Fans of Shostakovich’s operas will have the rare chance to hear a concert version of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk played by the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall on Jan. 30. Led by BSO music director Andris Nelsons, the cast includes Kristine Opolais as Katerina and Pavel Černoch as Sergey, along with the Tanglewood Festival […]
Austin Opera presents Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (To Cross the Face of the Moon), a mariachi opera by José ‘Pepe’ Martínez on Feb. 1-4. The production, directed by Leonard Foglia, is a collaboration with the Studio of the Ópera de Bellas Artes, based in Mexico City. Mariachi specialists Trío Chapultepec will play alongside […]
Irish composer Charles Villiers Stanford died in 1924, and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland is marking that centenary by performing some of his works throughout their season. The first Stanford 100 concert takes place Feb. 2 and features his Clarinet Concerto with soloist Carol McGonnell. Mihhail Gerts will also conduct Brahms’ Fourth Symphony. https://bit.ly/45tBrQR
Enchanted Woods: Shakespeare & Song, Feb. 2-11 at Portland Opera, is an evening of story and song inspired by 20th-century adaptations of Shakespeare’s enduring works. It will feature poetry and music by a variety of composers and literary figures, collected in homage to the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio. https://www.portlandopera.org/
The Bavarian State Opera is creating a new production of Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame, directed by Benedict Andrews and conducted by Aziz Shokhakimov. Brandon Jovanovich stars as Hermann. The production runs Feb. 4-20. https://www.staatsoper.de/en/productions/pique-dame/2024-02-04-1800-14096
Finnish composer Lotta Wennäkoski’s Om fotspår och ljus (Of Footprints and Light – Helsinki Variations) will receive its U.K. premiere with the London Symphony on Feb. 4. Another Finn is on the program: Jean Sibelius, whose Symphony No. 2 will be conducted by Thomas Søndergård. Leif Ove Andsnes is the soloist for Beethoven’s Fifth Piano […]
Conductor Oksana Lyniv leads the U.K. premiere of the Cello Concerto by fellow Ukrainian Victoria Vita Polevá with the London Philharmonic on Feb. 9. Inbal Segev will be the soloist. The program opens with a suite from Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen and concludes with Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony. https://lpo.org.uk/event/oksana-lyniv-conducts-dvorak/
Two artists are making their Minnesota Orchestra debuts on Feb. 9-10: saxophonist Steven Banks and conductor Ruth Reinhardt. Banks will be the soloist for Billy Child’s Diaspora. Also on the roster are “Šárka,” from Smetana’s Má vlast, and Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet suite. https://www.minnesotaorchestra.org/tickets/calendar/classical/prokofievs-romeo-and-juliet/
Mexican conductor Iván López-Reynoso makes his U.S. symphonic debut on Feb. 9-10, leading the Milwaukee Symphony in the Ravel orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Pianist Jorge Federico Osorio will play Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto in a program that opens with a suite from the 1936 film Redes (“Nets”) by Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas. https://www.mso.org/concerts/pictures-at-an-exhibition/
In a bid to expand the available repertoire for piano, violin, and cello, the Merz Trio has sought out (and in some cases, created themselves) arrangements for their instrumentation. As a result, their Feb. 11-12 program for the Dallas Chamber Music Society includes a wide range of composers, including Hildegard of Bingen, Thelonious Monk, and […]
Leonid Desyatnikov is a Ukrainian composer born in 1955. His piano duet Trompe-l'œil will receive its U.S. premiere at a Carnegie Hall recital by pianists Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy on Feb. 13. The duo will also play Stravinsky’s four-handed arrangement of The Rite of Spring and Schubert’s Fantasia in F minor, D. 940. https://www.carnegiehall.org/calendar/2024/02/13/pavel-kolesnikov-piano-samson-tsoy-piano-0730pm
Roland Wood stars as Karl Marx in the U.K. premiere of the comic opera Marx in London! at Scottish Opera. The production, which covers Marx’s time in London in 1871 will be staged in Glasgow on Feb. 13-17 before moving to Edinburgh Feb. 22-24. Conducted by Stephen Barlow and designed by Yannis Thavoris. https://www.scottishopera.org.uk/shows/marx-in-london/
Eun Sun Kim, music director of the San Francisco Opera, makes her debut with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal Feb. 15-17. She will conduct Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition as well as two works featuring pianist Louis Lortie: Mozart’s Rondo, K. 382, and Fauré’s Ballade, Op. 19. https://www.osm.ca/en/concerts/mozart-and-faure-with-louis-lortie-and-eun-sun-kim/
Composer Carlos Simon will curate an evening of new and recent works on Feb. 15, 17 with the Atlanta Symphony. Besides Simon’s own Motherboxx Connection and brea(d)th, the program includes Uzee Brown’s We Shall Overcome and other works to be announced. Among the scheduled guests are performance artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph, soprano Kearstin Piper Brown, […]
On Feb. 16-17, music director Rafael Payare will lead the San Diego Symphony in two works by Ravel—Le tombeau de Couperin and La valse—and one by Debussy—Images—as well Gabriela Ortiz’s Altar de bronce. The Ortiz, a co-commission by the SDS, will feature guest trumpeter Pacho Flores. This will be the work’s West-Coast premiere. https://jacobsmusiccenter.org/archives/events/ravel-debussy-and-ortiz/
The San Francisco Chronicle has described 32-year-old composer Katherine Balch as “some kind of Thomas Edison” because of the complexity and inventiveness evident in her pieces. The Pittsburgh Symphony has commissioned a new work from her, which will receive its world premiere on Feb. 16-18 in a program conducted by Manfred Honeck. Shostakovich’s First Cello […]
Bookended by two Stravinsky works, the London Philharmonic’s Feb. 16 program includes the world premiere of Ciudad sin Sueño, a fantasia for piano and orchestra (featuring Javier Perianes) by Spanish composer Francisco Coll. Under the baton of Gustavo Gimeno, the evening prolongs the Iberian vibe with Villa Lobos’ Nights in the Gardens of Spain. https://lpo.org.uk/event/colour-and-fantasy/
Beta, a world premiere by Deutsche Oper Berlin running Feb. 17-March 2, is investigative music theater exploring not only the potential of digital tools but also the risks inherent in the relinquishing of private data. The opera is by Christiane Mudra (libretto, research, and stage direction and Dariya Maminova (music) and will incorporate CGI and VFX […]
Conductor and soprano Barbara Hannigan will join Orchestre symphonique de Montréal on Feb. 21-22 for the North American premiere of her staged version of Poulenc’s lyric drama La voix humaine, with projections by Clemens Malinowski. The program opens with Hannigan conducting Strauss’ Metamorphosen. https://www.osm.ca/en/concerts/richard-strauss-and-poulenc-with-barbara-hannigan/
On Feb. 22-25, the Dallas Symphony, trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth, and violinist Karen Gomyo will perform the world premiere of Xi Wang’s Year 2020, a double concerto. Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3 will feature organist Bradley Hunter Welch. The program, conducted by Fabio Luisi, will open with Flare by the young German composer Sophia Jani. https://www.dallassymphony.org/productions/saint-saens-organ-symphony/
Pianist Timo Andres will play the world premiere of one of his own new works at Carnegie Hall on Feb. 23. The wide-ranging program opens with Robin Holcomb’s Wherein Lies the Good and proceeds through works by Ellington, Copland, and Philip Glass, plus the New York premiere of Gabriella Smith’s Imaginary Pancake. https://www.carnegiehall.org/calendar/2024/02/23/timo-andres-piano-0730pm
As part of a program titled Silent Wood, Deep River, the Austin Chamber Music Center will present the world premiere of Daniel Temkin’s Rise for cello and piano on Feb. 23-24. Cellist Annie Jacobs-Perkins and pianist Michelle Schumann will also play works by Gabriela Lena Frank, Louis Ballard, Stratis Minakakis, and Gabriel Fauré. https://austinchambermusic.org/event/silent-wood-deep-river/
Throughout the 2023-34 season, the San Francisco Symphony will present its SoundBox series, curated by four musicians on each of four weekends. The small Soundbox space is designed to allow for multi-sensory, interactive experiences. Expect the unexpected. Get ready to see musical experiments in action. The details of the SoundBox programs remain under wraps, but […]
The West Coast will have its first chance to see Robert O’Hara’s new staging of Anthony Davis’ The Life and Times of Malcolm X when Seattle Opera presents the work Feb. 24-March 9. The cast includes Kenneth Kellogg, Joshua Stewart, Leah Hawkins, and Ronnita Miller. Kazem Abdullah conducts. https://www.seattleopera.org/
As part of its Recovered Voices series Feb. 24-March 17, the LA Opera and conductor James Conlon will perform two little-known one-acts. William Grant Still’s Highway 1, USA stars Norman Garrett and Nicole Heaston as an ordinary American couple making misguided choices to get ahead. Alexander Zemlinsky’s The Dwarf is based on a heartbreaking tale […]
American composer Mason Bates completed his Violin Concerto in 2012, but it has never been performed on the West Coast. The San Diego Symphony and violinist Gil Shaham will correct that omission on Feb. 24-25 in a program that also includes The Ring Without Words, an orchestral arrangement by Lorin Maazel of highlights from Wagner’s […]
Although Alexander Zemlinsky wrote the opera George the Dreamer in 1904-6, it was not premiered until 1980. The story, although filled with the magic of fairy tales, takes a realistic look at the pain of being an outsider in society. Oper Frankfurt will present a new production of this rarely seen work on Feb. 25-March […]
In a program called Spanish Reflections, the Toronto Symphony will give two North American premieres on Feb. 28-29. The first is Francisco Coll’s Ciudad sin sueño: Fantasia for Piano and Orchestra, featuring Javier Perianes. The other is Coll’s orchestration of Falla’s piano work Fantasia Baetica. The program concludes with two suites from Falla’s The Three-Cornered […]
On Feb. 29-March 1, Long Yu will conduct the New York Philharmonic orchestra and chorus in the U.S. premiere of Émigré, a semi-staged oratorio by Aaron Zigman and Mark Campbell about Jewish refugees who fled to Shanghai to escape the Holocaust. The work was co-commission by the NY Phil and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. Soloists […]
It is rare to hear a performance of Franz Schmidt’s 1938 religious oratorio, The Book with Seals. Dallas Symphony patrons will get that chance when Fabio Luisi conducts the work on March 1-3. Soloists will include tenor Paul Appleby, soprano Meghan Kasanders, mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor, and bass Hadleigh Adams. https://www.dallassymphony.org/productions/the-book-with-seven-seals/
Ireland’s National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by John Wilson, will present the European premiere of Ligeia, a trombone concerto by Joe Chindamo, with Peter Moore as soloist. The March 1 program will also include Holst’s The Planets. https://bit.ly/3tAbDoI
Alexander Scriabin’s symphonic poem Prometheus, The Poem of Fire celebrates synesthesia and cosmic unity. San Francisco Symphony music mirector Esa-Pekka Salonen has partnered with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Cartier in-house perfumer Mathilde Laurent to create a multisensory production of Prometheus that aims to realize Scriabin’s vision of a truly synesthetic work of art. March 1-3. https://www.sfsymphony.org/Discover-the-Music/Prometheus
Directed by Barrie Kosky, Komische Oper Berlin’s new production of Handel’s Hercules demonstrates that oratorios can, in fact, be staged. Mezzo-soprano Paula Murrihy sings the lead role of Dejanira, long-suffering wife of Hercules (March 3-April 5). https://www.komische-oper-berlin.de/en/what/a-z/hercules/
On March 3 the London Symphony Orchestra will present the world premiere of John Adams’ Frenzy. Simon Rattle conducts this all-American program, which includes Roy Harris’ Symphony No. 3 and Gershwin’s Piano Concerto, featuring Kirill Gerstein. https://www.lso.co.uk/whats-on/sir-simon-rattle-listening-to-america/
Pieces that take their inspiration from world folk musics is the theme for the March 3 concert from the San Antonio Chamber Music Society. The Jupiter String Quartet will play Su Lian Tan’s Life in Wayang, selections from Wynton Marsalis’ Quartet No. 1, At the Octoroon Balls, and Dvořák: String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, […]
