Interchanging Idioms

One of the giants of the Avant-garde movement in music, Milton Babbitt passed away Saturday, January 29th, 2011. He was 94. Composing for more than 60 years, an educator, innovator, founder of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center and recipient of a Pulitzer Prize in 1982 for "life's work as a distinguished and seminal American composer."

The Only Traditional Classical Artist To Appear on the Billboard Top 200 “Dinnerstein brings out the luminous, off-kilter splendor of this music in a way that is both fearless and sly.” - San Francisco Chronicle Pianist Simone Dinnerstein’s latest album, Bach: A Strange Beauty (Sony Classical), makes its debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart. Dinnerstein is also the only Traditional Classical artist to grace the Billboard Top 200 chart which compiles the entire music industry’s top selling albums. In addition, this week the album is No. 4 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums Chart (new artists across musical genres). Bach: A Strange Beauty also spent time as the No. 1 top selling album on Barnesandnoble.com and No. 2 selling album on Amazon.com, in good company with The Decemberists, Cake, The Black Keys and Bruno Mars. Last Sunday Dinnerstein was featured on CBS Sunday Morning. Bach: A Strange Beauty , which is Dinnerstein’s first orchestral disc as well a...

Young Chinese pianist Yuja Wang joins forces with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO), under the direction of Juanjo Mena, in a performance of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto on Thursday, February 10 at 8 p.m. at the Music Center at Strathmore and Friday, February 11 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, February 13, 2010 at 3 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. This program will also feature the BSO’s first performance of Bruckner’s Sixth symphony since 1988. The monstrous solo part and lush orchestral writing of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto has made it one of his most popular works. Rachmaninoff composed this work after a bout with depression following his poorly received first symphony. The success of this work revitalized his composing career and brought him international fame as a concerto composer. The difficult virtuoso solo part finds itself in the capable hands of Yuja Wang, whom Gramophone magazine named the 2009 Young Artist of the Year. Like other major symphoni...

All-Mozart program showcases the Oboe Concerto - a masterwork of immeasurable beauty featuring Colorado Symphony principal oboist Peter Cooper January may be one of the darkest months of the year, but the Colorado Symphony's upcoming all-Mozart concerts are sure to diffuse radiance and light throughout Denver. On January 28, 29 and 30, concertgoers will experience three Mozart masterworks, including a rare production of Mozart's illustrious Requiem featuring the Colorado Symphony Chorus , internationally-acclaimed vocalists, and the much-anticipated return of Bernard Labadie - one of today's leading conductors of the Baroque and Classical repertoire. Featured vocalists include soprano Shannon Mercer , mezzo-soprano Anita Krause , tenor James Taylor and bass Jeremy Galyon . These Colorado Symphony performances also include the Overture to The Magic Flute and the Oboe Concerto in C major, K. 314 featuring Colorado Symphony principal oboist Peter Cooper . For generation...

Family Series offers music lovers of all ages chance to explore Czech favorites, highlighting works by Dvorák The Colorado Symphony's acclaimed Family Series continues on Sunday, January 23 with "Dvorák Comes to America." This family-friendly concert features an engaging multi-media exploration of Dvorák's Symphony No. 9 "From the New World," as well as his Carnival Overture . Parents, grandparents and children alike will enjoy learning about these great masterworks in a welcoming setting amid the excitement of a visit to Boettcher Concert Hall. The Denver Young Artists Orchestra will join the Colorado Symphony onstage for this "Side-by-Side" concert featuring the musicians of the Young Artists Orchestra, who range in age from eight to 23. In this annual musical collaboration, the Young Artists Orchestra performs alongside the musicians of the Colorado Symphony. Combined, the two orchestras will celebrate Czech favorites together! Dvorák's...

“One of the most gifted musicians of his generation.”– Wall Street Journal Following performances with his hometown orchestra, the Bergen Philharmonic, as part of a season-long residency there, the celebrated Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes teams up with Mariss Jansons and the world-renowned Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra for concerts at home and on tour. Andsnes will alternately play two concertos – Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor (K. 491) and Brahms’s monumental, four-movement Piano Concerto No. 2 – with Jansons and the orchestra in Amsterdam (Feb 2 & 4) and on a six-city tour with stops in Hamburg, Germany (Feb 6), Copenhagen, Denmark (Feb 7), Oslo, Norway (Feb 8 & 9), Stockholm, Sweden (Feb 11), Luxembourg (Feb 13), and Paris, France (Feb 14). Soon after, Andsnes heads to the U.S. for further performances of the Brahms with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and its new music director, Riccardo Muti (Feb 17-19), before returning to Europe for concerts with ...

Kirill Gerstein, winner of the 2010 Gilmore Artist Award and of lavish praise for his most recent solo recording, launches the New Year with high-profile concerto performances across Europe and the US. The last two weeks of January see the pianist performing Shostakovich’s Second with Esa-Pekka Salonen in Wales, Beethoven’s “Emperor” in Germany, Rachmaninoff’s First with the Baltimore Symphony, and the Shostakovich again with the St. Louis Symphony. Then in February Gerstein plays Brahms’s Second in Iceland and Venezuela, the latter performance under Gustavo Dudamel. Gerstein’s new solo recital album, released in early November by Myrios Classics, features Schumann’s Humoreske , Liszt’s B-minor Sonata, and the debut recording of contemporary British composer Oliver Knussen’s Ophelia’s Last Dance , which Gerstein premiered at the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival in May 2010. The New York Times lauded the disc as being “played with exquisite technique, refined musicianship, a...