United States Haydn, Webern, Brahms: Roberto Díaz (viola), Peter Wiley (cello), Zorá String Quartet, Benjamin Franklin Hall, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 21.1.2018. (BJ)
Bernard Jacobson
Mendelssohn’s Greatest Symphony Crowns a Varied British Isles Salute
United States Maxwell Davies, Bruch, Mendelssohn: Juliette Kang (violin), Philadelphia Orchestra / Yannick Nézet-Séguin (conductor), Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center, Philadelphia, 19.1.2018. (BJ)
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)
SOME OF OUR REVIEWERS CHOOSE THEIR ‘BEST OF 2017’
THE BEST OF 2017
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)