The Philadelphia Orchestra in works by Brahms, Webern and Schumann

By Alan Yu, 01 May 2012

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Reviewed at Kimmel Center: Marian Anderson Hall, Philadelphia on 29 April 2012

Brahms, Symphony no. 3 in F major, Op.90

Webern, Six Pieces For Orchestra, Op.6

Schumann, Symphony no. 3 in E flat major "Rhenish", Op.97

The Philadelphia Orchestra

Sir Simon Rattle, Conductor

Marin Alsop brings unexpected pleasures to Philadelphia Orchestra

Kurt Gottschalk, 18th June

The Philadelphia Orchestra celebrates the 50th birthday of the Highmark Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Fairmont Park, with Marin Alsop serving up a surprise in Ravel's Boléro.

****1

Raising flags and questioning promises at Philadelphia’s Highmark Mann

Kurt Gottschalk, 17th June

Peter Boyer’s oratorio A Hundred Years On, commemorating the centenary of the 1876 World’s Fair, softens the blow of jingoism, looking to an earlier era of hope and broken promise.

***11

Philadelphia Orchestra closes season with a pair of American masters

Cameron Kelsall, 7th June

Hélène Grimaud and Emily D'Angelo join Yannick Nézet-Séguin for a varied and variable program of Gershwin and Bernstein.

***11

Alsop conducts a substitute Marsalis symphony at Carnegie Hall

David Wolfson, 29th May

The premiere of Wynton Marsalis’ Symphony no. 5 is postponed, substituted by selections from his Jungle Symphony, along with a disappointing Beethoven’s Seventh at Carnegie Hall.

***11

Philadelphia Orchestra debuts Tyshawn Sorey’s static Piano Concerto

Cameron Kelsall, 15th May

Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads the premiere of For Marilyn Crispell alongside the 1873 version of Bruckner’s “Wagner Symphony”, the Third.

***11

A superb Salzburg sojourn: Philadelphia Orchestra plays Mozart

Cameron Kelsall, 11th April

Guest conductor Harry Bicket brings a sense of urgency to Mozart's Requiem and pulse-quickening energy to Symphony no. 40.

****1

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Alan Yu

The first concert Alan attended was Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. For 7 years he presented classical music programmes for Radio Television Hong Kong, partly to pay his way through university. He attends concerts whenever he can and believes there is no substitute for the thrill of live performances. He writes here.