Upcoming and Noteworthy

Wednesday, 2-20 at noon on Curtis Calls we'll hear Franz Waxman's Carmen Fantasy for violin & piano, the Cello Sonata No. 6 by Luigi Boccherini, Fritz Kreisler's Tempo di minuetto, a selection from Bela Kovacs's Hommages and the Sonata in f minor for clarinet & piano by Johannes Brahms.  Performances from student recitals at the Curtis Institute of Music, Wednesdays at noon and Monday evenings at 10.

This week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys is devoted to piano sonatinas.

“It’s interesting how sonatinas are, in theory, smaller sonatas, yet the fact is that some sonatinas are bigger than sonatas, and that some sonatas are smaller than sonatinas,” says Jed Distler, host for Between the Keys, and the Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence. “I thought it would be a good idea to comb through a variety of sonatinas and sonatina movements, combining some familiar works with music that you may not have heard.”

Seven new productions of drama open on Broadway from now through the Spring, and they're a diverse mix. Theater Critic Howard Shapiro surveys the upcoming plays for you this week on In a Broadway Minute, Friday (2/15) at 8 am and Saturday (2/16) at 10 am.

The Concordia Chamber Players come your way this Friday (2/15) at 4 pm, bringing music from England and France in a program of works by Benjamin Britten, Sir Edward Elgar, Jonathan Dove and Jean Francaix.

For most of the 14th century the papacy was situated in Avignon in the south of France.  The Avignonese popes were great patrons of the arts, especially music. On Friday's (2/15) Distant Mirror  the Ensemble Venace Fortunat and La Schola Choir of the University of Tours  perform music from the popes' palace at Avignon from the cd Altera Roma.  Join Allan Kelly at 10pm.

Orchestras and opera companies have been seeking out ways to bolster diversity and inclusion in their ranks, and A Tempo this Saturday (2/16 at 7 pm) looks at two new initiatives. Host Rachel Katz will speak with Jesse Rosen, president and CEO of the League of American Orchestras, which recently announced its Catalyst Fund, supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, that will provide grants to youth and adult orchestras to work with a consultant to create programs and strategies that promote equity, inclusion and diversity.

Three singers from the early and middle parts of the twentieth century take center stage this Sunday night at 8. Gino Bechi (1913-1993) was not well known outside of Italy, but his interpretation of Verdi was on a par with Robert Merrill, Leonard Warren and Ettore Bastianini. Claudia Muzio (1889-1936) easily was one of the finest sopranos of the first half century, and Richard Tauber (1891-1948) is still the touchstone for how to sing operetta, although he had an extensive career in opera as well.

Sunday evening, 2-17 at 11 on Half Past we'll hear A Grecian Festival by James Cohn, Nights in Timisoara and The Morning Trumpet by Barbara Harbach, Laura Karpman's Rounds for viola & piano & the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet in Genesis V by Janika Vandervelde. Music from the past half-century on Half Past.

On Friday, 2-8 the Noontime Concert from Astral Artists feautures mezzo-soprano Chrystal E. Williams with Laurent Philippe, piano and Felipe Hostins, accordion in music of Lorca, Hostins, Margaret Bonds, Ravel, H. Leslie Adams, Harry Burleigh and Hall Johnson.

Sunday evening at 11 on Half Past we'll hear Alan Hovhaness's Symphony No. 60, 3 Bagatelles by Nikolai Kapustin and Jazz Dances for Violin & Piano by Howard Blake.  Music from the past half-century on Half Past.

Thursday, 2-7 at noon we'll hear Matthew Robertson direct the Thirteen in a program called From Tree to Shining Tree.  The choir sings nature poems set by Williametta Spencer, Robert Ramsey, Johannes Brahms, Charles Stanford, David Lang, Benjamin Britten, Claudio Monteverdi, Daniel Elder, Walter Lambe, Eriks Esenvalds & Frank Ticheli.

Wednesday, 2-6 at noon on Curtis Calls we'll hear Mozart's Sonata in F major, K 533/494 and the Sonata No. 2 by Dmitri Shostakovich.  Performances from student recitals at the Curtis Institute, Wednesdays at noon and Monday evenings at 10. 

On Friday  evening (2-1) at 8 pianist Inon Barnatan joins the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and conductor Marcelo Lehninger in Beethoven's  1st, 2nd and 4th Piano Concertos.