The Vienna Philharmonic is world-renowned for its fine performances. We’ll enjoy the orchestra directed by Riccardo Muti playing Johann Strauss Jr.’s Schallwellen. This is a track on their New Years Concert for 2021 which was watched by an estimated 50 million viewers worldwide.
Hilary Hahn
Photo by Peter Miller
Hilary Hahn’s new Paris CD was just released on March 5. Hilary plays the Scherzo from Violin Concerto No. 1 in D, Op. 19 by Sergei Prokofiev, accompanied by the Radio France Philharmonic directed by Mikko Franck.
An Austrian child prodigy, Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) moved to Hollywood and became a successful film composer. Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott play Korngold’s Marietta’s lied from Die tote Stadt, one of the tracks on their Songs of Comfort and Hope CD on the Sony Classical label.
Frédéric Chopin and Stephen Hough are about as perfectly matched as any classical music aficionado could want. Stephen plays Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 35 from his CD Vida Breve. This is the sonata with the familiar Funeral March.
Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin was founded in 1982. Bernard Forck leads the orchestra in a performance of C. P. E. Bach’s Berlin Symphony in F, Wq. 175.
Angela Hewitt is well-respected for her interpretations of the keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach. But she is also a skilled interpreter of Beethoven’s music. On a CD entitled Beethoven Variations on the Hyperion label, Angela plays Beethoven’s Eroica Variations.
Praised for a “rich, natural sound that’s larger and more complex than the sum of its parts,” (National Public Radio)
New York Polyphony is one of the foremost vocal chamber ensembles active today. The four gentlemen perform a Pater Noster (Our Father) and Ave Maria (Hail Mary) by Dutch Renaissance composer, Adrian Willaert.
Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds’s commission log is never empty these days. We enjoy his In Paradisum sung for us by the Portland State Chamber Choir.
The Royal Scottish National Orchestra has a new CD out of Leo Delibes’ Ballet Suites. Neeme Jarvi conducts the orchestra in a performance of the Suite from Sylvia.
Isabelle Faust, violin; Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello; and Alexander Melnikov, fortepiano perform the Piano Trio in D, Beethoven’s own chamber transcription of his Symphony No. 2 in D.
Rob Kennedy
March 6, 2021