Author: Joanna Bettelheim

“Elizabeth Parrish Glendinning, 91, former public relations director for the Philadelphia Orchestra and a dedicated volunteer, died Saturday, Oct. 31, of complications from a prior stroke,” writes Bonnie Cook in Wednesday’s (11/11) Philadelphia Inquirer. “Ms. Glendinning majored in music at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., and graduated in 1951. In her 20’s, she worked on the election campaigns of Dwight D. Eisenhower, in the office of Sen. Clifford P Case (R., N.J.), and as a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle and the Washington Post before taking a job at WGMS-FM, Washington’s former classical music station…. In 1963, she moved to Philadelphia to become the public relations director for the Philadelphia Orchestra…. She also produced all of the orchestra’s publications. In 1967, she married [investment banker] Henry P. Glendinning.… After her marriage, she retired from the working world…. After her husband died in 1988 … she returned to the orchestra as a board member, and served for 18 years on the board of Germantown Academy…. She served on the boards of the [Curtis Institute of Music], Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and Astral Artists. In 2004, Ms. Glendinning retired to Cathedral Village, where she took charge of the community’s classical music concerts. Her contacts in Philadelphia’s music world allowed her to bring musicians of exceptional caliber to the residents.”

“Perhaps the most striking thing about ‘Throughline,’ the San Francisco Symphony’s first attempt at native digital programming, is how much artistic and institutional material it packs into a small space,” writes Joshua Kosman in Thursday’s (11/12) San Francisco Chronicle. “The free 60-minute program … goes live Saturday, Nov. 14, on KQED-TV and via a simultaneous stream on the orchestra’s website, which will be available indefinitely.… The program has a lot of ground to cover in not much time, and it does the job with admirable efficiency. For one thing, this is the first real center-stage event of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s tenure as music director … The big symphonic undertakings that an orchestra does best, and that are central to its mission, are clearly out of the question” due to the pandemic. Small groups of musicians performed Ellen Reid’s Fear/Release; the opening movement of Beethoven’s F-Minor String Quartet, Op. 95; Movements, a classical/hip-hop hybrid by Kev Choice; and a movement from John Adams’s Shaker Loops. “It’s a comforting thrill to hear these beloved artists performing music again, even if it’s not in a live setting….  These strains combine to strongest effect in … the world premiere of [Nico Muhly’s] ‘Throughline’ … a work of remarkable expressive power and constructive ingenuity.”

“The People’s Symphony Concerts has long been known for the rare combination of bargain-basement ticket prices and high-quality performances,” writes Nicholas Beard in Tuesday’s (11/10) Musical America (subscription required). “Founded in 1900, managed by Frank Solomon for the last half-century or so, PSC like the rest of the presenting world was hit mid-season by Covid-19 last March and forced to move its concerts online. The new, 120th, season launches November 15 with a virtual performance by the outgoing and incoming resident artists. The latter, having recently signed a three-year agreement, is pianist Shai Wosner; the former, having come to the end of their contract, is the Dover Quartet….  Wosner, who has performed with most major orchestras as a soloist, from the Vienna Philharmonic to the Philadelphia Orchestra, will as resident artist be obligated to a minimum of two concerts a season, as well as a number of educational and outreach activities…. Wosner said, ‘This quintessential NYC institution has been there through the Spanish flu and two World Wars, and I love everything it has stood for and can’t wait to be part of it … to make music accessible to New Yorkers from all walks of life.’ ”

“The Yakima Symphony Orchestra has canceled its December and January concerts, which, like all live music, are not permitted until the fourth and final phase of the state’s Safe Start plan to reopen from the COVID-19 pandemic,” writes Pat Muir in Wednesday’s (11/11) Yakima Herald-Republic (Yakima, WA). “Yakima County is in Phase 2, and it’s increasingly apparent it will not be in Phase 4 by next month. A Wednesday news release announcing the changed plans said the concerts would be made up for subscribers [with details to] be announced later in December…. Though the capacity for live audiences will be limited when performances resume, YSO is developing options to access those programs via live streaming. The organization has been producing and posting virtual programming [with] ‘Music From Home’ and ‘Stories From Home’ series, featuring orchestra members performing or being interviewed in their homes…. And at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, YSO conductor Lawrence Golan will host a live online chat and present a recorded performance of … Brahms’ Symphony No. 2. Fans longing for their holiday pops fix can get that, too. At 8 p.m. Dec. 10 Northwest Public Broadcasting will air … selections from previous YSO holiday pops performances.”

“At this time of year in a pre-COVID-19 world, we’d be a concert or two into a Waco Symphony Orchestra season and about the same for the Baylor Symphony Orchestra, both of which are led by Stephen Heyde, the music director of the former and the conductor-in-residence for the latter,” writes Carl Hoover in last Friday’s (11/6) Waco Tribune-Herald (TX). “We’re not, which makes a livestreamed Baylor Symphony Orchestra strings-only concert Nov. 16 notable as a rare opportunity…. Heyde and the BSO’s 66-player string section can be seen online Nov. 16 at a livestreamed BSO concert at 7 p.m. He’ll lead them in the ‘Adagietto’ movement from Mahler’s Symphony No. 5…. Given … current COVID-19 limits on ensemble size and concert lengths … full-blown Mahler (and Wagner, Brahms and Beethoven, for starters) won’t be on anyone’s symphonic season for some time. Graduate student Matthew Hagensteun will conduct the balance of the Nov. 16 concert, leading the 66-player ensemble in Arvo Pärt’s ‘Fratres,’ Tchaikovsky’s ‘Serenade for Strings’ and Jessie Montgomery’s 2012 string orchestra piece ‘Starburst.’ The Baylor concert can be accessed for free online through the [Baylor University] School of Music’s website.”

In New York City, Young Concert Artists’ Final Auditions and Winners Concert will be livestreamed on November 8 and 9, respectively, on YCA’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. The final round of auditions, at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center, will begin November 8 at 10 a.m. ET, and the winners concert, at Cary Hall at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, will take place on November 10 at 7 p.m. ET. The jury of the final round will include YCA President and Jury Chair Daniel Kellogg, cellist Wolfram Koessel, violinist Jennifer Koh, conductor Rossen Milanov, flutist Tara O’Connor, pianist Orli Shaham, San Francisco Performances President Melanie Smith, trombonist Weston Sprott, conductor Michael Stern, MetLiveArts General Manager Limor Tomer, and YCA founder Susan Wadsworth. During the remainder of the 2020-21 season, most YCA concerts will be broadcast live, and the organization’s 60th-anniversary gala is planned for May 9, 2021 at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall.

“Take your time. Breathe. Something beautiful is happening here,” writes Peter Dobrin in Wednesday’s (11/4) Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia Orchestra Assistant Conductor Erina Yashima “doesn’t actually say any of this… but … it’s all there … in her wise, deliberate tempos and detailed phrasing, and in the warm sound she gets from an ensemble of about 40 strings…. In this week’s Philadelphia Orchestra online concert … she [conducted] George Walker’s … Lyric for Strings … Yashima uses a slightly quicker tempo than some others, which emphasizes the piece’s many mood shifts. There is anguish in it, melancholy for sure, and tragedy and tenderness…. Walker uses them to tell us that sorrow and hope often occupy the same space…. [In] Dvořák’s Serenade for Strings …  by taking the opening movement at a slightly slower tempo, Yashima broadens the impact, giving the music a stately presence…. It’s hard to think of a more meaningful and touching interpretation than the one both orchestra and conductor came up with for the Serenade’s tender fourth movement, the ‘Larghetto.’ It is expressive without being treacly, and intense in all the right spots—characteristics that, given the qualities that make our orchestra special, bode well for this partnership.”

“Conductor David Bernard’s InsideOut concerts in New York [City] have typically involved putting the audience in the orchestra, sitting them side by side with the musicians and allowing them to ask questions,” states an unsigned article in Tuesday’s (11/3) Planet Hughill blog. “With the onset of social distancing and other restrictions, such innovations become difficult. InsideOut and the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony (of which Bernard is music director) have extended their existing partnership into the digital realm to create InsideOut Digital. For the digital experience, Bernard wants to create a way to make the audience at home still feel part of the concert, to still relate to the musicians…. So for InsideOut Digital, cameras will be placed inside the orchestra, and two humans seated amidst the orchestra will act as ‘avatars’ for the watching audience—spectators will send messages to the avatars, who will then read the questions and comments, for Bernard and his musicians to respond. Bernard believes that InsideOut Digital serves and improves the immediate digital necessity, giving viewers a richer concert experience, and works … to maintain the primacy of the ‘real thing.’… The first InsideOut Digital is on 22 November 2020 at 3pm Eastern Time.”

“Social distancing has affected every facet of life from work, to education, to entertainment,” writes Grace Arnold in Tuesday’s (11/3) Zebra (Alexandria, VA). “Classical Movements is countering that effect, introducing live classical music in a socially-distanced setting. As musicians perform underneath a pergola surrounded by lush foliage, the Secret Garden at The Rectory series is becoming the new social hub for all Alexandrians…. Classical Movements began its Covid-era live music endeavor on Saturday, June 20 of this year. While the concept of attending a live music concert might seem in the distant past or a dream of the future, Classical Movements has made it a reality…. Twenty-two outdoor programs will [occur] through December to celebrate the holiday season in a new but necessary way…. The wide range of musical genres accommodates all types of families, individuals, adults, and children. Over the course of [the] musical series, they will have engaged 112 professional musicians, of whom 45 were women and 31 musicians of color…. In order to make the experience as safe and comfortable as possible for the audience and performers, Classical Movements is limiting the number of audience members to 40 for the family programs and 45 for all other programs.”