Wednesday, December 12

Here's a quick list of this week's (December 13-18) Christmas concerts coming up in GPB communities, with links for details.

• Albany Chorale: Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. Monday at 7:30. St. Patrick's Episcopal, Albany.
• Atlanta Symphony's Messiah. Thursday and Saturday at 8. Symphony Hall, Atlanta.
• Atlanta Symphony's Gospel Christmas. Friday at 8 and Saturday at 2. Symphony Hall, Atlanta.
• Augusta Symphony with New York Voice. Pops concert Friday the 14th at Augusta's Bell Auditorium and again Saturday the 15th at Aiken's Etherredge Center. Family concert Sunday the 16th at 3 in the Maxwell Theatre at Augusta State.
  
• Cantus Christmas 2007 with Cantus Columbus. Monday at 7:30. RiverCenter, Columbus.
• Choral Society of Middle Georgia's Messiah. Friday at Fickling Hall, Mercer University, Macon, and again Tuesday at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Warner Robins.
• Cobb Symphony's Family Concert. Saturday at 10. Dozier Center, Kennesaw.
• Gwinnett Philharmonic and Atlanta Sacred Chorale. Tuesday at 8:00. Gwinnett Center, Duluth.
• An Irish Christmas with Ronan Tynan. Saturday at 8:15. Spivey Hall, Morrow.
• LaGrange Symphony and Sons of Lafayette. Saturday at 3, Callaway Auditorium, LaGrange.
• Newnan's multi-church Messiah singalong, Friday at 7, St. Paul's Episcopal, Newnan
• Ocmulgee Symphony Orchestra. Saturday at 7:30. Opera House, Hawkinsville.
• Savannah Sinfonietta's Messiah Sing-Along. Friday at 8. Wesley UMC, Savannah.

11 AM . . . . .

• Schelle: Machet die Tore weit. Saxon Vocal Ensemble, Batzdorf Court Ensemble, Jung (CPO 777 332)
  
• Smetana: Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 15. Beaux Arts Trio (Philips 432 125; pictured: Decca box 150602)
  
• Poulenc: Hodie Christus Natus Est. Mercer Singers, Roberts (ACA Digital 30004)
  
• Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 4. Concerto Italiano, Alessandrini (Naive 30412)
  

12 N . . . . .

• Bizet: Symphony in C. Orchestra of Paris, Bychkov (Philips 432 096)
  
• Sammartini: Recorder Sonata in G major, Op. 2/4. Maurice Steger et al. (Harmonia Mundi 905266)
• Vaughan Williams: Romance. Helen Callus, Philip Bush (ASV 184)
  
• Gabrieli: Sonata No. 20 for 22 players. Gabrieli Players, McCreesh (Archiv 449 180)
  

1 PM . . . .

• Vivaldi: Dixit Dominus in D, RV 594. Choir of King's College Cambridge, Academy of Ancient Music, Cleobury (EMI 57265)
  
• Debussy: Violin Sonata in G minor. LAurent Korcia, Michael Wendeberg (Naive 5066)
  
• Turina: Rapsodia Sinfonica. Angela Cheng, Calgary Phil, Graf (CBC SMCD 5195)
  

Tuesday, December 11

Concerts mentioned on air: The Ocmulgee Symphony's Christmas Concert (Hawkinsville Opera House, Saturday, 7:30) and tonight's LaGrange Symphony concert (7:30, Callaway Auditorium, LaGrange College).

11 AM . . . .

• Prokofiev: Troika from Lieutenant Kije. St. Petersburg Phil, Temirkanov (EMI 11272)
  
• Schutz: Magnificat (with Christmas interpolations). Gabrieli Consort and Players, McCreesh (Archiv 289 463 046)
  
• Labor, J.: Quintet in D for clarinet, strings and piano. Orion Ensemble (Cedille 088)
  
• Robinson: Great Is the Miracle: Ozi and Oy Chanukah. Eaken Piano Trio (Naxos 8.554714)
  

12 N . . .

• Corelli: Christmas Concerto. Europa Galante, Biondi (Naive 20012)
• Klenau: Little Ida's Flowers, Overture. Odense Sym, Wagner (Da Capo 8.224183)
  
• Rouse: Karolju. BBC Sym, Philharmonia Chorus, Zinman (RCA 11561)

1 PM

• Nicolai: Symphony in D major. Bamberg Sym, Rickenbacher (Virgin 91079)
• Weintraub: Eight Bright Candles. Eaken Piano Trio (Naxos 8.554714)
• Adler: The Flames of Freedom: Who Can Retell; Rock of Ages. New London Children's Choir, Corp (Naxos 8.559410)
  
• Anderson: The Typewriter; Sleigh Ride. Richard Hayman and His Orchestra (Naxos 8.559125)

Monday, December 10

Seasonal choral fare is on offer at the far eastern and western sides of Georgia. Tonight in Augusta, the Augusta Collegium Musicum (left) performs a Christmas concert at 7:30 p.m. at the Augusta Museum of History.

Then tomorrow in LaGrange the Sons of Lafayette male choir (below) teams up with the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra for favorite choruses from Vivaldi's Gloria and Handel's Messiah and other seasonal fare (plus Hummel's Bassoon Concerto with soloist Constantin Barcov, because...well, why not?). The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. at LaGrange College's Callaway Auditorium. (If you can't make Tuesday's performance, they'll be at it again Saturday at 3:00, minus the bassoonist, because...well, why not?)

.

On Midday Music we move into the two-week period before Christmas with Antonio Vivaldi's Gloria and Samuel Barber's orchestral fantasy on carol tunes. The show wraps up with a couple of nods to the hero of the Hanukkah story, Judah Maccabee. Tonight is the second-to-last night of that holiday.

11 AM . . . .

• Vivaldi: Concerto for Two Trumpets, arr. brass quintet. Canadian Brass (Philips 432 571)
  
• Vivaldi: Gloria in D major. College of King's College Cambridge, Academy of Ancient Music, Cleobury (EMI 57265)
  
• Barber: Die Natalis. Royal Scottish National Orch, Alsop (Naxos 8.559133)
  

12 N . . . .

• Mainerio: Five Dances from The First Book of Dances (1578). Early Music Consort of London, Munrow (Testament 1080)
  
• Stanford: Piano Quartet in F major, Op. 15. Ames Piano Quartet (Albany 910/11)
  
• Marcello: Concerto No. 4 in E minor from La Cetra. Collegium Musicum 90, Standage (Chaconne 0744)
  
• Sarasate: Moscovienne. Tianwa Yang, Markus Hadulla (Naxos 8.570192)
  

1 PM . . . .

• Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466. Martha Argerich, Padua and Veneto Orch, Rabinovitch (Teldec 4509 98407 2; pictured: 0927 46740 2)
  
• Beethoven: Twelve Variations on a Theme ("See the Conquering Hero Comes") from Handel's Judas Maccabeus. Anne Gastinel, Francois-Frederic Guy (Naive 4995)
  
• Handel: Judas Maccabeus: See the Conquering Hero Comes; March; Sing unto God. Academy and Chorus of St. Martin in the Fields, Marriner (Philips 13-15)
  

Thursday, December 6

Holiday musical festivities continue across Georgia both live in local venues and recorded over Georgia Public Broadcasting. As always, Midday Music helps you connect the two. You have to listen on air or online in real time, though; we're not ready quite yet for instant online archiving. Today...

• Columbus Symphony music director George Del Gobbo tells us about tonight's "Cowboy Christmas" with Riders in the Sky (one answer to the eternal quest for novel holiday concerts!), and we hear classical music's most famous orchestral cowboy tunes.
• The LaGrange Symphony's Patricio Cobos describes the LSO's Christmas concert, a collaborative celebration coming up Tuesday with the Sons of Lafayette Male Choir and (why not!) a bassoonist, and we hear the bassoon work in question.
• And though there's no interview for this one, let me also point out the Augusta Collegium Musicum's Christmas concert just ahead on Monday at the Augusta Museum of History.

For more musical goings-on, heavy on the Handel and Tchaikovsky, please see the bulleted list in Tuesday's entry below. (On a more serious Nutcracker note, to follow up on the panda vs. pit incident I mentioned yesterday, read this in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.)

11 AM . . . .

• Handel: Messiah, Part I: And he shall purify; Behold, a virgin shall conceive; O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion. London Sym Orch, Tenebrae Choir, Sarah Mingardo, Davis (LSO Live 0607)
• Hummel: Grand Bassoon Concerto in F. Yoshiyuki Nakanishi, London Mozart Players, N. Cleobury (ASV 6159)
• Ippolitov-Ivanov: Caucasian Sketches [a musical picture of the "other" Georgia!]. Baltimore Sym, Zinman (Telarc 80378)
  

12 N . . . . .

• Lewandowski: Hanerot Hallalu. Eaken Piano Trio (Naxos 8.554714)
• Copland: Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes. New York Phil, Bernstein (Sony 63082)
• Bizet/Loeb: The Pearl Fishers: Au fond du temple saint. Sohn, Nuttall, Loeb (Naxos 8.570202)
  
• Corelli: Christmas Concerto (Concerto Grosso in G minor, Op. 6/8). Europa Galante, Bionde (Naive 20012)
• Bavel: Hanukkah Fantasy. Tucson Sym, Hanson (ZBPI)

1 PM . . . . .

• Gibbons: Hosanna to the Son of David. Choir of King's College, S. Cleobury (EMI 94430)
  
• Mozart: Divertimento in D for strings, K. 136. Freiburg Baroque Orch, Mullejans (Harmonia Mundi 901809)
  
• Orff/Krance: Carmina Burana, Suite. Peabody Conservatory Wind Ens, Parker (Naxos 8.570242)

Wednesday, December 5

A sobering item from the Nutcracker beat: In honor of the mother and baby panda at Zoo Atlanta, the Atlanta Ballet this year incorporated two panda characters into the Chinese Dance in act two. Sunday one of the be-panda-ed ballerinas lost her bearings and plummeted off the stage into the orchestra pit. The teenaged dancer was rushed to the hospital and remains in critical but stable condition (read more here). The silver lining to the company's decision to use canned music rather than a live orchestra is that, with an empty pit, no other artists were hurt. We wish the young dancer a full recovery.

For calendar listings, please see Tuesday's entry below.

To see the art by Viktor Hartmann that Modest Mussorgsky immortalizes in Pictures at an Exhibition, take a look here.


11 AM . . . .

• Berlioz: Roman Carnival Overture. Danish National Sym Orch, Dausgaard (Chados 10416)
  
• Bach: Suite No. 1 in G major for solo cello. Jean-Guihen Queyras (Harmonia Mundi 901970.71)
  
• Alkan: Concerto for Solo Piano, Op.39/8: Allegro assai. Marc-Andre Hamelin (Hyperion 67569)
  

12 N . . . . . .

• Handel: Messiah: comfort ye; Every valley; And the glory of the Lord. Bruce Fowler, Boston Baroque, Pearlman (Telarc 80322)
  
• Piazzolla/Scott: Oblivion. Imani Winds (Koch 7661)
  
• Haydn: "Miracle" Symphony (Symphony No. 96). Lausanne Chamber Orch, Lopez-Cobos (Denon 18079)
  
• Shatin: Nun, Gimel, Hei, Shin. New London Children's Choir, Corp (Naxos 8.559410)
  
• Telemann: Concerto in C major for oboes, strings and continuo. Berlin Baroque Soloists, Kussmaul (DG 5761)
  

1 PM . . . . .

• Phalese: Three tunes. Baltimore Consort (Dorian 90601)
  
• Wieniawski: Reverie in F-sharp minor. Helen Callus, Philip Bush (ASV 1184)
  
• Mussorgsky/Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition. Oslo Phil, Jansons (EMI 50824)
• Chopin: Waltz No. 3 in A minor. Helen Callus, Philip Bush (ASV 1184)

Tuesday, December 4

Albany Symphony music director Claire Fox Hillard joins us twice today to talk about the orchestra's busy week of performances. Tonight is the popular "Peppermint Pops" concert, with a cast of many and a participatory audience of many more, at 7:30 at the capacious James H. Gray Sr. Civic Center in Albany. Then Saturday it's "A Classical Christmas" with Saint-Saens' Christmas Oratorio and seasonal favorites by Corelli and Vaughan Williams, at the more intimate Albany Municipal Auditorium.

Elsewhere in Georgia, tonight is the night for Augusta's 19th annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols with the Augusta Choral Society and Collegium Music at the Sacred Heart Cultural Center. Thursday you might opt for "A Cowboy Christmas" with the Columbus Symphony and Riders in the Sky. Or try one of these standbys, in a community near you:

Messiahs

• Augusta Choral Society's singalong performance, Friday 12/7, Sacred Heart Cultural Center, Augusta
• Rome Symphony performance, Saturday 12/8, 7:30, Rome City Auditorium, Rome
• Atlanta Symphony performance, 12/13 & 15, Symphony Hall, Atlanta
• Newnan multi-church singalong, 7:00, Friday 12/14, St. Paul's Episcopal, Newnan
• Savannah Sinfonietta's singalong performance, Friday 12/14, Wesley UMC, Savannah
• Michael O'Neal Singers' singalong performance up to Hallelujah Chorus, Sunday 12/16, 3:00, Roswell UMC, Roswell
  

Nutcrackers

• Atlanta Ballet, throughout December, times vary, Fox Theatre, Atlanta
• Nutcracker of Middle Georgia, December 5-9, Grand Opera House, Macon

Today on Midday Music we're hearing...

11 AM . . . .

• Reznicek: Eine Lustpiel-Ouverture. WDR Sym Orch Cologne, Jurowski (CPO 777 047)
• Schumann: Piano Sonata No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 11. Angela Hewitt (Hyperion 67618)
• Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on Greensleeves. New Zealand Sym, Judd (Naxos 8.555867)
  

12 N . . . . .

• Respighi: Brazilian Impressions. Buffalo Phil, Falletta (Naxos 8.557711)
• Kraus: Olympie, Incidental Music. New Zealand Sym Orch, Grodd (Naxos 8.570334)
• Byrd: Ne irascaris, Domine. Tallis Scholars, Phillips (Gimell 208)

1 PM . . . . .

• Beethoven: String Quartet No. 6 in B-flat, Op. 18/6. Tokyo String Quartet (Harmonia Mundi 907436.37)
• Enescue: Octet, Op. 7: Finale. Kremerata Baltica (Nonesuch 79682)
  
• Adler, S.: To Celebrate a Miracle (Hanukkah fantasy). University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory Wind Sym, Winther (Naxos 8.559410)

Happy Hanukkah/Chanukah/(insert your preferred spelling here)!

Monday, December 3

Two local traditions take place Tuesday (tomorrow): Albany's 16th annual Peppermint Pops at the Albany Civic Center, and Augusta's 19th annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols with the Augusta Choral Society and Collegium Music at the Sacred Heart Cultural Center. Thursday the 6th the Columbus Symphony Orchestra presents a "Cowboy Christmas" with Riders in the Sky. Then this weekend the Messiahs and Nutcrackers swing into full action.

11 AM . . . . . .

• Avison: Concerto in G major, Op. 3/5. Avison Ensemble, Beznosiuk (Naxos 8.557905-06)
• Faure: Violin Sonata No. 1 in A major. Gil Shaham, Akira Eguchi (Canary 03)
• Bessel: Komm, du schoene Freudenkrone. Saxon Vocal Ensemble, Batzdorf Court Ensemble, Jung (CPO 777 332)
• Weber: Oberon, Overture. Vienna Phil, Thielemann (DG 289 474 5022)

12 N . . . . . .

• Bach: Chorale "Jesus bleibet meine Freude" (Jesu, joy of man's deisiring) from Cantata No. 147. Taverner Players and Consort, Parrott (Virgin 391340)
• Korngold: Der Schneemann: Introduction and Scene 1. BBC Phil, Bamert (Chandos 10434)
• Mozart: The Magic Flute, Overture. Lausanne Chamber Orch, Menuhin (Virgin 363284)
• Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major. Yundi Li, Berlin Phil, Ozawa (DG 477 6593)

1 PM

• Handel: Recorder Sonata in C major, HWV 365. Gaillard, Cochard, Gaillard (Naive 9910)
• Elgar: Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 84. Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS 82505)