Haydn Trio Eisenstadt Performs Haydn and Two U.S. Premieres,
Steve Ross and Lesley Gore Make Return Appearances at the Museum,
Paula Robison Performs Music from the Time of Watteau, and
Chanticleer Begins Its Run of Christmas Concerts
For tickets, call the Concerts & Lectures Department at 212-570-3949, or visit www.metmuseum.org/tickets, where updated schedules and programs are available.
Tickets are also available at the Great Hall Box Office, which is open
Tuesday-Thursday 10-5:00, Friday and Saturday 10-7:00, and Sunday noon-5:00.
Student and group discount tickets are available for some events; call 212-570-3949.
Saturday, November 7, 2009, at 6:00 p.m. - Paula Robison, Flute - "Watteau and Music: Dance, Seduction, Allusion, Mystery,"
Flutist Paula Robison, Metropolitan Museum Concerts regular, returns to the series with "Watteau and Music: Dance, Seduction, Allusion, Mystery," a concert with commentary featuring music of Rameau and Couperin. The flutist is joined by John Gibbons, harpsichord, and Frederic Hand, lute and guitar. This event is presented in conjunction with the exhibition "Watteau, Music, and Theater," September 22 - November 29, 2009. The exhibition is made possible by The Florence Gould Foundation.
Paula Robison was the first artist presented by Metropolitan Museum Concerts at The Temple of Dendur in The Sackler Wing; her past presentations in that space have focused on themes ranging from "Mozart and the Turks" to Debussy song transcriptions, to the music of Vivaldi, to last season's "Dancing With Bach."
One of the world's most prominent flutists, Paula Robison is known internationally for her performances in recital and with great orchestras. One of her favorite continuing projects is "With Art," collaborations with visual artists in unusual spaces. In the spring of 2006 she traveled to Jerusalem to create a project with artist Jim Schantz and the Pucker Gallery of Boston. The result of this journey, a CD and book called "Places of the Spirit: The Holy Land," was released in April 2008. Other "With Art" projects have included Luciano Berio's Sequenza I with Italian art from the 1950s at P.S. 1 in New York; Toru Takemitsu's Itinerant, in memory of Isamu Noguchi, at the Noguchi Garden Museum; Impressionist music in the Renoir gallery of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; and a battle with Tim Hawkinson's "UberOrgan" at MASS MoCA.
In 2006 Ms. Robison founded Pergola Recordings, an independent label. The most recent release is an album of live performances, including the world premiere of Lowell Liebermann's sonata with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and the Prokofiev sonata with pianist Yefim Bronfman.
In the fall of 2005, she rejoined the faculty of New England Conservatory as the first occupant of the newly endowed Donna Hieken Flute Chair and began a series of master classes at New York's Diller-Quaile School of Music.
Tickets: $23
Saturday, November 14, 2009, at 7:00 p.m. -Steve Ross – "To Wit: Humor in Song"
Steve Ross returns to the Metropolitan Museum for what is becoming an annual engagement – in 2009-2010, he performs two cabaret-style evenings titled "To Wit: Humor in Song" featuring songs from Broadway musicals in this first program and songs from English shows and revues in the second (to be held February 6, 2010).
Steve Ross has been at the forefront of the cabaret revival when he became the first cabaret artist in 40 years to perform in the newly opened Algonquin Hotel's Oak Room. He performed regularly at the Oak Room for almost four years, and still returns for sell-out performances. A self-proclaimed Anglophile, Steve was happy to begin dinner cabaret at the Ritz in London. He also performs regularly at London's popular Pizza on the Park. He has played at the Spoleto Festival, the Hong Kong Arts Festival, and the Perth Festival in Australia. He has also performed in Brazil and around the United States, including on- and off-Broadway. In 1989, the BBC asked Steve Ross to host a live cabaret series. He was also the host of a popular radio series for National Public Radio, New York Cabaret Nights, with live broadcasts from cabaret rooms in New York City, featuring noted guests.
Tickets: $40
Friday, November 20, 2009, at 7:00 p.m. - Lesley Gore
Lesley Gore returns to the Metropolitan Museum with a program featuring both old favorites and contemporary material. The 1960s pop legend made her Museum debut in October 2008.
The most commercially successful solo artist of the "Girl Group" era of the '60s, Gore quickly set herself apart. With a string of Quincy Jones-produced, chart-topping hits, including "It's My Party," "Judy's Turn To Cry," and "You Don't Own Me," she introduced the world to a brilliant artist with pop instincts and an independent spirit that stood out against the formulaic offerings on the radio. Gore was a full-fledged star by age 16, and her smash hits rang like anthems for young American women, pointing the way for future generations of rabble-rousing pop singers from Debbie Harry to Pat Benatar, Madonna, and Gwen Stefani.
Having maintained a constant touring schedule in major venues across the country, Lesley Gore is no less committed today. Ever Since, her 2005 recording, is a timeless collection of classic songs. Included are re-imagined versions of two Lesley Gore standards, "You Don't Own Me" and the Academy Award–nominated "Out Here On My Own" (from Fame), interwoven with new songs written by national recording artists Mike Errico, Blake Morgan, and Gore herself. On "Not the First," (written by Gore), she warns a friend about the perils of blind love, but could just as easily be warning Avril Lavigne about the perils of the music business. When she sings, "All the parties I've been to/ you were missed" ("Ever Since"), she draws listeners back to her number-one hit, "It's My Party."
Tickets: $40
Saturday, November 21, 2009, at 7:00 p.m. - Haydn Trio Eisenstadt
The Haydn Trio Eisenstadt of Austria – Verena Stourzh, violin; Hannes Gradwohl, cello; and Harald Kosik, piano – is joined by soprano Lorna Anderson and tenor Jamie MacDougall for a program, the ensemble's only New York appearance of the season, featuring Haydn's Trio in C Major, Hob. XV:27; and Scottish Songs for Soprano and Tenor; and Trio in E-flat Major, Hob. XV:29; as well as the U.S. premiere performances of two works written for the 2009 bicentennial of Haydn's death, commissioned by a Haydn project headed by the trio's pianist, Harald Kosik: William Bolcom's Piano Trio "Haydn Go Seek" (2009); and Gerhard Krammer's Piano Trio "…and light…" (2009).
The Haydn Trio Eisenstadt is renowned for its interpretation of Joseph Haydn's works and has also made a name with performances of contemporary music. In recent seasons, the trio has performed at music festivals worldwide such as the Haydn Festival in Japan, the Haydn Biennale Vlaanderen in Belgium, the Klangbogen Festival in Vienna, and the festival at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.
In the 2008-2009 season, to mark the bicentennial of Joseph Haydn's death in 2009, Harald Kosik mounted a project titled "Dedicated to Haydn" (www.d2h.at) as part of the Haydn Festival program in Eisenstadt. In the spirit of Haydn's quote, "My language is understood the world over," six Austrian composers, six composers from other European countries, and six composers from all other continents were each invited to write a piano trio dedicated to Joseph Haydn, works that would be performed in 2009 by the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt as part of its contemporary music series.
When the trio opened its 2007-2008 season with concerts in the United States to commemorate the death of two important Viennese composers, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Alexander von Zemlinsky, Chris Pasles of The Los Angeles Times wrote, "Pianist Harald Kosik, violinist Verena Stourzh and cellist Hannes Gradwohl played with devout concentration and superb cohesion....The trio has an audacious boldness and strength.... It was most attractive in the first movement, when adolescent bravado often yielded to melting sweetness, capturing the emotional flux of a young soul."
Tickets: $40
Monday, November 30, 2009, at 6:30 & 8:30 p.m. - "A Chanticleer Christmas"
Tuesday, December 1, 2009, at 6:30 & 8:30 p.m.
Thursday, December 3, 2009, at 6:30 & 8:30 p.m.
Chanticleer performs "A Chanticleer Christmas," a program of traditional carols, medieval and Renaissance sacred works and contemporary holiday songs. These concerts take place in the Medieval Sculpture Hall in front of the Metropolitan Museum's Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche. The exhibit of the crèche is made possible by gifts to The Christmas Tree Fund and the Loretta Hines Howard Fund.
Called "the world's reigning male chorus" by the New Yorker magazine, and named 2008 Ensemble of the Year by Musical America, Chanticleer will perform more than 100 concerts in 2009-2010, the Grammy Award-winning ensemble's 32nd season. Chanticleer will tour to 21 states in the U.S. and 12 foreign countries this season, including appearances at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Vienna's Musikverein, and Prague's Rudolfinum. In 2009 Chanticleer made debut appearances in Ireland and the People's Republic of China and will return to the latter in June for Expo 2010 in Shanghai. In 2009-2010 Chanticleer will release a new recording, "Best of Chanticleer," and a new DVD, "Fireside Christmas with Chanticleer."
Chanticleer is known for its vivid interpretations of vocal literature, from Renaissance to jazz, and from gospel to venturesome new music. With its blend of 12 male voices, ranging from countertenor to bass, the ensemble has earned international renown as "an orchestra of voices." Chanticleer was founded in 1978 by tenor Louis Botto, who sang with the group until 1989 and served as Artistic Director until his death in 1997. Artistic Advisor Joseph Jennings joined the ensemble as a countertenor in 1983, and shortly thereafter assumed the title of Music Director, which he held until 2008. A prolific composer and arranger, Mr. Jennings has provided the group with some of its most popular repertoire, most notably spirituals, gospel music, and jazz standards. In 2008, tenor Matthew Oltman was named Music Director.
Collaborations between Chanticleer and the Metropolitan Museum include a PBS Great Performances program, "Christmas with Chanticleer," taped in the Metropolitan Museum's Medieval Sculpture Hall. And Chanticleer's 2002 recording of Sir John Tavener's Lamentations and Praises, a work co-commissioned by the Museum, won a Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance.
Medieval Sculpture Hall
Tickets: $70
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