Van Magazine: An Orchestra Plays By COVID Rules
Van Magazine’s Jefrey Arlo Brown spoke with Shao-Chia Lü, Taiwan Philharmonic’s music director since 2010, and executive director Wen-Chen Kuo about the pragmatic art of the post-pandemic concert.
Van Magazine
Jefrey Arlo Brown
Asia is the future of classical music, goes the tired cliché repeated by such luminaries as Simon Rattle. As the COVID-19 pandemic wanes in places like Taiwan and the Republic of Korea, however, that banality becomes quite literally true. East Asian orchestras, supported by competent governments and resilient public healthy systems, are beginning to play for live audiences again—a state of affairs many European and, especially, American musicians can only dream of.
What will that future look like? A series of concerts, both live and livestreamed, on May 24 (the Serenades by Dvořák and Tchaikovsky, and a work by Tyzen Hsiao), on May 30 (Mozart’s “Gran Partita” and Dvořák’s Serenade Op. 22), and June 12 (Beethoven Five and Seven), has allowed the National Symphony Orchestra of Taipei, Taiwan, to feel for a new role in a changed world.
Last week, I spoke with Shao-Chia Lü, the orchestra’s music director since 2010, and executive director Wen-Chen Kuo about the pragmatic art of the post-pandemic concert.
Read the interview here.
Financial Times: When Will the Music Start Again?
When the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan came out on stage to play on Sunday night, it fired the starting gun for concert life to resume. After months of the coronavirus lockdown, here at last was an orchestra playing in front of a live audience in a concert hall.
Financial Times
Richard Fairman
When the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan came out on stage to play on Sunday night, it fired the starting gun for concert life to resume. After months of the coronavirus lockdown, here at last was an orchestra playing in front of a live audience in a concert hall.
Read more here.
The Strad: National Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan, Resumes Concerts
The National Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan [also known as the Taiwan Philharmonic] is to begin performing again in a series of 3 concerts on 24 May, 30 May and 12 June at Taiwan’s National Theatre and Concert Hall. All three ‘sofa concerts’ will be live-streamed on YouTube and other platforms and will be available to view afterwards too.
The Strad
The National Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan [also known as the Taiwan Philharmonic] is to begin performing again in a series of 3 concerts on 24 May, 30 May and 12 June at Taiwan’s National Theatre and Concert Hall. All three ‘sofa concerts’ will be live-streamed on YouTube and other platforms and will be available to view afterwards too.
The first live concert, beginning at 19:30 Taiwan time (12:30 CET/7:30 EDT), includes Dvořák’s Serenade in D minor; Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings in C Major; and Tyzen Hsiao’s Bang Chhun Hong (‘Longing for the Spring Breeze’), composed in the 1930s.
Read more here.
Classic FM: This beautiful video brings together Arvo Pärt’s music and exquisite animated art
Take a moment to enjoy beautiful, relaxing Arvo Pärt from violinist Anne Akiko Meyers – accompanied by mesmerising animated watercolour paintings.
Classic FM
Rosie Pentreath
Take a moment to enjoy beautiful, relaxing Arvo Pärt from violinist Anne Akiko Meyers – accompanied by mesmerising animated watercolour paintings.
Click here to read more.
Vail Daily: Bravo! Vail continues kids’ music education virtually during COVID-19
When the social distancing guidelines were set for the coronavirus pandemic, Bravo! Vail swiftly transferred its kids’ music education programs to a digital format. It recently capped off a scholastic year of instrument instruction with virtual recitals for the school-age musicians showing off 27 weeks’ worth of hard work.
Vail Daily
Casey Russell
When the social distancing guidelines were set for the coronavirus pandemic, Bravo! Vail swiftly transferred its kids’ music education programs to a digital format. It recently capped off a scholastic year of instrument instruction with virtual recitals for the school-age musicians showing off 27 weeks’ worth of hard work.
“Over 700 people from across the country and the world tuned in to one of the eight recitals, and we even had a student give a shout out in Spanish to their grandparents watching from Argentina. Students invited their school teachers and friends, and Bravo staff and donors also tuned in,” said Brooklynn Phillips, director of education and engagement.
Read more here and watch below.
NPR: Mahan Esfahani, Tiny Desk Concert
The harpsichord is a beautiful but notoriously fussy instrument. After we wheeled one behind Bob Boilen's desk, it took the bulk of an hour to get the tuning just perfect for the very first Tiny Desk harpsichord recital. Given that our guest was Mahan Esfahani, the instrument's most ardent advocate, we were willing to wait.
National Public Radio, Tiny Desk
Tom Huizenga
The harpsichord is a beautiful but notoriously fussy instrument. After we wheeled one behind Bob Boilen's desk, it took the bulk of an hour to get the tuning just perfect for the very first Tiny Desk harpsichord recital. Given that our guest was Mahan Esfahani, the instrument's most ardent advocate, we were willing to wait.
Read more here or watch below.
Gramophone: Video exclusive, Arvo Pärt's Estonian Lullaby played by Anne Akiko Meyers
Pärt's new arrangement of his Estonian Lullaby for violin and piano is performed by Anne Akiko Meyers and Reiko Uchida
Gramophone
Pärt's new arrangement of his Estonian Lullaby for violin and piano is performed by Anne Akiko Meyers and Reiko Uchida
We are pleased to present the world premiere recording of a new version of Arvo Pärt's Estonian Lullaby for violin and piano.
Commissioned and performed by Anne Akiko Meyers (with pianist Reiko Uchida) this premiere recording also boasts an animation produced in collaboration with Shazka Studios:
Meyers's recording of the Estonian Lullaby will be released by Avie Records on May 8 and is available to pre-order here: https://orcd.co/9edvjq4
International Piano: Nicolas Namoradze Review
I’m not often lost for words, but Nicolas Namoradze’s recital almost defeated me. I wasn’t expecting anything amazing: he’s won the Honens Competition in 2018 and this gig was his reward, but winning a comp is no guarantee of greatness. Yet from the opening phrase of Scriabin’s Black Mass Sonata he had me hooked: the notes had a honeyed grace, and the rest of the work unfolded in an opalescent glow, every bar touched with beauty. I’ve never heard this puzzling work make such persuasive sense.
International Piano
Michael Church
I’m not often lost for words, but Nicolas Namoradze’s recital almost defeated me. I wasn’t expecting anything amazing: he’s won the Honens Competition in 2018 and this gig was his reward, but winning a comp is no guarantee of greatness. Yet from the opening phrase of Scriabin’s Black Mass Sonata he had me hooked: the notes had a honeyed grace, and the rest of the work unfolded in an opalescent glow, every bar touched with beauty. I’ve never heard this puzzling work make such persuasive sense.
Read the full review in International Piano’s May/June issue, available here.
BBC Music Magazine: 2020 North America Festival Choice – Grand Teton Music Festival
BBC Music Magazine chooses Grand Teton Music Festival as “Festival Choice” for North America.
BBC Music Magazine
Our Festival Choice
Grand Teton Music Festival
gtmf.org
Not distracted by its spectacular Wyoming setting, Grand Teton sets its customary focus on big names and splashy, large-scale programmes. Donald Runnicles conducts the Festival Orchestra in Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony No. 2, Richard Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration and Beethoven’s five piano concertos with Garrick Ohlsson. Other noted soloists include Johannes Moser (Dvořák Cello Concerto), soprano Erin Wall (Strauss’s Four Last Songs) and Midori (Sibelius Violin Concerto). Also look for performances by pianist-composer Clarice Assad, violinists Gil Shaham and Adele Anthony, and singer Bernadette Peters.
Read the full festival guide in the April 2020 issue, available here.
BBC Music Magazine: April 2020 Editor Choice – Nicolas Namoradze
BBC Music Magazine Editor, Oliver Condy, recalls back to February, when Nicolas Namoradze, the winner of the 2018 Honens International Piano Competition, gave his Wigmore Hall prize recital - and a terrific programme it was, too.
BBC Music Magazine
Our Choices: The BBC Music Magazine team’s current favourites
Oliver Condy, Editor
Back in February, Nicolas Namoradze, the winner of the 2018 Honens International Piano Competition, gave his Wigmore Hall prize recital - and a terrific programme it was, too. Alongside a Bach sinfonia and the Partita No. 6, the Georgian pianist pulled some York Bowen out of the hat. Each of the 20th-century English composer’s piano etudes are dazzling, inventive affairs, combining a stout Englishness with rich dashes of Debussian color.
Read all the favourites in the April 2020 issue, available here.