What concerts are you looking forward to? (Part II)

[brewski]

Wigmore Hall is streaming the International String Quartet Competition over the next six days, with a pretty heady lineup of ensembles and pieces. Here is the preliminary round through April 4, with all ensembles playing Judith Weir's String Quartet No. 2, "The Spaniard" (which I've never heard).

[brewski]

Tonight, Igor Levit and his pupil Lukas Sternath perform (separately and together)  :

Prokofiev  Piano Sonatas Nos. 7 & 9
Shostakovich  Symphony No.10  (arranged by the composer for piano 4 hands)

What an interesting recital. Levit is fascinating, and I can only imagine his protege will be, as well. On a related note, a pianist friend will soon perform Shostakovich's arrangement of his Fifteenth Symphony, for two pianos. I had no idea these arrangements existed.

[Christo]

Monday, April 7, as a part of the Mahler Fest, Amsterdam Concertgebouw: Mahler 2, Auferstehung (Resurrection):
Het Orkest, Groot Concertkoor Amsterdam, Jacob Slagter conductor, Aylin Sezer soprano
& with Brian connaisseur and old musical friend & GMG member Johan Herrenberg (formerly 'Jezetha')
See: https://www.concertgebouw.nl/en/concerts/7408730-mahlers-monumental-symphony-no.-2

[brewski]

Monday, April 7, as a part of the Mahler Fest, Amsterdam Concertgebouw: Mahler 2, Auferstehung (Resurrection):
Het Orkest, Groot Concertkoor Amsterdam, Jacob Slagter conductor, Aylin Sezer soprano
& with Brian connaisseur and old musical friend & GMG member Johan Herrenberg (formerly 'Jezetha')
See: https://www.concertgebouw.nl/en/concerts/7408730-mahlers-monumental-symphony-no.-2

Hope it's fabulous. Some 20 years ago I heard the Mahler 2 in that hall — one of my favorite-ever concert experiences.

[brewski]

I haven't heard that version of the 15th, but I'm not surprised to learn of its existence - I suspect Shostakovich may have made arrangements of most of his symphonies.  In some cases that's the only way they were performed - in private - at a time when public performance would have been risky, if allowed at all. Nikolaeva claimed to have heard of the 10th in 1951, 2 years before it was officially composed, and then performed publicly, after Stalin's death.

The only recording I have is the one that Shostakovich and Weinberg made in 1954, which as you might expect is pretty stunning, in OK-for-the-era mono sound:

I'm a big fan of Levit, ever since I heard him about 12 years ago give one of the most interesting performances I've heard of Beethoven opp.109/110/111.  I know that offends some people, but at least you got the sense he was doing something with it.

Yes to the bolded text, very likely true. And thanks for that link.

Levit is so good that his idiosyncracies become persuasive — perhaps in the same vein as Gould (not that they are similar in most other ways). He definitely has a point of view and the chops to back up his ideas.

[Mapman]

Wigmore Hall is streaming the International String Quartet Competition over the next six days, with a pretty heady lineup of ensembles and pieces. Here is the preliminary round through April 4, with all ensembles playing Judith Weir's String Quartet No. 2, "The Spaniard" (which I've never heard).

I might check out the final tomorrow!

I'm also excited about tonight's livestream from Detroit (8PM Eastern), which features Bruch's Concerto for Clarinet and Viola!

https://www.dso.org/events-and-tickets/events/24-25-spring/beethoven-and-schumann

[Wanderer]

Tomorrow at the Musikverein:

Brahms: Concerto for Violin and Violoncello, Op. 102
Brahms: Symphony No. 4, Op. 98

Wiener Philharmoniker
Christian Thielemann
Augustin Hadelich
Gautier Capuçon

[Iota]

I haven't heard that version of the 15th, but I'm not surprised to learn of its existence - I suspect Shostakovich may have made arrangements of most of his symphonies.  In some cases that's the only way they were performed - in private - at a time when public performance would have been risky, if allowed at all.  Nikolaeva claimed to have heard of the 10th in 1951, 2 years before it was officially composed, and then performed publicly, after Stalin's death.

The only recording I have is the one that Shostakovich and Weinberg made in 1954, which as you might expect is pretty stunning, in OK-for-the-era mono sound:

Very interesting hearing it in that form. It feels a little like seeing a familiar object at a different wavelength on the light spectrum, and finding a new clarity about it.

[Judith]

Wonderful concert yesterday evening from Sinfonia of Leeds

performing

Andrew Downes Towards A New Age
Elgar Cello Concerto
Sibelius Symphony no 3

Soloist Jessica Burroughs
Conductor Anthony Kraus

[brewski]

Tomorrow night, amid the seemingly endless flood of string quartets, the Doric Quartet (new to me) in this program.

Beethoven: Quartet in F Major, Op. 135
Haydn: Quartet in D Major, Op. 20, No. 4
Beethoven: Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132

[T. D.]

Steve Beck (piano solo) this Saturday at a local public library.

This library (Olive Free Library, NY State) runs an excellent "Piano Plus" series each year, hosted by composer George Tsontakis.

Next month (May) Marilyn Crispell!

And on Sunday a local Indian music concert: Abhisek Mallick (sitar) with Pt. Subrata Bhattacharya (tabla).

[brewski]

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the TIME:SPANS Festival gets underway in NYC in August. Thirteen concerts this year, including these artists:

Ensemble Dal Niente
JACK Quartet
Miranda Cuckson
Shadow Axe
Ensemble Nikel and Noa Frenkel
Sixtrum Percussion
Bozzini Quartet
Talea Ensemble and Claire Chase
Endlings and Yarn/Wire
International Contemporary Ensemble
NO HAY BANDA

[T. D.]

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the TIME:SPANS Festival gets underway in NYC in August. Thirteen concerts this year, including these artists:

Ensemble Dal Niente
JACK Quartet
Miranda Cuckson
Shadow Axe
Ensemble Nikel and Noa Frenkel
Sixtrum Percussion
Bozzini Quartet
Talea Ensemble and Claire Chase
Endlings and Yarn/Wire
International Contemporary Ensemble
NO HAY BANDA

That is an outstanding lineup!

New Yorkers should also consider the Bang on a Can Long Play Festival in Brooklyn, May 2-4.
I don't have time to post highlights, but the website deserves attention: https://bangonacan.org/long-play-2025/

[Wanderer]

Tomorrow at the Megaron in Athens - amid a general strike!


Johann Sebastian Bach: Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor, BWV 903
Johannes Brahms: Four Ballades, Op. 10
Ludwig van Beethoven/Franz Liszt: Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55, "Eroica" - transcription for piano

Igor Levit, piano

[Brian]

Heads up for anyone who can make it to Scotland for the Edinburgh Festival this August: Piotr Anderszewski will be doing Brahms Opp. 116-119 and Bartok's Bagatelles in one program, the Sitkovetsky Trio will be doing Beethoven's Ghost and Shostakovich No. 2 with a premiere from an Iranian composer, Pavel Kolesnikov will be duetting it up for Messiaen's Visions of Amen, and the LSO/Pappano are pairing Beethoven's Fifth and Shostakovich's Tenth together.

[brewski]

Tonight, this live broadcast on WCRB at 8:00 pm EDT:

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons, conductor
Yo-Yo Ma, cello

Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11, The Year 1905

[(poco) Sforzando]

Yesterday morning at 11am, Patricia Kopatchinskaja with the New York Philharmonic doing the Stravinsky violin concerto under Jakub Hrusa. Since the Times had given the concert a rave review, I tumbled out of bed, quickly dressed, got a train into the city, and for $22 I picked up a rush ticket in row D center orchestra. I must say she puts on quite a show. Following a negligible opener for string orchestra by one Jessie Montgomery, PatKop emerged in a wild folk-inspired outfit, barefoot, and scratched her way through the Stravinsky - dancing, grimacing, lurching for 22 minutes in a performance more like a dancer in The Rite of Spring than a typical concert artist. Then a brief encore "Crin" by the Venezuelan Jorge Sánchez-Chiong, which combined violin-playing and nonsense syllables. The audience loved it, and her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1TbzPjgbeA

Following intermission, a return to normalcy with a solid Brahms 1 under Hrusa. But good to see the standard staid concert world shaken up a bit by this daring Moldavian artist.

[Brian]

That is the group Michael Collins assembled from some chamber music "regulars" to begin recording albums for BIS. Some of their albums have been rather good.

[brewski]

This livestream on May 9 looks great. I heard Widmann do Graal théâtre live a few months ago, and both she and the piece were fantastic.

Lutosławski: Kleine Suite for chamber orchestra
Saariaho: Graal théâtre for violin and orchestra
Saariaho: Verblendungen for orchestra and tape
Debussy: La Mer

Carolin Widmann, Violin
Matthias Schneider-Hollek, Sound direction
SWR Symphonieorchester
Bas Wiegers, conductor

[pjme]

I"ll wait patiently for a year...May 9th 2026 - Koncertgebouw Amsterdam. 

Dutch Radio Filharmonisch Orkest and Groot Omroepkoor 
Oscar Jockel dirigent 
Benjamin Goodson chorus conductor 
Laetitia Gerards soprano,  Elina Vähälä violin 
Jockel New work voor violin, elektronics, chorus and orchestra (wereldpremière, opdrachtwerk NTR ZaterdagMatinee) 
Sibelius Vioolconcert (...boring...I can do without this overplayed favorite... )
 Ligeti Lux aeterna 
Langgaard Sfærernes Musik (Muziek der sferen) 

De jonge Duitse componist en dirigent Oscar Jockel, winnaar van de Herbert von Karajan Prijs 2023, leidt dit concert met een werk dat hij in opdracht van de ZaterdagMatinee componeert. 
Heel bijzonder op dit programma is de zelden gehoorde Muziek der sferen van de Deense componist Langgaard, in 1918 zijn tijd ver vooruit.

https://cms-assets.nporadio.nl/npoRadio4/ZM0407-Brochure-2026-2026-spreads.pdf?v=1742491875