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Latest Classical from NPR Music

A Choral Christmas With Stile Antico

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Credit Marco Borggreve

The London-based a cappella choir Stile Antico brings a program of Christmas music to Cambridge, Mass.

Credit Tom Huizenga / NPR

Stile Antico in rehearsal at St. Paul's Church in Cambridge, Mass.

By Tom Huizenga

Originally published on Wed December 5, 2012 9:55 pm

Stile Antico is a 13-member a cappella choir based in London. Most of these fresh-faced singers are still in their 20s, but they've already racked up some impressive awards for their recordings — mainly of intricately woven music from the Renaissance.

3:49 pm

Tue December 4, 2012

Alisa Weilerstein Plays Elgar: Exploring Music With An Intense Past

Credit Jamie Jung / Courtesy of the artist

Cellist Alisa Weilerstein

By editor

Originally published on Wed December 5, 2012 10:26 am

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British composer Edward Elgar wrote his cello concerto in 1919 — soon after the end of World War I — and it's suffused with the dark weight of that war.

12:02 pm

Mon December 3, 2012

Live Dec. 10 at 8 p.m. ET: Gustavo Dudamel Leads The Simon Bolivar Symphony

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Credit Ramin Talaie / NPR

Gustavo Dudamel conducts Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Credit Ramin Talaie / NPR

The double bass section files in. The orchestra was formerly known as the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra. The musicians, and Gustavo Dudamel himself, are products of the El Sistema music education program in their native Venezuela.

Credit Ramin Talaie / NPR

Gustavo Dudamel wades through the orchestra just before the start of the Carnegie Hall concert.

Credit Ramin Talaie / NPR

Gustavo Dudamel and his orchestra accept the wild enthusiasm from the Carnegie Hall audience, in a program of rarely heard Latin American works.

Credit Ramin Talaie / NPR

There was a full house at the Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall for this concert, the first of two nights for Gustavo Dudamel and his Simón Bolívar Symphony.

Credit Ramin Talaie / NPR

Gustavo Dudamel's musical charisma is felt regularly on at least two continents. He has led the Simón Bolívar Symphony of Venezuela since he was a teenager, and he is now in his fourth season as the music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Credit Ramin Talaie / NPR

Thirteen players strong, the double basses had plenty to bow about in the colorful music presented on the concert from Mexican composers Carlos Chávez and Silvestre Revueltas, and Cuban composer Julian Orbón.

Credit Ramin Talaie / NPR

Gustavo Dudamel conducts the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela at Carnegie Hall in New York. It's an orchestra he's directed for 14 years, since he was just 17 years old.

Credit Ramin Talaie / NPR

Dudamel brought a challenging program of works that show off his orchestra, including the incendiary La Noche de los Mayas by the enigmatic and hard-drinking Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas. The piece ends with chaotic percussion and the blowing of a conch shell.

Credit Ramin Talaie / NPR

Like many of the children in Venezuela's El Sistema program, some of the young players in the Simón Bolívar Symphony came from troubled backgrounds. The goal of the program, begun in the 1970s, was to provide an escape from poverty and crime.

Credit Ramin Talaie / NPR

Gustavo Dudamel says that conducting this orchestra is like being in a family. He has known most of these young players (the oldest is about 30) since they were all kids.

Credit Ramin Talaie / NPR

Gustavo Dudamel shakes hands with musicians after conducting the concert. He has a habit of plowing straight into the orchestra to congratulate his players.

Credit Ramin Talaie / NPR

Gustavo Dudamel takes a bow after conducting the Simón Bolívar Symphony. But the show wasn't over quite yet. He led the orchestra in three encores, ending in an ecstatic version of Leonard Bernstein's "Mambo." The composer's daughter Jamie Bernstein was in the hall.

By Brian Wise

Originally published on Tue December 11, 2012 9:56 pm

When conductor Gustavo Dudamel brings the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela (SBSOV) to Carnegie Hall as the culmination of a two-week, five-city tour, many of its 200 musicians will have traveled a long way from desperate poverty and crime.

11:55 am

Fri November 30, 2012

Please Approach The (Piano) Bench

Credit Pablo Helguera

By Pablo Helguera

Got an idea for a classical cartoon, or a reaction to this one? Leave your thoughts in the comments section.

Pablo Helguera is a New York-based artist working with sculpture, drawing, photography and performance. You can see more of his work at Artworld Salon and on his own site.

10:31 am

Fri November 30, 2012

Classical Crib Sheet: Top 5 Stories This Week

Credit Chris Lee / courtesy of the New York Philharmonic

The New York Philharmonic performing at the current incarnation of Avery Fisher Hall in January 2011.

By editor

Originally published on Mon December 3, 2012 12:08 pm

Lincoln Center and the New York Phil have confirmed plans for a (long, long overdue) major overhaul of 50-year-old Avery Fisher Hall that "aims to redefine what it means to be a concert hall at a time of challenging orchestra economics and changing audience habits." This will be the third attempt at addressing the venue's acoustical challenges.

4:03 am

Fri November 30, 2012

The Peony Pavilion: A Vivid Dream In A Garden

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Credit Zhang Yi

A garden serves as the stage in the opera.

Credit Zhang Yi

Characters Du Liniang (left) with her love, Liu Mengmei, in a 2010 production of Peony Pavillion.

By Jeff Lunden

Originally published on Fri November 30, 2012 9:43 pm

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The Peony Pavilion is one of China's most famous operas, but uncut performances of this romantic 16th century work can take more than 22 hours. Chinese composer Tan Dun, who's best known for his Academy Award-winning score for the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, has adapted the work into a compact 75 minutes.

3:14 pm

Tue November 27, 2012

Kennedy Center's New Organ No Longer A Pipe Dream

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Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR

After years of waiting, the Kennedy Center has a new symphonic organ replacing its old Filene organ. The $2 million project will culminate in the organ's debut on Nov. 27. William Neil (left), the National Symphony Orchestra organist, speaks with NSO Assistant Conductor Ankush Kumar Bahl (center) during the organ's test with the orchestra on Oct. 18.

Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR

Neil plays the organ while organ consultant Jeff Weiler pushes and pulls stops during the test. Building the organ took nearly two years, plus more than three months for installation.

Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR

The organ console and concert hall as seen through the pipes of the organ chamber set behind the orchestra. The new organ boasts 1,000 more pipes than the previous one — nearly 5,000 pipes in total.

Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR

Jacquelin Rochette, artistic director of Casavant Bros., gives a tour of the labyrinthine organ chamber. The Montreal-based company was founded in 1879 and specializes in building, renovating and installing pipe organs.

Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR

Pipes inside the organ chamber range from five-eighths of an inch to 32 feet long, with varying shapes and diameters. Each pipe is meticulously tuned to create the organ's unique tonality.

Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR

The cluster of pipes in the center are the only ones that remain from the old Filene Great Organ, installed in 1972.

Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR

Weiler pulls on the "Filene" stop, named after Catherine Filene Shouse, the donor of the first Kennedy Center organ dismantled earlier this year. The wooden console has 103 stops, which are responsible for balancing the treble and bass — the lows and highs of each pipe.

Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR

Bahl (left) speaks with Neil (center) and Weiler about the organ's test performance with the orchestra on Oct. 18. After six weeks of toning and tuning, the team just needed to make a few final refinements. "We had to tone it down today. We heard too much organ," said Weiler. "It's much easier to make an organ softer than louder, but the power is there."

Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR

A concert hall organ has to have the right balance — powerful enough to be heard over the orchestra and chorus, but blending in like any another instrument.

Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR

Rochette stands along a narrow passageway deep inside the organ chamber.

Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR

After years of waiting, the Kennedy Center has a new symphonic organ replacing its old organ installed in 1972. The $2 million project will culminate in the organ's debut on Nov. 27. William Neil (left), the National Symphony Orchestra organist, speaks with NSO Assistant Conductor Ankush Kumar Bahl (center) during the organ's test with the orchestra on Oct. 18.

Credit Kainaz Amaria/NPR / Kainaz Amaria

The organ console and concert hall seen through the pipes of the organ chamber set behind the orchestra.

Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR

The new organ was tested with the orchestra on Oct. 18.

Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR

Organ consultant Jeff Weiler (left) and Casavant artistic director Jacquelin Rochette oversaw the tremendous task of building, installing and voicing the Kennedy Center's new organ.

By Nina Totenberg

Originally published on Wed November 28, 2012 9:16 am

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It was almost spooky. Each night after 11 p.m., when nothing was stirring in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, two men would enter. One would sit at the organ, playing a key or series of keys, and the other would crawl around inside the organ pipes, 40 feet off the floor. The process went on for months.

It was the all but final phase of installing a new organ for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. And on Nov. 27, the organ makes its formal debut.

3:51 am

Thu November 22, 2012

'Don Giovanni' To 'Nixon In China': Holiday Feasts In Opera

Credit Nixon White House Photographs Series / The U.S. National Archives via Flickr

President Nixon pardons a turkey in 1969. There's quite a celebratory banquet scene in the John Adams opera, Nixon in China.

By Miles Hoffman

Originally published on Thu November 22, 2012 4:45 am

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As you prepare to feast upon cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and your choice of entree this Thanksgiving, there's also an operatic feast to be had.

4:04 pm

Wed November 21, 2012

Max Richter Recomposes 'The Four Seasons'

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Credit Erik Weiss / Courtesy of the artist

Composer Max Richter's new album takes on Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

Credit

By editor

Originally published on Wed November 21, 2012 5:57 pm

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Composer Max Richter has done a brave thing for any artist in any medium: He's messed with a classic, specifically, Vivaldi's four violin concertos known as The Four Seasons. He has a new album simply titled Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi, The Four Seasons.

Richter says that as a child, he loved The Four Seasons. But as he grew older, that passion faded.

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Deceptive Cadence

11:19 am

Wed December 5, 2012