In all the traditional arts, there may be no greater a misnomer today than the accepted designation that classical music is tranquil — that it is suitable stuff for relaxation and the background. Anyone who has listened to a Beethoven symphony, Verdi opera or Stravinsky ballet on earphones certainly knows that isn’t the case. Classical music is the realm of drama, of tremendous contrast, of tension and release.
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High spirits infectious as Hadelich, Chen shine with CSO
August 19, 2011
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It would have been easy for the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra to have presented a meat-and-potatoes program Thursday at the Amphitheater. But with violinist Augustin Hadelich engaged for the evening, something much more enticing was in store.
The concert, conducted by Mei-Ann Chen, included a classical concerto (Haydn’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in C major) and a favorite symphony (Mendelssohn’s “Italian”).
Read more Echoes of the Golden Age in CSO’s Tuesday performance
August 18, 2011
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Concert programs in the so-called Golden Age of American Orchestras (defined roughly as the time during which one began listening to orchestral music seriously) often opened with an overture, presented a concerto before intermission and a symphony after.
If Tuesday evening’s Chautauqua Symphony concert didn’t always conjure the Golden Age, the programming strategy largely did so. On the podium was the Bulgarian-born Rossen Milanov making his CSO debut. Milanov’s training has a Golden Age flavor, too. The artistic director of The Philadelphia Orchestra at The Mann Center for the Performing Arts is an experienced opera conductor, the opera pit being the traditional training ground for old-school maestros.
Read more As lights come down on Dance’s season, romance drives the night
August 14, 2011
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Romance is driven by passion, excitement and even mystery in our lives. It is something to which we can all aspire (often with some regularity), making it a natural impetus for North Carolina Dance Theatre’s final performance at the Amphitheater on Saturday night.
Read more No surprises, just a well-known plan executed to perfection
August 14, 2011
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JoAnn Falletta is a tiny woman who nonetheless makes big explicit gestures on the podium. Her stick technique was so clear and precise, her left hand so expressive, her subtle, hip-swaying movements so balletic, that anyone in the 20th row of the Amphitheater Thursday would have known what she was after.
Read more CTC’s ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’ full of good sport
August 12, 2011
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You can assess the mettle of an acting company not simply by what members deliver after weeks of study and rehearsals but by how they react to unexpected mishaps.
Read more A night of music bringing Chautauquans together
August 10, 2011
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Call it an “American” or “pops” program, but the real theme of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra’s delightful “Community Concert” Tuesday night at the Amphitheater was collaboration.
Between the CSO itself, guest conductor-pianist Stuart Malina, the large crowd, and the 50-plus amateur musicians from the community who accepted the invitation to share the stage, the event was more about music’s power to bring people together than any particular genre or branch of the repertoire.
Read more Members Exhibition a reflection of Chautauqua’s culture
August 9, 2011
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This is about the culture that Chautauqua makes.
Visual Arts at Chautauqua Institution most often shows the culture of others in its galleries — collections of work on themes selected by the curators, from other institutions or by artists selected for the annual national invitational.
Read more ‘Over-the-top musical pleasure’
August 7, 2011
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Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears…
CSO’s Thursday performance a crowd-pleasing crescendo
August 5, 2011
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The sound raised into the dying of the light. It showed the heart of the orchestra. It appeared at the edge, where things are precious and vulnerable, a smaller sound than expected.
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