Classical music
Midweek Madness snaps into 'West Side Story' mood
Fresh on the heels of performing 'Carmina Burana,' which inspired one of the drollest entries yet in Midweek Madness, if Midweek Madness does say so itself, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is about to play a live soundtrack for screenings of the 1961 film 'West Side Story.' So, naturally, that got Midweek Madness thinking about Sharks, Jets, Maria, Tony, feeling pretty -- and "Somewhere" to find a "Cool" way of having fun with all of it. (Yes, this video gets ever so sophomoric in places, but MM is willing to overlook the questionable bits, given the clever stuff in between.) Read more ...
Baltimore Symphony delivers a dynamic 'Carmina Burana'
To wrap up its subscription season, the Baltimore Symphony is performing one of those surefire works beloved by orchestra box offices everywhere, Carl Orff's earthy cantata "Carmina Burana." Read more ...
For Memorial Day, a Civil War ballad
On this Memorial Day, I thought it would be worth recalling the Civil War origins of this annual observance. Here is one of the most beloved songs from those terrible years of when the country was torn apart by an internal conflict. Read more ...
'Great Day': New life for old music of black churches
As afternoon light tried to filter through the thick, stained-glass windows of Sharp Street United Methodist Church last weekend, Marco K. Merrick pounded out the bass line of a spiritual on a raw-sounding piano, singing along in a raspy voice: "Great day, the righteous marching. Great day, God's going to build up Zion's walls." Read more ...
John Williams brings down the house in Baltimore Symphony Orchestra debut
Letting out roars that must have been audible in Ocean City, the capacity crowd at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall rewarded film composer John Williams with ovation after ovation Tuesday night, each louder than the one before. Read more ...
Baltimore Symphony cancels 'Matrix' concert
Due to what are being described as "unforeseen contractual issues related to the production," the Baltimore Symphony has canceled "Matrix Live," a concert that had been scheduled for July 13 at Meyerhoff Hall as part of the orchestra's summer season. Read more ...
Midweek Madness has to salute 'Rite of Spring' centennial
So OK, it is exactly 100 years since Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" was premiered in Paris, causing "The Riot of Spring" because so many people in the audience hated it. Since the anniversary date coincides, conveniently, with my Midweek Madness featurette, I had to find at least a slightly nutty way to mark the occasion. Read more ...
Carlos Kalmar makes welcome return to BSO podium
If you missed Thursday night's Baltimore Symphony Orchestra concert at Meyerhoff Hall -- and, based on a glance around the room, a whole heckuva lot of you missed it -- there's another chance Friday (Strathmore gets the program Saturday). It's time well spent, I'd say. Read more ...
'AGT' phenom Jackie Evancho to perform with BSO
In 2010, a blond-haired girl with a sweet smile stood before the "America's Got Talent" studio audience and millions of TV viewers. The 10-year-old proceeded to sing about asking her daddy to grant her request. Read more ...
Season finales from Choral Arts Society, Shriver Hall
Sunday’s musical splendors, for me, started with the Baltimore Choral Arts Society’s season finale in the afternoon at Grace United Methodist Church. The cleverly constructed program gave audiences a chance to compare different settings of the same texts. Read more ...
Marin Alsop leads Baltimore Symphony in propulsive program
If it has a good beat, you can count on Marin Alsop to conduct it with infectious energy. That point is being driven home by her latest program with the Baltimore Symphony, which has one more local performance before the orchestra takes it to Carnegie Hall on Monday. Read more ...
WPAS presents soaring concert by Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra has had its share of troubles over the years, including an embarrassing brush with bankruptcy, but things sure sound like they are looking up, way up, these days. Read more ...
Over the weekend, memorable music from Concert Artists, Fleishers
Weekends are wonderfully musical around here, offering, more often than not, too many events for any one listener to take in, without benefit of helicopter or cloning. The choices I made last weekend paid handsome dividends. Read more ...
Moving performance of 'Defiant Requiem' at Peabody Institute
If you don't have a ticket to tonight's repeat of "Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezin" at the Peabody Institute, try using all your powers of persuasion and influence to get one, or just consider sneaking in. It's an important event. Read more ...
BSO performs program of powerhouse Rouse, Wagner
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra didn’t think small when deciding to acknowledge the 2013 bicentennial of the birth of revolutionary composer, revolting human being Richard Wagner. Read more ...
Melinda O'Neal ends Handel Choir tenure with Brahms' 'German Requiem'
When Johannes Brahms set about composing a requiem to commemorate his mother, he aimed for something that was more about comforting than crying, more about coming to terms than fretting about whatever judgment might await the dead. The result, "Ein Deutsches Requiem" ("A German Requiem"), is one of the glories of the choral repertoire, one of Brahms' most personal and affecting pieces. Read more ...
Pianist Soheil Nasseri shines with Baltimore Chamber Orchestra
With something like 17,000 attractive concerts scheduled in and around Baltimore last Sunday, I decided on just one, figuring that I would not be able to concentrate on too much music anyway, what with all the anticipation building for the "Mad Men" season-opener that night. (If I had known what a let-down that would be -- am I the only one who felt that a lot of Sunday's episode was padded and even, gasp, kind of dull? -- maybe I would have crammed in a few more.) Read more ...
Arian Khaefi to lead Handel Choir of Baltimore
Arian Khaefi, director of choral activities at Towson University since 2012, has been named artistic director and conductor of the Handel Choir of Baltimore. He will succeed Melinda O'Neal, who is retiring after leading the chorus for nine years. Read more ...
Review roundup includes Zuber, Concert Artists of Baltimore, Hvorostovsky
Last year, when Concert Artists of Baltimore planned the March program for its 2012-2013 season, the most interesting part was the repertoire -- an unusual pairing of Beethoven's Mass in C with Saint-Saens' Piano Concerto No. 2. By the time that program arrived over the weekend, there was something a lot newsier about it. Read more ...
Russian conductor Dima Slobodeniouk makes BSO debut
On Friday night, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s gave, note for note, one of the most thoroughly absorbing and emotionally powerful performances of an all-Russian program since the glory days of all-Russian programs with former music director Yuri Temirkanov. Read more ...
Free Bach birthday concert, complete with cake, party hats
If you forgot to plan a party to celebrate Bach's 328th birthday, no worries. You are welcome to join the one thoughtfully organized by Douglas Buchanan, director of music ministries at Old St. Paul's Episcopal Church in downtown Baltimore. Read more ...
Baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky to give recital for Washington Performing Arts Society
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, the Russian baritone who will give a recital for the Washington Performing Arts Society at the Kennedy Center Wednesday night, has one of the finest voices of our time. He doesn’t mind saying so himself. Read more ...
Organist Felix Hell showcased in Baltimore Symphony's French program
When Meyerhoff Symphony Hall was built back in the early 1980s, there was space for a proper pipe organ to be installed, which would have made the facility even more valuable. Too bad there wasn’t any money. Read more ...
John Williams to conduct Baltimore Symphony in musicians' pension fund benefit
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, which has slipped back into deficit territory partly because of pension fund obligations, has planned a concert to do something about that. Read more ...
Andrew Balio, Nola Richardson featured in baroque concert at Walters Art Museum
The sculpture court at the Walters Art Museum is one of Baltimore's most inviting spaces. Acoustically, it's a bit of a soup, but who cares in such an ambience? Read more ...
Emanuel Ax, Gil Shaham among notable artists for 2013-2014 Shriver Hall Concert Series
The Shriver Hall Concert Series has another lineup of notable classical artists in store for the 2013-14 season. Read more ...
Belated weekend report on Baltimore Concert Opera, Nadja-Salerno Sonnenberg
Just for the record, however belated, my musical adventures last Sunday started out at the Garrett-Jacobs Mansion to hear the latest Baltimore Concert Opera presentation. It was enough to restore my faith in the spunky company. Read more ...
Christoph Konig leads Baltimore Symphony in dynamic program of Beethoven, Strauss
In the fresh-face department, German conductor Christoph Konig has a lot going for him in his Baltimore Symphony Orchestra debut this week. Read more ...
Kennedy Center's 2013-14 season showcases hip-hop, international theater
The Kennedy Center plans to shake up the Foggy Bottom hood next season. As part of its 2013-2014 lineup, the center will showcase a global pop music phenomenon. Really? Shizzle, man. Read more ...
Ignat Solzhenitsyn leads Baltimore Symphony in works by Mozart, Part
When Ignat Solzhenitsyn's career began a couple decades ago, the piano was his primary focus. In short order, the podium attracted his attention, and he has enjoyed significant success as a conductor. Read more ...
Baltimore Symphony announces 2013-14 season
There’s a light and dark theme running through the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s 2013-2014 season, which includes works dealing with great loss, as well as great compassion. Read more ...
The Baltimore Symphony delivers vivid Wagner program
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra chose some of Richard Wagner’s most radiant and involving music for a program this weekend to mark the composer’s bicentennial year. The results were pretty radiant, too, Friday night at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, and will likely be even more so in the repeat performances, as things settle in more firmly. Read more ...
Mezzo Magdalena Kozena, pianist Yefim Bronfman give recital at Shriver Hall
Vocal recitals are rare enough in Baltimore that even a program of familiar lieder would qualify as a novelty. A program of way-off-the-beaten-path songs? That's beyond cool. Read more ...
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