Musical America Blogs

By ANDREW POWELL Published: December 28, 2017 MUNICH — Post is under revision. Illustration © Queue-it and Bayerische Staatsoper Related posts: Staatsoper Favors Local Fans See-Through Lulu Ettinger Drives Aida U.S. Orchestras on Travel Ban Time for Schwetzingen

By ANDREW POWELL Published: November 26, 2017 MUNICH — Post is under revision. Photos © Arthaus, BelAir Classiques, Querstand, Supraphon, Warner Classics Related posts: Winter Discs Time for Schwetzingen Ives: Violin Sonatas on CD Chung to Conduct for Trump Manon, Let’s Go

By ANDREW POWELL Published: November 4, 2017 MUNICH — With a shrill, pretty Hanna, a shriller, pretty Valencienne, a Camille of uneven tone, but a tight, fluent chorus and much charming orchestral work, Die lustige Witwe ended six years of darkness at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz Oct. 19. This city’s second opera company, of the […]

By: Frank Cadenhead On October 30, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, made an appearance at the Opéra de Strasbourg. No, it was not a gala or a special occasion. It was just to witness a rehearsal of the opera Carmen in its “participatory version.” The Strasbourg opera forces, along with their chorus, Maîtrise de l’Opéra […]

By ANDREW POWELL Published: October 27, 2017 MUNICH — Though it will be built on the wrong side of the wrong train station, Munich’s much-debated, much-delayed new concert hall crept toward reality today with the announcement of a winning design. Bregenz-based Cukrowicz Nachbaur Architekten secured first place in the competition for the venue, now dubbed […]

By ANDREW POWELL Published: October 16, 2017 MUNICH — Sony has released a remarkable recording of Brahms’s Magelone-Romanzen, Op. 33, complete with Zwischentexte prepared by German author Martin Walser. Christian Gerhaher sings the fifteen songs and recites two of the other three poems (the 1st, 16th and 17th) from Ludwig Tieck’s 1797 narrative not set […]

By ANDREW POWELL Published: October 16, 2017 GRÜNWALD — In mixing-bowl terms, Berlin’s Armida Quartett and Paris’s Quatuor Modigliani combined rather than blended in a standing-room-only concert Oct. 11 here at the August Everding Saal. That is as required for some recipes, possibly including Mendelssohn’s E-flat String Octet (1825), which received a convulsive, unnuanced performance […]

Just a quick update for those of you wondering about the arts implications of the revised travel ban: Aside from adding North Korea and Venezuela (with the latter not actually be a “real” ban) to the list, everything else is pretty much the same as it was…with everyone in the world regardless of citizenship continuing […]

By ANDREW POWELL Published: September 24, 2017 MUNICH — He had to abandon his Munich Philharmonic cycle, a cosmic Fifth being one of its relics, but Christian Thielemann’s Dresden cycle* of the numbered Bruckner symphonies has progressed smoothly to near completion, and with video. Oddly parts of it have been filmed here at the Gasteig […]

By ANDREW POWELL Published: September 23, 2017 BREGENZ — Post is under revision. Photos © Bregenzer Festspiele Related posts: Nitrates In the Canapés Harteros Warms to Tosca Nézet-Séguin: Hit, Miss On Wenlock Edge with MPhil Wagner, Duke of Erl