The Society for Chamber Music in Rochester on Friday ended its season in satisfying style. The organization celebrated its 40th anniversary, and pianist Jon Nakamatsu celebrated the end of his season as SCMR’s first artist-in-residence. Friday’s concert itself began with something worth celebrating: the opening movement of Mendelssohn’s D Minor Trio, performed by the Hochstein […]
Rochester Classical Music
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Classical review: Fabien Gabel conducts the RPO
Popular guest conductor Fabien Gabel joined the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in a return to Kodak Hall on Thursday for a program that truly was a tale of two halves, featuring startlingly contrasting moods. It can be argued that the evening’s first piece, Bernard Herrmann’s suite from the film “Vertigo,” was its best: Gabel’s conducting was […]
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Classical review: SCMR’s ‘Bach to the Future’
In a long-ago “Young People’s Concert” on TV, Leonard Bernstein took as his theme the idea of “Bach Transmogrified.” To his audience of captive tykes, he presented numerous examples of the sturdy old baroque master’s sturdy old music re-arranged not only for symphony orchestras, but also for such then-up-to-date phenomena as a rock band and […]
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Classical review: Pegasus’s “The Secret of the Muses”
The 17th century French lutenist and composer Jacques Gaultier was once praised for “the goodness of his hands — the most swift, the neatest, and most even that ever were.” That’s also an accurate paean for 21st century lutenist Paul O’Dette, who offered a blissful solo recital on Sunday afternoon as part of the Pegasus […]
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Broadway sensation Sutton Foster comes to Rochester
Broadway star Sutton Foster sings with exactly the kind of bright-eyed conviction, poise, and exuberance you would expect from a two-time Tony Award winner (for “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and “Anything Goes”) and originator of roles like Fiona in “Shrek The Musical.” But Foster’s also the kind of performer who relishes breaking out from behind the […]
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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 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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Fall’s forte
The 2016-17 classical music season includes Grammy winners, Bach’s birthday, and unique composers
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Ward Stare reflects on RPO’s 2015-16 season
The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2015-2016 season was Ward Stare’s first year to program as the orchestra’s music director — he officially took over the position in September 2014, and led several concerts during that season, but its programming had already been set. And this season was, by artistic and financial standards, a success. Stare’s musicality […]
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Staying true to Beethoven
The Amenda Quartet has played all kinds of music during its short six years, but it has remained true to its initial conception. The quartet — violinists (and married couple) Patricia Sunwoo and David Brickman; violist Melissa Matson; and cellist Mimi Hwang — formed with the goal to learn all of Beethoven’s string quartets. (The […]
