For its opening concert of the season on September 29, the Society for Chamber Music in Rochester turned a snafu into a rousing success.
Classical Music Review
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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 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 review: Musica Nova
On Thursday at Kilbourn Hall, Musica Nova and its music director Brad Lubman presented an engaging concert of 20th- and 21st-century works with bold compositional personalities. The program included an poignant tribute to the late composer and conductor Oliver Knussen.
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Classical review: Dawn Upshaw and Gilbert Kalish
The most striking thing about Dawn Upshaw’s performance at Eastman School of Music on
Tuesday was the warmth and accessibility of the soprano’s voice. Giving a recital as part of the Kilbourn Concert Series, Upshaw’s tone was earnest and personal, and devoid of pretension or blustery vibrato.
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Classical review: RPO’s 2018-19 season opener
Music Director Ward Stare kick-started the 2018-19 Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra season last night, with music by three very familiar composers. But when the program includes a powerhouse soloist, and the musicians acquit themselves so well, that familiarity is very satisfying.
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Publick Musick explores Mozart’s string quintets
What a difference an instrument can make, if you’re Mozart. He wrote chamber music of all kinds, from violin sonatas to wind serenades, but it’s often conceded that Mozart was at his best when simply adding a second viola (his favorite string instrument) to the customary string quartet: pride of place in his chamber-music output […]
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Classical review: RPO performs Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’
The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra on Thursday performed a rare, Baroque-heavy program with holiday overtones, and the results were close to perfection. Guest conductor Michael Christie — Minnesota Opera Music Director since 2012 — has crafted a smart, cohesive, and accessible playlist of mostly Italian masters, and in the process, has presented the RPO in a […]
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Classical review: Publick Musick’s ‘Rejoice’
Except for Handel’s “Messiah,” and perhaps Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio,” baroque music and Christmas may not go together in most audiences’ minds. The truth is that there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of vocal and instrumental works dedicated to the Christmas season by hundreds of 17th and 18th century composers. Publick Musick’s first concert of its 2017-18 […]
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Classical review: Pegasus marks Monteverdi’s 450th
Pegasus Early Music kicked off its 2017-18 concert season in grand style on Sunday, with a program featuring the madrigals and sacred song settings of Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi — widely considered the father of opera — marking his 450th birth year. The concert also featured instrumental music by his contemporaries Dario Castello, Biagio Marini, […]
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Classical review: Cordancia’s ‘Streets of Paris, Songs of Russia’
There is a vast, rich musical world in Rochester beyond the walls of the Eastman School of Music and Kodak Hall. Cordancia Chamber Orchestra drove this point home last Friday at the Finger Lakes Community College Auditorium with a fascinating program of obscure orchestral gems written by important, mostly underappreciated composers. The program began with […]
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Classical review: RPO’s 2017-18 season opener
If you’re going to open a symphony orchestra season, you may as well open it with a dazzling flourish or two. Richard Strauss’s tone poem, “Don Juan,” begins with one of the greatest opening salvoes in the orchestral repertoire, a hurtling rocket of strings and brass. When Ward Stare and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra leaped […]
