November 2008 Archives

JONATHAN BISS PERFORMS MOZART PIANO CONCERTO NO. 22 WITH
ORPHEUS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA AT CARNEGIE HALL SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6

On Saturday, December 6, pianist Jonathan Biss joins the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in an 8 p.m. performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22, K 482, in Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall. Other works on the program are Haydn's Overture to L'infedeltà delusa, Ives's The Unanswered Question, and Elliott Carter's Symphony No. 1.

Tickets from $29 - $98 are available at the Carnegie Hall box office, by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800, or online at www.carnegiehall.org. All ticket-holders are invited to attend a pre-concert lecture at 6:45 p.m. in the Kaplan Space at Carnegie Hall given by Dr. Carl Leafstedt, associate professor of music history at Trinity University in Texas.

Earlier this year Mr. Biss and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra recorded Mozart Piano Concertos 21 and 22 live for an EMI Classics CD that was released on October 14. In his liner notes for the recording, Mr. Biss describes his feelings about Mozart's piano concertos: "So much of the greatest music acts as an escape … from reality; Mozart simply is reality … every affect and every effect." Of Mozart's piano concertos, he writes, "Mozart's music is generally filled with miracles but the frequency and variety of the miracles are perhaps at their greatest in the piano concerti, and the two on this disc are almost absurdly rich in inspired and diverse material."

Tickets from $29 - $98. Read more about this at the Carnegie Hall website:

   www.carnegiehall.org

Online Pre-sale for Seattle Opera's Eagerly Anticipated 2009 Ring des Nibelungen Begins November 12

Phone and In-Person Sales begin November 15

Tickets for Seattle Opera's 2009 Ring cycles will go on sale to the general public in an online pre-sale beginning at 10:00 a.m. PST on November 12, and by phone and in person beginning Saturday, November 15 at 10:00 a.m. PST. Cycle tickets range from $302 to $1,508 for the four-opera package, and are already on sale to Seattle Opera subscribers and donors of $100 or more to the Ring fund. Tickets for this highly anticipated event are likely to sell quickly – for the 2005 cycle, tickets were sold out several months in advance, drawing operagoers from 49 states and 19 countries. Seattle Opera will present three full cycles of Wagner's four-opera saga from August 9, 2009, through August 30, 2009.

Seattle Opera has long been heralded as "America's Bayreuth" for its productions of the major works in the Wagner canon, especially the Ring cycle's four operas: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung. In August the company will remount its stunning 2005 production, with the award-winning team of director Stephen Wadsworth, set designer Thomas Lynch, costumes by Martin Pakledinaz, and lighting design from Peter Kaczorowski. Maestro Robert Spano, the distinguished music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra who conducted the 2005 Ring also returns in 2009.

Read more about this at the Seattle Opera website:

   www.seattleopera.org