Recordings Review: Trial and Eros

Naxos brings Das Wunder der Heliane back from the dead.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Freyja's Tears by Gustav Klimt, used as cover art for the Naxos release.

For every early 20th century opera that found a place in the standard repertory, there are works that are known only to conductors, musicologists and coffee-loving bloggers. One of these is Das Wunder der Heliane, the 1927 magnum opus by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, It's been recorded before, but this new budget-friendly Naxos set (made at performances and concerts in Freiburg, Germany) offers a new perspective on this controversial but beautiful opera.

Concert Review: Oceans of Love and Time

Jaap van Zweden pairs Dark Waves with Wagner.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Jaap van Zweden in orchestral ecstasy.
Photo by Chris Lee © 2018 The New York Philharmonic.

When Jaap van Zweden was announced as the new music director of the Philharmonic, he was seen by pundits and punters alike as a firm, conservative voice designed to return America's oldest orchestra to its role as guardian of the standard European repertory of the 19th and 20th centuries. This week, he confirms that hope with a performance of Act I of Wagner's Die Walküre. However, the program opens with the New York premiere of Dark Waves, a masterful 2007 composition from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Luther Adams.

The Superconductor Interview: Beyond the Four Seasons

One-on-one with Susan Orlando, the woman behind the Vivaldi Edition.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Antonio Vivaldi and Susan Orlando. Yes it's altered.
Original image © Naïve Classics, photo alteration by the author.

"The Vivaldi Edition is realy big. It's made a big splash!"

The speaker is Susan Orlando, director of the Vivaldi Edition, which releases complete recordings of the composer's operas on Naïve Classics. An American viola da gamba player who lives in Turin, Italy. she has been integral in showing listeners that there is far more to Vivaldi's vast output than The Four Seasons. Vivaldi, who lived and worked in Venice from (1678-1741) wrote ninety-four operas (counting pastiches. Just twenty of them have survived.

"We are doing for Vivaldi what the Germans did for Bach in the 20th century," Ms. Orlando said in a recent telephone interview. "In Europe, we're well on our way. Opera Zurich is starting to do full staged versions of the operas. Aix-en-Provence is doing a Vivaldi opera. So we're starting slowly just as they did with Handel."