  |
|
May 22, 2007
|
What’s worth the drive Summer is off-season for most local classical groups, which means you’ll have to drive a bit for live music in the months following Memorial Day weekend. Two big festivals in the Granite State — Monadnock Music in Peterborough and the New Hampshire Music Festival in Plymouth — provide good chances to get your classical fix. Opera North in Lebanon also returns with a pair of fully staged productions in August, and there’s always Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the grandaddy of all summer music festivals. With gas about to crest $4 a gallon, here’s an opinionated list of what’s worth the drive. • Monadnock Music: After more than four decades of concerts, the organizers of this world-class festival based in Peterborough know how to assemble interesting (and sometimes challenging) programs. This year’s highlights include an homage to iconoclastic American composer Elliot Carter in honor of his 100th birthday (the free concert on Friday, Aug. 8, includes his “A Mirror on Which to Dwell.” and other works) and a program on Saturday, July 26, featuring a performance of French composer Olivier Messiaen’s masterpiece, “Quartet for the End of Time. (It’s also Messiaen’s 100th birthday, but unlike Carter, he’s not around to celebrate it, having died in 1992.) Other interesting Monadnock concerts, all of which take place at the Peterborough Town House, include the Borromeo String Quartet on Sunday, July 13, performing works by Schumann, Bartok and Bruckner; a “Birth of the Modern” program of varied works by Dvorak, Schoenberg and others on Saturday, July 19, designed to “illustrate the brief but momentous era in which musical romanticism turned the sharp corner toward modernism”; and an “Off the Beaten Path” all-percussion concert on Saturday, Aug. 9. Admission is charged for most concerts; for details, call 924-7610 or visit monadnockmusic.org. And don’t forget the intimate (and free) chamber concerts the festival holds in Monadnock Region churches and town halls during July and August. This year’s schedule isn’t finalized yet, but keep checking the Web site. • New Hampshire Music Festival: Big doings this summer at this annual festival, which stages six weeks of concerts in the Silver Center for the Arts at Plymouth State University during July and August. Each program is given twice, on a Thursday and a Friday evening. Best of the bunch include the opening week on July 10-11, which sees conductor Paul Polivnick lead the Brahms Symphony No. 4 and Bach’s Violin Concerto No. 2 with Lara St. John as soloist; concerts on July 31 and Aug. 1 that feature Haydn’s Symphony No. 95 and Tchaikovsky’s “Little Polish” Symphony No. 3; and the final weekend of concerts Aug. 14-15 that include Mendelssohn’s incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the sprawling Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor with Andrius Zlabys as soloist. The festival also includes a pops series on Saturday nights and chamber music concerts also. Single tickets go on sale June 1; right now, you can buy subscription packages online at nhmf.org. For more info, check the Web site or call 279-3300. • Granite State Symphony: One local group not taking a break is the Concord-based Granite State Symphony, which is playing a concert on Saturday, June 28, in New London. Conductor Robert C. Babb will lead the group in Mozart’s Concerto in C for Flute and Harp and Beethoven’s iconic Symphony No. 5 in C minor. Tickets cost $25 and available June 1; for more info visit gsso.org or call 526-8234 to order by mail. • Opera North: This seasonal opera company will present fully staged professional productions of two operatic classics, Puccini’s Madame Butterfly and Mozart’s The Magic Flute at the Lebanon Opera House during the relatively brief window of Aug. 9 through Aug. 23. For opera buffs, both are worth attending. The performances are sung in the original Italian with English titles above the stage. Seats run $20 to $85. For tickets and information, visit operanorth.org or call the Lebanon Opera House box office at 448-0400. • Tanglewood: Blockbuster season isn’t limited to the multiplex. As is usually the case, the Boston Symphony’s performances at its summer home in Lenox, Mass., are heavy on the big symphonic pieces that tend to work well when played outdoors. (Most main concerts at Tanglewood are played in the Koussevitsky “Shed,” which is open on all sides and surrounded by a lawn, where many people picnic during the music.) It’s a long drive there and back, but some programs are definitely worth hearing. Among them: Bernard Haitink conducting Mahler’s epic “Resurrection” Symphony No. 2 in C minor on Saturday, July 12 (it’s the one concert down there I’m attending), and André Previn leading a foot-stomping all-Russian concerto that includes the Khatchaturian Piano Concerto and Prokofiev’s life-affirming Symphony No. 5 on Saturday, Aug. 12. Seats cost $20 to $99 each and available online at bso.org; for more info, visit the site or call (617) 266-1492.. Jeff Rapsis is a working musician and a member of the board of directors of the Manchester Community Music School, and contributes program notes to the Palace Festival Orchestra and other groups.
|
5/15/2008 Laugh-out-loud funny 5/08/2008 How's it going to end?
|
Navigation
