The Beethoven Ninth Symphony is one of the most overplayed pieces in orchestral literature, but it sells tickets by the bushel and managers seldom go wrong, even when programming it season after season. To call it “overplayed” is not to say that it isn’t a great work or that it doesn’t bring out the best in conductors and orchestras; indeed it is and indeed it does. These facts took me back to Dallas recently to hear Jaap van Zweden and the Dallas Symphony (DSO) engage with the Ninth in the Meyerson Symphony Center.

Van Zweden recorded all the Beethoven symphonies in his native Holland, and recently he recorded the Fifth and the Seventh with the Dallas Symphony. To a certain extent, then, I knew what to expect: intensity, excitement, speed. The quick tempi are by no means arbitrary; Beethoven’s metronome markings require them. That said, conductors of the stature of Otto Klemperer were highly regarded in their time for tempi that were extremely slow – they simply ignored the metronome markings and no-one seemed to care.

That was yesterday. Today we live in a more enlightened time, a time in which period instrument specialists have come to the fore and respect for the written score is more the fashion.

Former Violinist van Zweden a Master of Nuance

From the perspective of the early 21^st Century, it might seem obvious that the composer’s metronome markings should be followed. There was a reason, however, why some of the great conductors of the past – not to mention piano soloists and string quartets – looked askance at some of these markings; some of them were surely mistakes. Perhaps Beethoven didn’t understand how to use the newly-invented metronome, or perhaps he was simply too deaf to judge how fast his music could be played. In any case, there is still plenty of room for disagreement over correct tempi for the Beethoven symphonies. Ultimately, the success or failure of a performance depends not so much on choice of tempi but on what the conductors and players can do within those tempi.

In van Zweden’s case what is most remarkable is that he somehow finds time for the most nuanced phrasing even at the fastest tempo. This was particularly evident on this occasion in the slow movement variations. The slower tempi taken by many conductors here to underscore the gravity of the music, often render the movement interminable and shapeless. Van Zweden adopts the composer’s metronome markings and this makes the complex figurations the strings must play very difficult. How is it possible to give meaning to this multitude of notes at such tempi? The answer is meticulous rehearsal, with infinite care taken over dynamics and choice of bow stroke. As an ex-string virtuoso, van Zweden has a special talent for achieving the results he’s after.

Two Superb Concertmasters for the Price of One!

In this performance, Maestro van Zweden was supported by not one but two master concertmasters at the first desk. Newly-appointed DSO concertmaster Alexander Kerr (photo: right) was on hand and sitting beside him was David Taylor, a longtime assistant concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony. Taylor had been engaged many months ago as a guest concertmaster at the beginning of the search for a successor to Emanuel Borok. Partway through the process, a decision was made to appoint Kerr. That meant that Taylor never got a chance to show what he could do; nevertheless, he honoured his original agreement and came along anyway. It should come as no surprise that the DSO string sound on this night was special.

Incidentally, Alexander Kerr succeeded van Zweden as concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. You can see him in action with the RCO playing the solos in Strauss’ “Ein Heldenleben” with Mariss Jansons conducting, on a DVD issued in 2004 (RCO 04103)

The entire Dallas Symphony played the Beethoven Ninth with commitment and precision. A special mention is due new timpanist, ex-Detroit Symphony principal Brian Jones. He raised the roof in the big moments – his solos in the scherzo, and the dynamic rolls and sharp accents at the recapitulation in the first movement – and blended his sound beautifully with the ensemble when required.

Choral Dynamics and Phrasing Exceptional

The Dallas Symphony Chorus reached an international standard under the late David R. Davidson, and on this occasion was more than adequate under its assistant conductor Melody Gamblin-Bullock. Her name was not included in the original printed programme but by the second night performance – the one I attended – she had made it into the insert. This was an inexcusable oversight. In any case, as of this summer Joshua Habermann, a University of Texas graduate with a great breadth of choral conducting experience, will be in charge of the chorus.

What struck me about the choral contribution in this performance were the vast number of major and minor alterations in dynamics and phrasing. These are not found in the printed score but most of them made perfect sense. These were obviously Jaap van Zweden’s ideas and many of them were clearly based on similar passages in the orchestra. It is often said that Beethoven treated voices like instruments. Van Zweden took this characterization literally and made the vocal parts much more expressive and interesting than usual.

Among the soloists there was a last-minute substitution. Soprano Sabina Cvilak fell ill and was replaced by Texas resident Jeanine Thames. Unfortunately, her contribution was simply not up to the overall standard of the performance. On the other hand, bass Luca Pisaroni was excellent, with a strong presence and fine evenness of tone and intonation throughout his wide-ranging solos.

Multi-talented Tao Shines in Shostakovich

The concert began with the Concerto No. 1 for Piano, Solo Trumpet and Strings Op. 35 by Shostakovich. The soloist was 15-year-old Chinese-American pianist Conrad Tao (photo: right) , an uncommonly gifted young man who plays both piano and violin and is also a composer. He lives in New York and studies at Juilliard. He charmed the audience with his technique and his ability to tease the playfulness out of the music. Van Zweden “discovered” this young artist at a concert they did together in Singapore and no doubt Tao will become a regular guest with the DSO.

The solo trumpet part in the Shostakovich was played with equal virtuosity by principal trumpet of the Dallas Symphony, Ryan Anthony. Anthony tossed off the many fanfares in the piece without appearing to break a sweat and brought a lovely singing quality to the bluesy solo in the slow movement.

For Those Wanting More…

Laurie Shulman writes the uncommonly thorough programme notes for the Dallas Symphony. She also gives many of the DSO’s pre-concert talks. In addition, she is the author of a massive and comprehensive book on the building of the Meyerson Symphony Center. This book is not only an historic document on the construction of one of the world’s great concert halls, but also a first-rate primer on acoustical design. Wearing her acoustical design hat. Laurie was recently invited to the opening of a radically-rebuilt concert hall in Omsk, Siberia. The man responsible for getting the acoustics right in Omsk was Nicholas Edwards, the man largely responsible for ensuring that the Myerson turned out so well. Edwards was also the acoustician for Symphony Hall in Birmingham, England. During her visit to Omsk, Laurie blogged every day for the DSO.

On the subject of concertmasters and former Detroit Symphony musicians, it has just been announced that Detroit Symphony concertmaster Emmanuelle Boisvert will be moving to the Dallas Symphony next season to take up the position of Associate Concertmaster. These latest defections from Detroit underscore how difficult it has been to keep that orchestra going in a tough economy. But Boisvert is a wonderful player and the Dallas Symphony is lucky to have her. This appointment also speaks volumes about the ability of Maestro van Zweden to attract top players to Dallas.

Paul E. Robinson is the author of “Herbert von Karajan: the Maestro as Superstar,” and ”Sir Georg Solti: His Life and Music.” NEW for friends: The Art of the Conductor podcast, “Classical Airs.”

My first encounter with Tchaikovsky’s “Manfred“ Symphony was most likely Toscanini’s 1953 recording with the NBC Symphony; it is intense, exciting and almost life-changing in its range of emotion. The sound of the recording left a lot to be desired, of course, but for its time, this was a great performance.

Over the years, although I rarely encountered “Manfred” in the concert hall, I continued to check out fresh performances and new recordings; unfortunately, not one of them could hold a candle to the Toscanini – until, that is, now.

This extraordinary performance was live, and I may have to wait a little longer for the recording, but the “Manfred” I heard at the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, Texas last week not only rivaled the Toscanini in excellence – it may, in fact, have surpassed it!

Jaap van Zweden has long since shown himself to be an exceptionally gifted Tchaikovsky interpreter. Live performances of the Fourth and Fifth symphonies have already been released by the Dallas Symphony and they are remarkable for their exceptional standard of playing and commitment.

“Manfred” Symphony Difficult and Flawed

In “Manfred,” van Zweden has taken one of Tchaikovsky’s less popular works and raised it to the status it has always deserved as one of the composer’s most inspired and deeply personal compositions.

This is a difficult piece to play, and it has its weaknesses, but van Zweden has incomparable skills as an orchestra builder. In less than two seasons he has transformed a ‘very good’ Dallas Symphony into one of the finest orchestras in the country. Difficulties take only a little longer to surmount with van Zweden on the podium. There is never any doubt that he will get his musicians where they need to be, and so it was with “Manfred.”

The maestro’s tempi were sometimes very fast indeed – but they always made perfect sense – and the DSO players were equal to every challenge. The horn section, led by Gregory Hustis and David Heyde, had a particularly fine night with robust playing and a golden sonority, rivaling the best in the business.

And “Manfred’s” weaknesses?

One could begin with the stop-start feeling one often gets when the piece is performed; it can sound like Russian Bruckner, if such a thing can be imagined. Then there is the meretricious character of the theme introduced at bar 81 in the last movement, and a fugue that can sound pedantic and unconvincing.

Worst of all, in the opinion of some listeners, is the final section depicting the death of Manfred and, presumably, his ascent to heaven with the help of an organ introduced for the first time in the symphony. After this fortissimo apotheosis comes a very weak winding down over several pages to the end of the score. By all accounts, Tchaikovsky himself was not satisfied with the ending of “Manfred”; in fact, on one particularly depressing day, he declared in a letter that nothing in the piece, with the exception of the first movement, was of any value!

DSO/van Zweden Reading Puts “Manfred” Back in Play

Weaknesses there may be in “Manfred,” but most of them ceased to exist in van Zweden’s remarkable reading.

How did he do it?

Generally speaking, he did it by simply understanding the shape and substance of the piece and working assiduously with his orchestra to translate that understanding into sound. Specifically, he eliminated the alleged fragmentation of the piece by making sure every phrase had life and destination. That is to say, the music was always going somewhere and pulsed with inner life. This magic doesn’t just happen by itself; it requires the conductor to meticulously work out every slight alteration in tempo and every minute change in dynamics.

Van Zweden is a great conductor, partly through sheer force of personality, but also because he takes the trouble to understand every detail of the music he conducts and then to convey that understanding to his players.

Another “weakness” that disappeared in this performance was the triteness of the D minor theme in the finale. By taking a very fast tempo, thereby eliciting ferocious playing from his musicians – the tempo marking is Allegro con fuoco – this tune became suitably menacing, in the manner of similar tunes in the last movement of Berlioz’ “Symphonie Fantastique.”

What about the organ apotheosis and its underwhelming aftermath? We may never know what van Zweden might have done to find greatness in these bars because he simply threw them out! In fact, he substituted a different ending altogether – an ending borrowed from the legendary Russian conductor Evgeny Svetlanov. Still Tchaikovsky’s music, this ending, taken from the first movement of “Manfred,” works perfectly and brings the symphony to a much more powerful conclusion.

It would be foolish to dwell on the alleged weaknesses of “Manfred” when the work has so many strengths and so much beauty. The very first sounds in the symphony are a case in point. I defy anyone who is hearing the piece for the first time to identify the instruments playing here. In fact, Tchaikovsky has created the most hauntingly beautiful sound for these mournful opening bars by scoring three bassoons and bass clarinet in unison. They play their melody together for fully the first 14 bars.

What about the doleful but thrilling tutti in the Andante con duolo* section in the first movement? Van Zweden achieved an incredibly rich string sonority at this point. What gives this passage much of its power is the scoring involving trombones, tuba and timpani along with the strings, added to the driving syncopated figure played by the lower winds.

The second movement Scherzo outdoes Mendelssohn’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” and Berlioz’ “Queen Mab” in its magical evocation of fairies. The instrumentation is, again, highly original and the rhythms complex and unorthodox. The Trio section, with its meltingly beautiful violin melody accompanied by two harps, is exquisite. At the very end of the movement, Tchaikovsky divides the violins into five parts to raise the magic another notch. The DSO violins were wonderfully delicate and precise in this difficult section. New associate concertmaster Nathan Olson topped off the wizardry with seemingly effortless execution of the solo passage ending the movement.

There is greatness in this symphony, but it takes a conductor who believes wholeheartedly in the piece and who has the energy and expertise to bring it out. Van Zweden is such a conductor and with the Dallas Symphony at the top of its game, the music soared.

Glamour, Technique and a Too Cool Kern

In the first half of this all-Tchaikovsky programme Olga Kern was the soloist in the Piano Concerto No. 1.

Ms. Kern has become a favourite in these parts after winning the Cliburn Competition in Ft. Worth in 2001. As a Russian-born and Russian-trained pianist, she might be assumed to have an affinity for this music. There is no doubt that she has extraordinary technique. but her performance on this night was curiously restrained; one had the impression that she was trying to intellectualize the music. The result was slow tempi and rumination over material that didn’t warrant it.

Ms. Kern also gave the regrettable impression that she was not much interested in the orchestra’s contribution to the performance. She seemed never to acknowledge important orchestra solos – flute and oboe principals deserved better than that – and played her accompanying figures much too loudly over the winds’ melodic lines. Van Zweden and the DSO did their best to interact with their glamorous soloist; unfortunately, it was mostly a one-sided conversation.

For Those Wanting More…

It’s always a delight to visit Dallas and its ever-expanding Arts District. The Dallas Museum of Art is world class and nearby are the Nasher Sculpture Garden and the Trammel Crowe Museum of Asian Art. From these facilities, it’s a short walk to the Myerson – did I mention that it’s one of the world’s great concert halls? – and next door to the Myerson is the new Winspear Opera House. Across the street is the Dallas Theater Center, etc. Just a short drive down I-30 to Ft. Worth is another fine complex of museums and concert halls.

If your interests are wide enough to include major league sports, check out the Texas Rangers (baseball), the Dallas Cowboys (football), the Dallas Stars (hockey) and the Dallas Mavericks (basketball)?

Eating in fine restaurants is one of my favorite sports and Dallas provides endless opportunities to participate. Marita and I usually stop in at La Duni, but on this visit we only had time for Samar – try combining the cuisine of Spain, India and the Mediterranean – on Ross near the Arts District and for Lavendou, a wonderful old Provencal-inspired French bistro on Preston Rd.

*Andante con duolo is a very unusual tempo marking. It might be rendered in English as “Slow with grief”. This is the state of mind of the tormented Manfred of Byron’s poetic drama. This ill-fated man must try to live with the memory of his incestuous love for his sister Astarte. Music lovers may be aware of a similar relationship recounted in the Finnish epic poem “Kalevala,” set to music by Sibelius in his “Kullervo” Symphony.

Paul E. Robinson is the author of “Herbert von Karajan: the Maestro as Superstar,” and ”Sir Georg Solti: His Life and Music.” NEW for friends: The Art of the Conductor podcast, “Classical Airs.”

Classical Travels
THIS WEEK IN TEXAS

There is no doubt about it. A new era of musical excellence is underway in Dallas. Dutch conductor Jaap van Zweden has just finished his first season as music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) and even the musicians are shaking their heads in disbelief. Is he really this good? Are we this good? “Yes,” and “yes” to both questions.

All this excitement notwithstanding, on May 21st at the Meyerson, the ‘curtain went up’ on a program that appeared neither well planned nor very convincing – at least on paper.

Van Zweden is passionate about opera. For this evening, he and the DSO had scheduled a concert performance of “Madama Butterfly,” but like orchestras everywhere, the Dallas Symphony has had to rework its budget in the face of a punishing recession; thus, instead of “Madama Butterfly,” we had, on the face of it, a mishmash of Tchaikovsky and Brahms culminating in yet another unnecessary performance of the “1812 Overture.”

No matter. I would pay to hear Jaap van Zweden conduct “Happy Birthday” because I know he would give it one of the finest performances I have ever heard.

A Rousing but Anti-climactic 1812 Overture

The “1812 Overture,” on this occasion, was the version by Igor Buketoff, in which a chorus is substituted for lower strings in the opening bars and then makes several later appearances in the piece. We didn’t have cannons or fireworks in this performance, but the sparks were flying nonetheless in the overheated tempi chosen by van Zweden. The Dallas Symphony Chorus didn’t sound very Russian – not enough Russian basses have emigrated to Dallas, I guess – but they did their work with accuracy and gusto.

As good as it was, the “1812 Overture” was an anticlimax after the most stunning performance of Tchaikovsky’s “Capriccio Italien” I have ever heard.

Superb Performance Recorded for DSO’s Own Label!

“Capriccio Italien” begins with brass fanfares, based apparently on bugle calls Tchaikovsky head played by an Italian cavalry regiment. It goes on to a series of Italian folk songs and street music and finishes with a wild tarantella.

One particular section in this performance of the work sounded more intense and ominous than I ever imagined it could. It was the soft, triplet accompaniment in the brass that did it. This figure was played with such rhythmic accuracy and so darkly that it became progressively more menacing.

‘Menacing’ or ‘ominous’ are not adjectives one normally associates with pop concert fare like “Capriccio Italien.” Hearing this performance, I began to suspect that the Italian influence here was Verdi.

This is what a conductor like van Zweden can do for ‘familiar’ repertoire. He approaches such pieces as if they deserved the commitment he would give to a Mahler symphony. Each phrase is given new life. Note values are accurately observed and balances are worked out in careful detail.

When “Capriccio Italien” moved into dance territory, van Zweden nearly danced himself off the podium and this involvement was infectious. The string sound soared and surged; it was fulsome and joyous. And the best was yet to come.

In this piece, Tchaikovsky’s brass section is headed by pairs of cornets and trumpets, the former employed for their sound and their super chromatic capabilities compared to the trumpet in Tchaikovsky’s time. Principal trumpet Ryan Anthony chose to play a cornet for this piece and the results were wonderful. It was just the right Italian folk music sound for the lyrical sections – with a generous helping of vibrato – and the agility of the instrument (and the player!) in the quick passages worked perfectly too.

For all its extraordinary nuances, what I’ll remember most about this performance is how van Zweden steadily increased the tempo in the proverbial ‘race to the finish.’ Van Zweden was fearless in his acceleration and the DSO players were with him every step of the way. This was virtuoso playing of the highest order.

Fortunately, this concert was being recorded for broadcast. Even better, the “Capriccio Italien” is scheduled for release later this year on the DSO’s own label. It will be coupled with a Tchaikovsky Fifth recorded earlier this season. If the recording of “Capriccio Italien” is anything close to what I heard Thursday night, it will be sensational.

Violinist Simone Lamsma Wows Audience!

The first half of the concert was pretty remarkable too. The young Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma made her debut with the DSO in the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto.

Ms. Lamsma was scheduled to be a featured soloist with the orchestra in its forthcoming European tour; unfortunately, the tour has been scrubbed for the time being. It is hard to justify foreign tours when the basic operating budget is taking such a beating.

In any case, it was a pleasure to make the acquaintance of the gifted Ms. Lamsma, winner of at least four major violin competitions in the past three years. She has a formidable technique and a warm, distinctive sound. With van Zweden on the podium – a colleague who has played this concerto himself -this was a fine collaboration. The orchestra played with great sensitivity and panache!

Ms. Lamsma returns next season to play the Britten Violin Concerto.

Meyerson Hall an Acoustical Pleasure

Brahms‘ “Schicksalslied” (Song of Destiny) , a setting for chorus and orchestra of a poem by Holderlin. This is a beautiful if slight work by Brahms but it hardly fits in an all-Tchaikovsky program. And while the chorus sang beautifully, I thought that van Zweden miscalculated both dynamics and tempo. He started the piece so slowly and so softly that the line could not be sustained. Nor could the strings produce sufficient weight of sound. Still, this piece does not turn up often in concert and it was a pleasure to hear it, especially in an ideal acoustical setting like the Meyerson.

The concert opened with Jaap van Zweden has given Dallas a season of insight and excitement, with much more to come. Among the highlights next season will be the Mahler First and Second Symphonies, the Bruckner Ninth, the Rachmaninov Second Symphony and the Shostakovich Symphony No. 7 (”Leningrad”).

Paul E. Robinson is the author of “Herbert von Karajan: the Maestro as Superstar,” and “Sir Georg Solti: His Life and Music,” both available at Amazon.com.

Photos by Marita

Classical Music Blogs

Conductors come and go, but it is always a thrill to see one who really makes a difference. At the beginning of this season, Jaap van Zweden assumed the music directorship of the Dallas Symphony (DSO) and musical life in Dallas has not been the same since.

Jaap van Zweden is not your Hollywood central casting conductor – in fact if you met him on the street you might mistake him for a wrestler or a weight-lifter – but conducting has less to do with how you look than what you can do with an orchestra.

Maestro van Zweden is obviously a driven man and he expects that same drive from his players. At the concert I attended, there was no one sitting back and taking it easy. Instead of the lazy, half-hearted bowing one sees so often in string sections, every man and woman was bowing as if their lives depended on it. Not since Sir Georg Solti commanded a podium have I seen such intensity from a conductor.

The maestro’s message to the players? Music is serious stuff – I stayed up all night to figure this piece out and the least you can do is practice every waking hour until you are able to play it perfectly! Then we will start to work on interpretation and phrasing.

As it happens, earlier in his career, van Zweden did play under Solti and other great conductors when he was concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, recently voted the number one orchestra in the world by a group of respected luminaries; he learned the repertoire as a player in a world-class orchestra and he also learned what it takes to make music at the highest level. He has clearly brought that attitude to Dallas and the DSO players seem to like it a lot.

What I heard at the Myerson Symphony Center was remarkable by any standard and as a glimpse of things to come, it was tremendously exciting.

The concert was a somewhat belated New Year’s celebration, loosely modeled on the annual event by the Vienna Philharmonic broadcast worldwide. This means music by the Strauss family, and it also means finishing up with the likes of the “Blue Danube Waltz” and the “Radetzky March.” To give the occasion an American flavor, van Zweden ended the evening with Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever,” and earlier had presented Leroy Anderson’s somewhat dated novelty piece, “The Typewriter.”

Stokowski’s Orchestration of Pictures Rivals Ravel
The tour de force of the evening was Leopold Stokowski’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s piano piece, “Pictures at an Exhibition.” There are those who still wonder whether Stokowski actually wrote the many transcriptions attributed to him. There is strong evidence that much of this work was really done by Lucien Cailliet, a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra in the Stokowski era (1912-1936). The fact is that this orchestration is a fine alternative to the famous Ravel arrangement of the Mussorgsky original.

One of the devices Mussorgsky used to link the ‘pictures’ (by the composer’s friend Victor Hartmann) depicted in the piece is the ‘promenade” – walking music, if you will – as the visitor strolls from one exhibit to another in the gallery. The piece begins with just such a promenade and in the Ravel version, it is given to a solo trumpet. It is one of the best-known passages in classical music.

The Stokowski version starts quite differently, with rich and dark sonorities in the string section (with some reinforcement from an organ), and in the performance by van Zweden and the DSO one was taken aback by the weight and opulence of the sound. This was the special quality of the hall yielding to a conductor skilled at eliciting the sound he wants from an orchestra. The performance went on from there to surprise and thrill us with playing of razor-sharp precision and a vast range of color.

Curiosities abound in Stokowski’s version of “Pictures.” Nearly always, Stokowski chose instruments and combinations of instruments far removed from the Ravel version. In several sections of the score, however, he seems to be saying – ‘Ravel’s choice of instrument was so inspired and so right I couldn’t possibly do better’; ergo,  both the Ravel and Stokowski orchestrations feature a solo saxophone in ‘Il Vecchio Castello’ and a solo trumpet in ‘Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle.’

Jaap van Zweden, DSO & Myerson Symphony Center – Triumphant Trio!
I look forward to returning to Dallas for more music-making from Jaap van Zweden and his newly-galvanized Dallas Symphony. I’ll certainly have a lot more to say about van Zweden, but I can’t emphasize enough that Dallas has one of the world’s great concert halls.

There are only a handful of concert halls in North America that come anywhere close to the quality of the Myerson Symphony Center. What makes it great? In a few words – the sound jumps off the stage and involves the listener. The sound enhances the timbre of every instrument in the orchestra and makes them sound well together. It helps too that the Myerson looks so good inside and out, and that you can get a good meal there!

Later this year, the Myerson will be joined by the new Winspear Opera House and the Wyly Theatre just across the way. Within the span of a few blocks, one can also enjoy the treasures of the Dallas Museum of Art, the Nasher Sculpture Center and the Trammell and Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art.

This is the Dallas Arts District, a work in progress for many years but now coming to completion. Big D is about to become bigger and better than ever.

From Triumphant Trios to Cuatro Leches at La Duni – Dallas Delights!
It is not in the Arts District, but La Duni, a Latin Café on Mckinney – where the Cuatro Leches cake alone would keep me coming back – is one of the places we always visit on our return trips to Dallas, where we lived several years.

There is much more to savor at La Duni, however, than cake; for example,  several dozen kinds of coffee,  and a wide variety of amazing tortas (sandwiches), including our current favorite – the ‘Choripan’ with Argentinian sausage, avocado and manchego cheese stuffed in a fresh popover and served with yucca fries!

La Duni’s McKinney Street location opened in 2001 with founders Espartaco and Dunia Borga at the helm, and there are now two other locations in Dallas. Word on the street – actually, from one of the La Duni staff members – is that within a year or so, there will be a La Duni in Austin. Great news for Austinites, like us!

Paul Robinson is the author of “Herbert von Karajan: the Maestro as Superstar”; “Sir Georg Solti: his Life and Music,” and “Stokowski” (Spring 2009), all available at http://www.amazon.com. 

Classical Music Blogs