“Could the Philadelphia Orchestra have handed [Conducting Fellow] Lina Gonzalez-Granados a more challenging program?” writes Peter Dobrin in Friday’s (11/13) Philadelphia Inquirer. “In this week’s online production … all three works on the program are oddities of a sort…. Any saxophone concerto is a rarity, and here Branford Marsalis is soloist in not just one but two…. He brings a vocalist’s sensitivity to line and tone in the Glazunov Saxophone Concerto for alto sax and strings…. The work’s main melody is an introspective one, and Marsalis shapes it wistfully. Villa-Lobos’ Fantasia for saxophone, strings, and three French horns is soulful, too, but … has both a sophisticated bounce and a big-city edge…. Opening the second movement, assistant principal violist Kerri Ryan makes known the music’s concerns in resonant tones.…. Everyone is a soloist in Dvořák’s Serenade for Winds, with just a dozen instrumentalists. Still, Gonzalez-Granados found smart ways to mold the character of the ensemble, a little frisky here or wonderfully tender there. The performance marks the first appearance of Frenchman Philippe Tondre in the orchestra’s principal oboist chair…. Tondre has a way of endowing held notes with a life of their own, and he has a thoughtful and sweet approach to phrasing.”
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