In the Society for Chamber Music in Rochester’s “German Genius and Joker” program on Sunday, Beethoven’s Septet represents the genius here, while the joker is Richard Strauss’ “Till Eulenspiegel einmal anders!” Strauss’s witty, virtuosic orchestral tone poem sounds even wittier and more virtuosic in this quintet arrangement by Franz Hasenorhl. The players’ roster on Sunday […]
David Raymond
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Classical review: RPO with Jon Nakamatsu
On Thursday, Jon Nakamatsu’s finely judged reading of Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra was not only drop-dead elegant, but also full of the composer’s signature energy.
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CLASSICAL | RPO with Jon Nakamatsu
Music Director Ward Stare returns to the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra podium this week with an unusually substantial program, the first of several coming up this year. After Vadym Kholodenko’s appearance earlier this month, you can hear another of the RPO’s favorite guests, Jon Nakamatsu, performing Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto. This is probably the least-played but […]
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Classical review: RPO with Vadym Kholodenko and Gemma New
It’s interesting to see which guest conductors and soloists Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra audiences
will take to, and wonder why they make that connection. This week the RPO invited a young conductor and a young pianist, and the crowd went wild, as they say.
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CLASSICAL | RPO with Vadym Kholodenko
The Ukrainian pianist Vadym Kholodenko won the Van Cliburn Competition in 2014, and has sustained a career as an outstanding performer of powerhouse repertoire. He’s also become a popular RPO soloist, and the vehicle for his return is Maurice Ravel’s scintillating Concerto in G Major – a jazz-inflected work that requires a virtuoso technique and […]
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CLASSICAL | RPO’s ‘Carmina Burana’
The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the Rochester Oratorio Society, rather daringly, are going secular this holiday season with Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana.” No stars or mangers here: this “scenic cantata” is based on medieval poetry celebrating the joys of drinking ale, eating roasted swans, and generally carrying on, under the watchful eye of the goddess […]
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CLASSICAL | RPO’s ‘Brandenburg Concerto No. 4’
Johann Sebastian Bach’s six Brandenburg Concertos are among the best-known pieces in classical music, but they don’t often appear on symphony orchestra programs. The fourth in the series makes a welcome appearance on the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra’s concert this Sunday afternoon. Handling the Bachian filigree in this lighter-than-air work are RPO flutists Rebecca Gilbert and […]
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‘Mozart in France’ concert highlights chamber music rarities
The Society for
Chamber Music in Rochester is known for putting together captivating programs.
For next weekend’s concert, which takes place on Sunday, December 16 at the Performance Hall at Hochstein, SCMR does it again, with a program called “Mozart
in France.”
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Jeff Tyzik and the RPO play early-20th-century hits
This weekend’s Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra Pops program follows a playlist ranging from 1900 to 1925 – mostly popular songs from that era, with a few
classical works included side-by-side. And it’s typically imaginative programming from Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik.
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CLASSICAL | ‘Giving BACH’
This Saturday afternoon, Ad Hoc Music presents one of J.S. Bach’s most engaging vocal works. The so-called “Coffee Cantata” is not a typical Bach cantata. In this very secular work, the yearning soul is a young lady who just wants her three cups of coffee each day. Part of the Rochester Early Music Festival, the […]
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Classical review: RPO performs ‘Hungarian Harmonies’
This week’s Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra concert is an engaging RPO debut for guest conductor Carlos Kalmar, in a program that also features a refined, confident solo performance from Principal Cellist Ahrim Kim.
