Amid the big news about the space last week, I wish I could officially say that there’s plenty of opportunity to be in Marian Anderson Hall this week, but we’ll just have to maintain our pride in one of Philadelphia’s most beloved daughters without her name on the building for a few more months, as we enjoy the music.
Spotlight: Two world premieres (also Tchaikovsky) — Saturday, Verizon Hall
Could there be three headliners on one show? The Curtis Symphony Orchestra offers Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, “Pathetique,” in the closing slot of this performance, but there’s plenty to get excited about leading up to that, with two world premieres starting the bill. If that’s what you’re going for, I’m sure the conductor, Robert Spano, is with you, as he’s one of the biggest advocates for new music in the business. First is an orchestral work titled Te Deum, though without voices, by Curtis alum James Ra. The second premiere will be a new electric guitar concerto by Curtis faculty member Steven Mackey, titled Aluminum Flowers and featuring guitarist JIJI. And then the Tchaikovsky, deservedly among the greats. Anyone arriving or leaving at intermission will be missing out.
March 9 at 3 p.m., Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, 300 South Broad Street, $19-$55; tickets and information.
Philadelphia Youth Orchestra — Sunday, Verizon Hall
If you find you’ve missed this one, consider subscribing to our newsletter! You may have also heard this on the radio: the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra’s next concert is Sunday, March 3rd, featuring guest violinist Richard Amoroso performing Sergei Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto. The orchestra, under the baton of Music Director Louis Scaglione, will open with the prelude to Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and close with Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 1 — it’s true that that premiered before he discovered his love for our city’s main orchestra, but we won’t hold that against him, and especially not the young musicians who never fail to impress.
March 3 at 3 p.m., Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, 300 South Broad Street, $25-$35; tickets and information.
Orchestre Métropolitain — Tuesday, Verizon Hall
Normally Yannick heads back to his hometown of Montreal to work with this group, but he’s brought the orchestra that made him music director for life, Orchestre Métropolitain, down to Philly this week. The group has two great No. 2s on the program — Sergei Rachmaninoff’s second piano concerto (with soloist Tony Siqi Yun) and Jean Sibelius’s second symphony. Opening the show is a new work by cellist and composer Cris Derksen titled Controlled Burn, a work with electronic elements concerning the indigenous practice of controlled burns in order to manage wildfires, changing the flames from a threat to a tool.
March 5 at 7:30 p.m., Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, 300 South Broad Street, $24-$99; tickets and information.
Princeton Symphony: Time for Three — Saturday and Sunday, Richardson Auditorium
If you missed Time for Three at Longwood Gardens last week, they’ll be about the same distance from Philly in the other direction this weekend. The singing string trio will be performing their collaboration with composer Kevin Puts, “Contact,” with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra under Rossen Milanov. The Orchestra has surrounded the concerto with ballet music: a suite by Bulgarian composer Marin Goleminov, as well as music from Sergei Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. There’s a pre-concert talk before the Sunday performance, and the orchestra is also doing a Soundtracks Talk on Bulgarian music this Thursday.
March 9 at 8 p.m. and March 10 at 4 p.m.; Richardson Auditorium, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, $5-$115; tickets and information.
Horszowski Trio / Ying Quartet — March 10, Perelman Theater
Two of today’s foremost chamber ensembles unite for a piece that requires them all: Philadelphia Chamber Music Society brings the Horszowski Trio and the Ying Quartet together for a Haydn string quartet and a chamber concerto by Ernest Chausson, those two more standard works bookending a septet by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, the first woman to ever win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. You’ll need to see if a friend has a spare ticket though, because it’s sold out.
March 10 at 3 p.m., Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, 300 South Broad Street, sold out; more information.
On the horizon, there’s lots more I’m looking forward to:
Iannis Xenakis’s Persepolis — March 16, Asian Arts Initiative
The Crossing: You Are Who I Love — March 17, Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill
Ensemble Pamplemousse — March 20, University Lutheran
McGill brothers/Charles Overton/Catalyst Quartet — March 28, Perelman Theater
Tesla Quartet — March 30, Black Squirrel Club
Seth Parker Woods: Difficult Grace — April 11, Zellerbach Theater
