Interchanging Idioms

New CD on Shaham’s Canary Classics Label Offering an ebullient counterbalance to the often shadowy intensity of many of the works Gil Shaham is performing this season in his ongoing “Concertos of the 1930s” project, the celebrated violinist presents a new recording of Haydn’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in C major and Violin Concerto No. 4 in G major and Mendelssohn’s Octet. Shaham is joined by the Sejong Soloists on the new CD, due for release on March 30 on his own label, Canary Classics. Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) died in the same year that Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) was born; the new recording grew out of the centenary concerts that Shaham and Sejong gave in 2009. Haydn was no doubt an influence on Mendelssohn’s music, and the younger composer held the earlier master in the highest esteem. The works featured on the new album share a buoyant enthusiasm reflective of both composers’ youth: Mendelssohn was just a teenager when the debut of his Octet in 1825 catapulted him

The soot, smoke and steam of the engines, the social hubbub of summer arrivals at the little picket-fenced stations dotted along the coastline from Largo to Crail, beach activities from dawn to dusk – these are some of the enduring memories of people interviewed by film makers Kenny Munro and Ed O’Donnelly for the specially commissioned East Neuk Festival film, The Holiday Line . Prompted by sepia-tinted photo albums and silent flickering cine-film they recall the 1950s and early ‘60s heydays of the railway line that brought city dwellers every summer to the resorts of Pittenween, Elie and Anstruther for the long days of bathing, picnics, pageants and golf. Locals would move into the garden shed for the months of July and August and rent their houses to vacationing city dwellers and tents and caravans would take up residence in many a farmer’s field to accommodate the incoming swell of holidaymakers. Campers would apparently hurl their tents and equipment from the train windows as the

“A violinist of probing intellect and commanding style … In a business that likes tidy boxes drawn around its commodities, the British violinist Daniel Hope resists categorization.” – The New York Times Innovative British violinist Daniel Hope continues creating concerts and recording projects that challenge and thrill audiences with his latest Deutsche Grammophon release, Air: A Baroque Journey . In an exciting move, Hope will perform extensive selections from the album at New York’s Highline Ballroom on April 5. The concert will mark the first time that the program will be presented in the US and is Daniel Hope’s only New York appearance this season. Air: A Baroque Journey focuses on 17th and 18th century European violin music. The violin, created in the 16th century by Andrea Amati, and violin music went through arguably their greatest development during the Baroque era as composers were liberated from the austerity and contrapuntal strictures of the Renaissance. Both mu

Tonight Hampson Begins Run at Met in Verdi’s La Traviata ; April 5 Sees Start of Series of Events with New York Philharmonic Eminent American baritone Thomas Hampson, a Manhattan School of Music Distinguished Visiting Artist, will coach select small ensembles in a master class at the school tomorrow, Tuesday, March 30 at 2 PM. The groups, comprising students in the orchestral performance program, will study, transcribe, and perform pieces from some of Gustav Mahler’s most famous song cycles, including Kindertotenlieder and Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen . Presented in a collaboration between the distance learning and orchestral performance programs, the coaching will be open to the public on a first-come first-served basis, with no tickets required, and it will be streamed on http://dl.msmnyc.edu/live and with the Thomas Hampson iPhone app. "There is nothing more important and exciting in education today than the world of technologies and how they allow us to expand outr

The Baltimore Symphony Associates (BSA) will host its 34th annual Decorators’ Show House at 31 Woodholme Ave. in Pikesville, Maryland from May 8-30. Featuring Maryland’s leading interior designers, the Show House is an annual fundraiser to benefit the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s education programs. Show House hours are Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets are $20 in advance and are available through the BSO Box office, BSOmusic.org, Graul’s Market and Field’s Pharmacy. Tickets are $25 at the door. Guests may also purchase specialty goods and crafts and at the onsite boutique. Many of the accessories and furnishings used in the designed spaces and gently-used consignment items are also available for purchase. Parking is available at 15 Music Fair Road, Owings Mills, MD with a shuttle service from the parking area to Woodholme. Constructed in 1925 during prohibition, this Tudor-

All-star production opens April 24; four performances only Sondra Radvanovsky (pictured), leading lady of New York’s Metropolitan Opera, will make her debut as Puccini’s tragic heroine in Opera Colorado’s upcoming production of Tosca playing at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House April 24, 27, 30 and May 2. Conductor Stephen Lord will lead the performance featuring the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. Noted director Ron Daniels will stage the production also starring tenor Antonello Palombi as Cavaradossi and Greer Grimsley as the evil Baron Scarpia. Tickets are available online at OperaColorado.org or by calling 800.982.ARTS. A ruthless police chief's obsession with a celebrated opera singer leads to betrayal, murder and suicide in this operatic thriller. Set among the historical landmarks of 19th century Rome, this opulent production of Puccini's drama represents the best opera has to offer: an intensely dramatic storyline of cruelty and deception along with stirring and turbule

Many of classical music’s most respected pianists will travel across the US this spring giving recitals and concerts. Deutsche Grammophon and Decca exclusive recording artists Maurizio Pollini, Yuja Wang and Jean-Yves Thibaudet all release new CDs in addition to their many performances. Maurizio Pollini Few pianists reach the legendary status that Maurizio Pollini has already attained. Since taking First Prize at the 1960 International Chopin Competition, Pollini has spent the last 50 years giving recitals and concerts around the world while creating an invaluable recorded legacy with Deutsche Grammophon. This spring, Pollini returns to the US with all-Chopin recitals in Chicago, New York, Boston and Norfolk. To celebrate, the pianist has hand-picked his favorite Chopin recordings for a compilation, available April 6. The CD includes Etudes for Piano; Waltzes (3) for Piano, op. 34; Ballade for Piano no. 4 in F minor, op. 52; a selection of Polonaises and more. Yuja Wang Wherea

Board, Musicians, Marin Alsop Appeal to Public for Support of BSO’s Future The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra today announced that it has reached a new labor agreement with its musicians that will position the institution for financial stability and continued artistic innovation under the leadership of Marin Alsop. After several months of negotiations and working closely with the board and management through the prolonged economic crisis, the BSO musicians have agreed to a pivotal two-part contract through September 2013, which will maintain the BSO as one of only seventeen 52-week orchestras in America. The existing contract has been modified for the 2010-11 season and includes a freeze in salaries from the current season including two furlough weeks. From September 2011, a new two-year agreement takes effect through September 2013; annual salary will be reduced 16.66% from the 2008-09 contract and medical insurance costs will be reduced by 16.5% through employee contributions to

Conductor Andrew Litton returns to the CSO to conduct Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6, "Pathétique," as well as Wagner's Overture to The Flying Dutchman and Bernstein's Serenade , performed by young violinist Karen Gomyo (pictured), making her CSO debut. "Gomyo's big sound, excellent tone, rich lyricism and, above all, compelling authority made her performance very pleasurable." - Houston Chronicle "...sharing the stage with the exceptional young violinist, Karen Gomyo, who gave a vivid performance that was full of interesting detail as well as a sense of drama. Some moments were downright spine-tingling." – The Dallas Morning News Tchaikovsky, Bernstein CSO Masterworks APR 2-3 Andrew Litton, conductor Karen Gomyo, violin WAGNER Overture to The Flying Dutchman BERNSTEIN Serenade TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 6, " Pathétique "

Maestro Pierre Boulez celebrates his 85th birthday today. In leading up to this date, he spent the last few months touring the world and conducting the many orchestras he has had long relationships with including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic and Ensemble Intercontemporain. He will continue through April and May to give concerts featuring works by Messiaen, Bartók, Schoenberg, Ligeti, Varèse and his own compositions. 2010 also marks the 40th anniversary of Maestro Boulez’s long and fruitful association with Deutsche Grammophon. His first recording for the Yellow Label was a complete recording of Wagner’s Parsifal in 1970. Over the next four decades his extraordinary range of recordings has included music from Berlioz and Bartók to Mahler, Messiaen and beyond. Among his most celebrated discs are his award-winning Mahler cycle and (on DVD) the centenary production of Wagner’s Ring cycle from the Bayreuth Festival. At 85 years old Bou

CDs include Tchaikovsky’s three piano concertos and Concert Fantasia recorded live in concert in 2009 The British record label Hyperion has released a two-CD set of Tchaikovsky’s complete piano-and-orchestra works—three piano concertos and the Concert Fantasia—performed by Grammy Award-nominees Stephen Hough, the Minnesota Orchestra and conductor Osmo Vänskä. The album, the 50th release in Hyperion’s acclaimed Romantic Piano Concerto series, was recorded live in concert at Minneapolis ’ Orchestra Hall in spring and fall 2009. The CDs will be available April 1 in stores and online at minnesotaorchestra.org and hyperion-records.co.uk, and will also be available as a download on major internet music sites. Mr. Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra have earned high praise for their previous recording projects together, including a five-CD Beethoven symphony cycle with Swedish-based BIS . The Tchaikovsky recording is the ensemble’s first live recording project under Mr. Vänskä, as well

A decade ago the premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s La Pasión según San Marcos “dropped like a bomb on the belief that classical music is an exclusively European art” (Alex Ross, The New Yorker ) and became known as “the first indisputably great composition of the 21st Century” ( Boston Globe ). Deftly exploiting the popular appeal and emotional immediacy of samba, salsa, flamenco, mambo, and the elemental vigor of folk and popular motifs, Golijov’s La Pasión según San Marcos sets the last days of Christ amidst the streets of Latin America. This week, Deutsche Grammophon releases the first new recording of the work since the premiere in 2000. Both Golijov and the producers at DG felt it imperative to create this definitive new studio recording of La Pasión to showcase the richness of the work’s texture and its maturity over the past decade. The audio recording on two CDs is released in tandem with the DVD of a 2008 live performance from the Holland Festival conducted by Robert Spano.

Antiphonal Brass Music by Giovanni Gabrieli, Claudio Monteverdi and Samuel Scheidt The Canadian Brass, called “the world’s leading brass ensemble” by the Washington Post , brings its trademark virtuosity and artistic passion to an album of stunning antiphonal brass music by Giovanni Gabrieli, Claudio Monteverdi and Samuel Scheidt, composers of the late Renaissance and early Baroque. Initially available through a limited release by ArkivMusic.com last October, Echo: Glory of Gabrieli is available everywhere on April 8, 2010 through E1 distribution. Reviewing the recording, ClassicsToday.com raved: “If you're not completely hooked by the strikingly realistic antiphonal sound or the breathtakingly virtuosic playing in the first 30 seconds of this remarkable recording, then check your equipment ... a brighter-than-ever sheen, an even better-defined edge that leaves you with no words, just the impression that you're in the presence of superhuman musicianship.” Audiophile Audi

The Naxos label’s recording of John Adams’ Nixon in China for Opera Colorado, featuring Colorado Symphony Conductor Laureate Marin Alsop and the Colorado Symphony, is receiving rave reviews. The recording was made live at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in Denver, Colorado from June 6-14, 2008. Only the second recording in history of Adams’ Nixon in China , this release has caught the attention of critics throughout the classical music industry from Opera News and BBC Music Magazine to the Financial Times and e-Music. Music lovers and critics across the country and around the world are praising this release as a new standard in the genre. The live performances of Nixon in China at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in June 2008 were presented as a part of the National Performing Arts Convention and League of American Orchestras Conference. In a review of this Naxos recording for Audiophile Audition, Mike Birman states: This live recording made in Denver in 2008, with Marin Al

So, the Vienna Philharmonic inches its way into the 21st Century. By the response in the press you'd think that this is some great divide being crossed or alternatively that this was a case of affirmative action with the Philharmonic simply bowing to outside pressure. Though I am all for seeing more women concertmasters, composers and conductors, I truly can't wait until the gender of our musical leaders is so inconsequential as to garner no mention. After all, the genitals have nothing whatsoever to do with the production of great music. When will the day come we can celebrate the appointment of a concertmaster in Vienna, or indeed in thousands of musical organizations throughout the world by a celebration of the musicality of the person involved rather than by an irrelevant specification of gender?

Mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves to replace Natalie Dessay Celebrated mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, who portrayed Giullietta in the 1991 Spoleto production of Les Contes d’Hoffman , will replace singer Natalie Dessay at the Dock Street Theatre Reopening Gala on Thursday, April 1st in Charleston, SC. Ms. Dessay has cancelled all upcoming U.S. appearances due to illness. Recognized worldwide as one of today's most exciting vocal stars, Ms. Graves is hailed by USA Today as “an operatic superstar of the 21st century.” The combination of her expressive, rich vocalism, elegant stage presence, and exciting theatrical abilities allows Ms. Graves to pursue a wide breadth of operatic portrayals as well as delight audiences in concert and recital appearances on the world’s most illustrious stages. Ms. Graves will join Spoleto Festival USA artists violinist Geoff Nuttall, pianist Pedja Muzijevic, cellist Christopher Costanza, violist Caroline Blackwell, actress Heather Gillespie, and arti

Acclaimed American soprano Sondra Radvanovsky will release her debut solo album, Verdi Arias , on Delos on April 27, 2010, captivating listeners with her supple voice and gracious phrasing. Radvanovsky has been lauded by the London Times as “a true Verdian, with a big, juicy, vibrato-rich sound,” and her collection of prize arias is a highly anticipated reflection on roles past and a preview of those to come. Sondra Radvanovsky has earned top praises from critics the world over and is welcomed as “the ‘Leonora’ of our time” by the San Francisco Sentinel . She has performed in every major opera house in the world including Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Paris Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Vienna State Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, and many others. Her home is the Metropolitan Opera, where she completed her training in the late 1990’s. The exquisite depth and color of her voice are matched by her artistry and versatility across a remarkable range of repertoire. Ra

Season-long Theme Celebrates Gustav Mahler’s Double Jubilee: 150th Anniversary of His Birth and Centennial of His Death Music Director Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra announced today the Orchestra’s 2010-2011 season, the fourth full season under the direction of Maestra Alsop. The 2010-2011 season celebrates Gustav Mahler’s double jubilee, recognizing the 150th anniversary of his birth and the centennial of his death. Mahler’s works are closely associated with themes of youth and the innocence of childhood, prompting the BSO to create a season that highlights today’s rising young stars and that features the earlier works of several seminal composers. Notable BSO debuts include 17-year-old BSO-Peabody Bruno Walter Assistant Conductor Ilyich Rivas and German violinist Augustin Hadelich, and there are welcome returns for seasoned performers like Emanuel Ax and Midori. By coupling the beauty of music with the vigor of youth, the 2010-2011 season aims to nourish the you

For his first major opera role recording outside of the bel canto repertory, Flórez sings the 1774 Paris version of Gluck’s beloved opera Acclaimed for his appearances in the operas of Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini, Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez explores new territory with this recording of Gluck’s opera, Orphée et Eurydice . Flórez reclaims the leading role of Orphée (Orfeo) for male singers, as the opera was originally written. This recording, featuring Flórez in his first major role outside of the bel canto repertory for which he is acclaimed, offers the listener the chance to experience a different aspect of the tenor’s musical personality and remarkable ability. The 2-CD set, recorded live, will be available from Decca on April 20, 2010. Like many operas, Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice went through many revisions and changes over the years. Originally written in Italian ( Orfeo ed Euridice ) for the 1762 premiere in Vienna, the opera featured a castrato in the lead rol

The world premiere of Toshio Hosokawa’s Woven Dreams , the fifth in a series of Roche Commissions, will take place at the Lucerne Festival Music Director Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra will embark on their ninth international tour together, including the Orchestra’s ninth appearance at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland. The Orchestra will perform three programs at the Lucerne Festival, and five concerts in Scotland, Germany, and Italy. Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra begin the summer 2010 European tour in Edinburgh , Scotland , at the Edinburgh International Festival with two performances at Usher Hall. Founded in 1947, the three-week annual event takes place in six major concert halls and theaters, plus additional smaller venues. On Tuesday, August 17, the program includes three short works by Ives, including two organ solos, Variations on “ America ,” and Postlude in F, to be played by Joela Jones, the Principal Keyboardist of The Cleveland Orches

Festival Culminates on March 29 with “The Singing Life”: Chanticleer Performs with 416 High School Singers at Davies Symphony Hall “This is the biggest thing we’ve ever done.” – Matthew Oltman, Chanticleer’s Music Director Hot on the heels of a triumphant European tour, Chanticleer, Musical America’s 2008 Ensemble of the Year, takes its extensive nationwide education program to new heights this month with its first National Youth Choral Festival™. The festival, which takes place between March 26 and 29 in Chanticleer’s hometown, San Francisco, will bring together twelve high-school choirs comprising 416 student singers from across the country: five choirs from the Bay Area, and seven from as far east as Woodbridge VA and as far west as Honolulu HI. During the four-day choral immersion, the visiting choirs will interact closely and intensively with the members of Chanticleer, who will coach them in all areas critical to the choral art. The climactic event on March 29, “The

From the Rare to the Inundated, Daniel Hope presents his take on Baroque music The opening track, Chaconne in G Major , is a delightful romp which could be as easily at home on a folk album as it is on this Baroque collection. Daniel Hope plays with an ease perfectly suited to this style of music. From the opening track to the closing the performances are delightful, articulate and ideal for the sentiment of the music from a modern perspective. Shifting the mood from fast and frolicking to stately and serious, the second track of Handel's Suite No.15 in D minor for Harpsichord gives a chance for the marked tempo of the ensemble with the delicate flamboyance of Hope's virtuosity. Ricercata segunda returns to the dance music you might expect to hear at a festival, but with superlative playing. Perhaps the only disappointment on the album is the inclusion of Pachelbel's Canon and Gigue in D minor . While it is without a double one of the most popular pieces ever per

“A violinist of probing intellect and commanding style … In a business that likes tidy boxes drawn around its commodities, the British violinist Daniel Hope resists categorization.” – New York Times Intrepid violinist Daniel Hope continues to forge new ground, challenging audiences to take a fresh look at standard concert repertoire while also opening their eyes to less performed but equally exciting works. His last album – featuring Vivaldi concertos, a sonata, and an aria with Anne Sofie von Otter – was nominated for a 2010 Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance. Now the latest fruit of Hope’s exclusive relationship with Deutsche Grammophon, was released on March 16 in the U.S., is a return to the Baroque alongside soloists from the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Hope’s Air. A baroque journey is a pan-European exploration of an adventurous era, taking in works by the rarely-heard Falconieri and Valente, dramatic gems by Westhoff and Marini, folk-accented dances from Mat

Album Includes Works by Stravinsky, Scarlatti, Brahms and Ravel Yuja Wang's debut CD, "Sonatas & Etudes": The more you listen to it the more stunning her performance becomes; these amazing pieces become absolutely breath-taking. - Interchanging Idioms Pianist Yuja Wang's highly anticipated second solo recital recording, Transformation , will be released by Deutsche Grammophon on Tuesday, April 13, 2010. The album comprises three movements from Pétrouchka by Stravinsky; Scarlatti's Sonata in E major K. 380, Andante comodo and Sonata in F minor/C major K. 466, Andante moderato; Brahms's Variations on a Theme by Paganini op. 35, Books I & II; and Maurice Ravel's La Valse . The album follows Yuja's critically acclaimed debut recording, Sonatas & Etudes , which was nominated for a Grammy® Award in the Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without Orchestra) category and named Best Debut Album of 2009 by International Piano magazine. F

Rossini's Armida is the Metropolitan Opera’s final new production of the season. Six tenors perform opposite Renée Fleming’s eponymous heroine in this rarely-staged opera, which premieres at the Met on April 12. Never previously staged at the Met, Armida opens with Fleming in the title role, Riccardo Frizza conducting, and Mary Zimmerman returning to direct, bringing her fine-tuned theatricality to a work she describes as “a buried treasure, a box of jewels.” The fanciful story of a sorceress who enthralls men in an island prison of sensual delights, Zimmerman says, “has an epic, enchanted quality and a tremendous visual element.” It takes a sextet of tenors to counterbalance a prima donna as powerful as Armida , and, in “Six of One,” Jennifer Melick examines the distinctive musical and dramatic qualities that characterize the legendary enchantress’s multiple foils. The Met’s current contenders, led by modern virtuoso Lawrence Brownlee as Rinaldo, share thoughts on their r

On Tuesday, April 20, two days before bidding farewell to her New York fans in a concert at Carnegie Hall, the beloved mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade will be honored at the Metropolitan Opera Guild’s 75th Annual Luncheon. With “Flicka and Friends – A Loving Tribute to Frederica von Stade,” the Guild will gather together colleagues and friends to salute the legendary artist in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf=Astoria Hotel, with a musical tribute by baritone Thomas Hampson and a spoken tribute by one of Flicka’s long-time colleagues and friends, soprano Evelyn Lear. Among the many artists who be there to help celebrate Flicka will be Martina Arroyo, Rockwell Blake, Dave Brubeck, Chris Brubeck, Vladimir Chernov, Tyne Daly, Angela Gheorghiu, Marilyn Horne, Kristine Jepson, John Macurdy, Terrence McNally, Mildred Miller, Paul Plishka, Regina Resnik, Julius Rudel and Richard Stilwell. The afternoon will include the screening of a new video biography of the honoree, video performances

The Royal Opera Liège proudly presents a new masterpiece in the OperaLive series: Rigoletto . This story of love, seduction and betrayal has been brought to life not only by the live online broadcast but also by the specially designed artwork. This handcrafted artwork is a unique piece and translates the opera we all know and love into a stunning visual. Let us sweep you of your feet by the music, story details and charachter description in this interactive storytelling experience, which you can discover here: http://www.operalive.org/rigoletto/ For centuries opera has touched the melodramatic hearts of thousands of enthusiasts. Opera Live aims to make opera accessible to all audiences through the means of live streaming via the internet. This project will allow people all around the world to discover some of the finest operas composed. Opera Live is where the old embraces the new. Rigoletto will be broadcasted live on March 23rd, 2010 at 8:00pm (GMT + 1) and available on demand o

at Lincoln Center on Friday, April 9 All Tickets Now Only $25 Each Scenes from Goethe’s Faust is the iconic poetic rendering of the story of a man who sells his soul to the devil, set to music by a composer who knew very well what it was like to be haunted by demons, his mental state often frayed. This year sees the bicentennial of Robert Schumann’s birth, and the American Symphony Orchestra marks the occasion on April 9 at Lincoln Center with the rarely-performed Scenes from Goethe’s Faust . This completes the trilogy of the composer’s dramatic oratorios in which the orchestra previously introduced audiences to Manfred and Das Paradies und die Peri . The ASO will be joined on stage by the Concert Chorale of New York directed by James Bagwell, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. A New York Times review of the 2006 ASO/Concert Chorale performance of Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri stated: “With … the kind of bursting lyricism we associate with the composer at his most fruitf

Conductor James Conlon has been awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Los Angeles for his lifelong activity and dedication to music and excellence in conducting in Italy , as well as all over the world. The award was presented by the Director of the Italian Institute of Culture, Francesca Valente, and by the Consul General of Italy in Los Angeles, Nicola Faganello on Monday, March 15 following Mr. Conlon’s lecture “ Maria Callas and Richard Wagner: A Surprising Couple ” at the Italian Institute of Culture as part of LA Opera’s Ring Festival and the Institute’s Maria Callas exhibit of costumes, jewelry, photos and memorabilia. Since 2005, the Institute has awarded its Lifetime Achievement Award to distinguished individuals who best represent Italian excellence in the arts, including Renato Bruson for his contribution to opera; Ennio Morricone for music; Claudia Cardinale, Mario Monicelli, Vittorio Storaro, Pupi Avati, Francis Ford Coppola and Di

Highlights Include Return to Metropolitan Opera, Recital at Alice Tully Hall, and World-Premiere of New Work by Matthias Pintscher Commissioned by New York Philharmonic Eminent American baritone Thomas Hampson returns to New York City this month for a remarkable string of performances and special appearances, beginning on March 29 when he encores the role of Germont in Verdi’s La traviata at the Metropolitan Opera (eight performances through April 24). Those Met performances complement a series of events that are part of his yearlong appointment as the first Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence of the New York Philharmonic: his recital at Avery Fisher Hall on April 11, co-presented by the Philharmonic and Lincoln Center’s “Art of the Song” series, will feature Schumann’s great song cycle Dichterliebe and songs by Samuel Barber; and on April 16, at Symphony Space, he will give the world-premiere of Matthias Pintscher’s songs from Solomon’s garden, commissioned by the orche