by Jarrett Hoffman
Live streams, re-broadcasts, digital archives, and YouTube channels — here are some videos of performances to keep you occupied during social distancing.
Beginning locally, some performances are still taking place via live stream, without an audience. On Thursday, March 19 at 4:30 pm, Oberlin Conservatory will stream a faculty and guest concert from Stull Recital Hall. Flutist Alexa Still, cellist Mihai Tetel, and pianist Evan Hines come together in Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Assobio a Játo (“Jet Whistle”) and Valerie Coleman’s 2019 Amazonia.
Piano Cleveland, the presenting organization of the Cleveland International Piano Competition, has announced a new weekly series called The Quarantine Concerts, to be streamed every Thursday at 7:30 pm from Steinway Piano Gallery Cleveland. The first concert, on March 19, will feature pianist Yaron Kohlberg as well as the piano duo of Natsumi Shibagaki and Irwin Shung. Online audience members have the opportunity to offer their support directly to these artists by donating to Piano Cleveland’s Musicians’ Fund.
Apollo’s Fire has just announced a new video series. Click here to join the “Music for the Soul” Facebook group.
For more music closer to home, several ensembles and musicians based in Northeast Ohio offer impressive YouTube channels with full-length performances, including ACRONYM, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Apollo’s Fire, CityMusic Cleveland, Cleveland Chamber Choir, Colin Davin, James Wilding, Jason Vieaux, La Tanya Hall, Les Délices, No Exit, Splinter Reeds, and Quire Cleveland.
Note to Northeast Ohio artists and organizations: please help us build our online content by submitting links to your live-streamed concerts and archived performances as you would calendar notices.
Moving east, mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron will proceed with her New York recital debut on Wednesday, March 18 at 7:30 pm at 92nd Street Y. The program includes Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder and Kindertotenlieder, and Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte, Op. 98. Barron’s collaborator will be pianist Myra Huang, who has stepped in after Julius Drake (England) was forced to cancel due to travel restrictions. The stream is available here.
The next live stream from 92nd Street Y comes on Thursday, March 26 at 7:30 pm, when pianist Jonathan Biss performs Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas.
Also in NYC, pianist Jeremy Denk is beginning a residency at The Greene Space at WQXR devoted to Bach and The Well-Tempered Clavier. On Friday, March 20 at 7:00 pm, Denk will discuss and play selections from Book 1. Again, no audience, just a live stream.
Ars Lyrica Houston has started up a couple of virtual series, including “Concerts & Conversations.” The first performance is already on YouTube and features artistic director Matthew Dirst at the harpsichord, playing excerpts from Bach’s Partita in D and discussing the music.
Across the ocean, the Budapest Festival Orchestra has announced the Quarantine Soirées, a series of live chamber music concerts streamed live from their rehearsal studio. Tuesday, March 17 at 2:45 pm Eastern Time brings music for piano, strings, and winds: Mozart’s Concert Rondeau in E-flat, K. 371, his Clarinet Quintet, K. 581, and Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E-flat, Op. 44. And Wednesday, March 18 at the same time is an all-strings program: Michael Haydn’s Divertimento in D, MH. 319, Schubert’s Trio in B-flat, D. 471, Beethoven’s Duet No. 1 in C, and György Orbán’s Ball Music.
As an offshoot of her mentorship program Equilibrium Young Artists, soprano Barbara Hannigan has introduced a virtual series called EQ4U. The first performance, available on YouTube, took place last Friday from Hannigan’s home in Paris, featuring her and pianist Alphonse Cemin fittingly in Schubert’s An Die Musik, that composer’s ode to music.
German pianist Igor Levit is bringing nightly “House Concerts” to Twitter. Scroll down his feed to find examples from the past couple of days — you’ll hear him speak for a couple of minutes in his native German, then in English before turning to the piano. Another musician back in the U.S. bringing music to social media is New York-based cellist Aaron Wolff, who will continue streaming Bach’s Cello Suites on his Facebook from March 18-20 at 2:30 pm — Wednesday brings No. 4, Thursday No. 5, and Friday No. 6.
Having scrapped their original plans to perform Bach’s cantata Actus tragicus, BWV 106, the Orchestra of the J.S. Bach Foundation will instead have artistic director Rudolf Lutz take to the organ to improvise on the piece at about 2:35 pm Eastern Time on Friday, March 20. He will also discuss the work in English beginning at 2:00 pm. The live stream begins with introductory remarks at 1:45 pm.
Some organizations are re-broadcasting past performances, making them available at particular times.
Among those options, The Metropolitan Opera has launched “Nightly Met Opera Streams,” a free series of encore presentations from the Live in HD series. Each stream will begin at 7:30 pm and will remain available for 20 hours. The schedule over the next week includes Puccini’s La Bohéme (Tuesday), Verdi’s Il Trovatore (Wednesday) and La Traviata (Thursday), Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment (Friday) and Lucia di Lammermoor (Saturday), and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (Sunday).
Currently available from the Bavarian State Opera are streams of past performances of Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra and Bluebeard’s Castle (available until March 26) and Verdi’s Il Trovatore (available until March 28). And coming at 2:30 pm Eastern Time on March 21 is a stream of George Balanchine’s ballet Jewels, also available for 24 hours beginning the following day.
Day by day through the end of the month, the Vienna State Opera is opening up its archives for streaming. Already available are past performances of Wagner’s Das Rheingold and Verdi’s Falstaff. Also yours by the end of the week: Péter Eötvös’ Tri Sestri, Wagner’s Die Walküre and Siegfried, Puccini’s Tosca, and Rossini’s La Cenerentola (no word on how long these will stay up). Just make an account for free.
Stuttgart Opera is re-broadcasting a 2019 performance of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro for free until March 20.
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Göttingen International Handel Festival, the radio network NDR Kultur is streaming ten recent productions of that composer’s operas until the end of September.
The Berlin Philharmonic’s digital archive is currently available for free through vouchers redeemed before March 31. And you can get picky, sorting by conductor, composer, soloist, genre, and more.
Other organizations with sprawling archives to check out are the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the International Contemporary Ensemble, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, OperaVision, and the SWR ensembles.
Published on ClevelandClassical.com March 17, 2020.
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