Noteworthy

Chamber music trio opens this weekend at Woodmere

by Michael Caruso
Posted 1/16/25

Chestnut Hill’s Woodmere art museum will present a chamber music recital Saturday, Jan. 25, at 5 p.m., featuring pianist Marja Kaisla, violinist Yevgeniy Dyo, and cellist Elina Snellman-Lang. Together they form the Trio Excelsior!

 The ensemble will be performing the Piano Trio in D minor by Anton Arensky and “The Four Seasons” by the crossover composer, Astor Piazzolla, a scintillating mix of tango, jazz and classical styles. 

 Kaisla, a well-known pedagogue and concert pianist, explained the trio's collaboration as one based on friendship and …

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Noteworthy

Chamber music trio opens this weekend at Woodmere

Posted

Chestnut Hill’s Woodmere art museum will present a chamber music recital Saturday, Jan. 25, at 5 p.m., featuring pianist Marja Kaisla, violinist Yevgeniy Dyo, and cellist Elina Snellman-Lang. Together they form the Trio Excelsior!

 The ensemble will be performing the Piano Trio in D minor by Anton Arensky and “The Four Seasons” by the crossover composer, Astor Piazzolla, a scintillating mix of tango, jazz and classical styles. 

 Kaisla, a well-known pedagogue and concert pianist, explained the trio's collaboration as one based on friendship and more.  “We all admire each other’s musicianship. And we especially enjoy exploring our musical relationships while learning and performing great music by great composers.”

 Woodmere is located at 9201 Germantown Ave. in Chestnut Hill. Tickets are $28 ($18 for members). For more information, call 215-247-0476 or visit woodmereartmuseum.org.

 Brilliant Brillhart & Baroque

 The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia will continue its 60th anniversary season with a pair of concerts in the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater on Friday, Jan. 17, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Jan. 19, at 2:30 p.m.

 Jeffrey Brillhart, the longtime director of music and fine arts at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church and the recently retired director of Singing City Choir, will conduct a program of music by Johann Sebastian Bach and Jean-Fery Rebel.

 Bach’s two “Brandenburg” Concerti, Nos. 3 and 5, comprise the bulk of the program. Soprano Kara Goodrich will also perform his “Ich habe genug.” Rounding out the concert will be Rebel’s “Les Elemens.”

 For more information visit chamberorchestra.org.

 Yannick and Wang

 Music director Yannick Nezet-Seguin will conduct the Philadelphia Orchestra with Curtis Institute of Music alumna Yuja Wang as soloist in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 Jan. 16 at 7:30 p.m. and Jan. 17 and 18 at 8 p.m. in the Kimmel Center’s Marian Anderson Hall. The program also includes Margaret Bonds’ “The Montgomery Variations” and William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 2. 

 For ticket information visit philorch.org/2425season.

 Ending on a High Note

 Two of Chestnut Hill’s “most favorite” ensembles closed out the year 2024 with concerts presented before “full house” audiences in the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill. Piffaro, the Renaissance Band, performed “Nova! Nova!” Saturday evening, Dec. 21; the following afternoon, The Crossing choir sang David Lang’s “poor hymnal.” Both appearances set new standards for interpreting the old and new repertoires.

 For “Nova! Nova!”, Piffaro was joined by New York Polyphony, a vocal ensemble of one countertenor, two tenors and a baritone. Together, they essayed a broad spectrum of Christmastime music drawn from the 15th and 16th centuries. 

 Although the entire roster of pieces was sung and played superbly, it was the rendition given selections from the “Worcester Fragments” – the “Gloria,” “Sanctus,” “Agnus Dei” and “Beata viscera Mariae virginis” – that made the most stunning impression on Saturday evening’s audience. 

 The chaste clarity of the Latin text of these excerpts from the Ordinary of the Traditional Liturgy of the Catholic Church’s Mass was like a splash of cold water amidst the flowery extravagance of the more emotional lyrics of the other works. Beautifully sung by New York Polyphony and sensitively accompanied by Piffaro, their simple yet powerful polyphonic setting established the seminal and timeless importance of their texts.

 For more information visit piffaro.org or call 215-235-8469.

 David Lang’s “poor hymnal” is an equally potent setting of a series of poems that starkly set out humanity’s failure to take care of its own. By employing a remarkably straight-forward melodic/harmonic musical idiom, Lang has allowed the text to dominate the music without sacrificing his own distinctive voice.

 As has become the norm with Germantown’s Donald Nally and The Crossing, the performance was breathtaking in its technical perfection and interpretive efficacy. The most daunting harmonies and challenging textures were delineated immaculately. More importantly, the essential meaning of the words that inspired the music was projected with such unaffected emotion that the listener was left stunned at the concert’s conclusion – such pain and beauty balanced perfectly.

 For more information visit crossingchoir.org.

 You can contact NOTEWORTHY at Michael-caruso@comcast.net.