By Nancy Plum

Some ensembles spend a great deal of time coming up with their name. Last Wednesday night’s presentation by Princeton University Concerts showcased three instrumentalists who collaborate as a trio, but without a formal group moniker. Swedish clarinetist and conductor Martin Fröst, French violist Antoine Tamestit, and pianist and Israeli native Shai Wosner came to Richardson Auditorium to offer a diverse program of music ranging from the 19th to the 21st centuries. Individually, these artists have been acclaimed for pushing musical boundaries, and their appearance last week expanded the repertory a bit further by uniting solo players not often heard together.

Fröst, Tamestit, and Wosner began the evening with three excerpts of a suite by Antonín Dvorák originally composed for piano duet and arranged for clarinet, viola, and piano by Wosner. Throughout the concert, Fröst alternated between clarinets in the keys of B-flat and A, finding a variety of musical styles from both. The opening “Allegretto” of Dvorák’s Legends featured a bit of klezmer effect between clarinet and viola, with long clarinet lines and sharp bowings from violist Tamestit. In all three movements, Fröst and Tamestit phrased the music in tandem, occasionally holding back cadences for effect. Pianist Wosner provided subtle accompaniment for the first two pieces, taking a more prominent role in the closing “Allegro.” In this swirling dance, a dialog between Tamestit’s fierce viola playing and Fröst’s lyrical clarinet lines were well complemented by Wosner’s skillful keyboard accompaniment. more

By Nancy Plum

Over the past decades, Princeton University Concerts has developed enduring relationships with performers worldwide, always expanding the PUC artist family. The Mahler Chamber Orchestra has long been one of these partners, returning to Princeton several times to showcase the excellence of its international roster. Founded in 1997 as an artistic “global collective,” the Orchestra is comprised of musicians from 25 countries who come together for each tour or project, exploring instrumental dialogue and the “sound of listening” though a wide range of repertoire.

The Mahler Chamber Orchestra revisited Richardson Auditorium last Thursday night under the leadership of pianist/conductor Mitsuko Uchida, who is particularly well known for her interpretation of the works of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Uchida’s performances of the piano concertos of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are considered a gold standard, and it was two of these concertos which she and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra brought to the Princeton stage.

Mozart composed more than 25 concertos for piano and orchestra, many of which were vehicles for his own performance as soloist. Piano Concerto No. 18 in B-flat Major, dating from 1784, was one of six written that year alone, part of a constant demand for new works from the prodigious composer. These works may have originally involved a great deal of improvisation from the soloist, and as pianist, Uchida highlighted the imaginative aspects of the music and its inherent virtuosity. more

By Nancy Plum

Boheme Opera NJ turned to a story of love, hate, and revenge for this year’s presentation of Giuseppe Verdi’s Il Trovatore this past weekend at Kendall Main Stage Theater at The College of New Jersey. With a libretto by Italian playwright Salvatore Cammarano, who based his texts on a play by Spanish dramatist Antonio García Gutiérrez (which in turn was allegedly inspired by real events), Verdi’s 1853 opera was popular from the outset, despite its dark narrative but no doubt aided by the inclusion of traditional Italian tunes audiences would have known. Boheme Opera NJ’s productions on Friday night and Sunday afternoon, presented in Italian with English supertitles, featured a cast of seasoned opera performers, including singers heard in previous Boheme Opera presentations. Artistic director and conductor Joseph Pucciatti brought the story into modern times by focusing on the more sinister aspects of the plot while never losing sight of the luxurious music.

Il Trovatore was unique in that the pivotal action takes place before the opera begins or between scenes. The onstage activity and music convey the emotions of the characters and their response to what has happened, which makes the singers’ jobs that much more difficult. The storyline centers on both the love triangle among Leonora, the Count di Luna, and the mystery troubadour Manrico, and the backstory of Azucena, whose mother was burned at the stake as a witch, compounded by the possibility that Azucena had inadvertently killed her own son in retaliation. The opera was also unusual in its two female roles having equal dramatic and vocal force, and in Friday night’s performance, the singers playing Leonora and Azucena each had their change to command the stage and shine.  more

By Nancy Plum

In a concert linking the crispness of winter to a hint of spring, New Jersey Symphony performed works of Claude Debussy, Nico Muhly, and Sergei Rachmaninoff, showing the depth of both player and conducting talent. The Symphony divided the conducting responsibilities in Friday night’s performance at Richardson Auditorium between Music Director Xian Zhang and the Symphony’s Colton Conducting Fellow Gregory D. McDaniel. A Houston native, McDaniel has conducted opera companies and orchestras nationwide, as well as in Canada.

McDaniel directed the first half of the program, leading off with André Caplet’s orchestral arrangement of Claude Debussy’s popular Clair de Lune for piano. Originally a movement in a piano suite, Clair de Lune became one of the composer’s most recognized pieces, leading to numerous arrangements, including at least six for orchestra. McDaniel began Debussy’s familiar music languidly, with a dreamy flow from the strings topped off by delicate flute passages from Bart Feller and Kathleen Nester. McDaniel built the sound well, always knowing exactly where he was going. The overall effect was lush, sustained by a subtle pair of horns.  more

By Nancy Plum

Princeton Symphony Orchestra brought three diverse compositional styles together this past weekend with a program linking music of the early 19th and 21st centuries and featuring one of this country’s most innovative and adventurous instrumental ensembles. Conducted by Music Director Rossen Milanov, the Orchestra presented Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 in F Major, paired with works of American composers Carlos Simon and Viet Cuong. Joining the Orchestra in Saturday night’s concert (which was repeated Sunday afternoon) was So Percussion, a quartet of percussionists fresh off a Grammy award win and current Performers-in-Residence at Princeton University.

The four movements of Carlos Simon’s 2022 Four Black American Dances weaved dance and cultural identity into symphonic music, delving into significant and differing dance forms. The opening celebratory “Ring Shout” captured a religious ritual dating back centuries. Opening with spirited brass and wailing woodwinds, Princeton Symphony executed clean syncopation from strings and sliding effects from a trio of trumpets. Percussion played a key role in all four movements, with timpanist Jeremy Levine keeping rhythms precise.

Concertmaster Basia Danilow provided several quick-moving solo violin lines, especially contrasting a big band palette in the second movement “Waltz.” A quartet of trombones and tuba set a mysterious mood for the closing “Holy Dance,” as Milanov led the sound to a fervent clamor. Nimble cellos and double basses brought the work to a cinematic close, which the musicians drew out with effective drama.  more

By Nancy Plum

The stage at Richardson Auditorium looked a bit like an instrument warehouse last Friday night, jam-packed with chairs, percussion, two harps, and several keyboard instruments in anticipation of Princeton University Orchestra’s winter concert. With all these possible players, there might have been a potential for sound cacophony, but the University Orchestra performed its annual “Concerto Concert” with clarity and melodic refinement while showing off the immense talents of two students. Conducted by Michael Pratt, Friday night’s performance (which was repeated Saturday night) showed freshman violist Jisang Kymm and sophomore pianist Sarah Yuan to be experienced well beyond their years in the Orchestra’s presentation of Alfred Schnittke’s Concerto for Viola and Orchestra and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor.

Schnittke’s 1985 three-movement Concerto for Viola and Orchestra diverged from the traditional concerto structure of alternating fast-slow-fast sections and reversed this order, with outer “Largo” movements bracketing a central “Allegro.” Like many of his Soviet contemporaries, Schnittke collaborated with the finest performers of his day, and the virtuosity and intensity of the Concerto reflected its tribute to a leading violist of the time. Viola soloist Jisang Kymm opened Schnittke’s work with introspection and attention to detail. Taking his time in the reflective texture, Kymm effortlessly executed the numerous double stops and insisted on the score’s dissonance against an unsettled orchestral accompaniment.  more

By Nancy Plum

Over its history, Princeton University Concerts has developed strong collaborative relationships with a wide range of performing organizations specializing in specific composers, but especially the renowned string ensemble Takács Quartet, with their legendary interpretation of Ludwig van Beethoven. The innovative players returned to Richardson Auditorium last Thursday night with more Beethoven, as well as music of Johannes Brahms and British pianist/composer Stephen Hough. With the Takács seasoned artistic identity and Hough’s virtuosic technique, the full house at Richardson was treated to a performance which easily clarified why the Takács musicians have appeared on the Princeton University Concerts series more than 20 times.

Violinists Edward Dusinberre and Harumi Rhodes, violist Richard O’Neill, and cellist András Fejér opened Thursday night’s program with a string quartet from Beethoven’s early period. String Quartet in F Major, Op. 18, No. 1, full of the composer’s trademark melodic and rhythmic variety, began with chipper “question and answer” passages which the Takács Quartet played with decisive repetitions before launching into a lyrical opening theme. Throughout the movement, the Quartet made the most of uniform silences and sforzando dynamic effects, with second violinist Rhodes particularly leaning into the score.

The dramatic second movement “Adagio” featured an intense melody from first violinist Dusinberre, with Rhodes and violist O’Neill trading lyrical phrases. The rollicking “Scherzo” was played with playful ornaments, and Beethoven’s Quartet closed with the Takács musicians building intensity well, led by Dusinberre. Fejér had a chance to emerge from the texture with energetic solo playing.  more

By Nancy Plum

Fresh off its win of a fourth Grammy award, the Philadelphia-based professional chamber vocal ensemble The Crossing performed in Richardson Auditorium last Tuesday night as part of McCarter Theatre Center’s classical music series. Choruses often specialize in the works of specific composers or time periods, and The Crossing, under the direction of Donald Nally, has built a stellar reputation as an ensemble dedicated to new repertoire. Each of the 16 voices in The Crossing is not only capable of solo performance but is also able to combine with the other Crossing singers to create a unified and impeccably-tuned choral palette.

The Crossing came to Richardson to present a single work — the 14-movement poor hymnal of New York composer David Lang. A collector of old hymnals, Lang has written a piece addressing the question of whether the community messages conveyed by hymns of the past are the same as today. Lang’s a capella choral work, commissioned by both The Crossing and a chorus from the Netherlands, fused texts inspired by the Bible and contemporary writings with choral writing well suited to The Crossing’s precise vocal style and technique.

Soprano Anika Kildegaard opened the work with a solo rendition of Lang’s reflective poem on “a poor man.” Members of The Crossing require solid vocal independence and confidence to successfully contribute to this level of choral performance, and Kildegaard commanded the stage well as a lone singer controlling the pace in delivering the text.  more

By Nancy Plum

Musical ensembles often observe the significant birthdays of composers of the past or anniversaries of their leaders. Princeton Symphony Orchestra took this idea one step further by celebrating the 60th birthday of Music Director Rossen Milanov earlier in January with presentations of two monumental orchestral works. The concert on the night of Saturday, January 11 at Richardson Auditorium (the program was repeated the following afternoon) brought together Orchestra musicians, conductor Milanov, one of his long-term collaborators, and two of his favorite pieces in the ensemble’s annual Edward T. Cone commemorative events.

Joining Princeton Symphony in Igor Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major was guest soloist Leila Josefowicz, who has played with the Orchestra numerous times in past seasons. A violinist with a solid international reputation, Josefowicz clearly demonstrated a strong connection to both Milanov and the players while showing her own brand of performance fire.  more

By Nancy Plum

Princeton Pro Musica pulled out all the stops recently for a performance of international music for the season, much of which was arranged by the ensemble’s Artistic Director Ryan J. Brandau. The concert on December 15 attended by a festive full house at Richardson Auditorium brought together chorus, orchestra, and two vocal soloists for an eclectic afternoon of music spanning the globe, multiple centuries, and languages.

Brandau has established a deserved reputation as an arranger and orchestrator, and a significant part of Pro Musica’s program showed off his talents. “Mash-ups” of two or more musical numbers put together are popular in the choral world, and Brandau included several of his own in the performance. The concert opened with a combination piece of “O Come Emmanuel” and “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,” as set by Brandau. With supertitles and Pro Musica’s trademark precise diction, Brandau’s composition moved seamlessly between the medieval chant and the 17th-century English carol. Introduced by solo cellist Melissa Meell and delicately accompanied by harpist André Tarantiles, the two selections well demonstrated Pro Musica’s blended choral sound. more

By Nancy Plum

The Christmas season and choral music are practically synonymous. To many audience members, the only choral concerts attended during the year are annual Messiah performances or carol sings. The Princeton area has always had many high-quality musical Christmas events to choose from, and one of the finest this year took place this past weekend. Chanticleer, a professional men’s vocal ensemble based in San Francisco, brought its special artistry to the Princeton University Chapel on Saturday night as part of the Princeton University Concerts series. The 12-member ensemble’s music director, Tim Keeler, was a 2011 graduate of Princeton, and the chorus has maintained a close association with the community. The nearly-full house in the Chapel on Saturday night was a tribute to both Chanticleer and the region’s appreciation for choral music in the holiday season.

Saturday night’s concert featured more than 20 choral selections grouped in a variety of ways, including works on the same texts by composers of different eras sung in succession. Chanticleer opened the evening with a candlelight procession singing four settings of a ninth-century Christian hymn of praise to the Virgin Mary. Beginning with the stark open chords of early 15th-century composer Guillaume Du Fay and leading to the complex melodic writing of Renaissance master Tomás Luis de Victoria, Chanticleer’s presentation of “Ave maris stella” traced the evolution of music history at the highest level of singing. With six counter-tenors, the upper voices carried well through the expansive Chapel space as the singers made their way down the long Chapel center aisle. As with most of the music within a given “set,” the works were sung one after another without pause, and before the audience knew it, 150 years of music history had passed, and the musicians were in position on the chancel steps.  more

By Nancy Plum

It would be hard to choose who was the greater teenaged composer — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or Felix Mendelssohn. The prodigious musical childhood of Mozart has long been documented, but the works of the young Mendelssohn were no less remarkable. The New York City-based Renaissance String Quartet brought one of Mendelssohn’s early works to life in a concert last Thursday night at McCarter Theatre Center’s Matthews Theatre. Violinists Randall Goosby and Jeremiah Blacklow, violist Jameel Martin, and cellist Daniel Hass played Mendelssohn’s youthful String Quartet No. 1 in E-flat Major in an evening beginning with the early 19th century and ending with a composer born almost at the turn of the 21st century.

The Renaissance Quartet’s inventive approach to chamber music was evident from the moment the musicians came onstage. The Quartet began Mendelssohn’s first published work —emphasizing a sadness in the opening “Adagio” — with expressive motivic gestures which may have been meant as a tribute to the recently deceased Beethoven. The Quartet musicians kept chipper passages bright, with violist Martin bringing out lush melodic lines. The second movement “Canzonetta” reflected Mendelssohn’s ballet A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with an elfin middle section abounding with fluttering fairies in the violins. The Quartet showed its playful side in this music, but never lost the required rhythmic precision.  more

By Nancy Plum

The glee club tradition dates back to late 18th-century London, with musical groups informally gathering to perform short compositions and popular songs. Named after the Baroque-era English “glee” part song, these ensembles were until the mid-20th century comprised of male voices, with countertenors taking the upper parts. While late 19th-century glee clubs in London were superseded by large choral societies, they became very popular in U.S. high schools and universities, and more so after opening their ranks to women. A number of local collegiate institutions have glee clubs dating back to the mid-1800s, and Princeton University is no exception. The Princeton University Glee Club, founded in 1874, has grown far beyond the “short song” repertoire to become the largest choral organization in the University’s campus, with a commitment to complex works and commissioning new music.

The University Glee Club, currently under the direction of Gabriel Crouch, celebrated its 150th anniversary this past weekend with three days of concerts, rehearsals, and alumni reunions. Continuing its long-standing commitment to collaborating with world-class musical organizations, the Glee Club opened last weekend’s festivities with a join concert with The King’s Singers. Considered the “gold standard” of a cappella singing, the six-member all-male ensemble has been a pillar of choral excellence for the past 55 years. Glee Club conductor Crouch was a member of the chorus for eight years, and since then has built a solid partnership between the University choral program and the renowned vocal sextet.  more

By Nancy Plum

The works performed by Princeton Symphony Orchestra this past weekend may not have all been from the Baroque and Classical periods, but they were all tied in some way to the 18th and early 19th-centuries. The trio of pieces by Michael Abels, Sergei Prokofiev, and Ludwig van Beethoven demonstrated to the audience at Richardson Auditorium how music from these earlier eras has stood the test of time in a concert also showcasing two of the Orchestra’s own members.

Music Director Rossen Milanov and the Orchestra began Saturday night’s performance (the concert was repeated Sunday afternoon) with a compositional new twist on an old favorite. Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Michael Abels has been commended for his “unique ability to blend diverse elements.” In his 1999 More Seasons, the “elements” blended were themes from Antonio Vivaldi’s popular The Four Seasons, with Abels using motives from the “Spring” and “Summer” movements to create what he has called “Vivaldi in a Mixmaster.”  more

By Nancy Plum

Princeton University Concerts combined the 16th century with the very contemporary world last week with a presentation by a jazz singer who draws inspiration from all periods of history and all forms of music. French singer, composer, and visual artist Cécile McLorin Salvant first appeared on the University Concerts series in 2023 with a program commissioned to create a work inspired by the writings of Princeton University Professor Toni Morrison. Salvant brought her diverse talents back to Richardson Auditorium last Wednesday night as part of this year’s series to demonstrate her unique fusion of vaudeville, blues, theater, jazz and the baroque era, with a particularly new take on a traditional vocal form.

English Renaissance composer and lutenist John Dowland initially published Book of Ayres in 1597. Clearly very popular, this collection of “lute songs” for solo voice was reprinted several times in his lifetime. In Wednesday night’s performance, Salvant brought the expected harpsichord, lute and theorbo to sing her version of “Book of Ayres,” but Dowland surely would never have expected his delicate madrigals and love songs to be complemented by a 20th century synthesizer and percussion.  more

By Nancy Plum

The Princeton University Orchestra launched its 2024-25 season this past weekend with a unique combination of works from Ukraine, the U.S., and Russia, demonstrating that music knows no political boundaries. Led by conductor Michael Pratt, the more than 100-member Orchestra showed in the annual concerts honoring former faculty member Peter Westergaard what could be accomplished in the few short weeks since the University semester started.

Sunday afternoon’s performance in Richardson Auditorium (the concert was also presented Saturday night) began with the American premiere of a piece with a University connection. Princeton graduate Hobart Earle has achieved great success conducting Ukraine’s Odesa Philharmonic Orchestra, leading the ensemble through the sounds of artillery in the background and against incredible odds. In 2023, Earle and the Philharmonic commissioned noted Ukrainian composer Evgeni Orkin, and the resulting Elegy in the Memory of the Victims in Odessa captures the horrors of war both in mournful darkness and hopeful light.  more

By Nancy Plum

Princeton Symphony Orchestra opened its 2024-25 classical series this past weekend with two performances at Richardson Auditorium. Led by Orchestra Music Director Rossen Milanov, the ensemble presented music of two 19th-century compositional giants, as well as a contemporary piece with a Princeton connection.

Saturday night’s performance (the concert was repeated Sunday afternoon) opened with an unusual work by New Zealand composer Gemma Peacocke, currently a Ph.D. fellow in composition at Princeton University. Peacocke has been commissioned by ensembles worldwide, including New Zealand’s Orchestra Wellington and Arohanui Strings. These two organizations commissioned Peacocke in 2023 to create the one-movement Manta, a musical description of the oceanic manta rays which migrate to the seas around Peacocke’s native Aotearoa region. Perceived as solitary creatures, manta rays are in reality quite active, demonstrating acrobatic movements which would translate well to musical composition.  more

By Nancy Plum

On the 55th anniversary of man landing on the moon, it was fitting that New Jersey Symphony showed Princeton the future of musical composition. As part of its commitment to contemporary works, the Symphony sponsored its annual, weeklong, tuition-free Institute devoted to “enhancing the careers of four emerging composers” who, through in-depth coaching and rehearsals with the Symphony, were able to hone their craft and “move the ball forward” with orchestral music. This year’s culminating Edward T. Cone Composition Institute concert was held last Saturday night at Richardson Auditorium, featuring new pieces exploring a wide range of ideas. Conducted by Christopher Rountree, the performance brought well-deserved attention to four distinctive individuals with clear futures in the performing arts.

Composer Leigha Amick believes that music has the potential to “reflect on both the current and the timeless human experience, to provide grounds for intellectual fascination, and to quench the need for emotional expression.” Her extensive repertory, for both instrumental and vocal ensembles as well as electronics, has been performed nationwide. Amick’s Cascade, inspired by a composition by American Carl Stone for electronics, bagpipes and organ, was built around an altered passacaglia in which the character changed with each of a series of harmonic cycles.  more

By Nancy Plum

Princeton University Summer Chamber Concerts continued its 2024 season this past week with a presentation by three instrumentalists who have put their collective talents together to create an exciting new experience for their audiences. Violinist Friedemann Eichorn, cellist Peter Hörr, and pianist Florian Uhlig each have had successful international solo careers and have joined forces in the past five years to explore chamber repertory as the Phaeton Piano Trio. Named for a mythological character but performing with solid down-to-earth musicianship, the Trio came to Richardson Auditorium last Monday night for an evening of Franz Joseph Haydn, Felix Mendelssohn, and Antonin Dvorák. The ensemble may be relatively new, but its playing style is rooted in centuries-old performance practice and interpretation of the classics. more

By Nancy Plum

Audiences usually identify the saxophone with such jazz and blues superstars as Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, but New Century Saxophone Quartet has shattered that image. For more than 30 years, this ensemble has shown that four saxophones can well match the pitch and dynamic range of a string quartet, amassing an impressive repertory for this combination of instruments along the way. The four members of New Century Saxophone Quartet brought their combination of “skillful artistry and down-home fun” to Richardson Auditorium last Tuesday night as part of the 57th season of the Princeton University Summer Chamber Concerts series. Performing music spanning more than 270 years, the Quartet well demonstrated the saxophone’s abilities to emerge from smoky jazz clubs to the forefront of the classical concert stage.  more

By Nancy Plum

Princeton Festival switched gears this past Thursday night to chamber music with a return visit from the popular ensemble The Sebastians, which draws its moniker from the middle name of towering Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach. Surmising that Bach might actually have been called “Sebastian” by his friends, the instrumentalists first came together with the goal of playing “mixed chamber music at a high musical level, with friends.” Twelve members of The Sebastians came to Princeton’s Trinity Church last Thursday night as part of Princeton Festival, performing music of their namesake, as well as Bach’s contemporaries. Demonstrating the range and capabilities of 18th-century strings, flute and harpsichord, the conductor-less chamber orchestra showed how Bach’s influence is still felt to this day.

Although German composer Georg Philipp Telemann was more recognized than Bach in his own lifetime, his music was overshadowed by other 18th-century composers until the early 20th century. Since then, his music has been recognized as equally complex and intricate as the more well-known Bach and Antonio Vivaldi. Telemann’s Concerto in A Major for Flute, Violin and Cello was initially published in a collection known as “musique de table,” in the tradition of musicians performing while guests were enjoying a meal. The Sebastians began Telemann’s four-movement work gracefully, with David Ross’ Baroque flute providing a richer and more mellow sound than its 21st-century counterpart.

The combination of a slightly lower Baroque pitch, warm period instruments, and animated music seemed to bring down the temperature on a sultry evening as the ensemble created its own world of precise rhythms and tapered phrase endings. Joining Ross as Concerto soloists were violinist Daniel Lee and cellist Ezra Seltzer. All players watched one another well, with each soloist providing clean melodic passages. The second movement “Allegro” featured Lee and Seltzer in duet under extended trills from Ross. A courtly third movement showed Seltzer plying a wide-ranging cello line, while the light orchestration enabled the audience to hear Kevin Devine’s excellent harpsichord accompaniment.

Violinists Lee and Nicholas DiEugenio were showcased in Telemann’s Gulliver Suite for Two Violins in D Major, inspired by Jonathan Swift’s 1726 satirical novel Gulliver’s Travels. Throughout this narrative piece, Lee and DiEugenio frequently played in pure thirds, effectively bringing to life the Laputians and Lilliputians through fleeting passages played with precision and a bit of humorous acting at the close.

The Sebastians are known for Bach, and even with one Brandenburg Concerto cut from Thursday’s program, there was plenty of the Baroque master to enjoy. Concerto No. 6 in B-flat Major was the only one of Bach’s set of six pieces that did not use violins; the composer scored the three-movement work instead to feature two violas da braccio, which were relatively new at the time and which were expertly played in this performance by Jessica Troy and Kyle Miller. The orchestration often juxtaposed the violas against two more familiar violas da gamba, stylistically played by Matt Zucker and Adrienne Hyde. The Concerto’s key of B-flat and the absence of violins kept the texture mellow, as Troy and Miller maintained a lively dialog with cellist Ezra Seltzer and the two da gambas provided a solid foundation to the sound. Cadences were short and clean, and phrases well tapered. The third movement gigue-like “Allegro” was chipper without being too fast, and was especially noteworthy for Seltzer’s nimble cello lines.

The closing Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major brought the strings of The Sebastians to the stage, with the resulting performance being energized and refreshing. Quick thematic passages were passed down the row of violins and then to the violas, and the instrumentalists showed uniform dynamic contrasts. The second movement “Adagio” was originally composed as only two notes, with the intention that players would improvise a bridge between the two faster movements. Violinist Lee provided a quick improvisation over the two harmonic chords, before the orchestra was off to the races again to close the concert in spirited 18th-century fashion.

By Nancy Plum

It all began with a bet. Three male buddies were arguing over everyone’s favorite topic — fidelity. To prove his point that women are fickle, one dared his companions to entice their fiancées to betray them by pretending to be two other suitors. The companions agreed, and mayhem ensued — all to the delicious music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This, of course, is the plot of Mozart’s popular opera Così fan tutte, which musically addresses the age-old question, “Are women really all like that?” Premiered less than two years before Mozart’s death and full of challenging music for both singers and instrumentalists, Così has remained a popular staple of opera repertory for more than 200 years. The Princeton Festival brought this classic to life this past weekend as a cornerstone presentation of its two-week series of performances and lectures. Accompanied by the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and led by conductor Rossen Milanov, six singers took on the daunting assignment of interpreting Mozart’s complex score, delving into the realm of the theatrically silly along the way.

Sunday afternoon’s performance at the pavilion of Princeton’s Morven Music & Garden (the opera officially opened last Friday night) brought a full house under a tent on a perfect weather night for opera. The “Overture” that opened the production was short by 18th-century standards, but set the scene for the action to come. Milanov and the Princeton Symphony players found an elegant Viennese flow to the music, aided by wind solos from oboist Kemp Jernigan and flutist Scott Kemsley. Stage Director James Marvel took the opportunity to introduce the characters during the “Overture” — sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella, their respective fiancés Guglielmo and Ferrando, the streetwise maid Despina, and the scheming “philosopher” Don Alfonso. Mozart’s original setting was 1790s Naples, but scenic designer Blair Mielnik and costume designer Marie Miller moved the opening scene far from the 1700s to what looked more like a flamboyant beach community.  more

By Nancy Plum

New Jersey Symphony ended its 2023-24 Princeton series with a concert of American works featuring two longtime collaborators. Led by Music Director Xian Zhang, Friday night’s performance in Richardson Auditorium included George Gershwin’s immortal Porgy and Bess, as encapsulated into a symphonic suite by noted arranger Robert Russell Bennett, along with Gershwin’s towering Concerto in F Major for Piano and Orchestra with guest piano soloist Daniil Trifonov. Complementing these two American classics was a world premiere of Daniel Bernard Roumain’s orchestral concerto Autumn Days and Nights, which Roumain, the Symphony’s resident artistic catalyst, had dedicated to Zhang.  more