En direct, Vidéo: Rechercher des critiques de musique classique, opéra et ballet | Contrastes, Sz 111

James Ehnes and colleagues launch the 2023 edition of Seattle Chamber Music Society's month-long summer festival on an exhilarating note with trios by Dohnányi, Bartók and Ravel.

Das Trio begeistert im Kammermusiksaal der Philharmonie mit Chopin, Strawinsky und Debussy.

Starting her Perspectives series, Janine Jansen invited three outstanding musicians to join her in 20th century repertoire.

Ravel and Bartók shared the program with Gershwin, Brubeck, Thelonious Monk and others in this imaginative program.

In an evening entitled “Pulse: Steve Reich and his influences”, the Aurora Orchestra set out to give three examples of pieces that influenced American minimalist composer Steve Reich alongside performing two of his pieces.

SCO musicians perform an engaging afternoon of Eastern European chamber music for wind, strings and piano.

Marc-André Hamelin, Martin Fröst and Anthony Marwood join forces at Wigmore Hall in a great selection of mainly 20th century classics by Debussy, Stravinsky, Bartók and Poulenc.

Now this is how you put together a program of contrasts! Members of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, on this night anchored by the presence of Pierre-Laurent Aimard, led us through a series of wild, compact, adventurous, and sometimes severe works by Bartók, Janáček, and Ligeti, before turning after the intermission to – what else? – Mozart’s G major Piano Concerto, K453.

No ordinary youth orchestra, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra causes quite a stir wherever it performs. Comprised of a mix of Arab, Israeli and Spanish musicians, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra is committed to coexistence and a peaceful solution to the violent conflict in the Middle East.

Ingolf Dahl’s Concerto à tre is a three-movement piece (but played without breaks) for clarinet, cello and violin. Although it was a very fluid piece, there were many different elements within the music. The violin often played a classical-sounding melody, whereas the rhythm, drive and repetition of the piece at times reminded me of the American minimalists.

Béla Bartók was a composer of extremes. An avid collector of Hungarian folk songs, he published arrangements of these simple tunes alongside his own more ascetic music. The detailed programme notes for the Philharmonia’s Bartók series entitled ‘Infernal Dance’ divide his music into three categories: the banned, the rarely played and the fully approved.