Classical Music Sampler: September 2012

The classical music season promises to start out strong, with performances from A Far Cry, Itzhak Perlman, and the Claremont Trio.

By Jonathan Blumhofer and Susan Miron.

Orchestral/Opera/New Music performances

Conductor Bramwell Tovey returns to Symphony Hall this month in a program featuring music from PORGY AND BESS.

September 8 and 9: A Far Cry. One of the best chamber orchestras in the country presents a program that pairs pieces by Hildegard von Bingen, Osvaldo Golijov, and Beethoven with a premiere by Mehmet Ali Sanlikol. The first performance is at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Jamaica Plain, the second is at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

September 22: Boston Symphony Orchestra. The second season of the post-Levine era gets underway the same way the first one did: with a gala concert featuring music played and conducted by a violinist. Last year, it was Anne-Sophie Mutter and Mozart, this time around it’s Itzhak Perlman playing the two Beethoven Romances and conducting the same composer’s Seventh Symphony.

September 23: Joseph Silverstein and the Boston Conservatory Orchestra at Sanders Theater. One of the Boston Conservatory’s newest faculty members – who also happens to be a legend in the orchestral and university worlds, with a special tie to Boston –- performs Beethoven’s Violin Concerto on a program that also features music by Rossini and Bartok.

September 27 through 29: Boston Symphony Orchestra. Bramwell Tovey, who last appeared at Symphony Hall leading an electrifying performance of Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang, returns with very different fare this time: the great Heyward-Gershwin-Gershwin collaboration, Porgy and Bess, in a concert performance that features the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and a cast including Alfred Walker, Laquita Mitchell, and Robert Honeysucker.

— JB


Chamber Music/Early Music

Wednesday Concert Series. At the Church of St. John Evangelist, 35 Bowdoin Street, Boston, MA, every Wednesday, 5:30 p.m, free.

September 5: Claire Raphaelson (soprano) and Matthew Hall (harpsichord) will present “Venere Bella”, an evening of Baroque arias and cantatas featuring works by Bach, Handel, Purcell and Ramea

September 12: Judith Conrad (clavichord) will perform works by Juan Bautista Cabanillas

September 19: Naho Bessho (piano) will perform works by Chopin,Liszt and Mendelssohn.

September 26: Dunja Pechstein (soprano) and Carola Emrich-Fisher (mezzo-soprano) will present an evening of French and German art songs featuring works by Brahms, Delage, Schumann and Strauss.

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Gardner Museum Concert Series. At the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA, Sundays at 1:30 p.m.

September 16: Paula Robison, flute; Paavali Jumppanen, piano performs works of Roussel, Boulez, Debussy, and Poulenc.

September 23: Narek Arutyunian, clarinet; Solon Gordon, piano. A most unusual program by the first prize winner of 2010 Young Concert Artists International Auditions — the selections include Sonata in D major, Op. 94 by Prokofiev and a Sonatina for klezmer clarinet and piano by Schoenfield.

September 30: Claremont Trio perform works of Mozart, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Mendelssohn.

———–

The Claremont Trio — Donna Kwong (Piano), Emily Bruskin (Violin), Julia Bruskin (Cello) — is part of the Gardner Museum Concert Series in September.

September 5 and 7: Michael Brofman plays Ravel’s ravishing Sonatine and Sonata in B-flat by Schubert. Presented by the Newton Free Library Concert Series at Homer St. Newton, MA, @ 7:30 p.m. and at Memorial Church, Harvard, Cambridge MA, (Sept 7) @ 7:30 p.m.

September 17: Music for Food. Led by violist Kim Kashkashian, members of the New England Conservatory faculty and acclaimed guest artists begin their four-concert season featuring the music of Dvorak and Ernest Chausson. Donation of cash or check or non-perishable food for the Greater Boston Food Bank is requested. At NEC’s Brown Hall, Boston, MA, @ 8 p.m.

September 18: Boston Conservatory faculty members Markus Placci (violin), Rhonda Ryder (cello), and Jonathan Bass (piano) perform Piano Trios by Haydn, Brahms and Shostakovich at Boston Conservatory, Seully Hall, Boston, MA, @ 8 p.m.

September 24: Harpsichordist John Gibbons gives a faculty recital. At NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA, @ 8 p.m. (free).

September 30: Beethoven Chamber Series. Sergey Schepkin (piano) Heidi Braun-Hill and Rose Drucker (violins), Mark Berger, Karina Fox, (violas), Raphael Popper-Kaiser (cello), and Susan Consoli (soprano) perform works from Beethoven’s innovative ‘Middle Period,’ including rarely performed Lieder, the “Ghost” Trio and his only string quintet. “Vocalism” by John Harbison is also on the program. Presented by Emmanuel Music at Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury Street, Boston, MA @ 4 p.m.

— SM

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