Criticultura em Portugal

 Last week I survived a marathon listening experience, hearing six different ensembles play string quartets at the Gulbenkian String Quartet Festival over two afternoons. The quality was high, the hall full (mostly), and the price low (about 6 euros per concert). My brain was a bit scrambled by the end of concert #6, but I really enjoyed the playing overall, and heard some new pieces. I won't summarize each concert  in detail, but will instead try to group my impressions.  Who Played? In order of seniority, I  heard Minguett Quartet (Germany/Austria) founded 1988, 33 recordings Danel Quartet (Manchester), founded 1991, 23 recordings Jerusalem Quartet (Israel), founded 1993, 20 recordings Belcea Quartet (London), founded 1994, 14 recordings Simply Quartet (Vienna), founded 2010, no recordings Van Kuijk Quartet (Paris), founded 2012, 7 recordings Nicely, there was a range of ages and international presence. Most quartets had members from multiple countries, often with...

 The concert by Lisbon's Gulbenkian orchestra last week featured three early twentieth century works of diverse affect, conducted by US guest conductor Robert Treviño. The contrasts made for a really enjoyable concert. The Faure Suite from Pelléas et Mélisande (1898) is a compilation from his incidental music to the symbolist Maeterlink play being premiered in London in 1898. The music is pleasant enough, more like a backdrop to an atmospheric video game. It nicely evokes the lovers wandering around in the mist, and most famous for the popsy flute-heavy  Sicilienne .  In this performance the flutist's tone did not quite have the depth and projection of the best performances. A pleasant opener, but better music on this subject is to be found in Debussy's 1902 opera. Completely different was the Piano Concerto for the Left Hand  by Ravel (1930). This is vigorous piece was composed for the pianist Paul Wittgenstein (brother of the Austrian philosopher Ludwig). Wittgen...

The Christmas/New Years holiday is generally a boom period for choruses, one in which many see their largest audiences (and, in the US, income). Repertory varies. Besides the usual carols and regional songs, Handel's Messiah is the go-to piece in the USA, even though 2/3 of it has to do with death and resurrection, not Christmas. In much of Europe, Bach's Christmas Oratorio  is used instead, even though it is essentially six back-to-back cantatas with a tenor narrator, and makes for a very long evening. This season I saw two choral concerts which remarkably featured neither of the above. On my German trip, I took a daytrip from my base in  Hamburg to the old trading town of Lübeck, famed as the birthplace of novelist Thomas Mann, and where he set my favorite of his novels, Buddenbrooks (BTW, read it in the translation by John E. Woods). It's a charming old town with signs of its past wealth as a Hanseatic trading port--especially its four large churches, several damaged sev...

On a recent trip, I had two Strauss opera experiences that could not have been more different: Johann's  Die Fledermaus  in Nürnberg, then Richard's Elektra in Vienna. Both were dynamic and entertaining, but in very different ways.  Johann Strauss II's  Die Fledermaus  ( The Bat) from 1874 is the most popular example of Viennese operetta, composed in an era when the Strauss family (and others) provided the frothy musical backdrop for Viennese society, including its new craze: the waltz. The title refers rather obscurely to a practical joke played in the past on one of the main characters, leaving him eager to get back at the perpetrator, thus driving the operetta's silly plot, which is replete with confused identity, gender-bending gestures, and lots of partying. I think a good production should be heavy on the fun, with a dollop of whipped cream..it's an operetta that influenced Gilbert and Sullivan, as well as American operetta composers of the 20th century. U...

 I just returned from a musical journey in Germany and Austria, starting in Berlin and ending in Vienna, seeing three symphonic concerts and two operas over one week. I'll review the operas next week, but will start with the symphonies. My satisfaction with these concerts did not align with my a priori expectations. This is a good thing, and one reason why it is fun to see live music. Otherwise, you could just sit at home with your perfect digital performances.  First up was the Berlin Philharmonic playing in their home Philharmonie under guest conductor Andris Nelsons, the Latvian maestro who heads both the Boston Symphony and Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestras. The orchestra sounded as great as expected, with particularly delicious woodwind solos in the Beethoven Fourth Symphony. This is not a titanic piece, but Nelsons and the orchestra performed it with a nice mix of virtuosity and classical restraint. Less interesting were the Richard Strauss tone poem Don Juan  and the c...