“Great Music, Right Here” is the apt motto of the Glens Falls Symphony.  Since the orchestra and its music director Charles Peltz regularly venture into contemporary music, “Right Now” might be an appropriate tag. Sunday afternoon’s program featured something far better than a risky premiere.  Instead, it was Jennifer Higdon’s Violin Concerto, which was written in 2009 and received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for...

It was good to actually hear the Philadelphia Orchestra, rather than hear about the Philadelphia Orchestra. When it filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, the venerable institution became a sad symbol for the fragile state of the economy and the arts in general. Only the near demise of the New York City Opera — once an annual visitor to Saratoga — has been bigger news. Meanwhile the orchestra keeps playing and...

Singers never have it easy.  The volatile human body is their instrument and the change of seasons, allergies and drafty concert halls are not their friends. But some special pity — and praise — must go to the sopranos who slave over the demanding works of living composers. Over the last 10 years, soprano Hila Plitmann has become the go-to diva for composers with their grand visions.  She’ll be performing a...

Albany Symphony Orchestra David Alan Miller, conductor Nathan De’Shon Myers, baritone Carnegie Hall, May 10, 2011 How appropriate that a festival called Spring for Music resulted in a new blossoming sound of an orchestra. It was the Carnegie Hall debut of the Albany Symphony Orchestra, a reprise of an all-American program titled “Spirituals Re-Imagined.”  A great accomplishment long in the planning, the concert should...

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Thursday April 28, 2011 Troy Savings Bank Music Hall There was magic to be heard, but little slight of hand to watch on Thursday night at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall.  The occasion was a concert of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, in a return presentation by the Troy Chromatics. With up to 33 players onstage but no official leader, one expected to see more demonstrative gestures — nods of the...

Twenty-five year old Cleveland violinist Andrew Sords has already appeared as a soloist with over 60 orchestras across the country and internationally.   During the current season will perform the concertos of Dvorak, Bruch, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky.  He’s also made the rounds with some of gltb orchestras and this summer will be on the faculty of Cleveland Institute’s chamber music festival....

The melody had to come first.  Until he had it, composer John Corigliano waited — about 12 years — before accepting percussionist Evelyn Glennie’s commission for a new concerto. Corigliano admits that he’s a slow writer and that coming up with a fresh new tune isn’t easy.  But it didn’t really take him that all that time to string the notes together. The real challenge was whether or not a lyric, sustained...

Canadian composer Rodney Sharman has three new works debuting this month… First up is the world premiere of his new Violin Concerto on March 6 and 7 with soloist Jonathan Crow and the Victoria Symphony, conducted by music director Tania Miller.  Then on March 26 and 27, the same orchestra with guest conductor Alain Trudel premieres “Romantic Ideals.”  The pieces are the culmination of Sharman’s three-year...

Jennifer Higdon’s former student has become one of her latest and biggest champion.  The 31-year old violinist Hilary Hahn commissioned, premiered and recorded Higdon’s Violin Concerto, which won last year’s Pulitzer Prize for Music.  This month Hahn performs the work in Philadelphia and New York, with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, Juanjo Mena, conductor: Monday, February 14 Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center Tuesday,...

I’m down with the dude, conductor Gustovo Dudamel. Got a big dose of him and I’m now under his spell. Or at least I was for two full hours Sunday (1/8/11) afternoon at Disney Hall.  A week-long trip to California for otherwise non-music purposes happily coincided with the opportunity to hear Dudamel lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic in an attractive, high-energy program – Adams, Bernstein, Beethoven – that they’re...