![\"Josef](\"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/munichDonPasquale3.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
By ANDREW POWELL MUNICH \u2014 Arts groups here present a restrained 2012\u201313 season facing pros and cons not always aligned with those in America. Funding, for instance, holds steady: city and state (Bavaria) play their part, as do local corporations Siemens, BMW, Audi, Allianz and Linde. Excellent pools of musicians, instrumental and vocal, fill the rosters of the choir, chamber orchestra, two opera companies, and five symphony orchestras discussed below. Audiences are large and regular; not incidentally, tickets for most events are affordably priced and come with free access to the train and bus network, covering residents in a 25-mile radius. The cons are few, but they matter. Creative torpor impedes the main orchestras, a reflection in part of more than one sadly filled music directorship. The Regietheater<\/em> problem rages in Germany, defiling the worthiest efforts in opera. Atrocious acoustics plague Munich\u2019s main concert hall, and one vintage venue is shut for now for a retrofit. All that said, the groups enter the new season with active agendas.<\/p>\n The 201-year-old Bavarian State Orchestra<\/a> ventures six programs at its home, the National Theater. Mostly led by outgoing Generalmusikdirektor<\/em> Kent Nagano, these Akademie<\/em> concerts extend a tradition begun when the ensemble was new; their past features names like Strauss, Walter, Knappertsbusch, Krauss, Fricsay, Sawallisch and Kleiber. Under-rehearsal can hamper results, however, a consequence of the musicians\u2019 hectic theater schedule; that the GMD does not always supply the last ounce of insight or much rhythmic thrust only accentuates the negative. Despite and still, one upcoming program has allure (April 8 and 9): the eloquent young Czech conductor Tom\u00e1\u0161 Hanus tackles Mahler\u2019s kaleidoscopic Seventh Symphony.<\/p>\n Clarinetist J\u00f6rg Widmann\u2019s seven-scene opera Babylon<\/em> is a fall commission of Bavarian State Opera<\/a>, Germany\u2019s largest and busiest opera company. Nagano conducts as part of his last season, and Carlus Padrissa, who last year introduced a circus-tent Turandot<\/em>, has been entrusted with the stage action (premiere Oct. 27). Several of the season\u2019s productions will be streamed at no charge, starting with the Widmann on Nov. 3. Hanus follows his persuasive (and filmed) Rusalka<\/em> of two years ago with a revival of Jen\u016ffa<\/em> (from March 6) as well as a Richard Jones production of H\u00e4nsel und Gretel<\/em> (March 24). Constantinos Carydis, among the company\u2019s other worthy conductors \u2014 and indeed winner of its first Carlos Kleiber Prize<\/em> \u2014 is absent from the 2012\u201313 slate, effecting a sabbatical.<\/p>\n The smaller but versatile Staatstheater am G\u00e4rtnerplatz<\/a> company enters a second season as refugee while its genial home undergoes construction work. Not all the substitute venues are ideal, but at the Cuvilli\u00e9s Theater a Don Pasquale<\/em> (premiere Oct. 25) should bring smiles: Franz Hawlata sings the title role, retired mezzo-soprano Brigitte Fassbaender (pictured with Intendant<\/em> Josef K\u00f6pplinger and conductor Marco Comin) serves as r\u00e9gisseuse<\/em>. This company labors under a mixed mandate, complementing Bavarian State Opera with Baroque and rare operas but also catering to a broad audience with operettas and musicals, at times amplified. Its orchestra copes gamely with the assortment, its singers less well.<\/p>\n Alexander Liebreich\u2019s ongoing leadership of the MKO, a.k.a. M\u00fcnchener Kammerorchester<\/a>, has been yielding tidy ensemble and a crisp image for the group. Subscription concerts at MKO\u2019s base, the Bayreuth-Festspielhaus-like Prinz-Regenten-Theater, habitually pair old and brand new, as on Oct. 18: Salvatore Sciarrino\u2019s L\u2019ideale lucente e le pagine rubate<\/em> (2012) and Beethoven\u2019s music for Egmont<\/em>. Or Dec. 13: Ligeti\u2019s Violin Concerto (old) and a Helena Winkelman piece jointly commissioned with Musica femina M\u00fcnchen.<\/p>\n Guest conductors, in contrast, are what enliven the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra<\/a>. Ranked highly for its expertise, and drilled weekly for clean-as-a-whistle broadcasts, the BRSO perseveres under monochrome directorship. Antonini, Rattle, Haitink, Muti, Harding, Gilbert, Robertson, Salonen, Chailly and Metzmacher are names implying color in upcoming programs. The season splits as usual between the modest shoebox Herkulessaal, part of Munich\u2019s Residenz arts complex, and the city-operated, fan-cum-vineyard Gasteig hall, where only the intra-ensemble sound travels properly.<\/p>\n The adventurous M\u00fcnchner Rundfunk-Orchester<\/a>, a second BR (Bavarian Broadcasting) ensemble, devotes much of 2012\u201313 to oddball concert opera \u2014 Franz Lachner\u2019s Catharina Cornaro?<\/em> \u2014 when its exploratory funds would go further in orchestral music and better balance the BRSO. Welcome projects include a German-language take (May 3) on Hindemith\u2019s FDR oratorio When Lilacs Last In the Dooryard Bloom\u2019d<\/em>, which may find its way to disc alongside this orchestra\u2019s award-winning 2005 recording of Des Simplicius Simplicissimus Jugend<\/em> by Hartmann (who wove the Whitman elegy into his own First Symphony). Playing standards have been high under K\u00fcnstlerischer Leiter<\/em> Ulf Schirmer. He stepped into the shoes of the late Marcello Viotti in 2006 and has more recently also assumed musical and managerial duties at Oper Leipzig.<\/p>\n Still under broadcasting auspices, the BR Chor<\/a> supports both of the above orchestras. Alert, flexible singing places this group among Germany\u2019s best large choirs, with perhaps only Leipzig\u2019s MDR Chor ahead in precision. Certainly it draws the better Munich choristers, those disinclined to strip down to their underwear and strike mindless poses, as repeatedly required of their colleagues in local opera companies. Dutchman Peter Dijkstra is the affable artistic leader. BR Chor concerts this season, in the group\u2019s own series, include Mozart\u2019s C-Minor Mass (Nov. 24) and a well-cast Matth\u00e4us-Passion<\/em> (Feb. 16), at the Prinz-Regenten-Theater and Herkulessaal respectively.<\/p>\n The Munich Philharmonic<\/a> seemed to want to dive off a cliff three years ago when its management publicly bickered with its greatly-in-demand Generalmusikdirektor<\/em> Christian Thielemann, effectively losing him, and just eight months later chose Lorin Maazel as his successor. (One tabloid reported Thielemann\u2019s salary to be \u20ac800,000.) Those twin decisions are now home to roost, as the 82-year-old American unfurls his inaugural season. Maazel\u2019s work ethic can only be admired, but he appeared artistically drained in interregnum Gasteig programs ten months ago \u2014 in music in which he long ago excelled, such as Debussy\u2019s La Mer<\/em>. This orchestra will gain the most if Munich ever does build a proper concert hall, as recently championed by Bavarian Minister for Science, Research and Art, Wolfgang Heubisch. As a city-run ensemble, it is today confined almost entirely to the problematic Gasteig.<\/p>\n Less glamorous, though certainly busy, the M\u00fcnchner Symphoniker<\/a> offers concert series at the acoustically preferable Prinz-Regenten-Theater and Herkulessaal. Georg Schm\u00f6he is Chefdirigent<\/em> and pianist Philippe Entremont serves as Ehrendirigent<\/em>. In 2011 this orchestra undertook a long U.S. tour devoted to movie music. This season at home it offers an all-Beethoven program (Jan. 27 and 28) and a mostly Haydn evening (March 20) as part of a generally conservative lineup.<\/p>\n Photo \u00a9 Christian Zach<\/p>\n Related posts:
\nPublished: October 11, 2012<\/span><\/p>\n
\nPintscher Conducts New Music<\/a>
\nMastersingers\u2019 Depression<\/a>
\nG\u00e4rtnerplatztheater Reopens<\/a>
\nGergiev, Munich\u2019s Mistake<\/a>
\nBR Chor\u2019s St Matthew Passion<\/a><\/p>\n