Posts tagged: SSM

By Aadya Arora

The 12th annual Mushtari Begum Festival, curated by tabla maestro Cassius Khan and his wife and renowned kathak player Amika Kushwaha, was a night filled with great musicians, energy, and enthusiasm. It was a true celebration of Indian classical music at Massey Theatre.

The couple began the show with an honour ceremony for Coast Salish chief Rhonda Larabee and New Westminster Mayor Patrick Johnstone, as well as with a thank you note to the theatre.

For the first part of the show, Khan took to stage with Juno-nominated veena player Pandit Salil Bhatt, who has been a constant part of the festival. Bhatt dedicated his composition to India’s recent successful expedition to the moon. He also invented satvik veena: a variation of the classical string instrument, which the audience seemed to really enjoy and appreciate. In his collaboration with Khan, the two artists provided an electrifying jugalbandi—fun but repetitive in style.

Ghazals, a famous form of poetry written in couplets, was performed first by Dr. Kamaljeet Gill—a classical ghazal artist who has her own music festival in Edmonton—and then later by Khan. Gill’s singing was charismatic.

Khan finally took to centre stage, where he performed a ghazal while simultaneously playing the tabla—before ending with an instrumental solo. He was accompanied by other local artists: a student of his who played an instrument called swarmandal, and his wife Kushwaha on the harmonium. His talent definitely stands out and ended the show on a high note.

The festival promised Kathak dance performance by Kushwaha, but she was unfortunately not feeling well enough to perform. The audience seemed happy with what was presented, though; it is the festival’s aim to build a strong South Asian community in the region, which makes it stand out as a must-see annual event.

Guests at the opening ceremony of the 25th/26th Beijing Music Festival Photo: Courtesy of Beijing Music Festival

Taking “shared future” as its main theme, the 25th/ 26th Beijing Music Festival kicked off recently at the capital’s Poly Theatre. 

The festival will include a total of 22 diverse concerts such as opera premieres, solo music performances, chamber music, visual symphonic concerts and so on. It aims to use the four concepts of “Music, Youth, Future and Attitude” to show the burgeoning music scene in Beijing as well as the rest of China. 

A highlight of the festival is the music piece A World Far Away, while Joseph Haydn’s II Mondo della Luna in Three Acts will be shown to Chinese audiences for the first time. 

In Hayden’s delightful piece, Chinese audiences can hear how the master used the key of E-flat major in compliment with other instruments like horns, bassoons and harmonicas to depict the story of the moon. With this piece, Haydn depicted human being’s shared longing for outer space. 

The Chinese interpretation of Haydn’s II Mondo della Luna is being directed by Yi Liming, the artistic director and president of the Dahua City Centre for the Performing Arts. It will be conducted by Yu Ji, and young artist Yin Bojie will play the harpsichord. 

Other than the Western music piece, the opening concert of the music festival commemorated Liu Tianhua, a prestigious Chinese composer and folk music reformer. 

The whole performance is composed of three chapters to include all of Liu’s art creations on the classic instruments erhu and pipa. At the beginning of the 20th century, the 32-year-old Liu Tianhua pioneered the practice of integrating Chinese and foreign music, laying a solid foundation for the modern development of Chinese folk music.

Other shows such as the Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute featuring famous Chinese singer Gong Linna will be held on October 4. Music for Heroes, Poetry for the Screen, another music piece included in acclaimed conductor Tan Dun’s Martial Arts Trilogy, will debut at the Poly Theatre on October 6. 

The 25th/ 26th Beijing Music Festival is an international music sharing platform that includes international classical music insiders from countries such as Germany, the UK and Spain. 

The Mahler Foundation Festival Orchestra, comprising young musicians from various European countries, will participate as the festival’s resident orchestra.

Spanning 24 days, the 25th/ 26th Beijing Music Festival is scheduled to end on October 15. 

Photo by Roger Mastroianni, Courtesy of The Cleveland Orchestra

This week includes a number of season-opening concerts.

– On Thursday at 7:30, led by Richard Kaufman, The Cleveland Orchestra will play the live underscore to Miloš Forman’s 1984 Mozart biopic Amadeus, adapted from Peter Shaffer’s 1979 stage play. The screening will be repeated at Severance Music Center Friday at 7:30, Saturday at 8:00, and Sunday at 2. Tickets available online.

– Also on Thursday at 7:30, the Youngstown Symphony will present “From Brahms to Bruno Mars!” with the New York-based drag performance artist and professional strings musician Thorgy Thor, and at the same hour, City Music will present the first of four performances of “Sinfonia Concertante,” with music by Mozart, George Walker, and Joseph Bolonge at Fairmount Presbyterian (repeated on Friday at 7:30 at Our Lady of the Angels, Saturday at 7:30 at the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus & Sunday at 4 at St. Noel in Willoughby Hills.) All are free.

– Cleveland State University will throw a 60th Birthday Concert for composer Andrew Rindfleisch on Friday at 7:30, when Zeitgeist New Music Ensemble, Meridian Arts Ensemble, & pianists Geoffrey Burleson and Shuai Wang play a free program of his music in Drinko Hall.

– Also on Friday, the Oberlin Artist Recital Series will present The Emerson String Quartet, who are retiring after 47 years on the road, in a Finney Chapel concert topped off by Beethoven’s outrageous Große Fuge. Read a preview here and buy tickets online.

– Two interesting events are on for Saturday. At 3 at Heights Theater, Les Délices presents Salonera Sessions: Songs for Social Justice in which Renaissance lute songs, African American Spirituals, and traditional Lebanese melodies become vehicles for storytelling by countertenor Michael Walker & tenor Haitham Haidar. And at 7:30 at Praxis Fiber Workshop, violinist Edwin Huizinga, violist Aniela Eddy & and cellist Cullen O’Neil, present Bach’s Goldberg Variations in “Goldberg with Guts” (playing on gut strings — get it?)

– Arts Renaissance Tremont begins its new season on Sunday at 4 at St. Wendelin Church with the Cavani String Quartet, plus violist Ayane Kozasa & poet Mwatabu Okantah.

– And on Monday at 7:30, Rocky River Chamber Music Society launches its season at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church with mezzo-soprano Nancy Maultsby and the Poiesis Quartet in a free program featuring a new work by Cleveland Orchestra trombonist Richard Stout.

Click here to visit the ClevelandClassical.com Concert Listings page for more information.

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At the Apple keynote last week, the new AirPods Pro hardly got a mention and the focus was merely on how it had also shifted to USB-C from the lightning charger. What Apple did not tell you was how it had used this as an opportunity to actually overhaul the most popular earphones in the world. It was while covering the MotoGP Bharat qualifiers that I realised the full potential of these really new AirPods.

First, let me start with the design. The new AirPods Pro 2 has exactly the same design that every time I pick it up, I have to check at the bottom what port it has. This is the only visible differentiating factor in comparison to older models, while this has a better IPX rating now as well as a speaker.

The new AirPods Pro 2 has exactly the same design that every time I pick it up I have to check at the bottom what port it has (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)

But the new version actually packs a punch. I had popped the AirPods in my pant pocket primarily hoping to catch up on some music and podcasts on the long drive to Buddh International Circuit which is hosting its first MotoGP this weekend. I did not get the opportunity to use the AirPods during the drive though.

But as soon as I was near the paddocks with scores of riders testing out the tracks at breakneck speeds, I was reminded of just how noisy an environment a MotoGP or F1 track is. And this is when I pulled out the AirPods Pro 2. As soon as I wore the AirPods, the ear piercing drone of the high-powered superbike engines had become all but a vague hum in the background. The adaptive noise cancellation on the AirPods Pro 2 works overtime when in really loud environments like this — my Apple Watch was constantly alerting me that noise was over 100 decibels every time I stepped out of the soundproof lounge. And when I am working at home for instance it does not have to dial up so much as it has to drain out is the buzz of my living room fan.

As the KTMs, Ducatis and Aprillias swished away in front of me, there was hardly any noise to accompany the speed, until they turned at the end of the course, and the AirPods let in a little shriek to acknowledge that. And this I realised was because it had the new conversational awareness mode on, and the AirPods thought the faint drone of the bikes as they moved far away was maybe someone trying to strike up a conversation. But when someone actually did try to talk to me, or when I walked up to the food counter to get a bottle of water, this new feature cut the noise cancellation so that it did not become a conversation blocker. However, this is not exactly a new feature and Sony has had this in its headphones for a few years now.

As soon as I wore the AirPods, the ear piercing drone of the high-powered superbike engines had become all but a vague hum in the background (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)

Over the past few days I have been using the new AirPods Pro 2 for my evening walks as well as my regular calls and even for a podcast recording. The experience is clearly a notch better than the earlier edition. And it is not just with the active noise cancellation.

The new H2 chip in these AirPods offer three-dimensional audio, which means there is dynamic head tracking now. As I listen to Plinio Fernandes’ Bacheando on the Apple Classical Music app while pacing around the living room, the Brazilian artiste’s guitar stays in a specific part of the virtual room. The Dolby Atmos version of the hi-res lossless file wraps around my head and after a bit, it is like a shroud, almost aloof from my ears. And all this when there is a lot happening in my open kitchen, which the AirPods Pro 2 has relegated to a mute cacophony in favour of Plinio’s Bachianinha No 1.

The AirPods Pro 2 now does spatial audio as a standard feature (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)

Cool new features of AirPods Pro 2

The AirPods Pro 2 now does spatial audio as a standard feature. As I switch to Larghetto by Randall Goosby and Zhu Wang, the audio is so clear I notice a flaw in the recording, a faint buzz which could one of the artists breathing or the violin pulling back after each note. And all this is happening with such a clear sense of space — the violin, the piano, this buzz, all finding their spot in my head.

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One other change in the AirPods Pro 2 charging case is the addition of a speaker (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)

However, I did not really like the adaptive audio all that much because it creates a vague white noise in the background, almost like transparency mode. So unless you are in a situation where you need to be in control of your surroundings, it is better to go into full active noise cancellation. I don’t want any disturbance when I am trying to soak in Christopher Tin’s ‘The Drop That Contained The Sea’. This is the kind of song that tests any earphone with its range highs, lows and mids. With the AirPods Pro 2, it’s smooth sailing even as the chorus steps up from a single vocal and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra tries to take the entire composition to an ethereal level.

One other change in the AirPods Pro 2 charging case is the addition of a speaker. So now when you are trying to find the case, you can use Find My to make it play a sound from whichever nook it has fallen into. The battery life is the same as before though with about six hours of playback on the earphones every time you take them out of the case. And for the record, these are now dust, sweat and water resistant.

While the pricing of Rs 24,900 has not changed, the new AirPods Pro 2 packs a punch which is way beyond what the older version offered. With hardware and software upgrades the AirPods Pro 2 seems headed to become even more popular, and you don’t even have to carry an extra charger in your bag. What still beats me is why Apple did not give this beauty more time in the keynote.

Beethoven! Ellington! A bunch of composers you’ve never heard of!

Wonderfully, thankfully, the definition of classical music is changing. The genre can be classical (in the well, classical sense of the word) or it can be thoroughly modern, and, of course, it can be everything in between.

Take a look at these fall calendar highlights for stuff from Beethoven to Arab-Andalusian songs to something from Kennedy Center composer-in-residence Carlos Simon.

Opening Night with the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Oct. 7, Symphony Hall

The Boston Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 2023-24 season with old and new friends, expected and underappreciated repertoire. Maestro Andris Nelsons will conduct works by Beethoven and Mozart. But the BSO expands beyond European icons by welcoming jazz pianist Aaron Diehl’s trio to collaborate with the symphony on Duke Ellington’s “New World A-Coming” and “Tonk.” Between Ellington and the Europeans, the BSO reimagines traditional Southern dances in the Carlos Simon commission “Four Black American Dances.” bso.org

“Israel in Egypt”

Oct. 6 & 8, Symphony Hall

If an annual trip to see “The Messiah” doesn’t quench your thirst for Handel’s biblical oratorios, make sure to check out a Handel and Haydn Society performance of “Israel in Egypt.” For those who only know Handel for the Hallelujah chorus, the composer’s other big Bible-based work has everything “The Messiah” has — huge choruses, soaring strings, drama galore! Bonus points: This is the first program Jonathan Cohen will helm in his debut season as H&H’s artistic director. Handelandhaydn.org

Boston Baroque celebrates 50 years

Oct. 13-15, various locations

Our city’s baroque masters go gold this year, opening their season with an all-Beethoven night. Obviously, these concerts will include “the hits” but they will come with a twist — Symphony No. 9 will be performed on period instruments, a rare treat. Rounding out the program will be the “Coriolan” Overture and “Elegiac Song”; lending a hand will be four Metropolitan opera stars including soprano Heidi Stober and mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack. baroque.boston

Rossini/Elgar/Beethoven

Oct. 20, Symphony Hall

The Boston Philharmonic gets its 45th season started with this diverse program featuring Rossini’s “Willam Tell” Overture, Elgar’s Violin Concerto, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. Sure, go for the big names, but we’ll wager Elgar will move you just as much. Often regarded as the English composer’s masterpiece, it’s an ideal balance of virtuosity and passion, histrionic blaze and lyrical restraint.  Bostonphil.org

“Peter and the Wolf”

Nov. 11, Symphony Hall

Everyone has taken a turn narrating Sergei Prokofiev’s orchestral fairy tale. And we mean everyone – Viola Davis, Alice Cooper, Kirstie Alley, David Bowie, Weird Al… With luck, Weird Al will sit this one out and let the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra handle the piece all on its own. Family-friendly and full of visuals kids can follow along with. bso.org

“Karim Sulayman and Sean Shibe”

Nov. 14, Longy’s Edward M. Pickman Hall

So many programs claim to cover a lot of ground. Ha! Try this: Lebanese-American tenor Karim Sulayman and Scottish guitarist Sean Shibe have put together an evening of 16th- and 17th-century Italian and English works, traditional Sephardic and Arab-Andalusian songs, 20th-century and contemporary compositions, and plenty more. Celebrityseries.org