Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris

Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, where in January we heard an Orchestre National de France concert.

Théâtre du Châtelet is a theater, not a concert hall, and it is far from an ideal venue for orchestra concerts.

Orchestre National de France normally performs in Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, itself a theater and not a concert hall.

The only traditional concert hall in central Paris is Salle Pleyel.

My Final List

Below is a chronological listing of orchestra concerts Andrew and I attended within the last twelve months.

I last updated this list on July 1, 2012.

________________________________________________


Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
The Ordway Center
Saint Paul

Edo de Waart, Conductor
Christian Zacharias, Piano

R. Strauss: Serenade In E-Flat
R. Strauss: Metamorphosen For 23 Solo Strings
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2

________________________________________________


Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
The Ordway Center
Saint Paul

Thomas Dausgaard, Conductor
Alexander Fiterstein, Clarinet

Wagner: Siegfried Idyll
Nielsen: Clarinet Concerto
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7

________________________________________________


VocalEssence
The Cathedral Of Saint Paul
Saint Paul

Helmuth Rilling, Conductor

Bruckner: Four Motets
Mendelssohn: Two Motets
Bruckner: Mass No. 2

________________________________________________


Philharmonia Orchestra
Orchestra Hall
Chicago

Esa-Pekka Salonen, Conductor

Beethoven: Symphony No. 2
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique

________________________________________________


Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra
Uihlein Hall
Milwaukee

Christoph König, Conductor

Weber: “Der Freischütz” Overture
Lutoslawski: Concerto For Orchestra
Schubert: Symphony No. 8 (“Unfinished”)
Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2

________________________________________________


Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Orchestra Hall
Chicago

Charles Dutoit, Conductor
Gil Shaham, Violin

Britten: Variations And Fugue On A Theme Of Purcell
Walton: Violin Concerto
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7

________________________________________________


Orchestre National d'Île de France
Salle Pleyel
Paris

Enrique Mazzola, Conductor
Cedric Tiberghien, Piano

Panufnik: Katyn Epitaph
Azarova: Mover Of The Earth, Stopper Of The Sun [World Premiere]
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 3 (“Polish”)

________________________________________________


Orchestre National De France
Théâtre du Châtelet
Paris

Neeme Järvi, Conductor
Arabella Steinbacher, Violin

Mozart: Symphony No. 35 (“Haffner”)
Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5
Sibelius: Symphony No. 3

________________________________________________


Orchestre De Paris
Salle Pleyel
Paris

Paavo Järvi, Conductor
Krystian Zimerman, Piano

Schumann: “Genoveva” Overture
Lutoslawski: Piano Concerto
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 (“Pastoral”)

________________________________________________


Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Orchestra Hall
Chicago

Cristian Macelaru, Conductor
Yefim Bronfman, Piano

Debussy: Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Faun
Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 2
Bartók: Divertimento For Strings
Stravinsky: The Song Of The Nightingale

________________________________________________


Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center
Dallas

Jaap van Zweden, Conductor
Heidi Melton, Soprano
Clifton Forbis, Tenor
Eric Owens, Baritone

Wagner: Prelude To Act I Of “Lohengrin”
Wagner: Prelude To Act III Of “Lohengrin”
Wagner: Prelude To “Die Meistersinger”
Wagner: Act I Of “Die Walküre”

________________________________________________


Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
The Ordway Center
Saint Paul

Edo de Waart, Conductor
Isabel Leonard, Mezzo-Soprano

Adams/Liszt: The Black Gondola
Berlioz: Les nuits d'été
Adams/Busoni: Berceuse elegiaque
Beethoven: Symphony No. 2

________________________________________________


Despite the fact that the Minnesota Orchestra did not perform a single concert last season and despite the fact that the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra offered only five or six or seven weeks of concerts, Andrew and I nonetheless attended twelve orchestra concerts, well within the range of our usual concert-going pattern. Over seven years, we have attended seventy-eight orchestra concerts, an average of eleven such concerts per year.

We heard two works more than once last season: two performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2; and two performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No 7.

Except for four compositions, I was hearing each work live for the first time. The four works I had previously heard in live performance: Bartók’s Divertimento For Strings (Boston/Dohnányi); Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 (Buchbinder/Dresden/Luisi and Denk/SPCO/Boyd); Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 (Leipzig/Chailly); and Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 (in a frighteningly-bad authentic-instrument performance in Boston, a performance I instantly shoved from my mind).

The finest of the year’s concerts was the Chicago/Dutoit concert—although the finest of the conductors was König, who is going to be a huge star in the next half-decade. I, for one, would jump for joy if the Minnesota Orchestra were soon to name König to replace the shopworn Aksnav Omso.

I have no idea how many concerts we might attend next season.

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra has announced a 2013-2014 season that is formulaic and tired. We may write off the season.

I question whether there will be a Minnesota Orchestra 2013-2014 season—unless the American Federation Of Musicians national union is forced, for financial reasons, to halt the healthcare coverage it has been providing to musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra, effectively ending the current impasse.

Very tentatively, we are looking into spending a weekend in Boston next season, and a weekend in Dallas, and a weekend in New York—so no doubt we shall hear at least a handful of orchestra concerts.

Concert Hall Of The Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center

The concert hall of the Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center in Saint Paul.

I dislike the hall intensely.

The hall is cramped, and exceedingly unattractive. It may be the most unattractive and most unpleasant concert space I have ever experienced.

At the Daniil Trifonov recital, three rows of chairs circled the back of the stage, leaving very little room for Trifonov and his piano—and concert-goers occupying the stage seats were virtually breathing down Trifonov’s neck. I do not understand how Trifonov managed to perform under such conditions.

Not only are the Twin Cities home to one of the world’s ugliest concert halls, they are also home to one of the world’s ugliest theaters. The McGuire Theatre at The Walker Art Center is an aesthetic horror.

Minneapolis/Saint Paul is one of the global centers of bad design and bad architecture. I cannot think of another city I have visited in which design and architecture are so undistinguished.

In Houston, there is great design and great architecture everywhere the eye turns.

Why is Houston a design-and-architectural Mecca, and Minneapolis/Saint Paul a design-and-architectural wasteland?

And Yet Another List

Below is a chronological listing of the recitals Andrew and I attended in the last twelve months.

I last updated this list on July 1, 2012.

________________________________________________


Karita Mattila, soprano
Martin Katz, piano

The Ordway Center
Saint Paul

________________________________________________


Simone Dinnerstein, piano

Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center
Saint Paul

________________________________________________


Baiba Skride, violin
Lauma Skride, piano

Saint Anthony Park United Church of Christ
Saint Paul

________________________________________________


Stephen Hough, piano

The Ordway Center
Saint Paul

________________________________________________


Alisa Weilerstein, cello
Inon Barnatan, piano

The Ordway Center
Saint Paul

________________________________________________


Daniil Trifonov, piano

Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center
Saint Paul

________________________________________________


James Valenti, tenor
Danielle Orlando, piano

The Ordway Center
Saint Paul

________________________________________________


Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin
Lambert Orkis, piano

The Ordway Center
Saint Paul

________________________________________________


I do not believe Andrew and I had ever before attended eight recitals in a single season. Perhaps the number of recitals we attended was elevated because there were no Minnesota Orchestra concerts last season.

The two vocal recitals were unremarkable—but in no way offensive. Opera singers, as a general rule, are not successful on the recital platform, and Mattila and Valenti may be at home in the theater but they are nowise convincing recitalists; the song literature calls for a different set of skills than that necessary for a major career on the world’s opera stages.

Skride, Trifonov and Mutter are exceptional artists, and their recitals were nothing but pleasures. We considered ourselves blessed to be in the same halls with them.

The other three recitals were more or less disasters—and probably the three worst recitals I have ever attended.

Dinnerstein’s gifts—if she has any—are very modest; her recital was a complete waste of our time.

The day after Dinnerstein’s recital, Andrew came down with influenza. Andrew’s explanation: Dinnerstein’s recital would have made anyone ill.

Hough, if anything, was even worse than Dinnerstein. At the intermission of Hough’s recital, we did something we had never done before: we walked out. By no means were we alone as we exited.

Not long after his Twin Cities appearance, Hough offered the same program to a New York audience. Hough’s New York reviews were brutal. At least one New York writer questioned why Hough even had a career. I share that view.

Weilerstein’s recital was an exercise in camp. Amid the monstrous displays of hair-tossing and head-tossing, and melodramatic and hokey facial gestures and melodramatic and hokey bow gestures, there was no music-making worth hearing. Andrew’s father’s judgment of Weilerstein: “Well . . . I guess it’s nice to know what a Marcel Marceau cello recital would have been like.”

Weilerstein had a fantastic pianist. He is scheduled to give a solo recital in the Twin Cities next season. We intend to be there.

Rearranging Calendars

Andrew and I have been scratching things off our calendars left and right.

We have been warned off Park Square Theatre’s production of “Or”, a pseudo-Restoration Comedy by Liz Duffy Adams. We have been told that the play itself is the problem—Duffy apparently has rewritten and watered down Jeffrey Hatcher’s “Compleat Female Stage Beauty”, itself a work unworthy of emulation—and we have been cautioned that the text of the play is so gruesomely bad that the production must be avoided at all costs.

On Friday night, at the very last minute, Andrew, Alex and I decided to skip Theatre In The Round’s production of Shakespeare’s “All’s Well That Ends Well”, our intended project for the evening. We were, at root, not in the mood that night to sit through three hours of Shakespeare—especially since the production, two weeks into the run, has generated zero “buzz” among local theater aficionados.

Owing to lack of interest, we decided to skip Minnesota Opera’s current production of Ambroise Thomas’s “Hamlet”. Andrew says he would beat down the doors of any theater to get into a performance of Thomas’s “Mignon”, but that the composer’s “Hamlet” is not written at the same high level of inspiration.

On Saturday night, Andrew’s parents and Alec and Lizbeth attended a performance of Minnesota Opera’s “Hamlet”—and they reported that the evening was nicht gut. Andrew, Alex and I had a much better time that evening, babysitting the kids.

Penciled into our calendars had been one March performance by the Minnesota Orchestra—but the Minnesota Orchestra remains out of session. Consequently, we shall not hear Mark Wigglesworth lead the orchestra in music of Mozart (Symphony No. 1), Stravinsky (Violin Concerto) and Shostakovich (Symphony No. 10). The soloist was to have been Leila Josefowicz.

Penciled into our calendars had been two March performances by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra—but the SPCO, too, remains out of session. Both SPCO concerts had been scheduled to be conducted by Roberto Abbado, a conductor Andrew and I rather like.

The first SPCO concert was to have featured music of Bartok (Divertimento For String Orchestra), Ravel (Piano Concerto) and Mozart (Symphony No. 38). The soloist was to have been Lisa de la Salle.

The second SPCO concert was to have featured music of Ravel (Le Tombeau de Couperin) and Mozart (Symphony No. 36) as well as contemporary Italian composer Nicola Campogrande, a name totally new to me. The Campogrande work had been a late substitution for a Couperin-inspired piece by Richard Strauss (Divertimento For Small Orchestra), a work that would have made far more thematic sense than the Campogrande.

This coming weekend, in Chicago, we shall encounter a late substitution of a different sort (and, again, a name totally new to me): Christian Macelaru, a conductor stepping in at short notice for an indisposed Pierre Boulez. Macelaru will lead the Chicago Symphony in music of Debussy (Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Faun), Stravinsky (The Song Of The Nightingale) and Bartok (Divertimento For String Orchestra, Piano Concerto No. 2). The scheduled soloist is Yefim Bronfman.

I think this coming weekend was my one-and-only chance to hear Boulez. Given Boulez’s advanced age, I doubt I shall ever have another opportunity to hear him. I am very disappointed. The appearance of Boulez was our prime motivation for planning a music weekend in Chicago.

Also on our Chicago agenda: performances of Verdi’s “Rigoletto” and Puccini’s “La Boheme” at Lyric Opera Of Chicago.

We shall take my sister to all three performances.

We shall see my sister again at the end of the month. She will be on Spring Break the final week of March, and she will fly to the Twin Cities to spend that time with Andrew and me.

In order to offer her what entertainment we can, Andrew and I plan to “bank” all local plays we want to see until my sister arrives: Shakespeare’s “The Taming Of The Shrew” at The Guthrie; Ron Hutchinson’s “Moonlight And Magnolias” at Bloomington Civic Theatre; Alan Ayckbourn’s “Life And Beth” at Theatre In The Round; and Ira Levin’s “Deathtrap” at Jungle Theater.

I suspect my sister will prefer to see a few plays rather than have Andrew and me attempt to amuse her by reenacting scenes from Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis”.

As Andrew Predicted . . .

As Andrew predicted at the time we acquired our tickets more than six weeks ago, Colin Davis has backed out of Thursday night’s Orchestre National de France concert. His replacement: Neeme Järvi. The program remains unchanged.

The result: on Thursday evening we shall hear Järvi père and on Friday evening we shall hear Järvi fils. (Second son Kristjan is not presently appearing in Paris as far as I know. Kristjan appeared with the Minnesota Orchestra last season, but we did not bother to go.)

Paris

I am becoming more and more excited about our upcoming trip.

I have been to Paris only once, on a whirlwind tour of Europe with my Dad when I was in high school, and we did not spend much time in Paris on that trip (two days and three nights).

On this trip, we have available only eight full days (not including travel days)—but eight days in Paris is better than no days in Paris, and we have prepared an itinerary that interests us and, by and large, is not dependent upon good weather.

On Saturday, we intend to remain out and about all day, weather permitting, in order to ward off fatigue. We intend to explore six churches: Eglise Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais, Eglise Saint-Louis-en-I’lle, Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, La Sainte-Chapelle, Eglise Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre and Église Saint-Séverin.

On Sunday, we shall spend the morning in Le Marais. We plan to attend Sunday Service at Église Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis (which recently completed a multi-year restoration) and explore the church afterward. We intend to spend the rest of the morning at Musée Cognacq-Jay. After the museum visit, we plan to assemble a lunch at the many excellent Jewish delicatessens and bakeries in Le Marais.

On Sunday afternoon, we have tickets for a performance of Charpentier’s “David et Jonathas” at l'Opéra Comique, which performs at Salle Favart. (Charpentier was for many years Master Of Music at Eglise Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis, the church we will have visited that morning.) After the opera performance, we intend to explore two more churches: Eglise Saint-Eustache and Basilique Notre-Dame-des-Victoires (the latter is Lully’s final resting place; Opera Of The French Baroque is definitely the theme of our day). Our Sunday dinner will be at Chez Chartier—Andrew says everyone must go to Chez Chartier at least once, and I have never been to Chez Chartier.

Monday is built around Les Invalides. We shall first explore two nearby churches: Basilique Saint-Clothilde and Eglise Saint-Francois-Xavier. At Les Invalides, we shall visit the two Invalides churches, Église du Dôme and Cathédrale Saint-Louis des Invalides, and then spend the rest of the day exploring Musée de l'Armée.

Early Tuesday morning, we shall visit two churches, Eglise Saint-Sulpice and Abbaye de Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and afterward spend the rest of the day at Musée d'Orsay. On Tuesday evening, we have tickets for a performance of Mussorgsky’s “Khovanshchina” at L'Opéra Bastille.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday shall be devoted to Musée du Louvre. According to Andrew and Alex, we should be able to visit approximately forty per cent of the Louvre in three daylong visits. (In 2004, during a spate of very bad weather, Andrew and Alex spent six consecutive days at the Louvre, from open to close, and managed to see approximately eighty per cent of the collection. During those six days, there were portions of the Louvre Andrew and Alex visited over and over and over, and we probably shall do much the same on this trip: lots of backing and filling.)

Andrew and Alex have a system for visiting the Louvre, and we plan to observe the formalities on each of the three days.

We shall have breakfast at our hotel promptly at 7:30 a.m., and leave for the Louvre promptly at 8:15 a.m. On our way, we shall stop at a particular bakery/café Andrew and Alex like, and sit down and have a hot chocolate and a warm chocolate muffin fresh from the oven, both of which apparently are to die for. From the bakery/café, a short walk will place us at the Carrousel du Louvre entrance at 8:50 a.m., and we can get in line at the underground portal and be among the first persons admitted to the museum once visitors are allowed in at 9:00 a.m.

Our first two hours every day will be devoted to painting, an art form that requires maximum attention and concentration. Around 11:30 a.m., after two hours of viewing paintings, we shall take a break and go have an early lunch (to avoid lunchtime crowds) at a very specific restaurant near the Louvre. The restaurant is geared toward Parisian office workers, offers only half-a-dozen fixed menu selections each day and features lightning-quick service, all of which is precisely what we require. For our 11:30 a.m. lunch, we shall order soup and a “plate”.

After our 11:30 a.m. lunch, it will be back to the Louvre for another two hours. For this segment, we shall explore antiquities. After two hours viewing antiquities, we shall head back to the very same restaurant for a second lunch at 2:30 p.m., once again avoiding the lunchtime crowds. For our 2:30 p.m. lunch, we shall order salad and a “plate”.

After our 2:30 p.m. lunch, it will be back to the Louvre for a final two hours. On our last visit, we shall explore sculpture until the museum closes.

Leaving the Louvre, we shall go back to the very same restaurant we have already visited twice and have an early dinner. On our third and final visit to the restaurant, around 5:30 p.m., we shall order a “plate” and dessert.

On each of our three Louvre days, we have tickets for evening orchestra concerts, two at Salle Pleyel and one at Théâtre du Châtelet. Between dinner and concert, we intend to explore Eglise Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois on one day, Palais-Royal on another and Palais Garnier on yet another.

On our second Saturday in Paris, we intend to visit three churches: L'église Saint-Augustin de Paris, Eglise Saint-Roch and L'église de la Madeleine. After our church visits, we shall spend the rest of the day at Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, housed at Petit Palais.

In the early evening, we shall return to Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris to hear the Saturday evening organ recital, which according to Andrew lasts only 35 minutes. The evening’s recitalist will be an organist and organ professor from Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

After the organ recital, we shall go to the Latin Quarter and have dinner at Alex’s favorite Paris restaurant, Café Procope, an ancient and very historic establishment. In 2004, Andrew and Alex had dinner one evening at Café Procope, and they loved the place, probably more for its history and atmosphere than for its food.

We shall go to Café Procope in order to convene Alex’s birthday dinner. Alex will turn 35 the following day, when we shall be on our way back to Minneapolis and unable to conduct a proper celebration—so we shall be exceedingly pleased to hold Alex’s birthday dinner in Paris.

It should provide a fitting conclusion to our trip.

A Concert Has Been Added

Wednesday, January 23, 2013, at 8:00 p.m.

Orchestre National d’lle de France
Salle Pleyel
Paris

Enrique Mazzola, Conductor
Cedric Tiberghien, Piano

Panufnik: Katyn Epitaph
Azarova: Mover Of The Earth [World Premiere]
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 3 (“Polish”)

________________________________________________


We decided we could handle three orchestra concerts on three consecutive nights, especially since the orchestras are different, the artists are different, and the programs are different.

Consequently, over three nights, we shall hear three of Paris’s four full-time concert orchestras (we shall miss Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France).

The Azarova in question is Svitlana Azarova, of whom I have never heard. From the program arrangement, it seems clear that the composer’s new piece is a very short one.

We left open the possibility of attending a performance at Palais Garnier on our final evening in Paris, Saturday, January 26.

A double bill of Zemlinsky’s “The Dwarf” (also known as “The Birthday Of The Infanta”) and Ravel’s “L’Enfant et les sortileges” will be presented that evening. I do not think that German Expressionism mixes well with French Neo-Classicism, and I think the operas should be paired differently. Consequently, we have a “wait and see” attitude toward the Zemlinsky/Ravel double bill. (The conductor, Paul Daniel, and the stage director, Richard Jones, a couple of British provincials, also scare us off.)

On The Calendar

Sunday, January 20, 2013, at 3:00 p.m.

L’Opera Comique
Salle Favart
Paris

William Christie, Conductor
Les Arts Florissants

Charpentier: David Et Jonathas

________________________________________________


Tuesday, January 22, 2013, at 7:00 p.m.

L’Opera National De Paris
L’Opera Bastille
Paris

Michail Jurowski, Conductor

Mussorgsky: Khovanshchina

________________________________________________


Thursday, January 24, 2013, at 8:00 p.m.

Orchestre National De France
Theatre Du Chatelet
Paris

Colin Davis, Conductor
Arabella Steinbacher, Violin

Mozart: Symphony No. 35 (“Haffner”)
Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5
Sibelius: Symphony No. 3

________________________________________________


Friday, January 25, 2013, at 8:00 p.m.

Orchestre De Paris
Salle Pleyel
Paris

Paavo Jarvi, Conductor
Krystian Zimerman, Piano

Schumann: “Genoveva” Overture
Lutoslawski: Piano Concerto
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 (“Pastoral”)

________________________________________________


Two five-act operas: I can hardly wait!

However, I want to see Salle Favart and L’Opera Bastille.

Getting tickets for the “Khovanshchina” performance was not easy: January 22 is opening night of a new production, and tickets are scarce. (January 22 was the only night we could attend.)

Since we decided only yesterday to go to Paris, very early this morning Andrew called someone he knows at the Wiener Staatsoper and Andrew’s father called a European conductor he has known for years.

We got tickets.

Andrew says Colin Davis will probably cancel the Orchestra National De France concert. Davis is very old, and has been infirm of late, and has been canceling about 80 per cent of his appearances the last year or so, often at the last minute.

I had wanted to see the Paris Opera Ballet, but the Paris Opera Ballet will not be performing the week we shall be in Paris.

Off The Calendar

Friday, January 4, 2013, at 8:00 p.m.

Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Ordway Center
Saint Paul

Edo de Waart, Conductor
Eric Owens, Bass

Mozart: Serenade No. 12
Adams: The Wound Dresser
Beethoven: Symphony No. 4

________________________________________________


Friday, January 11, 2013, at 8:00 p.m.

Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Ordway Center
Saint Paul

Edo de Waart, Conductor
Peter Serkin, Piano

Mendelssohn: The Hebrides (“Fingal’s Cave”) Overture
Hindemith: Kammermusik No. 2
Mozart: Symphony No. 29
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 19

________________________________________________


Friday, January 18, 2013, at 8:00 p.m.

Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Ordway Center
Saint Paul

Edo de Waart, Conductor

Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No. 1
Weill: Violin Concerto
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5

________________________________________________


Friday, January 25, 2013, at 8:00 p.m.

Minnesota Orchestra
Convention Center Auditorium
Minneapolis

Osmo Vanska, Conductor
Roberto Diaz, Viola

Janacek: Suite From “The Cunning Little Vixen”
Bartok: Viola Concerto
Dvorak: Symphony No. 7

________________________________________________


Sunday, January 27, 2013, at 3:00 p.m.

Minnesota Concert Opera
The Cowles Center
Minneapolis

Craig Fields, Conductor

Verdi: Il Trovatore

________________________________________________


Today the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra cancelled concerts through the first week of February.

The 2012-2013 SPCO season, on paper, was an exceptional one. Andrew and I had penciled in twelve concerts this season as holding some interest for us, three in January alone. The January concerts in which we had an interest are now kaput.

The January concerts we had earmarked were of interest not because of conductor Edo de Waart, hardly an important figure, but because of the music.

With reference to the Minnesota Orchestra concert we have removed from our calendar, the Janacek-Bartok-Dvorak program was one of only six Minnesota Orchestra programs Andrew and I had noted for the entire 2012-2013 season. Although the Minnesota Orchestra has yet to cancel January concerts, Andrew and I shall be in Paris the week of the Janacek-Bartok-Dvorak program—so that concert is now off our list, too.

Minnesota Concert Opera’s “Il Trovatore” will also be presented while we are in Paris, so we shall have to miss “Il Trovatore” as well—not that I am complaining.

Not According To Plan

This week has not proceeded as planned.

Andrew and I were supposed to go to New York on Tuesday. Andrew was to attend a conference on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and I had received permission from my firm to go to New York, too, and to work out of the firm’s New York office.

On Sunday afternoon, Andrew took ill. As things turned out, he had come down with influenza.

Andrew has not yet decided who is to blame for his travails: my sister, visiting us last weekend from Chicago, where influenza has stricken; Tim, several of whose first-grade classmates have taken ill with influenza; or pianist Simone Dinnerstein, whose Sunday afternoon recital, according to Andrew, would have made anyone ill.

Andrew has been bedridden since Monday morning. In almost seven years, I had never seen Andrew sick until this week.

Andrew’s mother has come over every day this week to stay with him while I am at work, always to be at hand in case he needs something. She brings the dog, and she stays all day—and, late each afternoon, she even prepares dinner.

All week, when I have come home from work, my dinner has been ready—and Alex (who lives next door) joins us for dinner, as does Andrew’s father. As soon as dinner is over, everyone returns home, leaving me to look out for a patient who does little else but sleep twenty hours a day and drink a cup of hot tea now and again.

Andrew and I had tickets for several New York performances, and on Monday we gave the tickets to a friend able to make use of them.

Our friend had already arranged to take vacations days for this shortened workweek in order to resurface the floors of her condominium. When we had asked her whether her sister (who lives and works in New York) might want some or all of our tickets, her response was, “Let me see if I can use miles to get a reasonable last-minute fare to New York—if so, I’ll take the tickets myself, and go and visit her.”

And that’s precisely how things resolved themselves.

We had tickets for a Metropolitan Opera performance of Verdi’s “Otello”. The scheduled conductor was Semyon Bychkov, whom some persons believe has become good in the last ten years and whom we were eager to hear. The scheduled Otello was Johan Botha, a singer supposedly in possession of a glorious voice (but a singer not known as much of an actor). The scheduled Iago was Falk Struckmann, a fine Central European artist. The scheduled Desdemona was Renee Fleming, whom I have not heard. Although I am not an opera fan, I am sorry we missed “Otello”. I was actually looking forward to the performance.

We had tickets for three performances of New York City Ballet. It was to be our primary bout of ballet-going for the year.

One of the programs was to feature two rarely-performed high-modernist masterpieces I have never seen (current practice at NYCB is for the two ballets to be performed back-to-back on the same program): the Balanchine/Stravinsky “Momentum pro Gesualdo” (1960); and the Balanchine/Stravinsky “Movements For Piano And Orchestra” (1963).

The program also was to include the Balanchine/Stravinsky “Duo Concertant”, which I already know from a previous NYCB performance (and which NYCB will perform in Minneapolis in two weeks); a Jerome Robbins’s ballet without a musical score, “Moves” (1959), a ballet entirely new to me; and the Balanchine/Bizet “Symphony In C” (1947), which I have seen performed by Miami City Ballet.

The second of the programs was to feature a new Wheeldon/Bizet ballet, “Les Carillons”, premiered in January of this year; a repeat performance of “Moves”; and the Balanchine/Stravinsky “Stravinsky Violin Concerto” (1972), a seminal Balanchine masterpiece I have never encountered.

The final program involved three Balanchine/Stravinsky ballets: “Apollo” (1928), which I know from a Boston Ballet performance; “Agon” (1957), another high-modernist masterpiece I have not seen and which Andrew says is one of the most important works of art from the last 60 years; and “Rubies” (1967), which I have seen danced by Boston Ballet and Miami City Ballet.

Eight vital, essential Balanchine works, danced by the world’s finest ballet company: we shall miss everything. We both are very disappointed.

We also had tickets for two shows on Broadway: a new production of Ibsen’s “An Enemy Of The People”; and a revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, “Evita”—which, for inexplicable reasons, both of us had wanted to see.

We also were in possession of sixteen complimentary tickets to four different performances of a single program at the New York Philharmonic—we had four complimentary tickets for each night of this week’s subscription concerts.

The New York Philharmonic is papering Avery Fisher Hall like crazy these days for nights on which Alan Gilbert is on the podium. The organization is so desperate to get people into the hall that anyone and everyone can obtain unlimited complimentary tickets to New York Philharmonic concerts on Alan Gilbert nights.

We were almost certain NOT to use the NYPO tickets on account of principle. A couple of years ago, a summer music camp in Scandinavia founded and formerly run by this week’s NYPO guest artist had been quietly seized—it was first taken over, and later shut down entirely—by the musician’s national government on account of pedophilia allegations (for which the musician, his nation’s most prominent instrumentalist, has not been prosecuted). We had retained the tickets in the event we were to experience an unlikely change of heart and wished to see—and photograph—a Jerry Sandusky-like figure playing a musical instrument while Alan Gilbert beat time alongside.

Our friend who took our various tickets ended up throwing away all sixteen NYPO tickets yesterday. Her sister, who works for a Big Three Accounting Firm, had tried to give the tickets away at her office on Tuesday and Wednesday. There was not a single taker—not even for the Friday and Saturday night concerts.

Last night’s concert and tonight’s concert played to virtually empty houses, as one may see from numerous Twitter photos tweeted by concertgoers.

For instance, tonight a NYPO concertgoer tweeted a photo showing that the orchestra level was less than one-fifth occupied. A second concertgoer tweeted a photo showing that tonight’s left-side balcony boxes were occupied by only a handful of persons.

It was not a good night for Alan Gilbert.

Nor for pedophiles.

Friday Concert, Saturday Gridiron

On Friday evening, Andrew and I shall attend our first concert of the season. We shall hear Edo de Waart lead the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in music of Richard Strauss and Brahms.

It is possible that the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra will go on strike after the orchestra’s current contract expires on September 30.

A strike will make little difference to Andrew and me, as there is only one other SPCO concert between now and the New Year that appeals to us.

If the strike continues into 2013, however, that will be another matter entirely. The second half of the SPCO season is uncommonly interesting, and Andrew and I earmarked eleven SPCO concerts to attend from January to June (not that we would actually make it to all eleven, given our schedules).

The Minnesota Orchestra’s current contract also expires on September 30. It is possible that the Minnesota Orchestra, too, will strike.

Andrew and I earmarked only six Minnesota Orchestra concerts for the entire season—and only two before Christmas. Consequently, it will make little difference to us if the Minnesota Orchestra strikes.

The 2012-2013 Minnesota Orchestra season is a throwaway season, perhaps the least interesting Minnesota Orchestra season in recent decades. (Andrew’s parents, who—with reluctance—renewed their subscriptions, say it is the most unappealing season in at least forty years.) Orchestra Hall is currently undergoing renovation, and the Minnesota Orchestra is scheduled to present a shortened—and profoundly uninspired—season in a temporary space at the Convention Center.

Public sentiment in the Twin Cities is sharply against the musicians of both orchestras.

Musicians in both orchestras are considered to be overpaid. This is especially the case with the musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra, paid more than members of all but a handful of American ensembles.

Musician salaries in the Twin Cities will, inevitably, come down—and come down significantly. Salaries have been artificially elevated for years because of what are, in effect, musician cartels—and market forces, as always, are destined to prevail over cartels within any meaningful period of time.

Whether such salary adjustments occur by strike or by agreement is academic; salaries most assuredly will decline.

The musicians of both ensembles seem to lack a clear grasp of the situation, issuing one bone-headed press announcement after another. With each new announcement, any lingering public sympathy for the musicians dissipates.

To address ongoing deficits, the musicians of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, incomprehensibly, have urged management to raise ticket prices. SPCO musicians apparently suffer from vision problems, and are unable to see the rows and rows of empty seats already on display at The Ordway.

To improve finances, the musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra, amazingly, have urged management to work more diligently in raising charitable contributions. Minnesota Orchestra musicians apparently cannot read newspapers, and missed several recent news stories about local performing arts organizations having raised an amazing $129 million in charitable contributions in 2010, the last year for which such figures are available. A significant portion of that $129 million was raised by officials of the Minnesota Orchestra—but musicians obviously (and wrongly) believe that another $10 million each year can be raised with the snap of a finger.

My instinct tells me that the SPCO will strike, but that the Minnesota Orchestra will not (primarily because members of the Minnesota Orchestra are so lavishly overpaid, it becomes difficult if not impossible for them to argue otherwise)—yet I readily acknowledge that my instinct may be wrong.

Andrew says he doesn’t have a clue what will happen, in large part because the musicians in both organizations have proven themselves to be so thick-headed that it is impossible to assess what is going through their muddled minds.

Andrew’s father predicts that the musicians of both organizations will authorize a strike. This is so, he says, because the musicians of both ensembles are clueless: clueless about economics; clueless about limits to the generosity of donors, which is not unbounded; and clueless about the public’s lack of support for (if not outright hostility toward) the musicians. Further, Andrew’s father says that the strikes, if not settled quickly, will go on for months and months and months—and that managements in both Minneapolis and Saint Paul are fully prepared, patiently, to wait the musicians out.

________________________________________________


On Saturday, we will attend our first college football game of the season.

Minnesota will host Western Michigan.

Because Minnesota’s football program is so pathetic, the Big Ten Conference routinely assigns bad start times to Minnesota. Kickoff for Saturday’s game, consequently, is set for 11:00 a.m.

This means, as a practical matter, that Alex, Andrew and I shall have to rise at 6:00 a.m. Saturday morning, leave our houses at 6:45 a.m. (Alex now lives next door), pick up Andrew’s father at 7:00 a.m., and pick up Alec and Tim at 7:10 a.m.

Once everyone is gathered, we’ll stop somewhere to have breakfast, and be on our way to the stadium no later than 8:15 a.m.

Such an absurd schedule is necessary in order for us to avoid most of the game-day traffic, to fight parking bollixes near the stadium, and to arrive in time for the pre-game festivities (which, along with the halftime show, are generally better than the game itself).

Saturday will be the only football game of the season for Tim. One game a year is enough for him—and he will be ready to leave after the halftime show (and so will we).

Leaving as the third quarter is about to begin will allow us to miss post-game traffic and to arrive home early in the fourth quarter. If the game is a good one, we can watch the conclusion on television.

My Final List

Below is a chronological listing of recitals Andrew and I attended over the past year.

________________________________________________


Andre Watts, Piano

Ordway Center
Saint Paul

________________________________________________


Susan Graham, Mezzo Soprano
Malcolm Martineau, Piano

Ordway Center
Saint Paul

________________________________________________


Julia Fischer, Violin
Milana Chernyavska, Piano

Ordway Center
Saint Paul

________________________________________________


Imogen Cooper, Piano

Sundin Music Hall
Saint Paul

________________________________________________


Matthias Goerne, Baritone
Leif Ove Andsnes, Piano

Ordway Center
Saint Paul

________________________________________________


I last updated this list on August 2, 2011.

Orchestra Hall Minneapolis

And Yet Another List

Below is a chronological listing of orchestral concerts Andrew and I attended within the last year.

________________________________________________


Minnesota Orchestra
Orchestra Hall
Minneapolis

Osmo Vanska, Conductor
Simone Dinnerstein, Piano

Milhaud: La Creation Du Monde [Complete Ballet]
Ravel: Piano Concerto
R. Strauss: Ein Heldenleben

________________________________________________


Minnesota Orchestra
Orchestra Hall
Minneapolis

Osmo Vanska, Conductor
Midori, Violin

Britten: Four Sea Interludes From “Peter Grimes”
Sibelius: Violin Concerto
Debussy/Caplet: Claire De Lune
Debussy/Molinari: L’Isle Joyeuse
Debussy: La Mer

________________________________________________


Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Ordway Center
Saint Paul

Douglas Boyd, Conductor
Jeremy Denk, Piano

Brahms: Serenade No. 2
Dean: Pastoral Symphony
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1

________________________________________________


Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Ordway Center
Saint Paul

Christian Zacharias, Conductor And Soloist

Martin: Etudes For String Orchestra
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3
Beethoven: The Creatures Of Prometheus [Incidental Music]

________________________________________________


Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Ted Mann Concert Hall
Minneapolis

Christian Zacharias, Conductor And Soloist

Haydn: Symphony No. 42
Stravinsky: Danses Concertantes
Weber: Konzertstück
Haydn: Symphony No. 100 (“Military”)

________________________________________________


Minnesota Orchestra
Orchestra Hall
Minneapolis

Osmo Vanska, Conductor
James Ehnes, Violin

Brahms: Haydn Variations
Brahms: Violin Concerto
Brahms: Symphony No. 3

________________________________________________


Minnesota Orchestra
Orchestra Hall
Minneapolis

Osmo Vanska, Conductor
Minnesota Chorale

Brahms: Hungarian Dances Nos. 4, 5, 8, 11 and 14
Brahms: Nänie
Brahms: Schicksalslied
Brahms: Serenade No. 2

________________________________________________


Minnesota Orchestra
Orchestra Hall
Minneapolis

Andrew Litton, Conductor
Vadim Gluzman, Violin

Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7 (“Leningrad”)

________________________________________________


Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Ordway Center
Saint Paul

Ludovic Morlot, Conductor
Dawn Upshaw, Soprano

Mozart: Symphony No. 31 (“Paris”)
Debussy: Le Livre de Baudelaire
Ravel: Five Greek Folk Songs
Ravel: “Mother Goose” Suite

________________________________________________


Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Ordway Center
Saint Paul

Rossen Milanov, Conductor

Shostakovich: Two Pieces From Scarlatti (“Pastorale And Capriccio”)
Shostakovich/Barshai: Chamber Symphony For String Orchestra
Prokofiev: Overture On Hebrew Themes
Korngold: Violin Concerto

________________________________________________


Minnesota Orchestra
Orchestra Hall
Minneapolis

Courtney Lewis, Conductor
Ingrid Fliter, Piano

Elgar: In The South (”Alassio”)
Schumann: Piano Concerto
Walton: Symphony No. 1

________________________________________________


Minnesota Orchestra
Orchestra Hall
Minneapolis

Osmo Vanska, Conductor
Christian Tetzlaff, Violin

Sibelius: Symphony No. 4
Szymanowski: Violin Concerto No. 1
Kodaly: Dances Of Galanta

________________________________________________


Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Ordway Center
Saint Paul

Thomas Zehetmair, Conductor
Kim Kashkashian, Viola

Schubert: “Alfonso And Estrella” Overture
Olivero: Neharot, Neharot
Schubert: Symphony No. 9 (”Great”)

________________________________________________


Minnesota Orchestra
Orchestra Hall
Minneapolis

Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Conductor

Bruckner: Symphony No. 8

________________________________________________


Minnesota Orchestra
Orchestra Hall
Minneapolis

Mark Wigglesworth, Conductor
Minnesota Chorale

M. Berkeley: Oboe Concerto
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé [Complete Ballet]

________________________________________________


Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Ordway Center
Saint Paul

Roberto Abbado, Conductor

Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 1
MacMillan: Veni, Veni, Emmanuel
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 5 (“Reformation”)

________________________________________________


Minnesota Orchestra
Orchestra Hall
Minneapolis

Osmo Vanska, Conductor
Yevgeny Sudbin, Piano

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1 (“Classical”)
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 24
Sibelius: Symphony No. 1

________________________________________________


Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Ordway Center
Saint Paul

Hans Graf, Conductor
Jeffrey Kahane, Piano

Varese: Octandre
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 25
Varese: Density 21.5
Mozart: Symphony No. 40

________________________________________________


The only work we heard twice last season was Brahms’s Serenade No. 2, a composition seldom programmed. (Oddly, both local ensembles had also programmed last season the infrequently-heard Brahms Serenade No. 1.)

Last season I heard my third live Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 and my third live Schumann Piano Concerto.

Last season I heard the following works live for the second time: Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1; Brahms’s Nänie, Schicksalslied, Symphony No. 3 and Violin Concerto; Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8; Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.25; Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2; Ravel’s “Mother Goose” Suite; and Sibelius’s Violin Concerto.

Every other work I was hearing live for the first time.

________________________________________________


By my calculation, Andrew and I attended eighteen orchestral concerts last season: ten subscription concerts of the Minnesota Orchestra and eight subscription concerts of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. In effect, we caught 40 per cent of the Minnesota Orchestra subscription programs and 30 per cent of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra subscription programs.

We heard nothing but local orchestras last season. Next season, things will improve: we intend to hear two concerts by the Chicago Symphony, one concert by the Milwaukee Symphony, one concert by the New York Philharmonic, and one concert by London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, on tour in the U.S. next season.

The Minnesota Orchestra needs to upgrade its roster of guest conductors. For the last several seasons, the Minnesota Orchestra has offered a tired array of guest conductors. Next season is not an improvement.

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra needs to engage a music director. The orchestra’s playing is clean and neat, but faceless and impersonal.

________________________________________________

By my count, Andrew and I have attended sixty-six orchestral concerts since February 2006, an average of eleven orchestral concerts per season.

I last updated this list on July 13, 2011.

Concert Exhaustion

I suffer from concert exhaustion at present, and so does Andrew.

We heard two orchestral concerts last weekend, and two orchestral concerts the weekend before that. Since January 1, we have attended eight concerts and recitals. That is a heavier dosage of concerts and recitals than I normally prefer.

So what is on our schedule for this weekend? A recital by pianist Imogen Cooper at Sundin Music Hall.

Despite our recent flurry of concert activity, I am happy to go to the recital. Cooper has announced a program of Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin and Schumann. The fare is appealing.

The concert will be sponsored by The Frederic Chopin Society of Minneapolis.

Minnesota is home to countless organizations with 19th-Century do-gooder titles, such as The Frederic Chopin Society and The Schubert Club, two prominent Twin Cities music organizations. The concept of self-improvement lives on in Minnesota if nowhere else.

I have never been inside Sundin Music Hall. It is one of several concert halls in the Twin Cities I have never visited.

I continue to be astonished how many fine music venues there are in Minneapolis-Saint Paul. There are more fine music venues in the Twin Cities than there are in London—and the Greater London Metropolitan Area has ten times the population of the Twin Cities Greater Metropolitan Area—and additional Twin Cities music venues are in the works, what with a second concert hall at The Ordway now under construction.

The following weekend, I think we may attend a performance of Donizetti’s opera, “Lucia di Lammermoor”, to be presented by Minnesota Opera. Andrew and I had planned to skip this particular Minnesota Opera presentation because neither of us is fond of the music of Donizetti, but word-of-mouth from insiders privy to rehearsal results has been exceptional—and the positive word-of-mouth from music professionals has caused Andrew and me to reassess the situation.

The soprano scheduled to sing Lucia sang the role last autumn at Lyric Opera Of Chicago, a far more important company than Minnesota Opera, and she has been a regular presence at the Metropolitan Opera for the last three or four years. Andrew and I decided we would be foolish to miss out, especially since Minnesota Opera mounts only five productions each season.

The following weekend, we shall attend a Minnesota Orchestra concert of music by Sibelius, Szymanowski and Kodaly. We shall use the subscription tickets of Andrew’s parents, as they shall be in France.

Three days later, we shall hear violinist Christian Tetzlaff in solo recital at Mann Concert Hall. We bought our tickets this afternoon once we discovered that some seats had been placed on sale for $10.00. We decided that to hear Tetzlaff play solo violin literature by Bach and Bartok for a mere $10.00 was irresistible.

The following weekend, we shall attend a performance by Houston Ballet, which will be on tour in the Twin Cities. Since Andrew’s parents will still be in France, we shall use their tickets.

In the month of March, we WILL forego two concerts by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, concerts that we had earlier penciled into our calendars. Both programs are predominantly devoted to Haydn symphonies, which I love—but our recent surfeit of concert-going resulted in the two SPCO Haydn programs being removed from our list.

Something had to go . . . and the SPCO Haydn programs took the hit.

Performances

Andrew and I have not attended any theater performances since December, when we caught The Guthrie’s unsuccessful “Charley’s Aunt” on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve.

Minneapolis is a theater Mecca. On a per capita basis, Minneapolis boasts more professional theater companies, more professional theater productions, and a larger number of theater seats than any city in the English-speaking world. Given that Minneapolis, unlike London or New York, is not a tourist destination, the theater figures here are remarkable.

January is a big month for theater in the Twin Cities—the weather encourages indoor activities—but Andrew and I skipped everything. We had a new house to settle into, and other things on our plate. Moreover, the January theater offerings by and large did not appeal to us.

By intention, we skipped Theater In The Round’s presentation of Lee Blessing’s “Independence”, a play that sounded like a rewrite of “August: Osage County” (except that “Independence” preceded “August: Osage County”).

Once the reviews for The Guthrie’s “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof” were published, we crossed “Cat” off our list. The reviews were mixed—and, in the Twin Cities, mixed reviews generally signify a production that safely may be missed. That we had attended two other productions of “Cat” in recent years made our decision an easy one.

Bad word-of-mouth scared us off The Acting Company’s “Julius Caesar” at The Guthrie.

The musical, “Ragtime”, recently mounted at Park Square Theater, mildly intrigued us—but we have decided to give the production a pass. No one in the family has seen a staging of “Ragtime”, and Park Square Theater is said to have done the show justice: $300,000 was budgeted, making “Ragtime” the costliest show ever for Park Square Theater, and a cast of 35 actors was assembled after more than a year of auditions, unprecedented in the Twin Cities. Nonetheless, there is something about “Ragtime” that rubs us the wrong way—it may be the “American Pageant” quality to the show that is off-putting—and we have decided not to bother to make a trek to Saint Paul.

We had tickets for Torch Theater’s production of Christopher Hampton’s “Dangerous Liaisons” for Friday night, but we turned in our tickets after Andrew’s aunt passed. We did not feel like attending “Dangerous Liaisons” two days after a funeral—and the production closed after last night’s performance.

There were other theater productions in the Twin Cities during the month of January, but none of the other productions held any interest for us (the same may be said of the touring Broadway shows that regularly play the large theaters downtown; we invariably ignore the touring shows, most of which are musicals).

Next weekend, however, there are two plays we intend to catch: “Dial M For Murder” at Jungle Theater; and a play about Judy Garland at The Guthrie.

When The Guthrie season was announced, we had rolled our eyes at the notion of a play about Judy Garland. However, the production recently opened—and received rave notices. The production is supposed to be stupendous, mostly because the actress playing Judy Garland gives a once-in-a-lifetime performance.

The Judy Garland play at The Guthrie is a London import—the director, the designers, the lead actress all recreate the London production—and the production will move directly to Broadway as soon as The Guthrie run ends.

Consequently, a play that at first blush had seemed ridiculous to us now has us eager to see what all the excitement is about. According to those who have already seen the production, the Judy Garland play is the highlight of The Guthrie season (I am not sure what that says about The Guthrie).

Other than “Dial M For Murder” and the Judy Garland play, I doubt whether we attend any other plays this month—although, if the notices are good, we may consider “The Lark” at Theater In The Round, a production due to open in another week or so.

There are, however, other items on our schedule for the rest of the month of February.

We intend to hear two Minnesota Orchestra programs before the month is out, and two Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra programs. We have tickets for a recital by violinist Julia Fischer.

This afternoon, we went to Saint Paul to hear Minnesota Opera’s presentation of Massenet’s “Werther”.

“Werther” is an exceedingly beautiful opera.

It was an afternoon well-spent.

My Final Updated List

Below is a list of all non-orchestral concerts Andrew and I have attended since I last updated this list.

________________________________________________


Tokyo String Quartet
Lynn Harrell, Cello

Jordan Hall
Boston

________________________________________________


Pinchas Zukerman, Violin And Viola
Yefim Bronfman, Piano

Symphony Hall
Boston

________________________________________________


Takacs String Quartet

Jordan Hall
Boston

________________________________________________


Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Ivan Ilja, Piano

Symphony Hall
Boston

And Yet Another Updated List

Since I last updated this list in July of last year, Andrew and I have attended another eleven orchestra concerts.

The concerts are listed below.

________________________________________________


The Handel And Haydn Society
Symphony Hall
Boston

Harry Christophers, Conductor
Rachel Podger, Violin

Mozart: Serenade No. 13 (“Eine Kleine Nachtmusik”)
Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5
Mozart: Overture And March From “Mitridate”
Mozart: Symphony No. 38 (“Prague”)

________________________________________________


The Handel And Haydn Society
Symphony Hall
Boston

Bernard Labadie, Conductor
Robert Levin, Piano

Haydn: Symphony No. 83 (“Hen”)
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4
Haydn: Symphony No. 94 (“Surprise”)

________________________________________________


Boston Symphony
Symphony Hall
Boston

Christian Zacharias, Conductor And Soloist

Haydn: Symphony No. 80
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 15
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 16
Haydn: Symphony No. 95

________________________________________________


Boston Symphony
Symphony Hall
Boston

Kurt Masur, Conductor
Nelson Freire, Piano

Schumann: Symphony No. 1 (“Spring”)
Schumann: Piano Concerto
Schumann: Symphony No. 4

________________________________________________


Boston Symphony
Symphony Hall
Boston

Christoph Dohnanyi, Conductor
Arabella Steinbacher, Violin

Ligeti: Double Concerto For Flute, Oboe And Orchestra
Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 4
Dvorak: Symphony No. 7

________________________________________________


The Handel And Haydn Society
Symphony Hall
Boston

Harry Christophers, Conductor

Handel: Israel In Egypt

________________________________________________


Akademie Fur Alte Musik, Berlin
Jordan Hall
Boston

Telemann: Overture (Suite) In F Major
Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 5
Bach: Violin Concerto No. 2
Handel: Concerto Grosso, Op. 6, No. 2
Telemann: Concerto In E Minor For Recorder And Flute

________________________________________________


Saint Petersburg Philharmonic
Symphony Hall
Boston

Yuri Temirkanov, Conductor
Alisa Weilerstein, Cello

Rimsky-Korsakov: Russian Easter Overture
Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1
Brahms: Symphony No. 4

________________________________________________


Boston Symphony
Symphony Hall
Boston

Charles Dutoit, Conductor
Bernarda Fink, Mezzo Soprano
Jean-Paul Fouchecourt, Tenor
Laurent Naouri, Baritone
Tanglewood Festival Chorus

Berlioz: Romeo And Juliet

________________________________________________


Minnesota Orchestra
Orchestra Hall
Minneapolis

Osmo Vanska, Conductor
Yevgeny Sudbin, Piano

Kernis: Concerto With Echoes
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3
Sibelius: Symphony No. 2

________________________________________________


Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Ordway Center
Saint Paul

Thomas Zehetmair, Conductor And Soloist
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Chorale

Schubert: Offertory In B Flat Major, D. 963
Hartmann: Concerto Funebre
Haydn: Mass No. 14 (“Harmoniemesse”)

________________________________________________


None of the concerts was remarkable, or particularly memorable.

Three performances were a cut above everything else we heard: Kurt Masur’s performance of Schumann’s Symphony No. 1 with the Boston Symphony; Christoph Dohnanyi’s performance of Dvorak’s Symphony No. 7 with the Boston Symphony; and Yuri Temirkanov’s performance of Brahms’s Symphony No. 4 with the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic.

The Temirkanov/Saint Petersburg Brahms Fourth was the fifth time Andrew and I have heard the work together. We had previously heard Brahms Fourths performed by Riccardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Neville Marriner and the Minnesota Orchestra, Fabio Luisi and the Dresden Staatskapelle, and Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic.

Five other works I heard with Andrew for the second time last season: Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, which we had heard performed by Alfred Brendel and Osmo Vanska and the Minnesota Orchestra; Haydn’s Symphony No. 94, which we had heard performed by Roberto Abbado and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; Mozart’s Serenade No. 13, which we had heard performed by Vanska and the Minnesota Orchestra; Mozart’s Symphony No. 38, which we had heard performed by Colin Davis and the Boston Symphony; and Schumann’s Piano Concerto, which we had heard performed by Maurizio Pollini and James Levine and the Boston Symphony.

________________________________________________


American orchestral programming is extremely conservative. I find it interesting, and a little odd, that American orchestras, by and large, avoid performances of High Modernism. American orchestras tend to prefer “accessible” music, such as the featureless and watered-down Aaron Kernis composition Andrew and I had to endure last month. Why would an American orchestra program third-rate “accessible” music by Kernis when it has yet to present the output of Elliott Carter and Henri Dutilleux and Witold Lutoslawski? Such orchestras do not have their priorities straight—and may, with justification, be accused of “dumbing down” their mission.

Apparently it was not always such. Andrew’s father says that American orchestras, as a general rule, stopped programming High Modernism around 1980, coincident with the rise of a new generation of American tonal composers trained in the 1970s, a generation that rejected the academic rigidity of serial writing. Alas, the post-1970 generations of American tonal composers threw out the baby with the bathwater—they have produced no worthwhile and no lasting music. They have produced works that are insipid, even feeble. Their music lacks intellectual content.

We live in a period similar to the time known as The Galant: the complexities of The Baroque Age having been rejected and The Classical Period still awaiting its birth, The Galant was characterized by pleasant yet vapid surface, with no underlying content. The music of The Galant has disappeared—which is precisely what will happen to today’s American art music.

________________________________________________


Over the next year, Andrew and I will probably hear only two orchestras, the two local ensembles. Touring orchestras do not appear in the Twin Cities because there is no local organization that sponsors visiting orchestras.

The schedules for both the Minnesota Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra are fairly interesting for next season, although the Minnesota Orchestra desperately needs to upgrade its roster of guest conductors.

The Minnesota Orchestra is sitting on a giant endowment, but it stubbornly refuses to open its checkbook and engage first-rate guest conductors, preferring instead to hire low-cost journeymen. There is not a single major figure on next year’s roster of conductors. Next season’s Minnesota Orchestra guest conductors: James Gaffigan, Sarah Hicks, Kristjan Jarvi, Courtney Lewis, Andrew Litton, Carlo Rizzi, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Robert Spano, Gilbert Varga and Mark Wigglesworth.

The list is a provincial one.

Apparently it was not always such. Andrew’s father says that the Minnesota Orchestra’s roster of guest conductors was exceptional in decades past, but that the guest roster has been in a state of nonstop deterioration for at least twenty-five years. I cannot see much further deterioration, if only because next season’s guest roster is about as bad as it can get, short of engaging Orchestra Hall janitors.

I have no idea how many Minnesota Orchestra and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra concerts Andrew and I will hear next season. Ten Minnesota Orchestra programs carry some appeal, and eighteen Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra programs have some allure—but it is likely that we shall attend only a fraction of those numbers.

My Final Updated List

Since I last updated my list of orchestra concerts Andrew and I have attended together, we have attended another nine concerts.

In the order we attended them, the nine concerts are listed below.

________________________________________________


Boston Symphony
Symphony Hall
Boston

Vasily Petrenko, Conductor

Stravinsky: Scherzo Fantastique
Rachmaninoff: The Isle Of The Dead
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10

________________________________________________


The Handel And Haydn Society
Symphony Hall
Boston

Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Conductor
Andreas Scholl, Countertenor

Vivaldi: “La Fida Ninfa” Overture
Vivaldi: “Cessate, Omai Cessate” Cantata
Vivaldi: “Al Santo Sepolcro” Sinfonia
Handel: Arias From “Giulio Cesare” And “Giustino”
Vivaldi: “Filiae Maestae Jerusalem”
Vivaldi: Stabat Mater

________________________________________________


Berlin Philharmonic
Symphony Hall
Boston

Simon Rattle, Conductor

Brahms: Symphony No. 3
Schoenberg: Music To Accompany A Motion Picture Scene
Brahms: Symphony No. 4

________________________________________________


Boston Symphony
Symphony Hall
Boston

Bernard Haitink, Conductor
James Galway, Flute
The Women Of The Tanglewood Festival Chorus

Debussy: Nocturnes
Ibert: Flute Concerto
Brahms: Symphony No. 1

________________________________________________


Boston Symphony
Symphony Hall
Boston

Christoph Dohnanyi, Conductor
Frank Peter Zimmermann, Violin

Bartok: Divertimento For String Orchestra
Martinu: Violin Concerto No. 2
Dvorak: Symphony No. 8

________________________________________________


Boston Symphony
Symphony Hall
Boston

Colin Davis, Conductor
Nikolaj Znaider, Violin

Mozart: Symphony No. 38 (“Prague”)
Elgar: Violin Concerto

________________________________________________


Concertgebouw Orchestra Of Amsterdam
Kennedy Center Concert Hall
Washington

Mariss Jansons, Conductor
Janine Jansen, Violin

Sibelius: Violin Concerto
Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2

________________________________________________


Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
Symphony Hall
Boston

Riccardo Chailly, Conductor
Louis Lortie, Piano

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 (“Emperor”)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7

________________________________________________


Cleveland Orchestra
Severance Hall
Cleveland

Franz Welser-Most, Conductor

Bruckner: Symphony No. 8

________________________________________________


The Leipzig and Cleveland concerts were extraordinary, the Berlin and Amsterdam concerts disappointing.