Here is this week’s line-up. Remember that each opera becomes available at the Metropolitan Opera website beginning at 7:30 PM EDT each and remains available for free streaming for the next 23 hours.

Monday, April 13 – Dvořák’s Rusalka

Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, starring Renée Fleming and Piotr Beczała.

Tuesday, April 14 – Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov

Conducted by Valery Gergiev, starring René Pape.

Wednesday, April 15 – Puccini’s La Rondine

Conducted by Marco Armiliato, starring Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna.

Thursday, April 16 – Rossini’s Le Comte Ory

Conducted by Maurizio Benini, starring Diana Damrau, Joyce DiDonato, and Juan Diego Flórez.

Friday, April 17 – Puccini’s Madama Butterfly

Conducted by Patrick Summers starring Patricia Racette, Marcello Giordani, and Dwayne Croft.

Saturday, April 18 – Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur

Conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, starring Anna Netrebko, Anita Rachvelishvili, Piotr Beczała, and Ambrogio Maestri.

Sunday, April 19 – R. Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier

Conducted by Sebastian Weigle, starring Renée Fleming, Elīna Garanča, Erin Morley, and Günther Groissböck.

For your fans of some of operas great divas, Week 5 at the Met was tailor-made for you.

Photo: Diana  Damrau, Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez in Le Comte Ory (Photo by Marty Sohl/Courtesy of the Met Opera)

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The program opens with a performance of Dvorak’s Cello Concerto with Pablo Ferrández as the soloist. The second act offers up Romeo and Juliet.

As Millepied did at Walt Disney Concert Hall, this ballet will not be confined to the stage at the Hollywood Bowl. His company of dancers will perform in and around the Bowl. There will also be cameras following their actions regardless of where they go.

It should be noted that while the Walt Disney Concert Hall performance offered the complete ballet, the Hollywood Bowl performance is listed as the Romeo and Juliet Suite. It is unknown how much of the ballet’s music will be performed.

The possibilities for exploration by Millepied and his dancers seems far greater at the Bowl than in the confines of Walt Disney Concert Hall.

For tickets go here.

All photos courtesy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association.

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On the program for this recital are:

Chaccone by Bach (arranged by Busoni)

Fantasie in C Major by Schumann

Six Songs by Trenet (arranged by Weissenberg)

Cypresses by Castelnuovo-Tedesco

Polonaise-Fantasie by Chopin

Scherzo No. 4 by Chopin.

Of course, there will be the inevitable encore, but we don’t know what that might be. Whatever, it will certainly make just a little bit longer a very enjoyable evening of solo classical piano.

To read our interview with Marc-André Hamelin, please go here.

Photo of Marc-André Hamelin courtesy of his website. Photo by Sim Cannetti Clarke.

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So imagine my surprise when just before leaving his home in Massachusetts to head to Los Angeles for these concerts, he had time to talk about his rather ambitious schedule and the challenges of maintaining it all.

How many major works do you keep actively performance-ready and why so many different works?

It depends. Young performers may not have had the time to work up the kind of repertoire that I have at my age (57). But I am, just as anyone else, subject to the requests of promoters. I may want to play one concerto, say the Ravel, for a whole season, but inevitably I’ll come across instances where it is being played by someone else and I’ll have to change it.

Working up the repertoire is one thing, but keeping them performance-ready is another.

Not really as long as you’ve learned them early – which is the case for almost every one of these pieces. The earlier you learn some of these things, the better you retain them. 

How does playing a piece like the Dvořák Quintet satisfy you in ways that solo recitals or symphonic pieces do not?

Everything satisfies me. I have the luxury at this point in my career to be playing, and able to play without exception, pieces that I really love. The Dvořák is an old friend. It’s one of the five great masterpieces of piano quintets. I enjoy the camaraderie of playing with people I haven’t played with before.

Looking back at the premiere of Grand Pianola Music, composer John Adams said, “it must doubtless have seemed like a smirking truant with a dirty face in need of a severe spanking.” What was your first reaction to the piece?

Nowhere near the indignation people felt at the premiere. It divided a lot of people back then probably because we weren’t ready for it. I think it is a lot of fun. You have to count like hell. It’s excessive in every possible way, but it’s one of these things that’s so much fun other once in a while. I think Adams feels very tenderly towards it – he certainly doesn’t regret it. 

The way Adams wrote that piece requires, as you said, “counting like hell.” What are the main challenges of performing Grand Pinaola Music?

What you have to be aware of is the absolute irregularity of the pulse. This is something you just feel. The very first rehearsal when we did it in San Francisco (2015) I was at sea because of a combination of the hall’s acoustics and I wasn’t really used to this kind of writing. I was hearing everything wrong and I had to drop out and wait until the next obvious cue like a page later. I got the hang of it. Your concentration can’t flag for a second.

What have you learned about the piece since you first performed it?

Having done it once gets you enough to be worried about the second performance. That’s the most valuable lesson. And you don’t have to worry about something that you were worrying about before. You get much more familiar with the grand arc of the piece and you start to hear more and more of what’s going on. The way I’ve been practicing it before this performance is not so much spending time at the piano, but listening to the recording we did and feeling the performance we did. If you study it carefully without actually playing it, half of the re-practicing work is already done.

You told Gramophone in 2017 that “sometimes inspiration, enlightenment, watershed moments, can come from the unlikeliest places.” What were some of those moments that had the most profound impact on you?

It’s always difficult to find an example. But I will say that in practicing and as well as performing in public, you have to welcome accidents and imperfections. Because they can certainly yield revelations. They can lead to breakthroughs. I find that musically perhaps the most significantly helpful kind of practicing is the one that happens away from the keyboard. I often find when I’m taking a walk, that’s when I get all kinds of illumination and things get clearer; when tempi settles, when I perceive more the architecture of the work. That’s when solutions to problems can present themselves.

If one looks at your recordings, you are just as passionate about lesser-known works as you are about the standard repertoire. How do you strike a balance for yourself and by extension your audience?

I think that if I truly love the repertoire, I would think that that enthusiasm and love for it will bleed into the public’s appreciation for it. I have a pretty narrow filter as far as what I think will be interesting to an audience. There’s tons of things I just wouldn’t play. But I try to find things that are really interesting which just captivate me and that usually is a barometer for me. I’m hoping that over the years people will have the impression that they can trust me with the programming I offer. 

Dvořák said, “My own duty as a teacher, is not so much to interpret Beethoven, Wagner or other masters of the past, but to give what encouragement I can to the young musicians of America.” Do you share his views and what’s the best path for you going forward to accomplish that goal?

As far as playing the standard repertoire, we all think we hold the truth. (He lets out a big laugh.) Even if we don’t. If I’m convinced enough about things or certain ways of doing things that will be enough. Perhaps yes. Perhaps not. There’s always a part of education when I’m presenting a recital, but it’s not in a didactic sense. All I’m doing is saying, “Look what you’ve been missing” or “This can be done in another way” or “Look how beautiful this is.” And I have the privilege of presenting it to you.

All photos of Marc-André Hamelin by Sim Canetti-Clarke/Courtesy of the LA Philharmonic

Note:  Hamelin received a Grammy nomination for his recording of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring in a two-piano arrangement with Leif Ove Andsnes. Awards will be handed out in February.

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Glass has composed two previous symphonies inspired by the other Bowie/Eno collaborations. His first symphony in 1992 was inspired by Low. 

His 4th symphony in 1996 was inspired by Heroes.

The Glass work is the second half of the program. Opening the concerts is Tumblebird Contrails by Gabriella Smith. That will be followed by Adams’s Grand Pianola Music. That work received equal parts rapturous praise and intense condemnation when it first premiered in 1982. Since then it’s reputation has grown considerably.

Grand Pianola Music is a three-part composition that finds Parts 1A and 1B played one after the other without pause. That is followed by the third section called On the Great Divide. It is a large scale work that calls for two pianists (Marc-André Hamelin and Orli Shaham), an organist (James McVinnie), a vocalist (Angélique Kidjo) and a trio of singers (Zanaida Robles and Holly Sedillos – sopranos; Kristen Toedtman – mezzo-soprano).

This is one of the most exciting concerts early in 2019 and one not-to-be-missed.

The night before the first of these concerts, Marc-André Hamelin will be performing the Dvorak Piano Quintet #2 in A Major with members of the LA Phil in a concert that also includes Dvorak’s String Quartet #13 and Penderecki’s Duo Concertante for violin e contrabasso.

Check back for our interview with Hamelin about all the work he’s doing this week at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Image of Philip Glass courtesy of PhilipGlass.com

Lodger Album cover courtesy of DavidBowie.com

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