Stage Works of Bela Bartok: English National Opera Guide 44 (English National Opera Guides)
Slipped disc (Free subscription) | 11/26/2009
Duke Bluebeard's Castle was never one for the squeamish, but English National Opera's production tips Bela Bartok's masterpiece into an abyss of arocity. Originally staged during the First World War, it retells the fable of a Transylvanian count who keeps...
Classical Iconoclast (Free subscription) | 11/18/2009
Ma Sicong (1912-1987) is important because he was a major Chinese composer who wrote western classical music, but influenced by Chinese traditional music - think Bartók, Ravel, Janáček creating their music from folk forms. Some of Ma's music is seriously good. Ma is also important because his life reflects what happened in China during his lifetime. His parents were Guangdong intellectuals:...
I'll think of something later (Free subscription) | 11/13/2009
That's Judith's stunned response at the devastating climax of Bartok's hour-long masterpiece Duke Bluebeard's Castle . It has less of an impact if, as in Daniel Kramer's new ENO production (photographed throughout here by Johan Persson), it's obvious from the fifth door onwards that SPOILER ALERT the children who inhabit Bluebeard's basement must have a mother, or mothers. The revelation can only come...
Opera Today (Free subscription) | 11/10/2009
This grueling production of Bartok’s operatic masterpiece, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, clearly did not set out to retain any of the ambiguity and mystery of the fairytale which inspired it.
SLSO Blog (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
I made the call to Ray's, the venerable 24-hour pizza joint down the street from Carnegie Hall--that's one of the marvels of NYC, the bastion of culture a few steps from pizza-by-the-slice. Ray's is where the Henchmen go after...
SLSO Blog (Free subscription) | 10/31/2009
The SLSO's Will James and John Kasica play water percussion with Colin Currie on Tan Dun's Water Concerto. If you go to the concert Saturday night--and there are tickets, go!--you'll notice that Will and John are not dressed in formal...
Violinist.com (Free subscription) | 10/28/2009
By Bram Heemskerk: Again a violincompetition till 27 year with Paganini, Ysaye and Bach in first 2 rounds and well known pieces in the final: -Bartók: Violin Concerto No.1+2 -Beethoven: D major, Op. 61 -Brahms: D major, Op. 77 -Prokofiev: D major, op. 19+ Tsigane Ravel -Prokofiev: G minor, op. 63 -Paganini 1 -Schostakovich: A minor, op. 99 -Sibelius: D minor, op. 47 -Tchaikovsky: D major, op....
The Classical Beat (Free subscription) | 10/13/2009
Web-only review: Left Bank Quartet Goes Hungary by Joan Reinthaler Hungary, a country that perhaps has suffered more than its share of political misfortune, also has spawned more than its share of late-19th- and 20th-century composers. The Left Bank Quartet brought a well-conceived, well-played program of the music of Bartok, Kurtág and Dohnányi to the Smithsonian's McEvoy Auditorium...
The Classical Beat (Free subscription) | 10/05/2009
Web-only review: BSO and Alsop Explore Bartók, Tchaikovsky by Robert Battey The Baltimore Symphony’s theme this season is folk music and its influence on the classical canon. The BSO’s concert Thursday evening at the Music Center at Strathmore was a mostly enjoyable affair, with a curtain-raiser by Harmonia, a quintet specializing in Eastern European indigenous music. They moved...
Clef Notes (Free subscription) | 10/02/2009
Although it’s convenient for some to think of music being divided into totally separate worlds, with the classical variety way over in some isolated corner where only the “elite” indulge in it, there are innumerable connecting, welcoming points between genres....
Form/Content (Free subscription) | 09/24/2009
Gandolfi Commission, Fine Bartok, Herald Concord Chamber Music Society 10th Anniversary The Boston Music Intelligencer
The Classical Beat (Free subscription) | 08/25/2009
Web-only review: Scrappy Young Quartet Brings Energy, Lacks Polish by Joe Banno The Washington area isn't starved for fine performances of the Beethoven and Bartok string quartets. Every season, the world's finest chamber ensembles come through town, giving note-perfect performances that are indistinguishable from their note-perfect CD recordings of these masterpieces. Sometimes, though, it's instructive...
Intermezzo (Free subscription) | 08/11/2009
Prom 33: London Sinfonietta / Edward Gardner - Royal Albert Hall, 9 August 2009 Antheil Ballet mécanique John Adams Grand Pianola Music Bartók Sonata for two pianos and percussion Stravinsky Les noces At least the second Prom of ‘Multiple Pianos’...
The Collaborative Piano Blog (Free subscription) | 08/08/2009
Long live music for herds of pianos! Proms 32 and 33 at the Royal Albert Hall this weekend feature music for multiple pianos. The horde of pianists: Katia and Marielle Labèque, Philip Moore, Simon Crawford-Phillips, Lidija and Sanja Bizjak, John Constable, Rolf Hind, Tom Poster, Ashley Wass, Llyr Williams, Alisssa Firsova, Philip Moore and Simon Crawford-Phillips. Over two concerts, they will...
Opera Today (Free subscription) | 08/07/2009
In the Euroarts series Discovering Masterpieces of Classical Music: Documentary & Performance, the volume devoted to Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra stands out as a particularly accessible and well-executed release.
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