The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra’s Festival of American Music this month looked good and paper, and in its two Kodak Hall concerts it sounded even better. This weekend’s final concert, in which Ward Stare leads a very entertaining recent concerto by Jennifer Higdon along with two terrific, not-quite-standard-repertoire scores by Barber and Copland, was a powerful […]
David Raymond
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CLASSICAL | “Great Cello Quintets”
The Society for Chamber Music in Rochester continues its season this weekend with an exploration of “Great Cello Quintets.” Yes, a cello quintet is a thing — not five cellos, but generally an ensemble consisting of two violins, a viola, and two cellos. (In this case they’ll be violinists Robin Scott and Thomas Rodgers, violist […]
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RPO highlights American music in new festival
American music is like America, says Ward Stare, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra’s music director. “It’s a melting pot,” he says, “a diversity of sounds and influences, and a tremendous breadth of styles. And Rochester has been an important center for American music for nearly a hundred years.” Stare will prove his point in the next couple […]
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CLASSICAL/JAZZ | “From Tragedy to Transcendence”
The phrase “Casals playing Bach” is not just a shorthand phrase for transcendent music making; it’s also a metaphor for profound artistic integrity. When the young Spanish cellist Pau (Pablo) Casals discovered the Bach suites for solo cello at the turn of the 20th century, they were virtually unknown; his recitals and recordings made them […]
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GOSPEL | Tamela Mann
If you haven’t heard Tamela Mann as a gospel singer, you may have seen her as an actor in several Tyler Perry movies (“Diary of a Mad Black Woman,” “Madea’s Big Happy Family”), or on a number of TV shows, including the sitcom “Meet the Browns.” But as her five albums, a long list of […]
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Rochester Chamber Orchestra rediscovers Louise Farrenc
Women composers have hardly had their fair shakes. But I’d venture to say that in Rochester, at least, their situation is looking up just a bit this fall. Last month, a spectacular Pegasus Early Music concert featured remarkable vocal music by the 17th century composer Barbara Strozzi; in a couple of weeks the RPO will […]
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CLASSICAL | RPO with Christopher Seaman
The direction “nobilmente” appears often in the scores of Edward Elgar. If you wanted to list the “noblest” of this British composer’s works, you’d have to put his magnificent Second Symphony near the top. It is passionate, elegiac, lavish in themes and orchestration; it’s absolutely one of the finest late-Romantic symphonies — and, since it’s […]
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THEATER | Festival of New Theatre
What’s new in local and national theater? Geva has several answers to that question in its annual Festival of New Theatre, beginning Wednesday night and running through October 23. Highlights include the reading of a new play about two great Rochesterians, Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony, and the opportunity to discuss the plays with […]
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CLASSICAL | “re: Percussion and Brass”
Violin sonatas, piano trios, and clarinet quintets are all familiar entities on chamber music programs, but brass players seldom get their proper place at the chamber music table, and percussionists almost never do. The First Muse chamber music series shifts the paradigm this Sunday when it presents “re: Percussion and Brass” as the opening concert […]
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Classical review: “Barbara’s Venice”
The best concerts bring genuine discoveries as well as purely musical delights. This was the case with “Barbara’s Venice,” the opener to Pegasus Early Music’s 12th season. The Barbara referred to is Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677), a notable singer and an even more celebrated composer in a time and place that had more than its share […]
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David reviews ‘The Oboe Show’
If you like the luscious sound of the oboe, you’d like “The Oboe Show.” And if you can actually play this legendarily tricky woodwind instrument, you’d find a lot to identify with in this engagingly silly mix of comedy (handled mostly by three amusing performers) and music (played by two excellent oboists, one of whom […]
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David reviews ‘The Eulogy’ and Polite Ink
“The Eulogy” has received a string of awards and rave reviews from Fringe Festivals all over, and it’s about to receive another one. The word “monologue” is much too staid for Michael Burgos’s take on the idea of the funeral eulogy: he tips it on its head, ties it into knots, and sets it spinning […]
