In Saturday’s (3/23) Buffalo News, Mary Kunz Goldman writes, “You have to be bold to play Carnegie Hall. And the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, playing Carnegie Hall’s Spring for Music Festival in May, is thinking very big. The orchestra has signed up sponsors including the Buffalo Bills and the Buffalo Sabres. It is planning big parties including a post-concert reception in the famous Russian Tea Room. … For Spring for Music, Music Director JoAnn Falletta plans to begin with the quiet, ethereal ‘Morning Prayers’ from ‘Life Without Christmas’ by Giya Kancheli—and then bring the house down with the massive Symphony No. 3 of the Russian composer Reinhold Gliere. … The BPO is drafting extra musicians to perform it, both at Carnegie Hall and in Buffalo beforehand. … The [Gliere] symphony was the result of serendipity. Before the Spring for Music opportunity appeared, the BPO already had been invited to record Gliere’s behemoth for the Naxos label. Naxos is trying to put together a comprehensive catalog of music, and Klaus Heymann, the label’s CEO, met with Falletta and suggested the piece. ‘He doesn’t have a good version of it, an uncut, wonderful version,’ Falletta says. ‘He wanted us to be the orchestra to do it. It ended up being a great meeting of the minds.’ ”
Posted March 26, 2013
