Phillip Nones studied piano from age six, also playing percussion in educational and civic groups before moving to a rural area of the USA in 1990, where performance opportunities were few. Recently he has started performing again, participating in “side-by-side” orchestra performances and playing percussion in the World Doctors' Orchestra. His personal collection of music includes over 5,000 classical albums in all formats (CDs, LPs, 78s), plus downloads. In his professional life, he heads up a marketing communications firm in the state of Maryland. He blogs about the French composer Florent Schmitt here.
In Buffalo, old meets new in an insightful Brahms Fourth Symphony that shares the billing with a world premiere concerto for two double basses and harp.
The rediscovered version of the Tomasi Trumpet Concerto from Håkan Hardenberger, Fabien Gabel and the Indianapolis Symphony shares the limelight with an authoritative Indy premiere of Florent Schmitt's La Tragédie de Salomé.
Virtuoso violin fireworks were on brilliant display in Noah Bendix-Balgley's own Klezmer Concerto, while the Baltimore Symphony and conductor Fabien Gabel presented an impassioned, memorably probing Mahler Five.
JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic showcase the rich diversity of four compelling 20th century works composed just 15 years apart, including Elgar's Cello Concerto, played by Asier Polo.
Fabien Gabel and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra bring Stravinsky's puppets to vivid life, while violinist Karen Gomyo delivers passion and pathos in Chausson's Poème.
The French conductor leads a “Salome-centric” concert high on drama and color, joined by Nicolas Altstaedt in presenting a cello concerto new to American audiences.
In a welcome reminder of what Russia can be at its best, Alexander Malofeev, JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic present memorable scores by Prokofiev and Scriabin.
A well-known rhapsody and symphony bracket Adolphus Hailstork's 1992 Piano Concerto in an all-around convincing performance featuring exciting soloist Stewart Goodyear.
Rimsky-Korsakov and Rachmaninov may be bread-and-butter repertoire for pianist Nikolai Lugansky and conductor Tugan Sokhiev, but the stellar presentation at this Berlin Philharmonic concert was Chausson's Symphony in B flat major.
Two symphonies composed in 1842 were an interesting programming premise but the execution was something of a letdown, with musical subtlety in short supply.
