Max Raabe on Sesamstrasse with Bert und Ernie

Max Raabe on German Sesame Street. Is Sesamstrasse in Brooklyn?

Max Raabe & Palast Orchester (minus Bert & Ernie) visit the Celebrity Series and Symphony Hall Sunday, March 4.

 

Recent Celebrity Series reviews ...

November has been a busy month here at Celebrity Series world headquarters. Below are just a few of the reviews for just a few of the performances this month ...

Angelika Kirchschlager and Jean-Yves Thibaudet at NEC's Jordan Hall:

Boston Globe

Boston Classical Review

Orion String Quartet with David Shifrin
(performance included Boston premiere of Marc Neikrug's Clarinet Quintet)

The Classical Review

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones at Sanders Theatre:

Harvard Crimson

Itzhak Perlman at Symphony Hall:

Boston Globe

Boston Classical Review

Jesu, Cellphone of Man's Desiring

Music makes cows happy (video)

You may have heard about studies that have found classical music improves milk production in cows. Konzerthaus Dortmund, the performance space of Theater Dortmund in Dortmund Germany, decided to test this theory ...

Celebrity Series of Boston in the News

Left to Right: Former Celebrity Series Executive Director Walter Pierce, incoming Executive Director Gary Dunning, outgoing Executive Director Marty Jones, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, and Chairman of the Celebrity Series Board of Directors, Joshua Boger at the Mad About Marty gala, May 2, 2011.

The Celebrity Series of Boston has been in the news in the last few weeks, and this blog is bit behind in getting you the links you need (hey, we've been a little busy), so here's a make-up post:

First up, Lloyd Schwartz, of the Boston Phoenix and NPR's Fresh Air, gaves us his take on the St. Petersburg Philharmonic with Yuri Temirkanov on the podium and Boston native-wunderkind-cellist Alisa Weilerstein as soloist as well as longtime Boston favorite (his and ours) pianist Dubravka Tomsic.

Matthew Guerrieri gave us his review of the eminent Russian orchestra for The Boston Globe.

Northeastern University scholar and author (check out The Last Impresario sometime, if you haven't already) Harlow Robinson reviewed Dubravka Tomsic's recital for the Globe.

Matthew Guerrieri reviewed Dawn Upshaw's April 29 Jordan Hall recital, Cashman Kerr Prince did the same for The Boston Musical Intelligencer.

Mark Shanahan and Meredith Goldstein covered Mad About Marty, the star-studded retirement party for our fearless leader, Marty Jones for the Globe's Names column.

On the blogoshpere, Paul Levy gave us this post on the party on his Not Running a Hospital blog, as did Denise Korn on her K Blog.

Leon Fleisher: "Music's Obi-Wan Kenobi"

Leon Fleisher just seems to get more relevant with each passing year. He recently spoke with Stuart Isacoff for The Wall Street Journal, in part to promote his book, My Nine Lives. Here's a taste:

"Players try to convince us by using body English—they writhe or look up at the ceiling—all to prove how affected they are by the music. They don't realize what a distraction it really is. We are supposed to be impressed by their show of emotion, but in reality they are merely erecting a barrier between the music and my soul."

Read all of Music's Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Puppet Invasion at Emerson College

 

EmComm students from Emerson College help to spread the word about Basil Twist's "Petrushka", a co-presentation by Celebrity Series of Boston and ArtsEmerson. #petrushka

Billy Ruane (1957-2010)

Boston Phoenix (Jon Garelick)

Boston Globe (Bryan Marquard)

 

Boston Globe review: "Darkness and Light with Mark Morris"

 
Amber Star Merkens (foreground) dances in last
night's world premiere of Petrichor

Thea Singer's review of last night's opening night performance by the Mark Morris Dance Group is in late editions of the print edition, but it is online. Here is an excerpt:

"'Petrichor,' a world premiere for eight women, is danced to Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos’s 'String Quartet No. 2,' for violin, viola, and cello. The title describes the scent arising after a rain, especially on dry ground. It’s apropos, because the dancers seem to dance not on but between the notes, as if dodging raindrops."

Read all of Thea Singer's review.

The Mark Morris Dance Group performs through this Sunday at the Cutler Majestic Theatre.

Library of Congress study finds historic audio recordings fading away

One more reason to love analog ...

From The Associated Press:

"New digital recordings of events in U.S. history and early radio shows are at risk of being lost much faster than older ones on tape and many are already gone, according to a study on sound released Wednesday.

Even recent history — such as recordings from 9/11 or the 2008 election — is at risk because digital sound files can be corrupted, and widely used CD-R discs only last three to five years before files start to fade, said study co-author Sam Brylawski."

Read all of Study: Audio recordings of US history fading fast

 

Handel and Hendrix were neighbors

The Hendrix and Handel houses on
London's Brook Street (note the blue sign on each)

George Frideric Handel lived at 25 Brook Street, Mayfair in London. 200 years later rock and roll guitarist Jimi Hendrix moved in next door at 23 Brook Street (Handel had left by then). The good folks at The Handel House Museum in London, who use Hendrix's former address as administrative offices for the museum at 25 Brook Street, have mounted an exhibit of Hendrix memorabilia to celebrate the famed neighbors. Read The Guardian's coverage.

In their August newsletter, the Handel House Museum noted the passing of longtime Bostonian Sterling Hale, who was instrumental in negotiating the 999-year lease on the house for the museum. Read the Handel House August 2010 newsletter.

One man's Brahms ...

"The classical
composer par excellence of the present day, who free from any
provincialism of expression or national dialect... writes for the whole
world and for all time - a giant, lofty and unapproachable - Johannes
Brahms."
- Edward Elgar, 1886




"I have played over the music of that scoundrel Brahms. What a
giftless bastard!"

- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, 1886




"The real Brahms is nothing more than a sentimental voluptuary...
He is the most wanton of composers... Only his wantonness is not
vicious; it is that of a great baby... rather tiresomely addicted to
dressing himself up as Handel or Beethoven and making a prolonged and
intolerable noise."

- George Bernard Shaw, 1893




"Brahms is just like Tennyson, an extraordinary musician, with
the brains of a third rate village policeman."

- George Bernard Shaw, 1893




"Take Brahms: the product of the misty landscapes of north
Germany, his works are full of groping, dreaminess and introspection.
Mist gives a sense of infinity; it may be only two feet deep but equally
it may cover the world, there is no knowing."

- Yehudi Menuhin

Musicians carve instruments out of ice ...

Norwegian violinist Nils Oekland tests his
ice instrument

I'm posting this for obvious reasons. I had heard about Gielo, Norway's IceMusic Festival before, but I have never needed to hear about it the way I do today. The instruments are made of ice and the musicians play them in an wonderfully icey cold environment. What's not to love?

Musicians carve instruments out of ice (article in the Telegraph, UK)

The IceMusic Festival web site

The pianos are coming ...

The New York-based charity Sing for Hope has put pianos all around the five boroughs, on the street for anyone to play at any time. The last time I posted on this topic, the pianos-in-the-street concept had made the leap from Birmingham, England to London. Now the idea has crossed the Atlantic like a joyous virus and landed in New York - a mere 4 and a half hours from Boston. Better start your warm ups now.

Here is a bit of the New York Times coverage.

Callaway sisters show, "Boom!" reviewed in the NY Times

Check out Stephen Holden's New York Times review of Ann Hampton and Liz Callaway's "Boom!" at Town Hall.

The sisters bring "Boom!" to Sanders Theatre in Cambridge on January 21 2011.

The Boston Phoenix weighs in

Both Marcia Siegel's Mozart Dances review and Lloyd Schwartz's Mozart Dances and Christian Tetzlaff reviews are already online in advance of hitting the streets in tomorrow's edition of the Phoenix. Here are the links to their columns:

Marcia Siegel - Squiggles and Lines

Lloyd Schwartz - Stopping Time

Slipped disc, by Norman Lebrecht

Every once in a while, Aisle Be Seeing You takes turn about the blog gardens and discovers a new and engaging bloginator (I know, just what none of us needs in our busy lives, until we read one, of course). One such recent discovery is the Arts Journal blog of "author, novelist, broadcaster,cultural commentator," Norman Lebrecht, who some may know as the author of the 2007 book, The Life and Death of Classical Music. Mr. Lebrecht's entry into the blog derby is called Slipped disc, and subtitled Norman Lebrecht on shifting sound worlds. A few of my favorite posts are listed below:

What Lang Lang did next

What to do when a conductor throws up

More concert disturbances

Permission to listen? And to share what I feel?

Here's a bit of one of Lebrecht's posts (guess which one), and a good indication that he will share whatever needs to be shared to make good copy:

"I once heard Franz Welser-Möst heaving his guts out in the interval of
a Tokyo concert. He returned from the flush to give a Beethoven Fifth
of reckless intensity, so edgy that no-one's insides were safe. That's
music - you feel something, and you share it with others."

"Morris on Mozart" - Mark chats with critic Richard Dyer at Sanders (Free)

Morris on Mozart

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 7pm

Sanders Theatre

45 Quincy Street, Cambridge MA



Hear celebrated choreographer Mark Morris in conversation with
journalist and classical music critic Richard Dyer. Morris, known for
his eclectic musical tastes from classical to country, will discuss music and
his work.



Admission is FREE but tickets are required. Two per person.



Available by phone only through the Harvard Box Office at Holyoke Center,
Harvard Square (Wed-Sun, 12-6pm):

617.496.222 (TTY 617.495.1642)

Tickets will also be available at the door one hour prior to event,
subject to availability on a first-come, first-served basis.

Presented by OFA Learning From Performers, Celebrity Series of Boston and the Mark Morris Dance Group.

The Mark Morris Dance Group performs Mozart dances January 29-31 at The Boston Opera House.

Classical WGBH radio to switch to 99.5 FM tomorrow

Tomorrow is DAY 1 of WGBH's classical radio format switch from 89.7 FM to 99.5 FM. Get the details here.

Christian Tetzlaff, sublime Bach

Christian Tetzlaff

Violinist Christian Tetzlaff's program was all J.S. Bach, all of Bach's unaccompanied sonatas and partitas, in fact, so it was not a complete representation of what Boston audiences will hear on January 31 at Jordan Hall. However, according to Allan Kozinn of the New York Times, Tetzlaff's performance (as well as the program) was sublime.

Bach's Sonata No. 3 in C and Partita No 2 in D minor, both of which were on Sunday's 92nd Street Y program and are mentioned in the review, will be played in Boston. But we will also hear Eugène Ysaÿe's Sonata for solo violin and for Paganinni caprices. Hear is a snippet of Kozinn's review to whet your appetite:

"Technique is never an issue with this violinist. The clarity and
solidity he brings to the music’s chordal writing remain among the most
striking characteristics of his Bach playing, as does the sharp
articulation he uses to suggest independent lines of counterpoint. What
has deepened is the intensity of the emotional charge he draws from
this music, in readings that match Bach’s 18th-century ingenuity with
passion and warmth in the here and now."

Read all of Emphasizing Bach's Unity.