Richard Strauss News

David McGill, principal bassoon of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for 17 years, has resigned his position with the Orchestra, effective in August 2014, in order to accept a full-time teaching position at Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music.

The Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra and music director LARRY RACHLEFF celebrate the finale of the Philharmonic's 69th season tonight, May 10.

Spoleto Festival USA today announced a number of season updates, including a special savings opportunity for locals this Sunday, May 11; a first-time partnership with the Children's Museum of the Lowcountry for Kids' Night Out: Spoleto Edition on Friday, May 30; and details regarding the third annual Beer Garden at Middleton Place for the Wells Fargo Festival Finale on Sunday, June 8.

The Cleveland Orchestra presents its second annual Northeast Ohio neighborhood residency from May 17 through 24, 2014, in Lakewood, Ohio. During the residency, the Orchestra will offer musical performances and events throughout the community. These events include performances by Cleveland Orchestra musicians, ensembles from the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and Youth Chorus, a Cleveland Orchestra concert preview, extensive educational programs for local students all culminating with a free concert by The Cleveland Orchestra at Lakewood Civic Auditorium. All of the events are free and open to the public. A complete listing of dates and times are listed below or can be found online at www.clevelandorchestra.com/Lakewood.

The Philadelphia Orchestra and Opera Philadelphia will join together in a first-time co-production-a theatrically-inspired production of Richard Strauss's compelling and provocative masterpiece, Salome. Two sold-out performances are set to take place tonight, May 8, and Saturday, May 10, 2014, in the Kimmel Center's Verizon Hall, and will be led by Philadelphia Orchestra Music Director Yannick Nezet-Seguin. Audiences will enjoy a groundbreaking blend of the distinctive sound of The Philadelphia Orchestra, one of the preeminent orchestras in the world, and Opera Philadelphia's dynamic theatrical presentation. These landmark performances are made possible in part by the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation, and the Presser Foundation.

The Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra presents their performance of the 2013-14 season, Sunday, May 18th. For the last concert of the season we have brought together three masterpieces that focus on things Hispanic (although none of them was written by a Spaniard). First we have the Rapsodie espagnole, Ravel's intoxicating evocation in sound of Spain's cool nights and sultry days. It's insinuating and sexy, with a touch of flamenco too. Through the wizardry of his magical harmonies and luminous orchestration Ravel makes our ears believe they can actually smell the delicious scent of jasmine that suffuses the air and feel the caress on our cheek of the night breezes that waft through the music.

Interim General Director Plato Karayanis and Artistic Director Tobias Picker announce OPERA San Antonio's inaugural season as the Resident Opera Company of the new Tobin Center for the Performing Arts. OPERA San Antonio will present three new productions for the 2014-15 season: Tobias Picker's Fantastic Mr. Fox, Richard Strauss's Salome and a double bill of Ermanno Wolf- Ferrari's Il segreto di Susanna and La voix humaine by Francis Poulenc.

To conclude the OSNY's 2013-14 Carnegie Hall season, Tritle will lead the Oratorio Society in their first performance together of Bach's choral masterpiece on Tuesday, May 20, 2014, at 8:00 PM. The vocal soloists joining the OSNY are tenor Nicholas Phan as the Evangelist, bass-baritone Kevin Deas as Jesus, and soprano Leslie Fagan, mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer, tenor Matthew Plenk, and baritone Mischa Bouvier.

In the final month of the 2013/2014 season, TSO musicians will claim the spotlight in an engaging Light Classics programme that includes the electrifying crescendo of Ravel's famous Bolero and Brahms's merry medley of German student songs. Led by RBC Resident Conductor Shalom Bard, Niccolo Paganini's Sonata per la gran viola will provide the dazzling showpiece for Principal Viola Teng Li, while Principal Oboe Sarah Jeffrey will steal the spotlight in Calla Lilies by Canadian composer Marjan Mozetich.

H+H Artistic Director Harry Christophers is joined by an international cast of outstanding singers and the Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus to close the season with George Frideric Handel's dramatic oratorio, Samson.

The May broadcasts of The New York Philharmonic This Week - the weekly radio series of concerts and recordings by the New York Philharmonic, hosted by Alec Baldwin - begin with Christoph von Dohnanyi leading the Orchestra in the Piano Concerto No. 1 by Brahms, featuring Paul Lewis as soloist in his Philharmonic debut, and Schumann's Symphony No. 2. The following week, Sir Andrew Davis returns to the New York Philharmonic to conduct the U.S. Premiere of Julian Anderson's The Discovery of Heaven, a New York Philharmonic Co-Commission with the London Philharmonic Orchestra; Franck's Symphonic Variations for Piano and Orchestra, with Marc-Andre Hamelin as soloist in his Philharmonic subscription debut; and selections from Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet.

The Richmond Symphony closes their 2013-14 season with The Damnation of Faust, Berlioz's vivid and bold Masterpiece which asks the question, “Are we willing to sell our souls to get what we believe we desire?”

Reviving important but neglected operas is one of the ways the Bard SummerScape festival in New York's Annandale-on-Hudson has established itself, and this year's immersion in "Schubert and His World" - culminating in the 25th-anniversary season of the Bard Music Festival - is no exception. To enrich its exploration of the roots of Austro-German Romanticism, Bard presents Euryanthe (1823) by Schubert's contemporary Carl Maria von Weber, marking the opera's first American revival in 100 years. Headlined by Ellie Dehn, Bard's original staging is by Kevin Newbury, creator of SummerScape's production of Richard Strauss's Die Liebe der Danae. Euryanthe's five performances (July 25, 27 & 30; August 1 & 3) feature the festival's resident American Symphony Orchestra under the leadership of music director Leon Botstein, who also leads semi-staged performances of Schubert's own seldom-heard opera Fierrabras starring Joseph Kaiser, best known for his leading role in Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of The Magic Flute, on August 17, and of a double-bill of rarities - Schubert's one-act Singspiel Die Verschworenen and Franz von Suppe's operetta Franz Schubert - on August 10.

This May, Chief Conductor Mariss Jansons leads the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in three performances in Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage. The series begins on Friday, May 16 at 8:00 p.m. with Mr. Jansons leading the orchestra in a concert featuring John Adams's 1996 piece Slonimsky's Earbox, a work based on Stravinsky's Le chant du rossignol. In addition, the program includes Richard Strauss's epic tone poem Don Juan, Op.20, and Berlioz's beloved Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14.

The Cleveland Orchestra presents its 2nd annual neighborhood residency in Northeast Ohio during a concentrated week of activities May 17 through May 24, 2014, in Lakewood, Ohio. A variety of education events for schools serve as prelude to the residency's main week. For the public, the Orchestra will offer musical events and performances throughout the Lakewood community, culminating with a FREE community concert by The Cleveland Orchestra.

The Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra and music director LARRY RACHLEFF celebrate the finale of the Philharmonic's 69th season on May 10. Pianist ALON GOLDSTEIN makes a return engagement with a performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 1. The orchestra will also performRichard Strauss' Don Juan, and Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé Suites, with the PROVIDENCE SINGERS, CHRISTINE NOEL, artistic director. The concert takes place Saturday May 10 at 8:00pm at The Vets in Providence. The concert is sponsored by The Joseph and Rosalyn Sinclair Foundation. Mr. Goldstein's appearance is sponsored by The Joseph and Rosalyn Sinclair Foundation, Dr. Herbert Rakatansky and Ms. Barbara Sokoloff, and The Sage and Sgro Families. WPRO News Talk 630 is the media sponsor. Tickets (starting at $15) are available atriphil.org/tickets, by phone at 401.248.7000, and in person at the RIPO box office, 667 Waterman Ave., East Providence. There is an Open Rehearsal Friday May 9 at 5:30pm.

The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) announced its 2014-15 Philharmonics and Pops concerts in February, but today reveals the remainder of its 92nd season, presented by Dawn & Jacques Lipson. Subscriptions to OrKIDStra and Sunday Matinees are available today to new and renewing subscribers, and tickets for Specials are now available as add-ons to all 14/15 subscribers. Single tickets for all 14/15 concerts go on sale to the general public on Friday, August 1, 2014.

Vladimir Jurowski will make his New York Philharmonic debut conducting Szymanowski's Violin Concerto No. 1, featuring Janine Jansen as soloist, and selections from Prokofiev's Cinderella, Wednesday, May 21, 2014, at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, May 22 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, May 23 at 2:00 p.m.; and Saturday, May 24 at 8:00 p.m.

Of all the music that Richard Strauss wrote during his long career—and he'd composed almost 60 songs and more than 40 piano works by the time he was 18—perhaps none are more gorgeous and moving than his FOUR LAST SONGS (VIER LETZTE LIEDER). Finnish soprano Karita Mattila's performance on Saturday night at Carnegie Hall with the Munich Philharmonic under Fabio Luisi was gleaming and full bodied, and she held the audience in her thrall.