Did The Lure Of Renee Fleming Keep The Washington Post And Ionarts From Reviewing Arnold, Greenberg, Festa And Lowenthal At Library of Congress?

Tony Arnold, Jacob Greenberg, Paul Festa, and Jerome Lowenthal gave powerful and wonderful performances of contemporary classical songs and violin and piano works by Olivier Messiaen, Elliott Carter, Gyorgy Kurtag, John Harbison, and Thomas Ades Saturday night at the Library of Congress before a half-full audience (about the same as for the National Symphony's all-Wagner performance, under Ivan Fischer, at the Kennedy Center that same evening; but unlike the sold-out gala performance of Renee Fleming debuting with the Washington National Opera in the homoerotic pot-boiler by Hugo, Romani, and Donizetti, Lucrezia Borgia -- which was conducted by Placigo Domingo.)

The highlight of the evening was the immediately ovationed performance by Ms. Arnold and Mr. Greenberg of Olivier Messiaen's almost hour long song-cycle, Harawi, of 1945, which was inspired by Tristan und Isolde, surrealism, and Quechuan poetry.

I didn't see reviewers from the Washington Post or Ionarts at the Library of Congress on Saturday evening, but perhaps they sent persons I didn't recognize.

*

Work and a slight cold keep me from enjoying the fine program of 17th century European classical vocal and instrumental music at the National Gallery of Art last night. I am sad and diminished.

Here is the program and the program notes.




















Images by Paul Cezanne copyrighted (c) by the The Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pennsylvania and National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Copyright controlled. All rights reserved. With thanks.

Image of Lucrezia Borgia by Bartolommeo Veneto in Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt, Germany via Wikipedia. With thanks.