometimes at the expense of taking in the big picture. Like many a performance of the Ninth, this one was weighted toward the much-loved finale; that's where most of the energy seemed directed, leaving the other three segments in what should be a full-fledged, four-act drama under-fueled. I didn't hear much mystery in the first movement, much character in the second; there were beautiful things in the phrasing of the third, but curiously matter-of-fact ones as well. Slippery passages in the BSO'e execution should smooth out in the Meyerhoff concerts this weekend. The Baltimore Choral Arts Society fulfilled its assignment vibrantly; the solo vocal quartet offered particularly sturdy, vivid work at the register extremes -- soprano Janice Chandler-Eteme and bass Kevin Deas.

Chick here for ticket info. 

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It would be well worth a trip to catch Summer Opera Theatre's 30th-anniversary-season-opening revival of Die tote Stadt, not because it's a flawless production, but because it gets close enough to the heart of the musical and dramatic matter to demonstrate what a splendid work this really is.  

The plot of the 1920 opera, which has a few elements that will remind film buffs of Hitchcock's Vertigo, involves a man's obsession with his dead wife and his feeling that she has returned to life, or at least has a double wandering among the living. Freudian concepts abound; symbolism is rampant. Stylistically, the music is awash in Straussian melodies, harmonies and orchestral coloring, but Korngold's own voice, however overwrought at times, shines brightly. It's really hard to take your ears off of the sumptuous music, even when, as in the Summer Opera presentation, the orchestra isn't quite big or solid enough, and when not all of the singers have the skills for the challenge. What counts here is that the two principals do have those skills to a sufficient degree. On Wednesday night, Michael Hayes, as Paul, the crazed widower, never seemed to tire, despite the fact that so much of the score kept him operating in the upper register. There was quite a lot of style and substance to his singing. Too bad he was dressed like Mister Rogers part of the time; not quite the most effective look. As Marietta, the dead-ringer for Paul's wife, Kara Shay Thomson rode the melodic crests confidently and, for the most part, with considerable expressive impact. Neither singer was totally comfortable in the acting department, but both managed to create sympathetic portrayals. Mark Whatley (Frank) and Alexandra Christoforakis (Brigitta) offered generally sturdy contributions; the rest of cast was not quite ready for prime time. The orchestra had its potent moments. Mark Graf's conducting was often too straight-jacketed; he beat time through the exquisite orchestral coda to Marietta's Lied, and missed other opportunities to mold the score poetically. But there were still wonderful moments along the way when he helped bring out the compelling emotional richness of Korngold's writing. The production, directed by company founder Elaine Walter, was short on atmosphere, yet conveyed enough of qualities that make Die tote Stadt such an imagiantive work of music and theater.        

There's one more performance: 2:30 p.m. on Sunday at Catholic University's Hartke Theatre. For tickets, call 202-319-4000 or 202-526-1669. Click here for more info.

Photo from Schott Music

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A few weeks ago, I flipped on the radio as I headed to The Sun and found myself in the third movement of Tchaikovsky's Second Symphony. Something about the performance grabbed me instantly, the liveliness of the playing, the power of the phrasing. I just had to hear the rest of the work, so I ended up staying in my car in the parking garage right through the intense drive of the finale. Afterward, I expected the radio announcer to identify a Russian orchestra and conductor. Instead, it turned out to be the Saint Louis Symphony conducted by Leonard Slatkin. I recalled that experience Monday night as I listened at the Kennedy Center to Slatkin leading the National Symphony Orchestra in a concert version of Tchaikovsky's opera, Eugene Onegin. The things I loved about that Second Symphony recording were in abundance here -- especially the extra propulsion where it counted, as at the end of the famous Act 2 Waltz. But Slatkin's sensitivity to the gentler portions of the score proved just as appealing. He caught the opera's emotional bittersweetness to telling effect throughout, and he generated from cast and orchestra alike a remarkable expressive impact.

 In the title role, seasoned baritone Sergei Leiferkus might not have sounded like the 20-something anti-hero of the libretto, but he sang with abundant nuance and, except for some strain at the upper reaches, solidity. Irina Mataeva was a marvelous Tatiana, her tone rich and penetrating, her characterization involving. Daniil Shtoda's tenor was a little too light for the role of Lensky, but his singing was quite eloquent. Ekaterina Semenchuk (Olga), Irina Tchistjakova (Larina) and Mzia Nioradze (Filipyevna) produced a great deal of sumptuous tone and animated phrasing. Gustav Andreassen sang Prince Gremin's aria nobly. Robert Baker delivered the little solo of Monsieur Triquet with admirable subtlety and charm. The Washington Chorus handled its assignment colorfully.

One of the best things about hearing operas in concert form is the opportunity to savor the fullness of the orchestration, something not always encountered, for one reason or another, in regular stage productions. (I wish the Baltimore Symphony would wake up to the possibilities of concert opera.) Other than some questionable articulation or tuning in the winds, the NSO dug into Tchaikovsky's music impressively, with the strings offering especially elegant work.

As he winds down his 12 seasons at the helm (this was his penultimate program), Slatkin seems to be in top form. His beautifully molded account of Eugene Onegin can be added to the most memorable achievements of his tenure.   

Photo by Steve J. Sherman

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Yuri Temirkanov, music director emeritus of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and longtime music director of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, has been named music director of Teatro Regio di Parma, the opera house/company near where Verdi was born. Temirkanov's appearance there last fall, conducting a production of Verdi's La traviata, drew ecstatic reviews from mainstream critics and the blogosphere. 

The eminent, 69-year-old Russian artist will begin his five-year tenure in January 2009, which will take him through the 2013 bicentennial of Verdi's birth. Although Baltimore got to hear only a taste of Temirkanov's flair for the operatic repertoire during his BSO years, it was enough to make some of us hunger for much more. Now we've got a fresh excuse for trips to Italy. As the anonymous voice of Opera Chic, one of the most entertaining and trustworthy sites on the Web, puts it, with the Temirkanov appointment, "Parma ... automatically becomes one of the big players of the opera world out there."      

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A gastroenterologist from Maryland, Christopher Shih, has been named winner of the first YouTube Conest for amateur pianists, presented by the Van Cliburn Foundation in Fort Worth, Texas. His entry was an assured and colorful performance of Los requiebros from Goyescas by Granados. Dr. Shih, 35, will now gain automatic entry, application fee-free, to the next Cliburn International Competition for Outstanding Amateurs in 2011. About 2,400 people voted online, choosing among 41 amateurs (age 35 and older) who uploaded video performances of 5-10 minutes in length on YouTube. Dr. Shih, who earned his medical degree at Johns Hopkins, is affiliated with the Maryland Digestive Disease Center, which has offices in Ellicott City, Laurel and Takoma Park.

The YouTube contest provides extra attention to the Cliburn competition for amateurs; a second such contest will be held in 2009. The foundation's primary work, of course, remains the Cliburn International Piano Competition, named after the sensational American pianist Van Cliburn, who won the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958.

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A return visit to Baltimore Opera Company's new production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly gave me a chance to hear a Japanese-born soprano, Mihoko Kinoshita, in the iconic role of the Japanese heroine. It also gave me a chance to check, and basically confirm, my intitial impressions about Paolo Micciche's distinctive visual concept for the staging.

As for Kinoshita, her single performance Saturday night (the 17th) at the Lyric was very much like that of the Chinese-American singer Shu-Ying Li on opening night the week before -- vocally tentative at the start, but quickly gaining strength and richness; dramatically on target, with a wealth of detail in the acting. Kinoshita left quite a vivid mark on the role, especially in the Act 2 scene when Butterfly reveals to the U.S. consul Sharpless the child she had with the American naval cad, Pinkerton. (Shu-Ying Li also hit her expressive height in that scene on the 10th.) The rest of the cast was the same for Kinoshita's performance. John Packard's Sharpless sounded firmer of voice and even more communicative. Misoon Ghim's affecting portrayal of Butterfly's loyal servant Suzuki likewise revealed more vocal solidity. Jose Luis Duval remained only an adequate actor as Pinkerton, but his tenor often bloomed impressively. Once again, l  thought Stephen Mould's conducting missed opportunities to caress the most heart-melting passages; he moved things along too briskly in the love duet for the music to reveal all of its seductive beauty. But Mould certainly knew how to set up striking dynamic contrasts, to tighten the tension of key moments in the drama, and that knack paid off handsomely, as it had on opening night back on the 10th. And the orchestra sounded more deeply and securely settled into the music this time.

I still found Micciche's projected, swirling, blending images, all digitially projected onto screens (and, sometimes, costumes) ultimately persuasive. I've heard a grumble or two from folks who wanted something more traditional in the way of sets and found this approach distracting. But the two skeptical folks I attended the performance with on the 17th ended up singing the praises of the projections. Certain of the designer's choices struck me again as arbitrary, and some scenes still seemed unnecessarily busy. But the music and drama came through unscathed, with the emotional impact of several key passages greatly intensified by the imagery. It will be interesting to see how Micciche will treat Verdi's Aida when he returns to Baltimore Opera in the fall, and if he can keep his trademark computerized visuals looking fresh.      

One last thought: I think it's a great idea to perform the second and third acts of Butterfly without an intermission, as the Baltimore production did. After all, that's what Puccini first had in mind. But the really neat thing would be to restore the composer's original connecting music between those two acts, because that provides a much smoother, more atmospheric transition from the "Humming Chorus" into the Intermezzo. I had the same thought the other day at the Baltimore Symphony's pops program, which followed the "Humming Chorus" with the Act 3 Intermezzo from the standard, revised version of the score.  Maybe next time.

PHOTO: Baltimore Opera Company's production of 'Madama Butterfly,' Michael DeFilippi, photographer (courtesy of Baltimore Opera)  

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Inspired by the sensational success of the the countrywide El Sistema music program that involves several hundred thousand low-income children in Venezuela, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra today announced OrchKids, a new pilot program that will begin in the fall at an inner-city school.

About two dozen first-graders at Harriett Tubman Elementary School in Baltimore will participate in the program, which will be held three days a week. By the end of the school year, the students will have been introduced to basics of music and will choose an instrument to study in the subsequent years of the project. By the third year, those first OrchKids will be helping to mentor first-graders coming into the program.

Initial funding for OrchKids comes from Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker. BSO music director Marin Alsop has pledged $100,000 of her own as part of a four-to-one matching grant to support the project, which she envisions as "a program for the whole child." 

Alsop expects to visit the school periodically to participate in activities. Dan Trahey, a musician and educator who has taught in Baltimore public schools and elsewhere, is the program manager for OrchKids, which will involve a team of part-time music instructors.

The role of BSO musicians in the after-school program is still being worked out, but the orchestra will have direct interaction with the kids during visits to rehearsals and concerts at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.

Partners in the BSO's initiative include the Baltimore City Public School System, Peabody Institute, Arts Everyday, Baltimore School for the Arts and the Family League.    

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The Baltimore Opera Company announced Thursday that it will bring the popular Metropolitan Opera high-def, digital simulcasts, currently beamed into movie theaters across the country and around the world, to the Lyric Opera House, starting next season. This will be the first presentation of the Met’s simulcasts inside Baltimore. They are currently available at cineplexes in Abingdon and Columbia.

A grant from the Abell Foundation and an anonymous donor have enabled Baltimore Opera to secure the necessary projection and satellite equipment for the project. Company general director Michael Harrison describes the venture as "an effort to provide an affordable means of introducing younger audiences to opera and to generate additional traffic for the Lyric Opera House and other Mt. Vernon area businesses."

The Met’s simulcast series includes 11 transmissions next season, beginning with an opening night gala Sept. 22 featuring soprano Renee Fleming (pictured above), and including productions of Salome, Madama Butterfly and the recent opera by John Adams, Doctor Atomic.

Details on dates and ticket prices for the Lyric Opera presentations will be announced in July. Tickets will go on sale in August.

AP Photo of soprano Renee Fleming

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It might not be quite up there with American Idol, but the just-announced auditions being held by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra promise a chance to bask for a few minutes in the spotlight before an audience of thousands.

All you have to be is between the ages of 8 and 18 and capable of getting through one of the toughest musical assignments in the business -- singing our National Anthem. With its famously treacherous range, "The Star-Spangled Banner" takes more than rudimentary vocal skill, so any anthem competition has the distinct possibility of veering into The Gong Show territory. But the BSO's venture certainly has the possibility to uncover some notable singing talent  

Contestants must be able to warble the anthem in either B-flat or A-flat major. An accompanist will be provided for the auditions, which will be held on June 9, from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Winners will get to sing during the BSO's patriotic-theme concerts July 3-5, conducted by Constantine Kitsopoulos, at the outdoor Oregon Ridge, which typically draws thousands of listeners. 

Judges include Reagan Warfield from 106.5 FM. To register for an audition, applicants must email their requests by 5 p.m. June 4 and, among other things, include a statement of why they want to win this opportunity. Parental permission forms are required for those under 18.

Click here for more info.     

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Pulitzer Prize-winning, Baltimore-born Christopher Rouse has been named Distinguished Composer-in-Residence at the Peabody Conservatory, where he'll work with composition students starting in the fall. An annual public concert of Rouse's music will also be part of the residency.

The composer, who is on the faculty of the Juilliard School in New York, lives in Baltimore, where his work has long been championed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Current BSO music director Marin Alsop is among his advocates; she conducted his Flute Concerto here in March and is conducting his Der gerettete Alberich this week with her other BSO, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, in England. 

PHOTO: Christopher Rouse consults with Marin Alsop during a Baltimore Symphony Orchetsra rehearsal. Baltimore Sun Photo (Monica Lopossay)

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The Chicago Symphony Orchestra today named Riccardo Muti, the brilliant 66-year-old Italian conductor, as its 10th music director, effective September 2010.

His initial five-year contract calls for a minimum 10 weeks of subscription concerts each season. Muti, who recently ended a productive, if often stormy, tenure as music director of La Scala in Milan, succeeds Daniel Barenboim.

As one of the world's greatest orchestras, the Chicago Symphony has a distinguished history of music directors, including Georg Solti and Fritz Reiner. Muti guest-conducted the CSO last fall in Chicago and on a European tour, generating enormous praise and a steady buzz that he should be given the podium full-time.

The breaking news item posted by my colleague John von Rhein on the Chicago Tribune Web site includes a link to the CSO's press release on the appointment.

The Muti coup in Chicago (the New York Philharmonic had wooed him too, before choosing Alan Gilbert) puts renewed pressure on other major ensembles still left with music director vacancies -- the Philadelphia Orchestra (where Muti was once music director) and the National Symphony. Stay tuned.

Photo: AP

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Carl Orff's surefire Carmina Burana is never far from earshot. If it's not being used in movies or TV commercials, it's in the concert hall, where you'll find it this weekend, courtesy of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Last night's performance at the Meyerhoff provided plenty of aural titillation to go with the often ribald medieval texts, which Orff set to music with a pseudo-primitivism that hasn't lost its entertaining kick since the piece was first heard in 1937. Marin Alsop had the score charging along mightily, with the help of the attentive Baltimore Choral Arts Society, Peabody Children's Chorus and a remarkably potent trio of vocal soloists. I'll have a full review on Saturday (in print and online).

At last check, some seats remain for tonight and Sunday afternoon at Meyerhoff; Saturday's repeat at Strathmore is sold out. Click here for details.   

Photo courtesy of BSO

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The Baltimore Chamber Orchestra has named a new concertmaster -- Madeline Adkins, associate concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. (The BCO and BSO have a long history of mutual personnel and cooperation on scheduling.) Guest concertmasters have filled the post since another BSO violinist, Craig Richmond, stepped down two years ago.

Adkins, one of the bright young talents brought into the BSO by former music director Yuri Temirkanov, has been featured in several of that orchestra's programs in recent season, displaying her admirable technical skills and strong musical personality.

Adkins will be make her first appearance as BCO concertmaster in the orchestra's season-closing program of Haydn and Stravinsky May 21 at Goucher College. For concert details click here.  

Photo: Courtesy of BSO

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The 25th anniversary of Strathmore will offer newly created works, a 17-concert history of keyboard music, a celebration of Broadway song and a good deal more.  Strathmore, which started out in a historic Montgomery County mansion in 1983, expanded in 2005 to include the Music Center where the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra makes its second home. (The BSO's Strathmore season was previously announced.) The center and the mansion will be much in use for the 2008-2009 anniversary season.

Among the classical music highlights is the area premiere of Theresienstadt, a program named for the concentration camp of that name where notable Czech/Jewish musicians were interned. Vocal and instrumental music by composers who were sent from Theresienstadt to their deaths at Auschwitz will be performed April 30, 2009, in a concert at the Music Center featuring
stellar mezzo Anne Sofie von Otter (pictured), violinist Daniel Hope and pianist Bengt Forsberg.

Other notable classical artists include the Warsaw Philharmonic (with dazzling pianist Valentina Lisitsa), the brilliant vocal ensemble Chanticleer, the distinguished Academy of St. Martin in the
Fields (with incisive violinist Julia Fischer), the always engaging Post-Classical Ensemble (in its first children's program) and the fine Bach Sinfonia (performing Purcell's King Arthur).

Concerts by Bernadette Peters, Tommy Tune and other stage veterans will salute the Broadway
musical throughout the season. Pop stars at the center include Natalie Cole and such vintage performers as Arlo Guthrie, Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell, Fabian and Neil Sadaka. Take Joy, an original, holiday-themed Strathmore production with original songs by Roger Ames and narrative by Elizabeth Bassine and Nick Olcott will be premiered in December.

Musical activity at the mansion includes a three-century survey of keyboard-based music and styles, running from October to April. Artists include J. Reilly Lewis, Soheil Nasseri, Baltimore's Monument Piano Trio and the duo of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer/pianist William Bolcom and his wife, mezzo-soprano Joan Morris.

For more information on the 2008-2009 Strathmore season, call 301-581-5100 or click here. 

(Photo courtesy of Strathmore: Anne Sophie von Otter)

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Last Friday, tireless, timeless tenor Placido Domingo marked the 40th anniversary of first professional appearance in Los Angeles with a gala Los Angeles Opera concert at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Domingo is general director of the opera company (and Washington National Opera, too). The program of popular opera selections and some Broadway favorites, shared with exceptional soprano Patricia Racette and conducted by L.A. Opera music director James Conlon, was taped so that it could be shared with audiences elsewhere via the hot new medium in operadom -- local movie houses.

The Domingo 40th Anniversary Gala will be shown on Mother's Day in 22 Landmark Theatres, including the one at Baltimore's Harbor East. It's a 2 p.m. May 11. Tickets are $15 to $20. To order in advance, click here (and select May 11 in the drop-down menu).      

(Photo from Friday's gala by Los Angeles Times)

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The Baltimore Classical Guitar Society wraps up its 20th anniversary season on Saturday with a concert featuring Manuel Barrueco, viewed by many as the finest guitar artist of the day, and the top-notch Cuarteto Latinoamericano. The program includes the premiere of work written for the occasion by Gabriela Lena Frank, who will discuss the composition during a pre-concert presentation. Baltimore has become a classical guitar center over the years, largely due to Barrueco, who is on the faculty at the Peabody Conservatory, and the Society has been doing admirable work at keeping the spotlight on the subtle, sensual pleasure of the classical guitar. This anniversary season finale promises to be a colorful night.

The concert is at 8 p.m. Saturday (the chat with the composer is at 7:15 p.m.) at Peabody's Friedberg Hall, 17 E. Mount Vernon Place. Tickets are $35 ($30 for students, seniors and Baltimore Classical Guitar Society members). Call 410-247-5320 or go to bcgs.org.   

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The Grateful Dead (pictured), Led Zeppelin, video game theme music and Leon Fleisher -- not exactly your typical Baltimore Symphony Orchestra summer season.

On the classical side of the eclectic 2008 lineup, the BSO will celebrate the 80th birthday of Fleisher, one of the country's most gifted and respected musicians, with an all-Mozart program that will showcase both his pianistic and conducting skills. He'll lead the orchestra in Symphony No. 35 and No. 40 and, from the keyboard, Piano Concerto No. 12. Performances are July 24 at the Music Center at Strathmore, Jul