Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Richardson Auditorium

Princeton Symphony Explores “Hiraeth”

“There isn’t a precise English translation, but loosely, it means homesickness tinged with longing for the lost or departed, or people that have passed on. It’s this idea of homesickness for a place you can no longer get back to.”

That is Princeton composer Sarah Kirkland Snider’s explanation of “Hiraeth,” from the Welsh, the title of her new piece, to be performed by the Princeton Symphony Orchestra this weekend.

The work, the product of a PSO co-commission with the North Carolina Symphony, is at the heart of a program, “Passion & Affection,” which will also include Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture,” Johann Strauss II’s “Wine, Women and Song,” and a suite from Richard Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier.” PSO music director Rossen Milanov will conduct. The concert will take place at Richardson Auditorium on Sunday at 4 p.m.

Snider and Milanov will discuss their collaboration on “Hiraeth” in a PSO “Behind the Music” event at the Arts Council of Princeton’s Paul Robeson Center tomorrow at 4 p.m.

On Tuesday, May 17 at 7:30 p.m., musicians of the PSO will present Snider’s song cycle “Penelope,” on a special concert at the Princeton High School Performing Arts Center. Playwright Ellen McLaughlin provided the texts, which will be sung by Carla Kihlstedt. The performance will be led by PSO assistant conductor John Devlin. The concert is free and open to the public with ticketed reservations via the orchestra’s website, http://www.princetonsymphony.org.

Local lovers of orchestral music are spoiled for choice this weekend. The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra will also perform at Richardson Auditorium, tonight at 8 p.m. Augustin Hadelich will be the soloist in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, the centerpiece of a program that will include Mendelssohn’s “Hebrides Overture” and Brahms’ Serenade No. 1. Jérémie Rhorer will conduct.

Last but not least, the New Jersey Capital Philharmonic Orchestra will present a concert of “Cinematic Classics,” featuring music by Miklós Rózsa, Bernard Herrmann, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and William Walton, at the Trenton War Memorial tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. Odin Rathnam will be the soloist in Korngold’s Violin Concerto. Also on the program will be music from “El Cid,” “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” “Psycho,” “Vertigo,” and “Henry V.” Daniel Spalding will conduct.

The Trenton Times has been getting tighter with space in the print edition over the past few months, often resulting in some fairly hairpin edits to my articles. The chopped up versions run on Fridays. You can read my unexpurgated piece on the Princeton Symphony concerts here:

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2016/05/classical_music_pso_performing_1.html

May 13, 2016
American Boychoir Spreads Holiday Cheer

At the end of what has been a turbulent year, The American Boychoir is back, doing what it does best – spreading hope and good cheer through the purity of its sound.

Princeton’s boychoir is America’s boychoir. I hope you’ll step up and support them this holiday season. The choir will present its “most important concert of the year” at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium, this Sunday at 4 p.m.

Read more about it in my article in today’s Trenton Times.

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2015/12/classical_music_american_boych.html

December 18, 2015
JoAnn Falletta’s Musical Morning on WPRB

It’s a Falletta Fest! All recordings of works conducted and/or played by JoAnn Falletta this morning.

Falletta is in Princeton with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra for this year’s Edward T. Cone Composition Institute, five days of intensive compositional evaluations and consultations, master classes and career-building opportunities, which will culminate in a live concert performance of participating composers’ works. The concert, including four world premieres and a piece by Institute director Steven Mackey, will take place tonight at Richardson Auditorium at 7:30 p.m.

In the meantime, composers you can expect to hear on this morning’s program will include Miguel del Águila, Romeo Cascarino, Eric Ewazen, Kenneth Fuchs, Gustav Holst, E.J. Moeran, Jerome Moross, Behzad Ranjbaran, and Marcel Tyberg, among others, performed by orchestras with which Falletta has had fruitful associations, including the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, the Ulster Orchestra, the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Women’s Philharmonic.

Falletta herself will drop by around 9:00 to talk about the institute and some of her other projects. She’s always very busy, with plenty of concerts, festivals and recordings in the pipeline.

I hope you’ll join me, this morning from 6 to 11 a.m. ET, for some entrancing musical rarities, at WPRB 103.3 FM or online at wprb.com.

July 16, 2015
Gardiner’s Monteverdi Returns to Princeton

I’ve spent the bulk of the day writing about Sir John Eliot Gardiner for the Trenton Times. Gardiner will return to Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium, with the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists, for a performance of Monteverdi’s “L’Orfeo,” on April 29 at 7:30 p.m. The same forces will present Monteverdi’s “Vespers for the Blessed Virgin” at Carnegie Hall the following evening. The Princeton appearance will honor the late William H. Scheide.

I probably wouldn’t have bothered to say anything until the article hits print on Friday (as always, I’ll provide a link to it here), except for the fact that I just noticed that today is Sir John Eliot’s birthday. Happy birthday, Maestro!

Here, the musicians perform Handel’s “Dixit dominus,” a work they brought to Richardson last June:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH2-4D32azo

April 20, 2015
Princeton Symphony Salutes the Silver Screen

Lights! Camera! Music?

The Princeton Symphony Orchestra will present “A Silver Screen Salute” on February 7 at 8 p.m.

The concert, which will take place at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium, will include some of film’s most evocative music, including themes from “Gone with the Wind,” “The Magnificent Seven,” “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Star Wars.”

Also featured will be Academy Award winning music by Franz Waxman for “Sunset Boulevard,” Bernard Herrmann’s score for Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo,” Ennio Morricone’s poignant melodies for “Cinema Paradiso,” and John Williams’ Indiana Jones march from “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

The PSO will be joined by The American Boychoir for selections from Williams’ “Empire of the Sun,” “Amistad,” and “Saving Private Ryan,” as well as Herbert Stothart’s score for “The Wizard of Oz,” on themes of Harold Arlen.

NPR arts commentator Bob Mondello will host the event. Read more about it in my article in today’s Trenton Times.

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2015/01/princeton_symphony_orchestra_p.html

PHOTO: PSO Music Director Rossen Milanov, ready for his close-up

January 30, 2015

Tag Cloud

RECENT POSTS