Best Classical Music Concerts in NYC and Boston this Winter
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Photo credit: © Zach Alan Molina Visuals
From NYC to Boston to Brooklyn, here are the shows you won’t want to miss in January and February.
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra with Violinist Vadim Gluzman (January 25)
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra returns to Carnegie Hall to present a program celebrating the changing of the seasons. Artistic Partner Jessie Montgomery and composer Jannina Norpoth’s brand new reimagining of Tchaikovsky’s endearing collection of piano miniatures, The Seasons, adds to the slim collection of Romantic repertoire for small orchestra. Frequent Orpheus collaborator, violinist Vadim Gluzman, returns to perform Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Get your tickets here.
Vadim Gluzman. Photo credit © Marco Borggreve
International Contemporary Ensemble. Photo credit: Armen Elliot
International Contemporary Ensemble at Carnegie Hall (January 28)
The all-Widmann program, part of Carnegie Hall’s Fast Forward series, features the composer as virtuosic clarinet soloist and chamber music collaborator in his Liebeslied for Eight Instruments; Air for Solo Horn; Etude No. 2 for Solo Violin; Quintet for Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, and Piano; and Three Shadow Dances for Solo Clarinet; and Freie Stücke (Free Pieces). Tickets and more information can be found here.
Jörg Widmann
Boston Modern Orchestra
The Boston Modern Orchestra Project Presents The Chronicle of Nine (February 1)
Leading the vanguard of Boston’s classical music scene, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) and Odyssey Opera present the world premiere of The Chronicle of Nine: The Tragedy of Lady Janeby the late American composer Arnold Rosner (1945-2013).
Rosner died in 2013 leaving over 100 published works, many that were never performed during his lifetime, and some have not been heard by any audience.The Chronicle of Nine was written in 1984, later recorded on Albany Records in 2012, and yet never performed.
Playing the lead role of Lady Jane Grey is soprano Megan Pachecano, who made her Odyssey Opera company debut as Anne Page in Sir John in Love. The Chronicle of Nine "deserves to be shared, and I can think of no better company to do its premiere justice than Odyssey Opera,” says Pachecano.“Odyssey Opera has been doing an incredible service to our industry in bringing never- or rarely-performed works to light in a high level of performance. I'm honored to have the opportunity to work with them again. These are the kinds of projects artists live for!" Learn more about The Chronicle of Nine here.
Brooklyn Art Song Society Presents Rarely Performed Songs by Bartók and Kodaly (February 7)
On Friday, February 7th, Brooklyn Art Song Society (BASS) presents the fourth installment of Home with songs by Hungarian masters Béla Bartók and Zoltan Kodaly alongside Diary of One Who Vanished, Leoš Janáček’s epic song cycle. Bartók and Kodaly were pioneers in ethnomusicology, traveling the countryside in Central and Eastern Europe to preserve Folk Music on early wax records, incorporating what they heard into their musical language.
Janáček’s Diary of One Who Vanished tells a passionate semi-autobiographical love story through the prism of rural Czech life. The singers include soprano Lucy Fitz-Gibbon, mezzo-soprano Kate Maroney, and tenor Dominic Armstrong joined by pianists Michael Brofman and Joel Harder. Professor Larry Wolff (NYU) gives a pre-concert lecture at 7:00PM.
BASS is currently celebrating its 10th season, and you can learn more about their work and this performance here.
