This week’s offering of concerts will bust some genre classifications. Keep your ears open, and you might discover something you didn’t know you liked. For those string quartet aficionados, put your name on the waitlist for PCMS’s sold-out concert by the Brentano Quartet.
Spotlight: The Witty and the Wicked — Thursday and Friday, Marian Anderson Hall
In the past few months, The Philadelphia Orchestra has performed Mahler’s 6th and 9th Symphonies. These lengthy works are well-complemented by weeks like this where the orchestra performs 4 short to medium length works. Although all four works are firmly in the standard orchestral repertoire, their juxtaposition here offers a compelling creative narrative. The concert theme is “The Witty and the Wicked” and we certainly get both of these with Richard Strauss’s tone poem, Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, which follows the story of the titular character. The other Strauss piece on the program “Dance of the Seven Veils,” from the opera Salome can at times feel like a wicked musical slap in the face; and I mean that in a good way. Liszt’s First Piano Concerto is wicked in another sense, with a blisteringly difficult piano solo part. It is our treat to have pianist Haochen Zhang in town, who makes this music look easy. The program is rounded out by Wagner’s Overture to Tannhäuser and conducted by Tugan Sokhiev, who is a consummate professional adept at all of this romantic repertoire.
May 1 at 7:30 p.m., May 2 at 2 p.m., Marian Anderson Hall, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, 300 South Broad Street, $25-$166; tickets and information.
Musicians from Marlboro — Wednesday, American Philosophical Society
The Marlboro Music School and Festival is one of the premier programs for gifted artists who have just finished their training in higher education. It takes place every summer in Vermont for seven weeks, and has helped cultivate some of the top talent in the world of chamber music. Thankfully, we do not have to travel to Vermont in order to hear some of these bright stars perform – the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society features them in a series of concerts each season. This week’s installment includes an extremely varied program that I hope will draw some audience members into the world of new and contemporary classical music. The book-ends are standard string quartets by Haydn and Mozart which will, without a doubt, please the crowd. The middle work is “Got Lost” by Helmut Lachenmann, which is a wildly adventurous and entertaining work written for soprano and piano. The performer’s on that piece, pianist Sahun Sam Hong and soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon, got the rare opportunity to work with the composer himself in 2023. An expert performance is in store for us.
April 30 at 7:30 p.m., Benjamin Franklin Hall, American Philosophical Society, 427 Chestnut Street, $30; tickets and information.
Brahms’ Third Symphony — Saturday, Gordon Theater, Camden, NJ
I grew up in South Jersey and I am not afraid to admit my pride for my home state that often is the punchline of a joke. If you are a New Jerseyan yourself and do not feel like paying for the bridge toll and parking to hear high level orchestral music, then Symphony in C is an amazing option. They are a training orchestra which often includes top students from Juilliard and the Curtis Institute of Music, and perform at the Rutgers campus in Camden. This weekend’s concert features Brahms' confident, yet beautiful Third Symphony and a violin concerto by Samuel Barber, who was a native of the Philadelphia area. The solo part is performed by the up-and-coming violinist Amaryn Olmeda. The conductor, Noam Aviel, clearly fosters and projects the effervescence that you only get from an orchestra made of musicians of this age.
May 3 at 7:30 p.m., Gordon Theater, Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts, 314 Linden Street, Camden, NJ, $10-$60; tickets and information.
Kristin Chenoweth — Saturday, Marian Anderson Hall
Would you consider Kristin Chenoweth a classical musician? Maybe not, but it is hard to ignore the opportunity to see one of the greatest Broadway performers join forces with one of the world’s best orchestras. Any friend of yours that has always claimed they wanted to go to a classical music concert (but never has) will most definitely love this event. They might even come back with you to the orchestra for a more standard program. For now, though, you can all enjoy Chenoweth sing hits of Broadway, a few opera-ish numbers, and plenty of hilarious storytelling from the stage.
May 3 at 7 p.m., Marian Anderson Hall, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, 300 South Broad Street, $69-$199; tickets and information.
Max Richter — Sunday, The Met Philadelphia
If someone asked me to predict what classical music might sound like in the year 2150, I would think of Max Richter. His highly-anticipated 2024 album release “In a Landscape” provides a unique style of writing that, at times, edges on sounding like ambient film score music. But it’s much deeper than one might think, with melancholic and romantic-inspired melodies played by string instruments and piano. Some of the tracks remind me of a mashup of the Icelandic rock band Sigur Rós and a tonal Claude Debussy. You’ll likely hear many of the tracks from this album when you attend his show at The Met, a fitting venue for this style.
May 4 at 8 p.m., The Met Philadelphia, 858 North Broad Street, tickets from $55; tickets and information.
A Sunday Serenade at The Carriage House — Sunday, The Carriage House at Rockwood Park, Wilmington, DE
Similar to my pride for New Jersey, I know there are WRTI listeners who feel pride for their state of Delaware. Check out this concert if you’re in this southern portion of our listening area and want a relaxing afternoon without crossing state lines. It’s a benefit for the Rockwood Park Preservation Society, and features a smattering of classical guitar players. A great option all around for you to support your local park and hear the delightful sounds of the standard classical guitar repertoire.
May 4 at 3 p.m., The Carriage House at Rockwood Park, 4671 Washington Street Extension, Wilmington, DE, $25; purchase tickets.
