Posts Tagged ‘Mendelssohn’

Two Quartets for Mendelssohn

Monday, October 16th, 2017

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 […]

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Bartoli’s Scot-Themed Whitsun

Saturday, June 3rd, 2017

By ANDREW POWELL Published: June 3, 2017 SALZBURG — When artistic control of the Whitsun Festival here moved to Cecilia Bartoli nearly six years ago, its programming changed from a steady focus on one period and place (18th-century Napoli) to shifting annual themes. First there was “Cleopatra.” Next came the idea of “sacrifice.” Then the […]

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Mozartwoche: January’s Peace

Monday, February 15th, 2016

By ANDREW POWELL Published: February 15, 2016 SALZBURG — There is a pleasure in arriving in Salzburg with snow on the ground. Or maybe the word is reassurance: the city will be real, not a theme park; the people mostly locals, despite the hollowing out of property ownership here; the profile quiet, even intimate, affording […]

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Mariotti North of the Alps

Sunday, April 26th, 2015

By ANDREW POWELL Published: April 26, 2015 MUNICH — He will always be attached to Rossini, but Michele Mariotti, 36, can probe and illuminate a vast repertory besides. This much was evident March 23 in a refreshing return engagement with the Münchner Symphoniker. The Pesaro-born maestro’s podium technique and constructive manner recall another Rossinian, the […]

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Edusei’s Slick Elias

Sunday, January 25th, 2015

By ANDREW POWELL Published: January 25, 2015 MUNICH — Although it brings together skilled players, the Münchner Symphoniker has operated as something of a fifth wheel in the musical scene here. That may be about to change. Kevin John Edusei, the orchestra’s new Bielefeld-born chief conductor, 38, revealed impressive capacities as musician and personality in […]

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A veteran Maestro and a DSOB Debut

Monday, December 1st, 2014

By Rebecca Schmid Last week at the Philharmonie featured the debut of the young conductor Joshua Weilerstein with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin alongside a guest appearance of Riccardo Chailly with the Berlin Philharmonic. It was an interesting opportunity to consider the qualities that can make or break a leader at the podium. A rumoured candidate […]

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Salzburg Coda

Friday, October 31st, 2014

By ANDREW POWELL Published: October 31, 2014 SALZBURG — Alexander Pereira is now gone from the main festival here, and two tenuous summers are in the offing before Markus Hinterhäuser replaces him as Intendant in 2017. His exit, under a cloud, ends a budget tempest but threatens reversals of worthy initiatives he took: lengthening the […]

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An Italian, and possibly a Swiss, Symphony at the Philharmonie

Friday, January 11th, 2013

By Rebecca Schmid Journeys have provided powerful inspiration to writers, painters and composers alike, opening eyes to new ways of seeing the world. The broadening of artists’ palettes has sometimes allowed them to capture a landscape more vividly than the natives could themselves. One only has to think of Dvorak’s New World Symphony, Gauguin’s portraits […]

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A Genuine Jolt at the NY Phil

Wednesday, February 8th, 2012

by Sedgwick Clark Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic are on a European tour for a couple of weeks, and for a change I didn’t roll my eyes in despair when I saw the list of repertoire. His predecessors as music director, Kurt Masur and Lorin Maazel, for all their superb work at building […]

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To Thine Own Self Be True

Thursday, May 26th, 2011

by Edna Landau  To ask a question, please write Ask Edna. This column was prepared with the assistance of Neale Perl, President of the Washington Performing Arts Society, and Ruth Felt, President of San Francisco Performances. Both are valued longtime colleagues, to whom I am very grateful. Dear Edna: I am a pianist and have […]

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