A Spring Saturday Late Afternoon And Evening Visit To Two Excellent Live Orchestral Music Concerts; And Three Associated Events

Austrian and German Music:

Beethoven Symphony #6 in F Major, Pastoral, Op. 68

Wagner 'Siegfried's Rhine Journey', from Die Gotterdammerung

Mahler Adagio from Symphony No. 10 in F-sharp Major

French Music:

Debussy Jeux

Ravel Piano Concerto in G Major (with Jean-Yves Thibaudet)

Russian and Ukrainian Music:

Stravinsky The Firebird (1919 Orchestration)

Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63 (with Julian Rachlin)

Finnish Music (as a late afternoon encore):

Grieg The Last Spring for String Orchestra

Many thanks for the enjoyment and aesthetic stimulation to over 150 American musicians under Michael Tilson Thomas and Rafael Fruhbeck de Bourgos.

*

Saturday intermission feature:

Abdullah Chhadeh (Syria) and his Nara Quartet -- Abdullah Chhadeh, qanun, Naeif Rafeh, nay, Bernard O'Neill, double bass, and Dafer Tawil, percussion.

http://www.abdullahchhadeh.com/

*

Friday evening, prelude concert:

Vienna Klezmer Band -- Ela Malkin (Chernivtsi, Ukraine), vocals, piano; Alfred Pfleger (Vienna), violin; Igor Pilyavskiy (Kyiv, Ukraine), accordion, sax, panpipe, sopilka; and Julius Darvas (Budapest), double bass.

http://www.viennaklezmerband.com/

*

Sunday evening, postlude concert:

Piotr Anderszewski, pianist; music by Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven.

Concert notes at http://www.nga.gov/programs/music.shtm



















European/World Klezmer Music

"When a concertmaster from Vienna, a Jewish singer from Czernowitz [Ukraine], an accordeon player from Kiev who is also a master on the panflute, a bass player from Hungary, and a drummer from Stammersdorf get together you create "World Music". A form of playing music, without borders and boundaries that reconciles and connects five cultures into a joint new form."

Image Credit: Web-site of the Vienna Klezmer Band With thanks.

www.viennaklezmerband.com/