Halleluja for Handel
Evening Music | May 6, 2010
It’s halleluja for Handel this evening. Question: who’s birthday is it? But, of course! George Frederick landed on this planet in Halle, Saxony, on February 23, 1685.
In celebration, we begin with the famous Largo from “Xerxes,” flutist James Galway performing along with the Würtemberg Chamber Orchestra under Jörg Färber. Then the London Baroque bring us his Sonata for Two Violins in A. And soon we hear the Concerto grosso No. 9 in F as interpreted by the Academy of Ancient Music under the sure hand of Andrew Manze. Ah, but that ain’t all! In our third hour, Trevor Pinnock will conduct the English Concert in the “Water Music” Suite No. 1.
The exotic “Scheherazade,” also known as the Symphonic Suite after “A Thousand and One Nights,” is probably Rimsky-Korsakov’s most well known work. Essentially a concerto for orchestra, nothing could better display the composer’s fabulous gift for orchestration. Tonight’s performance features the the New York Philharmonic and its violin principal, Glenn Dicterow, with Yuri Temirkanov conducting. If you’d like to hear the work live, the New York Phil will be playing it under Lorin Maazel from February 23–26. The Emerson String Quartet are featured in Anton Webern’s “Five Movements for String Quartet,” another work that will be performed live in New York City, as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center plays it and a number of other works on February 27th.
Flutist Eugenia Zukerman takes center stage for Mozart’s Flute Concerto No. 2 in D, which she plays under the guidance of Pinchas Zukerman as he leads the English Chamber Orchestra. This work, not an original, was written in haste for a surgeon and amateur flutist who commissioned some works for his favorite instrument. Presumably time constraints caused Mozart to recast his Oboe Concerto in C for flute. We need not concern ourselves with origins, however; it is enough just to enjoy the beautiful music in an exquisite performance.
In celebration, we begin with the famous Largo from “Xerxes,” flutist James Galway performing along with the Würtemberg Chamber Orchestra under Jörg Färber. Then the London Baroque bring us his Sonata for Two Violins in A. And soon we hear the Concerto grosso No. 9 in F as interpreted by the Academy of Ancient Music under the sure hand of Andrew Manze. Ah, but that ain’t all! In our third hour, Trevor Pinnock will conduct the English Concert in the “Water Music” Suite No. 1.
The exotic “Scheherazade,” also known as the Symphonic Suite after “A Thousand and One Nights,” is probably Rimsky-Korsakov’s most well known work. Essentially a concerto for orchestra, nothing could better display the composer’s fabulous gift for orchestration. Tonight’s performance features the the New York Philharmonic and its violin principal, Glenn Dicterow, with Yuri Temirkanov conducting. If you’d like to hear the work live, the New York Phil will be playing it under Lorin Maazel from February 23–26. The Emerson String Quartet are featured in Anton Webern’s “Five Movements for String Quartet,” another work that will be performed live in New York City, as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center plays it and a number of other works on February 27th.
Flutist Eugenia Zukerman takes center stage for Mozart’s Flute Concerto No. 2 in D, which she plays under the guidance of Pinchas Zukerman as he leads the English Chamber Orchestra. This work, not an original, was written in haste for a surgeon and amateur flutist who commissioned some works for his favorite instrument. Presumably time constraints caused Mozart to recast his Oboe Concerto in C for flute. We need not concern ourselves with origins, however; it is enough just to enjoy the beautiful music in an exquisite performance.
