After a galvanic opening concert devoted to contemporary American music, this week’s Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra program — with works by Haydn, Mozart, and Dvoák— may seem staid and conventional. But there’s some welcome novelty here: the orchestra will be performing Haydn’s beautiful Symphony No. 34 for the first time, and Dvoák’s very tuneful, very popular […]
David Raymond
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Classical review: SCMR with Michael Wayne
For its opening concert of the season on September 29, the Society for Chamber Music in Rochester turned a snafu into a rousing success.
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CLASSICAL | Society for Chamber Music in Rochester
The Society for Chamber Music in Rochester starts its new season this Sunday afternoon with a number of introductions: a local concert debut for Michael Wayne, the Eastman School of Music’s new clarinet professor; an SCMR debut for violinist Willa Finck of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra; and what is most likely the Rochester debut of […]
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David reviews ‘Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra: Scheherazade .2’
A symphony orchestra in a Fringe Festival? It sure makes sense when the orchestra gives an entire program of recent music by four American composers, all very much alive. Space is limited, so I’ll start with the piece that gives the concert its title: a spectacular ”dramatic symphony” for violin and orchestra by John Adams, […]
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David reviews ‘The Geriactors Present’
I don’t think the Fringe Festival gives an award for Most Charming Production, but if they decide to, the Geriactors’ tribute to Byron Wilmot had better be in the running. The performers and the material, by a local playwright who died suddenly in 2014, fill an hour with genial amusement, and occasional bemusement. One of […]
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David reviews ‘Dogfight: The Musical’
Just to put it up front: “Dogfight” is a musical with a book by Peter Duchan and a score by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. I mention this because their names are mentioned nowhere on the program for OFC Productions’ Fringe Festival presentation. Seeing “Dogfight,” you might well wonder who wrote it, because Duchan, Pasek, […]
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David reviews ‘Charlie and the Siberian Monkey Goddess’
“Charlie and the Siberian Monkey Goddess” manages to be something you’ve seen before — the zany “Who’s the crazy one?” debate in a psychiatrist’s office — and something a bit different, in that the debate is between Charlie Chaplin (or an imposter) and someone who might be a doctor, or the goddess of the title, […]
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Pegasus Early Music’s season opener features works for viol
The early string instrument known as the viol (rhymes with “smile”) can frequently be found in Renaissance and Baroque art, usually in the hands of princesses, saints, or angels. For Pegasus Early Music’s September 22 concert “Viol3,” however, three viols will be in the hands of musicians Beiliang Zhu, Lisa Terry, and David Morris.
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CLASSICAL | Skaneateles Festival
In its 40 years celebrating chamber music, the Skaneateles Festival in the small town southwest of Syracuse has become a source of “world-class music by the lake,” to quote the festival’s motto. This year’s season kicks off in high style, with the up-and-coming, Grammy-nominated Aizuri Quartet (pictured) performing on August 1 and 2. The string […]
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OPERA | Finger Lakes Opera presents ‘La Bohème’
Conductor Gerard Floriano recalls that Puccini’s “La Bohème” was the first opera he ever saw. He finds it an ideal introduction to the art form, as well as one “that even opera fans never get tired of,” he says. So Puccini’s romantic masterpiece is an ideal cornerstone for the summer 2019 season of Finger Lakes […]
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CLASSICAL | Finger Lakes Chamber Music Festival
Now in its 17th year, the Finger Lakes Chamber Music Festival is a fixture on the Upstate New York summer concert scene. Under the direction of conductor-composer Richard Auldon Clark, this concert series travels from one pleasant Finger Lakes venue to another — from wineries to the Keuka College campus. This Sunday’s concert in the […]
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SPECIAL EVENT | Make Music Rochester
Make Music Rochester is modeled after the Parisian “Fête de la Musique” (a Parisian tradition? Already, I’m in), which began in 1982 as a tribute to the Summer Solstice. Each June 21, Paris is filled with all kinds of musicians performing all kinds of music in all kinds of spaces — sidewalks, lawns, balconies, parks, […]
