Berlioz

True to its name and its origins, the Thanksgiving holiday inspires in us feelings of gratitude for life and an appreciation of our extraordinary heritage as Americans. And in my house, right up there with turkey and stuffing, (ahead, even, of football), there is beautiful music on hand to bring these themes home for the holiday.For the plushest, good old American hymn-sing around, I turn to "Amazing Grace," an assortment of 20 vintage hymns and spirituals arranged and conducted by the late Robert Shaw (Telarc 80325)

Internally, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra does not present an entirely cohesive image these days, with an unproven executive freshly installed and a rash of departures on the staff, including some of its most devoted and valuable members. Financially, the orchestra doesn't look entirely steady, either, given worrisome debts that could hit a new high next year. Artistically, though, the BSO couldn't sound much more unified or solid. What the audience found Saturday night at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall was an ensemble operating at the top of its game, led by a music director at the top of his. For the season's final classical subscription program, Yuri Temirkanov focused on two strong personalities who knew how to shake up expectations, extract fresh instrumental colors and, in the best possible sense, just show off -- Hector Berlioz and Dmitri Shostakovich.

I saw no tigers or bears (oh, my!) at Jim Rouse Theatre for Performing Arts on Saturday afternoon. But I did come across a lion - albeit a cowardly one - in the company of cygnets, swans, monkeys, crows, an adorable lady bug and, of course, a scarecrow, a man of tin and a dark-haired, pigtailed little girl named Dorothy. That leonine sighting combined with a vision of toe shoes as far as the eye could see could mean only one thing: Kathi Ferguson's Howard County Ballet was dancing up a storm (literally and figuratively)

As the year draws to a close, the classical record industry is again adorned with long faces. It's been another dreadful year for classical sales, which is a pity because there were some fabulous recordings available. Anyone thinking about giving the gift of music this Christmas season should consider the following:* "The Heifetz Collection" (RCA/BMG 09026 61778-2): A 65-CD set, grouped in 46 volumes, that contains every commercial recording ever made by Jascha Heifetz, the greatest violinist who ever lived.

For interesting, innovative musical fare, no regional ensemble will beat the Columbia Orchestra in the 2004-2005 concert season. Oh, the tried-and-true blockbuster masterworks will be there, don't you worry. Maestro Jason Love and his players begin the season with Beethoven's riveting "Coriolan" Overture and Hector Berlioz's phantasmagorial "Symphonie Fantastique," the groundbreaking Romantic work replete with extraordinary depictions of opium-induced love, fixation and murder with a creepy "Witches' Sabbath" tossed in for good measure.

The Requiem, Roman Catholicism's liturgy for the dead, has been a source of inspiration for many of music's greatest masters. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giuseppe Verdi, Hector Berlioz, Gabriel Faure and Maurice Durufle are just a few of the composers who have enriched the choral repertoire with their settings of the Mass for the Dead. The Requiem has remained irresistible to composers of our day, including John Rutter, whose easy-on-the-ear Anglican lyricism has made him, perhaps, the most popular choral composer of the current day. "The Rutter Requiem is one of those sacred works that moves toward the light and not the darkness," says Frances Motyca Dawson, whose Columbia Pro Cantare Chorus will be singing the piece Sunday afternoon at Baltimore's Second Presbyterian Church.

Tenors are a passionate breed; many would kill to have a voice with a top like Chris Merritt's.Yesterday afternoon in Shriver Hall when Merritt sang Tonio's first act aria -- the one with no less than eight high C's -- from Donizetti's "Daughter of the Regiment," the tenor nailed those high notes with brilliance, charm and ease. All the more remarkable was that this was the singer's s fourth encore after a long and difficult program of operatic arias in a benefit for the Baltimore Opera Company.

There's a light and dark theme running through the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's 2013-2014 season, which includes works dealing with great loss, as well as great compassion. “Sometimes through tragedy, whether a world war or a personal loss, the beauty of humanity comes out in art,” said BSO music director Marin Alsop. “Great art brings us together in a very authentic and pure way.”    The season will feature Benjamin Britten's large-scale, profoundly moving “War Requiem” from 1962, written for the reconsecration of England's Coventry Cathedral, destroyed in 1940 by bombing.

The season of joy has passed, and the more somber season of review is upon us. In arts and entertainment, 1996 was marked by many a going (Horn & Horn lunchroom, Shakespeare on Wheels, the announcement of David Zinman's departure) and an important staying (the Lucas Collection). Bad guys (Jack Valenti with his Hollywood-friendly TV ratings system) were as likely to make news as angels (John Travolta in "Michael"), and personalities (the Michael Jackson marriage saga) got more attention than performances (Alanis Morissette's best-selling album)

MAURICE BEJART, 80 Choreographer Maurice Bejart -- who sought to bring ballet to younger audiences with his provocative choreography, stunning critics with his avant-garde dances, died Thursday morning at Lausanne's University Hospital, said Emmanuel de Bourgknecht, administrator of the Bejart Ballet Lausanne. Mr. Bejart had been hospitalized with heart and kidney problems. Mr. Bejart, born in Marseille, France, set new standards for ballet in a career that spanned five decades. His signature work was Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, which in 1959 was his first production with Belgium's Monnaie Theater.