Performances to Stream August 26-27, 2023
This weekend brings us concerts from festivals and regular seasons in Aalborg, Salzburg, Utrecht, Budapest, Lübeck, Helsinki, and Genoa.
Lili Boulanger’s Faust et Hélène from the Musiikkitalo on Yle Radio 1
Lili Boulanger is the younger half of the Boulanger sisters, both of whom were highly respected musicians and composers in Europe around the turn of the 20th century. The daughter of a Russian princess and a Paris Conservatoire professor, she started her musical endeavors before she was even 5 years of age by accompanying her sister Nadia to the Paris Conservatoire. It was not long before she sat in on classes in music theory and began to study organ with Louis Vierne there. As she continued to study in the storied institution, she added voice, cello, harp, violin, and piano to her list of instruments. Suddenly, I feel a trifle under-accomplished with merely piano and voice to my credit! Her father Ernest had won the coveted Prix de Rome in 1835, so his daughters also tried for the honor numerous times. Lili’s first appearance in the competition was in 1912 when she was 18 years of age; however, Lili suffered from poor health her entire life as a result of a severe bout of pneumonia when she was a mere 2 years of age, and it reared its head during her initial attempt at the prize as she collapsed onstage during her performance. She entered again the following year and won the prize for musical composition at 19 years old with this very work, her cantata entitled Faust et Hélène. With this win she was the first woman to obtain the Prix de Rome for composition. Tragically, Lili’s life in this world was not destined to be a long one, for she died in March 1918 having attained 24 years of age. The Boulanger sisters were considerably well known in their time, but their music gradually fell out of favor with audiences; nevertheless, I am glad to report that a resurgence of interest in their works has greeted their catalogues in the 21st century, and I hope that remains true for decades and centuries in the future.
The soloists for this performance were soprano Miina-Liisa Värelä, tenor Tuomas Katajala, and baritone Stefan Astakhov, and they were led by conductor Hannu Lintu. Also on this program from a concert earlier this week on August 22 is Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp Minor. This broadcast is scheduled to air at 4:00 PM GMT on Saturday, August 26, 2023, on Yle Radio 1. It should be able to be streamed following the initial broadcast.
Soprano Lise Davidsen in Concert from the Aalborg Musikkens Hus on DR P2 Klassisk
On the Danish Peninsula soprano Lise Davidsen’s appearance as the close of the Aalborg Operafestival 2023 last weekend was recorded for later broadcast, and we are treated to it this very weekend. She performs arias from the operas of Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, and Ludwig van Beethoven. She is joined by maestro James Gaffigan leading the Aalborg Symfoniorkester. This broadcast is scheduled for 5:20 PM GMT on Saturday, August 26, 2023, on DR P2 Klassisk’s Operaaften. It will be available for future listening following its airing.
Vincenzo Bellini’s I Capuleti ed i Montecchi from the Salzburg Felsenreitschule on Ö1
Though it may be said that Charles Gounod wins the popularity contest of which tale of Romeo and Juliet opera audiences seem to prefer, Bellini’s earlier version from his days as a master of the bel canto opera style in Europe continues to draw audiences’ attentions with its Italian charms. It premiered on March 11, 1830, and was a marvelous success, but it disappeared from the repertoire by the 1860’s. It was not until 1957 that it would be heard again in a recording for RAI, and 1967 saw its return to the stage with a production at the Teatro alla Scala. The same production was later featured at Expo 67 in Montreal with the cast from Milan that boasted the talents of tenor Giacomo Aragall, the recently deceased soprano Renata Scotto, and a young tenor Luciano Pavarotti. Since 2011, there have been more than been more than 100 performances of this work staged in more than 25 productions in almost as many cities around the world. While the characters are the same as those from Shakespeare’s play, this opera uses Italian source material and changes the Capulets and Montagues from rival families to rival political factions. Notably, it also features Tebaldo (Tybalt) as the lover of Juliet instead of Count Paris. The duel in the garden does not occur; Romeo instead brings an army of 1,000 men to prevent Giulietta’s (Juliet’s) marriage to Tebaldo. Tebaldo and Lorenzo (Friar Laurence) fight with each other as a funeral procession for Giulietta delivers her comatose body to the family tomb. The ending is similar to Shakespeare’s except that Giulietta does not stab herself, but merely dies of a broken heart at the possibility of living without Romeo. While Shakespeare’s play focuses on the love between the titular characters, Bellini’s opera ends with a condemnation of the head of the Capuleti for the result of both young lovers slain by circumstance.
This glittering cast boasts the talents of Elsa Dreisig as Giulietta, Aigul Akhmetshina as Romeo, Giovanni Sala as Tebaldo, Michele Pertusi as Capellio, and Roberto Tagliavini as Lorenzo. Maestro Marco Armiliato lead this performance from the Festspiele Salzburg last weekend. This performance is schedule to air at 5:30 PM GMT on Saturday, August 26, 2023, on Ö1’s Opernabend. It will be available for future listening following the broadcast.
Soprano Golda Shultz Performs Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart from the Salzburg Mozarteum on Ö1
Soprano Golda Schultz joins maestro Antonello Manacorda with the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra for a concert entirely cnetered upon works of Mozart. Such a program is quite fitting for the Salzburg Festspiele 2023, and it is made all the more memorable for being delivered live over the radio. The program features both concert and opera arias for the soloist. On the docket for the evening are Vado, ma dove? Oh, Dei!, KV 583, Per pietà, ben mio from Così fan tutte, KV 588, Chi sà, chi sà, qual sia, KV 582, and Non mi dir, bell’idol mio from Don Giovanni, KV 527. The arias are bookended by two symphonies, the Symphony in E-Flat Major, KV 16, and the Symphony in C Major, “Jupiter,” KV 551, respectively.
This concert is scheduled for broadcast on Sunday, August 27, 2023, at 9:00 AM GMT on Ö1’s Festspielsender. It will be available for listening following the broadcast, as well.
Jenö Hubay’s Petöfi Symphony from the Budapest Kongresszusi Központ on Bartók Rádió
Composer Jenö Hubay was an Hungarian composer of German descent. He began his musical career as an accomplished violinist. Franz Liszt recommended he make his professional debut in Paris when he was 20 years old, and at 24 in 1882 he was head of the department of violin studies at the Brussels Music Institute. Four years later he returned to Hungary and succeeded his father, Karl Huber, as head of the Liszt Academy. He was widely regarded as an exceptional violinist and was well known for his attention to chamber music. Eminent as a soloist, chamber ensemble member, and teacher, he also composed throughout his life. He composed more than 100 works including several operas, four violin concerti, numerous lieder, and several encore pieces. His music does utilize some Hungarian melodies, but it is largely composed in the prominent style of the Romantic Era in Germany. His Petőfi Symphony would be the last of a lengthy list of works he composed using Hungarian revolutionary and poet Sándor Petőfi’s words as lyrics; he finished it in 1922. This is a work with which I am quite unfamiliar, and there is little musicology information available on it, unfortunately; however, this concert performance is given in honor of the poet’s 200th anniversary of birth.
This performance includes the talents of sopranos Zsuzsanna Ádám and Csilla Csövári, tenor László Boldizsár, and bass István Kovács with the Hungarian Radio Children’s Choir, the Honvéd Men's Choir, and the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Gábor Káli. The perofrmance is scheduled for Sunday, August 27, 2023, at 5:30 PM GMT on Bartók Rádió. I do not know if this concert will be available for streaming following the broadcast.
Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata vergine (1610) from the Tivoli Vredenburg on NPO Radio 4 Klassiek
Baroque music aficionadi can rejoice this weekend, as well! Presented as part of this year’s Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht, Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers remains as monumental a work today as it was when it was dedicated in 1610. Monteverdi wove a mass together combining both the prima pratica and the seconda pratica of the Catholic church’s musical styles and serves as a hallmark of the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque Era in music history. Musicologists debate whether this work was composed at one time or was a collection of music Monteverdi had written over years; whether we ever discover the answer to this or not, this was Monteverdi’s first publication of liturgical music after an interval of some 30 years since the previous publication of such works. It features as many as ten vocal parts and seven soloists with instrument solos for violin and cornet.
This performance features soprano Amélie Raison, mezzo-soprano Brenda Poupard, altos Axelle Verner and Eugénie de May, tenors Sébastien Obrecht and Edouard Monjanel, bass-baritone René Ramos-Premier, and bass Florent Martin. Simon-Pierre Bestion leads Le Tempête in this live performance. This broadcast is scheduled for airing on Sunday, August 27, 2023, at 6:00 PM GMT on NPO Radio 4 Klassiek. It will be available for listening on-demand following the initial broadcast.
George Friedrich Handel’s Messiah from the Musik- und Kongresshalle Lübeck on NDR Kultur
Perhaps the most famous oratorio in history and all of music, Handel’s Messiah has remained a favorite of audiences across the globe ever since its premiere in 1741. As a whole, it is a feat of endurance to perform or attend, so it is usually performed in parts today; ensembles will generally perform a cut down version that highlights either the Christmastide or Easter portions of Jesus’s life on Earth. I am not certain if this is the case for this performance or which “version” would be offered in August (a case might be made for Christmas from the Biblical reference of time in accordance with Caesar Augustus’s tax decree), but it is certain to be a performance of exquisite quality when you learn of the creative forces behind it!
The musical forces include Richard Egarr leading soprano Carolyn Sampson, alto Hilary Summers, tenor James Gilchrist, and bass Joshua Bloom with the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Choir and the NDR Radiophilharmonie. This live performance from the Schlewig-Holstein Musik Festival is scheduled to air at 6:00 PM GMT on NDR Kultur on Sunday, August 27, 2023. It will be available for streaming following the broadcast.
Giuseppe Verdi’s I due Foscari from the Teatro Carlo Felice on RAI Radio 3
Giuseppe Verdi’s early opera I due Foscari tells the story of a noble father who welcomes home his previously exiled son. The elder Foscari is a Doge, and his son Jacopo is falsely accused of a crime. He is commanded to appear before the Council of Ten in Venezia to have his case tried and sentence handed down if one is deserved. Jacopo protests that he is innocent, but the council finds him guilty and sentences him to banishment from Venezia yet again. Jacopo’s family is furious, and they are forbidden from accompanying him in his exile. The Doge resigns himself to the conviction, for he cannot overturn the law to protect his son. Later, however, he is shown evidence of Jacopo’s innocence just before he is about to embark on his voyage of exile. Adding insult to injury and proving its political motives, the Council of Ten commands the Doge to come before them, and Loredano tells Francesco, the Doge, that the council has decided he must relenquish his title due to his old age. The opera ends with Francesco losing his position and possessions and Loredano celebrating his new assumption of wealth and power at the expense of the Foscari house.
Our cast includes Franco Vassallo as Francesco Foscari, Fabio Sartori as Jacopo Foscari, Angela Meade as Lucrezia Contarini, Antonio Di Matteo as Jacopo Loredano, Saverio Fiore as Barbarigo, Marta Calcaterra as Pisana, Alberto Angeleri as Fante, and Filippo Balestra as Servo del Doge. Renato Palumbo conducts. This performance from April 6, 2023, is scheduled to air at 6:30 PM GMT on RAI Radio 3’s Il Cartellone on Sunday, August 27, 2023. It will be available for listening following the broadcast.