Amer & Independent Crican R itics Re ecor viewing Classical Recor d G dings and Music uidein Concer t American Record Guide Side 1 San Francisco Ring—3 Views Carnegie's “Spring for Music” Buffalo Phil's 2 premieres L.A. Master Chorale Montreal Piano Competition Festivals: Boston Early Music Spoleto USA Fayetteville Chamber Music Montreal Chamber Music Mahler's 100th: MTT's Nos. 2, 6, 9 Crakow Phil Festival September/October 2011 us $7.99 Over 500 Re views Sig01arg.qxd 7/22/2011 4:46 PM Page 1 Contents Sullivan & Dalton Carnegie’s “Spring for Music” Festival 4 Seven Orchestras, Adventurous Programs Gil French Cracow’s Mahler Festival 7 Discoveries Abound Jason Victor Serinus MTT and the San Francisco Symphony 10 Mahler Recapped Brodie, Serinus & Ginell San Francisco Opera’s Ring Cycle 12 Three Views Brodie & Kandell Ascension’s New Pascal Quoirin Organ 16 French and Baroque Traditions on Display Perry Tannenbaum Spoleto USA 19 Renewed Venues, Renewed Spirit John Ehrlich Boston Early Music Festival 22 Dart and Deller Would Be Proud Richard S Ginell Mighty Los Angeles Master Chorale 24 Triumphing in Brahms to Ellington Herman Trotter Buffalo Philharmonic 26 Tyberg Symphony, Hagen Concerto Melinda Bargreen Schwarz’s 26 Year Seattle Legacy 28 Au Revoir But Not Good-Bye Bill Rankin Edmonton’s Summer Solstice Festival 30 Chamber Music for All Tastes Gil French Fayetteville Chamber Music Festival 32 The World Comes to Central Texas Robert Markow Bang! You’ve Won 34 Montreal Music Competition Robert Markow Osaka's Competitions and Orchestras 35 American, Dutch, French, and Russian Winners Edward Greenfield Glyndebourne’s First Meistersinger 38 Dressing Well (and Warmly) at Garsington Here & There 40 Opera & Concerts Everywhere 42 Critical Convictions 50 Meet the Critic: Don O’Connor 53 Guide to Records 54 Collections 178 The Newest Music 227 Broadway 234 Archives 235 Videos 243 Books 254 Record Guide Publications 256 Coming in the Next Issue: Festivals Galore: Cabrillo Music at Menlo Bavarian State Opera Festival of the Sound Ohio Light Opera Bellingham Glimmerglass And Much More... Sig01arg.qxd 7/22/2011 4:46 PM Page 2 American Record Guide Vol 74, No 5 September/October 2011 Our 76th Year of Publication www.AmericanRecordGuide.com e-mail: [email protected] PAST EDITORS Editor: Donald R Vroon Peter Hugh Reed 1935-57 James Lyons 1957-72 Editor, Music in Concert: Gil French Milton Caine 1976-81 Art Director: Ray Hassard John Cronin 1981-83 Design & Layout: Lonnie Kunkel Doris Chalfin 1983-85 Grace Wolf 1985-87 ..Advertising: Elaine Fine (217) 345-4310 RECORD REVIEWERS Reader Service: (513) 941-1116 Paul L Althouse Kenneth Keaton Brent Auerbach Barry Kilpatrick John W Barker Mark Koldys Carl Bauman Lindsay Koob CORRESPONDENTS Alan Becker Kraig Lamper ATLANTA: James L Paulk William Bender Mark L Lehman BOSTON: John W Ehrlich John Boyer Vivian A Liff BUFFALO: Herman Trotter Charles E Brewer Peter Loewen CHICAGO: John Von Rhein Brian Buerkle Ralph V Lucano CLEVELAND: Robert Finn Ira Byelick Joseph Magil LOS ANGELES: Richard S Ginell Stephen D Chakwin Jr Michael Mark NEW YORK: Susan Brodie, Joseph Dalton, Ardella Crawford John P McKelvey Leslie Kandell Stephen Estep Donald E Metz SAN FRANCISCO: Jason Victor Serinus Donald Feldman Catherine Moore SANTA FE: James A Van Sant Elaine Fine David W Moore SEATTLE: Melinda Bargreen Gil French Robert A Moore LONDON: Edward Greenfield, Kate Molleson William J Gatens Kurt Moses CANADA: Bill Rankin Allen Gimbel Don O’Connor Todd Gorman Charles H Parsons Philip Greenfield David Radcliffe Steven J Haller David Schwartz Lawrence Hansen Jack Sullivan Patrick Hanudel Richard Traubner James Harrington Donald R Vroon Rob Haskins Roger Hecht David Jacobsen Benjamin Katz PHOTO CREDITS Page 4: Photo by © Steve J. Sherman. Page 40: Photo by Sussie Ahlberg Page 8: Photo by J.Wrzesinski Page 38: Photo by Alastair Muir Page 10: Photo by Bill Swerbenski Page 42: Photo by Scot Ferguson Page 11: Photo Courtesy of SFO Page 46: Photo by Bonnie Perkinson Page 12: Photo by Cory Weaver Page 16 & 18: Phot by Tom Ligamari Page 19 & 21: Photo by William Struhs Page 22 & 23: Photos by BEMF.org Page 24: Photo by Steve Cohn Page 25: Photo by Lee Salem Page 27: Photo by Mark Dellas Page 28: Photo by unknown Page 31: Photo by Twain Newhart Page 36: Photo courtesy of Attacca Sig01arg.qxd 7/22/2011 4:46 PM Page 3 Music in Concert highlights September 7-14 postponed concert at Disney Concert Hall in Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony cel- Los Angeles. ebrate the gala opening of L’Adresse Sym- phonique, Montreal’s new symphony hall, September 22-October 1 with works by three Quebec composers and In his first two weeks as the Seattle Sympho- Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Four nights later ny’s new music director, Ludovic Morlot con- the Borodin Quartet performs Quartets Nos. 15 ducts Zappa’s Dupree’s Paradise, Dutilleux’s by Beethoven and Shostakovich. Then Nagano Tree of Dreams with Renaud Capuçon, inaugurates the MSO’s regular season with Beethoven’s Eroica, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Joshua Bell (Glazounov and Tchaikovsky) and Gershwin’s American in Paris, and Varese’s Messiaen’s Turangalila Symphony with pianist Ameriques at Benaroya Hall. Angela Hewitt. October 4-8 September 9-10 The Brooklyn Academy of Music presents Kurt Joana Carneiro leads the St Paul Chamber Weill’s Threepenny Opera with stage direction Orchestra in the world premiere of Nico Muh- and lighting conceived by Robert Wilson. The ly’s Luminous Body. Also on the program are Berlin Ensemble accompanies the US pre- works by Bach, Haydn, and Brahms at the Ord- miere of this production. way Center. October 6-11 and 14-16 September 10-30 Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra The San Francisco Opera gives the world pre- take Tchaikovsky’s six symphonies (two per miere of Christopher Theofanidis’s Heart of a night) first to Carnegie Hall and then to the Soldier with Thomas Hampson, William Bur- University of California-Berkeley’s Zellerbach den, and Melody Moore conducted by Patrick Hall. They add an extra night in New York with Summers and directed by Francesca Zambello the winner of the 14th Tchaikovsky Competi- at War Memorial Opera House. tion plus works by Stravinsky and Shostakovich. September 14-15 The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio per- October 16 form yet another world premiere, Stanley Sil- Pianist Louis Lortie celebrates Liszt’s bicenten- verman’s Piano Trio No. 2, on a program with nial with the complete Years of Pilgrimage at Mozart’s Trio, K 502, and Beethoven’s Arch- the Royal Conservatory’s Koerner Hall in duke at New York’s 92nd Street Y (see a review Toronto. of their Danielpour premiere in this issue). October 22-23 September 23-30 David Alan Miller leads the Albany Symphony David Robertson and the St Louis Symphony in the world premiere of Kathryn Salfelder’s serve up two weekends of world premieres at Saxophone Concerto with Timothy McAllister, Powell Hall: Steven Mackey’s Piano Concerto plus Kernis’s Concerto with Echoes based on with Orli Shaham plus Mahler’s Symphony No. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 (also on 1; then Edgar Meyer in his Double Bass Con- the program), and Mendelssohn’s Italian Sym- certo No. 3 on a program with Copland’s Suite phony at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in Troy from The City with film, plus Ives and Gersh- and Skidmore College’s Zankel Music Center win. in Saratoga Springs. September 29 Sitarist Ravi Shankar (we can hope) celebrates his 91st birthday with a long-awaited, twice- AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE (ISSN 0003-0716) is published bimonthly for $43.00 a year for individuals ($55.00 for institutions) by Record Guide Productions, 4412 Braddock Street, Cincinnati OH 45204. Phone: (513) 941-1116 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.americanrecordguide.com Periodical postage paid at Cincinnati, Ohio. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to American Record Guide, 4412 Braddock Street, Cincinnati, OH 45204-1006 Student rates are available on request. Allow eight weeks for shipment of first copy. CANADIAN SUBSCRIPTIONS: add $12.00 postage; EUROPE: add $22.00 ALL OTHER COUNTRIES: add $27.00. All subscriptions must be paid with US dollars or credit card. Claims for missing issues should be made within six months of publication. Retail distribution by Ubiquity. Contents are indexed annually in the Nov/Dec or Jan/Feb issue and in The Music Index, The International Index to Music, and ProQuest Periodical Abstracts. Copyright 2011 by Record Guide Productions. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. Sig01arg.qxd 7/22/2011 4:46 PM Page 4 Carnegie’s “Spring for Music” Festival Seven Orchestras, Adventurous Programs Carlos Kalmar conducts the Oregon Symphony [The unique purpose and the principles for by competition. The orchestras, both full-sized selecting orchestras that perform in the and chamber, played at Carnegie Hall, the “Spring for Music” Festival, held in May at gold standard for orchestral sound, over a hec- Carnegie Hall and now planned through tic but exciting nine-day period in early May. 2013, is explained at: springformusic.com- All seats were $15 to $25, a brave attempt to /Mission.htm. Jack Sullivan attended six of lure younger audiences as well as local folk this year’s seven concerts; Joseph Dalton flown in from each region (1400 from Toledo, attended the middle one with the Dallas Ohio, alone for the Toledo Symphony). Symphony. —Editor] Instead of the usual overture-concerto-sym- phony formula, each program had to have a distinct architecture or theme, and there was a Jack Sullivan generous amount of contemporary music, e hear so many grim stories about the much of it commissioned for the festival.