Interchanging Idioms

“ America’s Favorite Mezzo” Returns to Metropolitan Opera as Octavian in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier ; to Lyric Opera of Chicago as Marguérite in Berlioz’s Damnation de Faust ; and to Houston Grand Opera as Handel’s Xerxes On September 16, Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Susan Graham officially kicks off her 2009-10 season with performances at the opening of the San Francisco Symphony’s “Mahler Festival 2009” under Michael Tilson Thomas. The American mezzo recently ended her summer with the poignant honor of singing Schubert’s “Ave Maria” at the funeral of Senator Edward M. Kennedy in Boston on August 29. Immediately afterwards, she traveled to Japan for Seiji Ozawa’s Saito Kinen Festival, where she sang three performances of Ravel’s Shéhérazade . Next she heads to San Francisco, to perform Mahler’s cycle of songs on texts by Friedrich Rückert under Michael Tilson Thomas, and records them as part of the highly praised series of Mahler’s symphonies and song cycles with the San ...

This promises to be a groundbreaking season for Venezuelan-American pianist Gabriela Montero , as she continues to impress, delight and make new fans in performances with major orchestras and in chamber and solo recitals. Already an artist in demand, Montero spends her 2009-10 season exploring some of the keyboard’s most celebrated repertoire while taking audiences on a uniquely stimulating journey with her trademark improvisations. Her season kicks off with the opening-night gala concert of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra; in other highlights she makes two important debuts with American orchestras, and performs a series of recitals around North America including a stop in Georgia at the widely eclectic and celebrated Savannah Music Festival. Montero begins her season opening the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra’s, in a gala concert led by conductor Raymond Leppard. On this program of American music, Montero will play George Gershwin’s beloved Rhapsody In Blue . When she perfo...

NEW YORK, NY – September 15th, 2009 – With well over thirty recording projects on the Decca label to date, iconic American soprano Renée Fleming is easily one of the most recorded opera singers of her generation. Today, Decca proudly releases Verismo , the 15th solo album in as many years by Fleming, featuring opera arias by Puccini and his contemporaries – composers of the Verismo style who set the lives and loves of their heroines to music of extraordinary beauty and intensity. Along with great Puccini favorites from La Bohème , Turandot , La Rondine , Il Trittico and Manon Lescaut , the album also includes rarely heard arias by Verismo composers Mascagni, Catalani, Leoncavallo, Giordano, Cilea, and Zandonai. From the tragedy of the nun Angelica, singing of the son who never knew his mother, to the rapturous young lovers of La Rondine , this is deeply emotional music of love and loss, of triumph and pain. Of the roles she portrays on this album, Mimì from Puccini's La Bohème...

Here is a brief interview with Alan Gilbert , the new Music Director for the New York Philharmonic. On Wednesday, September 16, Alan Gilbert begins his tenure as the new Music Director with a concert from Avery Fisher Hall that will be televised on PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center. Though most of the Manhattan-born conductor’s engagements this season are with his hometown orchestra, he also returns to Hamburg to lead the NDR Symphony Orchestra in November, and can be heard this month on a new recording of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony. The recording, on the BIS label, was made in June 2008 and captures Gilbert’s final performances as the chief conductor and artistic advisor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. The Hybrid Super Audio CD, playable on both standard and SACD players, is now available for purchase from ArkivMusic.com and will receive wide release on Tuesday, September 29. Q: So you’re back living in New York City . When was the last time you lived here in your hometow...

55-CD Box Set and More To Be Released October 20 New York, NY (September 11, 2009) -- Deutsche Grammophon, the distinguished “Yellow Label,” celebrates its 111th anniversary with a dedicated website, limited edition box set CD releases, downloads, DVDs, and more. Since its founding in 1898, Deutsche Grammophon has been considered the leader in the classical music recording industry offering the most technologically advanced, highest quality recordings of the newest, brightest, as well as prominent, well-established artists. Deutsche Grammophon’s 111th anniversary celebration recognizes and commemorates the label’s rich history and forward-thinking ideology. Deutsche Grammophon’s president Michael Lang said, “Deutsche Grammophon remains the preeminent classical recording company – presenting the finest in recorded music by the best artists – while anticipating and fulfilling the evolving interests of its old and new audiences. Deutsche Grammophon is poised for a vibrant future as ...

Conductor Iván Fischer begins his 2009-10 season with the fifth annual Budapest MahlerFest (Sep 9 – 13), leading the Budapest Festival Orchestra (of which he is Music Director) in performances of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony, Hans Krása’s Brundibár , a children’s opera in two acts, and the world premiere of Giovanni Sollima’s Folk Tales for cello and orchestra, commissioned by Fischer for the festival. In the 26th season since its founding by Fischer, the orchestra will tour Europe, perform several programs at home in Budapest (including Mozart’s Don Giovanni ), and join the Orchestra of the Enlightenment in New York for a complete cycle of Beethoven’s nine symphonies. In the second season of his tenure as Principal Conductor of Washington ’s National Symphony Orchestra, Fischer will lead the orchestra in six programs, including the opening-night concert on September 26 featuring pianist Evgeny Kissin and gypsy violinist József Lendvay, Jr. as soloists. Other highlights for Fischer incl...

Anchoring a fall season of genre-bending performances, electrifying collaborations and a groundbreaking artistic vision realized in his home city of Montreal, FIGMENT, the latest evolution of Matt Haimovitz’s signature solo set will be released by Oxingale Records on September 29. The sequel to his trail-blazing 50-State solo cello tour and recording, ANTHEM, released in 2003, FIGMENT salutes contemporary music icon and centenarian Elliott Carter with his two Figments for solo cello, also bringing together a wide range of important new music for cello and electronics by leading and emerging North American composers. FIGMENT features several premiere recordings including Serge Provost’s cutting-edge Les Vertiges de S. for electronically-processed solo cello, Luna Pearl Woolf’s Sarabande for solo cello, up and coming composer Du Yun’s San , a deconstruction of haunting ancient Chinese fragments, and a prelude to Carter’s first Figment for solo cello by beats and sample artist Socalled....