best things I’ve heard: 2006 edition

I’ll beat the bandwagon and start off my list of the best things I’ve heard in 2006:

Krisztina Szabó – mezzo-soprano, singing opera arias from Handel’s Ariodante and Alcina. It really is the golden age of the mezzo these day, Ms. Szabó is a fine example. Her rendition of Scherza infida from Ariodante was a powerful, cathartic experience for me.

Leila Josefowicz – violinist, performing Hindemith’s Violin Concerto. I love that Leila doesn’t take the easy route. The Hindemith is a tough piece, not only to play, but to sell, and she did a stellar job in her subscription appearances here. She may be the violinist to get this piece back into the repertoire, something that Isaac Stern valiantly tried, but failed, to do decades ago.

San Francisco Symphony & Michael Tilson Thomas, producing the Keeping Score series of broadcasts and DVD’s. This is truly how it should be done. MTT proves himself a worthy successor to Leonard Bernstein as a musician who can verbally communicate the meaning of the notes we play and hear. The productions are lavish and handsome. My only quibble: no complete performances of the main piece being examined.

Rachel Barton Pine – violinist, performing the Beethoven Violin Concerto at the Sunriver Music Festival. She should have made her Oregon debut with the Oregon Symphony (since she recorded the Brahms and Joachim violin concertos with Carlos Kalmar at the Grant Park Festival), but a booking was never made, so lucky concert goers in central Oregon got to hear this exceptional violinist with the Sunriver Festival orchestra. Even more lucky: she did her unbelievably difficult set of Variations on the New Zealand national anthem as an encore: wow! Breathtaking. (Plus, my wife and I got to read trios with her during an off afternoon – super fun).

Amy Schwartz Moretti – violinist, performing the Berg Violin Concerto. I wondered how long she might stay here in Oregon after hearing her high level of performance in this finger-busting concerto. Not that good people can’t stay here, but I figured there would be a lot of competition for her after these performances. Too bad I was right.

Jennifer Larmore – mezzo-soprano, singing Mahler’s Seben Lider aus letzten Zeit. Another great mezzo that we had the privilege to have here in Portland. Some phenomenal singing at this performance – including the quietest notes that carried to the back of the hall that I’ve yet witnessed.

John Adams’ On the Transmigration of Souls, Oregon Symphony, Carlos Kalmar. I wasn’t prepared for this piece. It blindsided me. I listened to the recording done by the NYPhil and Maazel, and thought, “ok, this is good Adams” but nothing prepared me for the impact of the live performances. The cityscape sounds in surround sound in the auditorium, the weeping of audience members in the front of the orchestra section – it all conspired for an overwhelming experience for me, and for many in the orchestra and audience.