Also incredibly moving — noted in the New York Times review (March 14) — was the unaccompanied second stanza of the chorale in Part 1, Scene 2, confessing individual responsibility in response to the first stanza’s question, “Who was it, Lord, did strike Thee?”

The fulfilling of the individual responsibilities of each participant in last night’s offering brought us an overwhelming experience.

“Orpheus with his lute made trees,
And the mountain tops that freeze,
Bow themselves when he did sing:
To his music plants and flowers
Ever sprung; as sun and showers
There had made a lasting spring.
Every thing that heard him play,
Even the billows of the sea,
Hung their heads and then lay by.
In sweet music is such art,
Killing care and grief of heart
Fall asleep, or hearing, die.”

Thank you, Sir Andras, and Mozart, Haydn,
Beethoven and Schubert, and UMS!

Again, bravo! Mozart’ performed with dynamic shading, agogic accents, discrete ornamentation. I’m looking forward to Saturday’s recital–

As I recall, Sir Andras did some remarkable pedaling in the Haydn–

Few performers can successfully ornament Mozart’s music–
bravo!

Agreez, cher Michel, l’expression de mes sentiments les plus distingues!!

PS Mazeltov!

Thanks to the artists and UMS!

Soft numbers were great! Loud ones were too much for my ears–

I heard the Beilman siblings play Mozart ten [?] years ago at the U of M Museum of Art.

When they came on stage I saw two middle-school [?] players and said to myself in doubt, “Who are these kids?”

And then–their technically accomplished and eloquent playing put me into a state of stunned disbelief.

Some years later Benjamin Beilman gave a creative recital of Bach and Beethoven at Kerrytown Concert House.

Last night his work–and everyone’s–was beyond praise.

An opulent program performed with opulent artistry!

Thanks to the featured artists and UMS for an evening beyond praise!

And to Joan Morris and William Bolcom for their so-nostalgic “Always” —

I remember Marilyn Horne singing “Always” to Martin Katz when she was feted here at a Ford Honors program–

We hold Professor Katz in our esteem and gratitude–always!

Thank you, Danish String Quartet and UMS!

A luminous performance throughout — never a harsh tone — even in Beethoven’s moments of ferocity–

When they came back on stage after the Beethoven quartet I unexpectedly teared up–

Bring them back please, UMS!

I’m still shaken up from yesterday’s screening of “On the Waterfront” accompanied incomparably by the New York Philharmonic, “Thanks” is an inadequate expression of my gratitude to all who conceived, planned, and implemented this stupendous show!

Thanks all for your stellar concert!
Inspiring repertoire and performance!
Looking forward to your next one–

The violinist was fabulous!

A marvelous concert! — incomparable sonority throughout, setting forth incomparable creative genius.

I was moved to tears when the musicians began the Finale of the second Serenade we were privileged to hear.

Thanks to the Chicago Symphony Winds and to UMS, especially Ken Fischer and Michael Kondziolka!

Yes indeed, Ken!

Stunning technique, cohesive blend, creative intelligence–

As examples from the beginning of the Mozart no vibrato until just a hint of it on the next-to-the last note of the opening unison phrase. Then a full-throated series of chords, with the third one–a dissonance–slightly softer than the first two.

And as much attention to expressive rhetoric “from that moment on”–

Thanks to the Stern Endowment and to UMS!

I may have unfairly scanted the Mozart in what I wrote–for me it was as satisfactory as the Berg.

Mostly agreed–except that I thought the Brahms was satisfyingly muscular.

Mozart–the ping-pong ending of the first movement was a delight, as was the whirligig finale. In the finale, decades ago a recorded performance by the Guarneri Quartet creatively and clearly set forth the repetitive four-16th-notes figuration as chains of triplets.

In the Andante-Allegretto I couldn’t hear Violin II’s melody through Violin I’s filigree in the first repetition of the theme. And at the end of the movement, the final notes played by Violin I sounded like “piano tuning” instead of an ideal “tight” half-step. Yes, I know that the notes are sounded in altissimo and that violinists have fingers of human thickness.

Berg–A couple of times I thought, “This is like “The Rite of Spring!”

Thanks to the Belcea and to UMS for an outstanding recital!

And thanksgiving for less coughing than we heard at the Emerson Quartet’s concert. . . .

Thanks yet again to the Emerson String Quartet for another of their always-stellar concerts!

Cellist Paul Watkins is so welcome!

The tempo in the first movement of Beethoven’s Op. 95 seemed a little too fast for the acoustic of the hall–some of the figuration was lost–although perhaps my first-row seat put me at a disadvantage. The violist was marvelous in the 2nd movement particularly. The tempo at the end of the last movement seemed fine–when the Guarneri Quartet played it here some years ago it seemed too rushed for my comfort.
“Just see how fast we can play this!” — similar to the last movement of Beethoven’s Quartet Op. 59, No. 3–

I was glad to hear the Lieberman quartet and would look forward to another performance of it.

Thanks to the donor of the endowment!

(I gave away my cough drops, hoping to help stem the tide of hacking. . . .)

Sincere thanks to UMS and the Emerson Quartet and Mr. Lieberman for a propitious opening to the 2014-2015 season!

A lovely concert throughout!

Concerning a “period” harpsichord–indeed, we can’t reasonably expect it to be audible when accompanying an ensemble in a venue as large as Hill Auditorium.

I am risking censure by asking whether it might be possible to appropriately amplify the sound of such an instrument in a space far larger than most of the concert rooms of the 18th century. I trust that a microphone carefully placed and monitored would not also amplify the volume of instruments near it–? Maybe such an intervention has been tried and found wanting?

Thanks to the Akademie and to UMS for bringing us this delightful afternoon!

The St, Lawrence’s playing of the Haydn quartet was riveting from start to finish.

The attention to degrees of vibrato, the range of dynamics, and rhetorical detail created for me a performance that seemed spontaneous throughout–yet I’m sure that every detail was worked out in rehearsal.

Nonetheless, when one instrument sets forth a note or two, or a phrase that Haydn repeats, there’s opportunity for the next player to imitate or vary what they heard, and so on. . . .

Playing can and ought to be appropriately playful!

Thank you, St. Lawrence!

Thanks Liz! I don’t recall which performance(s) I went to–maybe all!–almost 60 years ago!

The Hagen Quartet honored us by stellar performances of two early-Beethoven quartets. The performers’ intensity and attention to rhetorical detail were riveting.

After intermission the Hagen gave us Beethoven’s Opus 127–a work more demanding in its complications and subtleties than the Opus 18 quartets. I was perhaps too tired from concentrating on the earlier works to fully enjoy Opus 127. Understandably, the quartet may have been tired too.

After the concert I told the second violinist that his rendition of the theme in the 2nd movement of Op. 18, No. 3 equaled Alexander Schneider’s with the Budapest Quartet on the Rackham stage decades ago. The UMS archives likely could provide the date.

Thanks, UMS! Please bring us the Hagen Quartet again soon!

I think we did a disservice to Andras Schiff by applauding before he raised his hands from the keyboard at the end of the Goldberg Variations.

I remember the last performance of Verdi’s Requiem that I heard at Hill–by a Swedish choir and orchestra?–the ensuing silence was so emotionally charged. The conductor was motionless for what seemed an eternity–finally he turned around to signal the end of Verdi’s masterwork and release our ovation.

Tenor Ian Bostridge’s first recital here ended similarly. For a long moment we were all too moved to applaud.

The final chorus of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion here by the Collegium Musicum Japan at St. Francis of Assisi Church elicited a similar silence.

I’ve read that when the curtain descended after Fonteyn and Nureyev’s first Giselle there was a long silence and then a multitude of curtain calls.

“Some enchanted evening”

The night, the music
The artist, the instrument

I was so moved by the repetition of the Goldberg aria and Mr. Schiff’s playing of it–the sounding of its last note interrupted by presumably well-meant applause.

See Jeremy Denk–
http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2012/03/20/148988529/hannibal-lecters-guide-to-the-goldberg-variations.

I wonder if Beethoven was inspired by Bach’s work–listen to a similar theme-and-variations movement that Beethoven composed for his piano sonata opus 109–

Another stellar concert by the Takacs!

In the first movement of the Beethoven, the first violinists of other quartets I’ve heard have played their solo chords “dry”. Last night the first violinist of the Takacs added a welcome touch of vibrato.

In the second movement, the first violinist of the Guarneri Quartet played a sequence of detached 8th notes with an upbow–a technical feat,

Last night the Takacs played them separately–to comparable positive effect.

And so the evening went–inspiring, breathtaking, emotionally fulfilling.

Thanks, Takacs and UMS!

I’m looking forward to the Hagen Quartet’s Beethoven.

From the first chord to the last–an inspiration and a delight!

Hildegarde von Bingen’s offering was mesmerizing.

Maybe someday they’ll do more songs from “Kiss Me, Kate”–“So in Love” was heart-stopping and tear-starting.

Thanks, Chanticleer and UMS!

To choose the choicest gem from their casket of riches would seem impossible–however, among the jewels that beg to be in the running would be the rendering of the last, fading note in Bernstein’s “The Lord’s Prayer”–a solo set forth perhaps by tenor Paul Phoenix.

My hair stood on end, my eyes teared up.

Thanks to The King’s Singers (what king?) and UMS–and especially Glenn Watkins and Ken and Penny Fischer!

Absolutely!

I heard a gypsy violinist play the Brahms in a Detroit restaurant–totally “theatrical”–whether calculatedly or instinctively–

At 82, I hope I’m adventurous–if perhaps only timidly. . . .

Thanks to all for this interesting program!

I was glad to see Maestro Leonard Slatkin’s conducting style.

For me the highlight of the afternoon was William Bolcom’s
“Gospel Preludes”, performed by organist James Kibbie.

The Bach-Stokowski “Toccata and fugue in D Minor”
reminded me of the “Fantasia” movie.

I’m looking forward to the Free Event:–
Hill Auditorium Celebration
Saturday, February 2, 10 am – 5:30 pm
at Hill Auditorium.

Thanks to all for a creative production and marvelous acting in an intimate space!

We were musing on whether Prudencia was being undone or was undoing (hell)–or both–simplistically similar to the conundrum of Agatha Christie’s “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd”.

A monster play, a monster production!

The cast went around the Horn with sails billowing and flags unfurled!

Thanks and a cask of Rhine wine!

Haydn re-created!

Rhetorical finesse throughout –

And following in the footsteps of the Budapest Quartet.

Re last night – the Tchaikovsky Qt #1 was superlatively set forth -from a hushed beginning to a fiery conclusion. Glowing individual and group sonorities.

Words fail!

I only wish that Op. 95 had been last in the program.

A wild, ferocious masterpiece, admirably played.

The final “high C” (1st violin) was a breathtaking shooting star –

similar to the heart-stopping “Dir” (“ich danke Dir dafur, toward the end of Schubert’s “An die Musik”) that Elisabeth Schwarzkopf provided us at Rackham 35 years ago. The Ann Arbor News reviewer commented on it.

masterpiece = Wilson/Glass/Childs x performers/crew

[did I glimpse some Magritte-inspired elements?]

St. Thomas is indeed more resonant than St. Andrew’s or St. Francis or the chapel at Concordia. The acoustic at St. Thomas casts an aural halo around music offered there.

Stile Antico sang “Magnificat” and so many other works “with tune surpassing sweet”.

The only comparable mellifluous blending of voices that I recall hearing in Ann Arbor was offered at St. Thomas’s church some years ago by Vox, the former local group now lamentably gone from us.

Last night Stile Antico’s female or male voices singing in unison sounded like one. Female and male voices singing at the octave sounded like two voices.

Stile Antico’s performance of polyphonic music wove individual vocal lines into a seamless tapestry.

I would have been interested to hear the group singing from St. Andrew’s balcony.

The church’s sonic space transmitted the group’s sound clearly.

St. Thomas’s church offers more resonance. Perhaps someday UMS will be able to provide vocal concerts at St. Thomas’s.

Thank you, Stile Antico!

Thank you, UMS!

Thanks to Michael Kondziolka and Ken Fischer and UMS for bringing us this stellar group and soloist.

Stage presence, creative imagination, execution of the instrumental and vocal music, attention-compelling musical rhetoric – all were superb.

Mr. Jarousssky’s vocal pyrotechnics were astoundingly breathtaking.

“Ombra mai fu” touched the soul.

When Mr. Jaroussky attains a perfect trill and corrects what seemed to be slightly under-pitch high notes, his singing will be perfect.

And the gods will be jealous.

“Stopping by Rackham on a snowy evening” – pace Robert Frost.

“The only other sound” was the Takacs Quartet’s magisterial setting forth of Schubert’s masterpieces.

Could they equal the intensity of their performance of Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” quartet last fall?

A thousand times yes.

1814. Schubert is 17. I was amused by the “salon-music” opening of the early quartet in B-Flat, D. 112 (from 1814), and astounded, as always, by Schubert’s youthful genius.

1824. Schubert is 27. The Takacs Quartet shared with us their vision of Schubert’s A minor quartet, D. 804. They gave attention to every subtlety of the piece, within a framework of dedication to setting forth the work’s compositional perfection. For example, the 2nd violin’s introduction to the Andante, and the cello’s opening of the Menuetto and subsequent transition to the C# minor section of that movement.

1826. Schubert is 29, two years from his death. The Takacs Quartet equaled the performance by the Orion Quartet here a few years ago of the G Major Quartet. D. 887. Actually, the work might well be titled the G Major-G minor Quartet, given the mercurial modal changes in this incomparable work.

After the Andante, the superb violist ran her fingers energetically through her hair. I could well imagine that the quartet needed a release of the tension created by playing in concert the demanding first two movements of the composition, with two challenging movements yet to come.

The 1st violin, primus inter pares, impeccably and energetically led the group to the intense close of the work – a worthy successor to Beethoven’s late quartets.

Thanks to the Takacs Quartet and UMS for this inspiring experience!

I look forward to the ensuing concerts in this series.

Ms. Sonnenberg-Salerno and the virtuoso troupe dissolved the gap between performers and audience.

The cliches come to life – joyful teamwork, passion, poetry, precision, grand flourishes, subtle gestures –

Ms. Sonnenberg-Salerno’s silken setting forth of “Bess, You Is My Woman Now” stopped my breath.

Yes, please bring them back!