A personal selection of the most interesting concerts in Vienna and Lisbon on the week starting on 12 January 2015.
Seasons
The Week in Concerts: Vienna and Lisbon (1-7.12)
A personal selection of the most interesting concerts in Vienna and Lisbon on the week starting on 1 December 2014.
The Week in Concerts: Vienna and Lisbon (24-30.11)
A personal selection of the most interesting concerts in Vienna and Lisbon on the week starting on 24 November 2014.
Fridays@7 at the Wiener Konzerthaus
This coming Friday (21.11) the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, together with the Wiener Konzerthaus, will introduce its newly created series: Fridays@7.
The concept is based on a Cleveland Orchestra’s original project, from which it actually took the name, it is especially aimed at a young professional audience, and is also a further step in the straightening of relations between the Konzerthaus and the VSO. It consists of an “after work” short concert (of about one hour) without intermission, followed by a post-concert informal gathering in the foyer for more music, drinks and food.
Definitely a concert aimed at rejuvenating the usually old Viennese audience (the somehow cheaper ticket prices might help here) and also introducing classical music in a less traditional context, which can only be seen as a positive move if one considers the much-commented aging of classical music’s audience. A problematic reality almost everywhere, but especially worrying for the future in a city with over 10.000 tickets on sale for classical events every single evening of the season and in which two of the main institutions (the Konzerthaus and the Musikverein, both private associations) are highly dependent on ticket sales and on “full” houses.
This first Fridays@7 at the Konzerthaus will feature the newly arrived music director of the Vienna Symphony, Philippe Jordan, and Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili, both young and dynamic star musicians – seemingly a great pair for the launch of the project.
The Week in Concerts: Vienna and Lisbon (17-23.11)
A personal selection of the most interesting concerts to go to in Vienna and Lisbon on the week starting on 17 November 2014.
The 2014/2015 American Orchestras’ Season in Numbers
Numbers are just numbers. They do not usually mean much and they certainly have to be considered carefully and within the specific contexts.
That said, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has released this very interesting study of the 2014/2015 season of 21 top American orchestras. It makes for great reading!
Here are their findings:
- Collectively, the 21 orchestras will perform more than 1,000 different pieces in part or full by 286 different composers a total of almost 4,600 times.
- 9.5% of all pieces performed are written since the year 2000.
- The average date of composition of a piece performed during the year is 1886.
- A little more than 11% of the works performed are from composers who are still living.
- Female composers account for only 1.8% of the works performed. When only looking at works from living composers, they account for 14.8%
- German composers account for more than 23% of the total pieces performed, followed by Russians (19%) and Austrians (14% — in large part due to Mozart).
- American composers made up less than 11% of the pieces performed. When looking at only works by living composers, however, they account for more than 54%
Click on the image (to enlarge and) for the concise stats and go to the BSO website to find out more.
Anyone out there to do something similar for European orchestras?
2015 Season of the Sao Paulo State Symphony Orchestra
The Sao Paulo State Symphony Orchestra (OSESP Foundation), most probably South America’s best orchestra and, according to Gramophone, one of the world’s “up-and-coming” orchestras, has very recently announced its 2015 Season.
Based at the magnificent Sala Sao Paulo, reputed to have one of the best acoustics in the world, and with music director Marin Alsop, the Sao Paulo State Symphony Orchestra is active both in the city and in the state of Sao Paulo, in various other cities in Brazil, and also on international stages.
Recent recording projects include an ongoing edition of Prokofiev’s orchestral works with Marin Alsop for Naxos, and an edition of all the symphonies of Villa-Lobos with conductor Isaac Karabtchevsky. Additionally, a recording with Stravinsky’s entire oeuvre for piano and orchestra, with Yan-Pascal Tortelier and pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, will soon be released by Chandos.
The new season will include special focuses on composers Felix Mendelssohn, Richard Strauss, Alexander Scriabin, Carl Nielsen, and Arnold Schoenberg (with the cycle: “Who is afraid of Schoenberg?”). Marin Alsop will, amongst various other concerts, conduct Brahms’ four Symphonies. The artist in residence will be Brazilian pianist Arnaldo Cohen and the cycle of piano recitals will also welcome Angela Hewitt, Nelson Goerner, and Denis Kozhukhin, among others.
The Shadows of Time 