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Tag: Princeton Symphony Orchestra

Princeton Symphony: Time for Three Shines

If you can find time to squeeze it in before your Oscar party, and if you’ve got the energy after losing an hour’s sleep due to the time change, it would be worth your while to try to catch the second performance of this weekend’s concerts of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra.

The program includes suites from the ballets “The Fire Dancer” (1938-40) by Bulgarian composer Marin Goleminov (in what music director Rossen Milanov claims is the work’s first U.S. performances) and “Romeo and Juliet” (1935-36) by Sergei Prokofiev.

However, for as enticing as these offerings are, the real highlight is “Contact” (2022), a recent triple concerto by American composer Kevin Puts (Pulitzer Prize winner in 2012 for his opera “Silent Night”). The work, which is cinematic in the best possible sense, was written for the loosey-goosey, genre-hopping trio Time for Three (violinists Nick Kendall and Charles Yang and double-bassist Ranaan Meyer). These guys have been like overcaffeinated squirrels from the time I used to watch them improvising in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square while still students at the Curtis Institute of Music. You won’t be able to take your eyes off the soloists, even as you’re alternately caressed, shaken and stirred by the music.

When “Romeo and Juliet” is the concert’s standard repertoire, you know the program has to be an exceptionally challenging one for the musicians, but last night you could see they were totally transfixed, charmed, and energized by their kinetic guests.

There was plenty of crackle in the hall for that piece and for the encore, as the trio presented a cover of the R&B classic “Stand by Me.” I don’t know that I’ve ever heard an audience react like that to a classical music concert in Richardson Auditorium. The level of energy was outstanding.

Today’s concert begins at 4 p.m. Admittedly, it is a long program, cresting two hours, but of course there is an intermission, and you’d be guaranteed to be out before 6:30. Grab a coffee ahead of time, have the fridge stocked in advance, and it’s possible you’ll be back in time for the start of the Oscars broadcast. You can always record the trashy red carpet prelude, if it means that much to you.

Or ditch the Prokofiev, if you must, and take off at intermission. Of course, you’d be missing some fantastic music. Also, if you love John Williams, it’s an added pleasure to be able to spend time with a composer who was clearly one of his biggest influences.

I apologize for not providing more advance notice for this extraordinary concert, but I had a lot of deadlines this week, and really, I didn’t think anything about it until yesterday! Do yourself a favor, if you can, and make time for Time for Three.

For tickets and information, visit princetonsymphony.org.

PHOTO: As seen at last summer’s The Princeton Festival

March 10, 2024
Anthony Roth Costanzo Returns to Princeton

It’s been all high notes for countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo since he graduated from Princeton University in 2004.

This weekend, he returns a conquering hero – the winner of a 2022 Grammy Award (his third nomination), for his recording of John Corigliano’s “The Lord of Cries,” and the recipient of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2020 Beverly Sills Artist Award – to sing two works with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra.

Costanzo will perform not only music by Baroque master George Frideric Handel – the aria “Quella fiamma” from the opera “Arminio” – but also a recent piece by Princeton alum Gregory Spears, “Love Story” – on a text by Tracy K. Smith, who served as U.S. Poet Laureate from 2017 to 2019 – written specifically for Costanzo on a commission from the New York Philharmonic in 2021.

Princeton University graduate student Nina Shekhar’s “Lumina,” also premiered by the NYP, will open the program, which will conclude with a dramatic rollercoaster – and an audience favorite – Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.

Music director Rossen Milanov will conduct at Richardson Auditorium, Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 4 p.m. A pre-concert talk will precede the Sunday performance at 3 p.m.

In recent years, Costanzo has proved himself an Akhnaten for the ages, in New York and elsewhere. His performance in Philip Glass’ opera about the first monotheistic pharaoh was revelatory and a high point of the Met’s streaming during the pandemic.

Costanzo headlined Corigliano’s Dracula opera at its debut in Santa Fe in 2021. He’s also created roles in Jimmy Lopez’s “Bel Canto” and Jack Heggie’s “Great Scott.” Clearly, opportunities for countertenors have expanded well beyond the 18th century.

Witness Costanzo’s versatility firsthand this weekend with the PSO. For tickets and information, visit princetonsymphony.org.

January 12, 2024
Princeton Symphony Conjures Mazzoli’s Magic

Play Missy for me.

According to composer Missy Mazzoli, her Violin Concerto (Procession) “casts the soloist as a soothsayer, sorcerer, healer and pied piper-type character, leading the orchestra through five interconnected healing spells.”

Jennifer Koh, the violinist for whom the work was written, will weave her magic with the @[100043116381457:2048:Princeton Symphony Orchestra] this weekend.

Also on the program will be Felix Mendelssohn’s beguiling “Hebrides Overture (Fingal’s Cave),” inspired by a trip to Scotland, and Jean Sibelius’ alchemical Symphony No. 2, embraced at its premiere as a symbol of Finnish nationalism, but described by its composer as “a confession of the soul.“

Kenneth Bean will conduct at Richardson Auditorium in Princeton University’s Alexander Hall, this Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 4 p.m. For more information, visit princetonsymphony.org.

October 11, 2023
Princeton Symphony Celebrates Dawson Symphony

Well, Labor Day is behind us now, so I shouldn’t be surprised that the 2023-24 concert season is practically underway. The Princeton Symphony Orchestra is all set to go with its first pair of concerts, this weekend. And judging from the program, it’s going to be a good one.

In the wake of George Floyd, a lot of pieces by composers of color have been introduced or revived in our concert halls. William Levi Dawson’s “Negro Folk Symphony” is one of the best of these. I’ve played it on the radio many times – I own three recordings of it so far (Neeme Järvi’s being my preference) – but if you had asked me as recently as four years ago, I would have thought I would never have the opportunity to hear it live. Now, with the upcoming Princeton concerts, it will have been three times!

You won’t hear any complaints from me. Dawson’s symphony is the real deal.

The work was given its premiere by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1934. Dawson revised it after a visit to West Africa in 1952. It is in this form that Stokowski recorded it.

However, likely due to lack of demand for his orchestral music, Dawson carved out a career largely as a choral music composer. In particular, he became a prominent arranger of spirituals.

A shame that he didn’t meet with more success in the concert hall. The symphony was well-received, but then nobody picked it up. With a little encouragement, perhaps there would have been a Symphony No. 2.

Also on the Princeton program will be the Saxophone Concerto of 1949 by French composer Henri Tomasi, with soloist Steven Banks, and “Forward into Light” of 2020 by Princeton composer Sarah Kirkland Snider. Snider’s piece, inspired by the American women’s suffrage movement, incorporates a quotation from “March of the Women,” written in 1910, by English composer and agitator Dame Ethel Smyth.

The concert will be presented twice at Richard Auditorium in Alexander Hall on the campus of Princeton University, this Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 4 p.m. The PSO’s music director, Rossen Milanov, will conduct. For tickets and more information about the impending season, visit princetonsymphony.org.

September 5, 2023
Princeton Festival Live Music Guide

Who has a thirst for live music?

Up next on The Princeton Festival, enjoy a tall drink of water (or wine or beer) with The Claremont Trio. Tonight’s program will include works by Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, Canadian composer Kati Agócs, and Antonin Dvořák. The concert will take place at 7:00 in the performance pavilion at Morven Museum & Garden.

Tomorrow, hilarity and improvisation characterize “Broadway’s Next Hit Musical.” Start thinking of your creative song title now! If selected, it could form the basis for a raucous evening’s entertainment.

On Thursday, Boyd Meets Girl, the husband-and-wife duo for cello and classical guitar, will offer perhaps quieter rewards with its recital across the street at Trinity Church Princeton. Repertoire will range from Bach to Messiaen to Lennon & McCartney.

Back in the performance pavilion, Friday will bring the first of three performances of Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” in a production employing Cubist set designs. Rossen Milanov will conduct the Princeton Symphony Orchestra.

On Saturday, dancers from American Repertory Ballet will join the Attacca Quartet for expressive interpretations of works by John Adams and Caroline Shaw and some arrangements of Scandinavian folk tunes.

The Princeton Festival will run through June 25, largely on the grounds of Morven Museum & Garden at 55 Stockton Street (Route 206).

Boyd Meet Girl and a Baroque concert featuring The Sebastians will be offered across the way at Trinity Church Princeton, at 33 Mercer Street.

The festival’s “big top,” an 11,000 square-foot, clear-span (no poles or obstructed views), open-sided performance pavilion, allows for easy access to refreshments, ample picnicking opportunities, a garden stroll, or the simple enjoyment of a late-spring/early-summer evening.

The Princeton Festival is the premier summer arts program of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. For complete listings and ticket information, visit princetonsymphony.org/festival.

And if you haven’t had a chance to take a look at it yet, here’s my preview in the Princeton weekly U.S. 1 Newspaper – PrincetonInfo.

https://www.communitynews.org/princetoninfo/eeditions/page-page-12/page_58fa5c3c-6e2a-5848-acb1-58218381fe73.html?fbclid=IwAR1_i3FDAShBuHa48ugoiDnMGJisZCzNIRFnghKMXWFeDm7Hg9IRrVVjzXM

June 13, 2023

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