The JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET has had a string of great fall dates, including a concert tour to China and Japan, part one of their annual concerts with Philadelphia Chamber Music Society (the season's second concert is April 4, 2012,) a concert for Stanford Lively Arts and a concert at Alice Tully Hall you may have read about in the New York Times...

"The ensemble was at its most muscular and sumptuous in the Beethoven. The players gave an enveloping, fluid account of the mammoth fugue, and though the rest of the work often pales beside that outsize finale, the quartet’s careful accenting and dynamic freedom brought the emotional depths of the first five movements fully into focus." -- Allan Kozinn, THE NEW YORK TIMES, Nov. 29, 2011

They play again in New York in January, just in time for those of you at the CMA, ISPA and APAP conferences. Be sure to plan your trip to join us at the bar and hear them on Thursday, January 12 at (le) Poisson Rouge, where they'll play Elliott Carter's String Quartet No. 5 (a belated birthday tribute, if you will,) and Haydn Op. 54, No. 1. That concert is followed by a two-week European tour, with dates in Germany, France and at London's Wigmore Hall with pianist Stephen Hough.

Cellist ZUILL BAILEY wraps up 2011 with a flourish, playing the Korngold Cello Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic last week -- Mark Swed for the LA Times said he was a "glowing" soloist -- and releasing a new album through Zenph Records.

If you're familiar with Zenph, you know this is a special sort of recording: it's a collaboration with a sonically re-created Manuel de Falla at the piano, performing the Seven Popular Spanish Songs. Learn more about the album here -- and catch some of the recent press, including a beautiful interview with Zuill and his co-album collaborator Isabel Bayrakdarian on NPR's Weekend Edition, and a piece by Jeremy Eichler for The Boston Globe, and an interesting video about the project from Zenph.

In the New Year, Zuill returns to the National Philharmonic at Strathmore for a special presentation of the Bach Cello Suites, and Haydn's Cello Concerto No. 1. And on the horizon, Zuill's new Telarc Dvorak Cello Concerto album, with Jun Märkl and the Indianapolis Symphony, will be released January 17, 2012.

Pianist/conductor MARINO FORMENTI may be known for his mesmerizing performances of modern repertoire -- Kurtag, Lachenmann, Cage, Ligeti, etc. -- but it cannot be denied that his insight reveals surprising and beautiful truths in performances of core repertoire. (For example, watch this video of him playing Haydn at The Greene Space in New York City.)

Formenti brings his insight to one of the cornerstones of piano repertoire next month, on January 7, for the Philharmonic Society of Orange County: Beethoven's Diabelli Variations.

In the program note, Philharmonic Society President and Artistic Director Dean Corey explains:
"Who should play the Diabelli Variations? Alfred Brendel is retired from concertizing and Maurizio Pollini hates flying to California. The performer needs to be special, unique. This is the piece of music that started me on this unattainable journey. The right choice became clear. Marino Formenti is, I feel, the most amazing pianist for new and avant-garde music. His insight into music is uncanny. We have presented him at our Eclectic Orange Festival. He has appeared numerous times in L.A. On one of those occasions, he played a little D minor sarabande of Bach with such tenderness and understanding that I was moved to tears. I asked him a short time later, 'Do you know the Diabelli Variations?' He replied, 'No,' to which I responded, 'Please learn it.' '

Click to see the full program.

Formenti returns to the US later in the spring for a presentation of his visionary program, "The Party," with the Chicago-based new music ensemble Dal Niente. With solo and ensemble works, food, visual art, drink and more, "The Party" lasts approximately six hours, and is designed to allow audiences to experience the music outside any constraints; they can stand, lie down, move around the space, talk, eat, listen or not.

Violinist ALINA IBRAGIMOVA began the month playing Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending for a gala concert with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Bournemouth Symphony, benefitting the Dorset Wildlife Trust.

She then played the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the with Philippe Herreweghe and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, at the Concert Hall Utrecht, and at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam (her next Hyperion Records disc will include this concerto, with Vladimir Jurowski and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.)

This weekend, she and regular duo and recording partner, pianist Cédric Tiberghien, play a recital in Italy, including repertoire from their recent acclaimed Ravel album. Ibragimova opens the new year playing Szymanowski's Concerto No. 2 with the Sinfonieorchester St Gallen in Switzerland, followed up with a German recital in Schoss Elmau with pianist Alessio Bax.

While we're all thinking of Christmas gifts, don't forget that Valentine's Day follows soon after -- and what would be perfect for your sweetheart? Violinist ANNE AKIKO MEYERS's new eOne album, Air: The Bach Album. Recorded with the English Chamber Orchestra and including Bach's Air, Violin Concerti Nos. 1 and 2, and the Concerto for Two Violins (in which Meyers plays both parts, using her two Stradivari, the Ex-Molitor and the Royal Spanish!), the album promises to be something special. You can watch a special preview video of the album here.

We offer congratulations to pianist URSULA OPPENS, who has received a Grammy nomination (her fourth!) for "Best Classical Instrumental Solo" album, for her acclaimed disc, "Winging it: Piano Music of John Corgliano." The disc, which has received wide-spread critical praise, is the only non-orchestra album nominated in the new category. Learn more about the honor here.

JACQUES LACOMBE led the Vancouver Opera's Roméo et Juliette to great audience acclaim -- you can watch a reel of audience reactions here (lots of first-time opera goers there too, very nice to see!)

Next up the Maestro leads his home orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony, in a Winter Festival of Fire.

Vocal ensemble AMARCORD is Coming Home for Christmas this month -- that is, their new holiday album is out on iTunes. Get in the Christmas spirit, and check it out here.

This weekend TAFELMUSIK celebrates the season with their annual (sold-out) performances of Handel's Messiah.
"To sing some of those choruses at Taurin's speeds, with every note clear and in place, is an almost superhuman achievement ... The orchestra ... effortlessly provided the ideal accompaniment ... one of the best Messiah's I have ever heard." —THE GLOBE AND MAIL