United States Maxwell Davies, Bruch, Mendelssohn: Juliette Kang (violin), Philadelphia Orchestra / Yannick Nézet-Séguin (conductor), Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center, Philadelphia, 19.1.2018. (BJ)
Bernard Jacobson
Solzhenitsyn’s Schubert Still Compelling Two Decades Later
United States Shostakovich, Schubert: Ignat Solzhenitsyn (piano), Benjamin Franklin Hall, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 12.1.2018. (BJ)
New Music and Old Share Intensity and Poetry
United States Schubert, Samuel Jones, Brahms: Jeffrey Khaner (flute), Philadelphia Orchestra / Pablo Heras-Casado (conductor), Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center, Philadelphia, 6.1.2018. (BJ)
Opera Philadelphia’s Inaugural O17 Festival
A Modest Tribute to Opera Philadelphia’s Inaugural O17 Festival
This will not be a review in the usual acceptation of the term. My intention is merely to offer a modest tribute to Opera Philadelphia for the sense of burgeoning artistic enterprise it has shown in the six years since David Devan took over as general director. That progress has now been emphasized by O17, a two-week festival inaugurating the company’s 2017/18 presentations, and set to become a regular feature of coming seasons also.
A Mahler Third Presented in Surprising but Illuminating Colors
United States Mahler: Karen Cargill (mezzo-soprano), Women of the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir (Amanda Quist, director), The American Boychoir/Fernando Malvar-Ruiz (music director), Philadelphia Orchestra / Yannick Nézet-Séguin (conductor), Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center, Philadelphia, 20.5.2017. (BJ)
New Pictures Give Pleasure, but Don’t Quite Replace the Old Ones
United States Rousseau, Beethoven, Dai Wei, Brossé: Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia / Dirk Brossé (conductor), Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center, Philadelphia, 15.5.2017. (BJ)
A Gifted Young Pianist Offers Much Beauty and a Touch of Disappointment
United States Handel, Schubert, Ligeti, Brahms: Inon Barnatan (piano), Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center, Philadelphia, 10.5.2017. (BJ)
Undimmed Hilarity – and Profundity – in a Supreme Operatic Masterpiece
United States Mozart, Le nozze di Figaro: Soloists, Chorus, and Orchestra of Opera Philadelphia / Corrado Rovaris (conductor), Academy of Music,, Philadelphia, 7.5.2017. (BJ)
