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Spotlight: Staatskapelle Berlin — Dec. 3, Verizon Hall
Amid an early-December Sunday with a surfeit of options, the Staatskapelle Berlin (founded in 1570) is pulling into town with two Brahms symphonies, Nos. 3 and 4. Though Daniel Barenboim was scheduled to conduct, he has withdrawn from the orchestra’s North American tour for health reasons. Stepping in will be Yannick Nézet-Séguin (whom some of you might have heard of), which should be a fascinating combo. The ensemble hasn’t been seen in Philadelphia since 2006.
Dec. 3 at 7:30 p.m., Verizon Hall, Kimmel Cultural Campus, 300 South Broad Street, $35 to $119; tickets and information.
Bowerbird — Wednesday and Friday at University Lutheran Church, Saturday at Icebox Project Space
Quick, when was the last time you heard a concert for voice and double bass? Too late: the answer is likely “never.” Which is why you might consider this Wednesday recital from LIGAMENT, the duo of vocalist Anika Kildegaard and double bassist Will Yager, on the first of three imposing nights from an essential presenter in Philadelphia’s new music landscape. On the menu are works by Katherine Balch, Brett Carson, Lila Meretzky, Ruby Fulton, and Lilac Atassi.
Wednesday at 8 p.m., University Lutheran, 3637 Chestnut Street, $12 to $20; tickets and information.
On Friday, Peter Evans and David Taylor will offer new music for trumpet and trombone, respectively. Among Evans’ myriad activities, he has performed with the Wet Ink Ensemble and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), as well as composers John Zorn, Pauline Oliveros, Kanye West, George Lewis, Anthony Braxton, and Tyshawn Sorey. Taylor has collaborated with Alan Hovhaness, Charles Wuorinen, George Perle, Frederic Rzewski, and Lucia Dlugoszewski, and has recorded with Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, and Wynton Marsalis.
Friday at 8 p.m., University Lutheran, 3637 Chestnut Street, $12 to $20; tickets and information.
And on Saturday, this time at Icebox Project Space, two artists celebrate French composer Éliane Radigue, who turned 91 earlier this year. Percussionist Enrico M. will perform OCCAM XXVI (2018) for bowed cymbals, and trumpeter Nate Wooley will offer OCCAM X (2014). Then both will combine forces for OCCAM River, a recent Radigue composition.
Saturday at 8 p.m., Icebox Project Space, 1400 North American Street, $12 to $20; tickets and information.
Philadelphia Chamber Music Society — Wednesday and Friday at the Perelman Theater, Sunday at the American Philosophical Society
In a city of cultural treasures, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society has to be near the top of the list. The first of three PCMS concerts this week marks the debut of pianist Boris Giltburg, with works by Beethoven and Liszt, concluding with the 13 Preludes, Op. 32, by Rachmaninov, a composer Giltburg has long championed.
Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., Perelman Theater, Kimmel Cultural Campus, 300 South Broad Street, $30; tickets and information.
Two nights later, in a tribute to the Curtis Institute, faculty member and clarinetist Osmo Vänskä and his wife, violinist Erin Keefe (concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra) join Curtis musicians in an unusual lineup of Mozart, Dohnányi, and Schulhoff. The program ends with Sibelius — an arrangement of his orchestral tone poem En Saga — by Jaakko Kuusisto, who died in 2022.
Friday at 7:30 p.m., Perelman Theater, Kimmel Cultural Campus, 300 South Broad Street, $30; tickets and information.
And on Sunday afternoon at the intimate American Philosophical Society, the Formosa Quartet makes their first PCMS appearance in Haydn’s Fifths quartet, plus a “Formosa set” to be announced. To close, violist Hsin-Yun Huang and cellist Peter Wiley join the foursome for Dvořák’s String Sextet.
Dec. 3 at 3 p.m., American Philosophical Society, 427 Chestnut Street, tickets and information.
Choral Arts Philadelphia — Friday, The Church of the Holy Trinity
For those looking for a holiday alternative to The Messiah, conductor Donald Meineke leads Choral Arts Philadelphia in Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, one of his most charming scores, for chorus, harp, and organ. Adding to the enchantment of Choral Arts’ almost 40 voices, the church’s main sanctuary will be illuminated by candlelight.
Dec. 1, 7 p.m., The Church of the Holy Trinity, 1904 Walnut Street, $30 and $40, students $15; tickets and information.
Tempesta di Mare: Unmatched — Friday at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, Saturday at the Trinity Center for Urban Life
In this context, “unmatched” refers to mixed ensembles of winds and strings — and lovers of the Baroque will rejoice in this latest outing from Tempesta di Mare. Concertmaster Emlyn Ngai leads six of the ensemble’s musicians in works by Vivaldi, Zelenka, and Telemann, with a rare Sonata da camera by Johann Gottlieb Janitsch (1708-1762). On the first night (Dec. 1) the ensemble appears in the pristine acoustic of the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, and for the second, the glowing setting is the Trinity Center for Urban Life.
Friday at 7:30 p.m., Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, 8855 Germantown Avenue, and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Trinity Center for Urban Life, 2212 Spruce Street, $35 and $45; tickets and information.
The Philadelphia Orchestra — Friday through Dec. 3, Verizon Hall
In his First Symphony, Gustav Mahler demonstrated a profound mastery of the medium. (A pianist friend once imagined the composer saying afterward, “Here’s my card. Call me.”) Its mix of darkness and sunlight — including the famous funeral march that quotes “Frère Jacques” — is irresistible when tackled by musicians attuned to its youthful energy. As a not-insignificant bonus, pianist Javier Perianes is the soloist in the U.S. premiere of Ephemerae, the new piano concerto by Peruvian composer Jimmy López Bellido. The conductor, Rafael Payare, is a graduate of the renowned Venezuelan educational program known as El Sistema, and he currently serves as music director of the San Diego Symphony as well as the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal.
Dec. 1 and 3 at 2 p.m. and Dec. 2 at 8 p.m., Verizon Hall, Kimmel Cultural Campus, 300 South Broad Street, $25 to $166; tickets and information.
