Done too soon….

The Pittsburgh Symphony

Carnegie Hall's Spring for Music begins its fourth (and last) incarnation this week.  In the New York Times, James Oestreich writes:

Conceived as a grand experiment and intended to encourage programming that is both ambitious and somehow representative of the orchestras’ individual purposes and goals — and to showcase the richness of the North American landscape — Spring for Music first appeared in 2011, to general acclaim. But a year ago, it was already a lame duck, its founders having failed to secure sponsorship to continue beyond this season, and further efforts throughout the year have proved futile.

This is particularly sad as the festival has featured a number of ensembles far from the Big Apple.  Last year's appearance by the Detroit Symphony ("An Ives Immersion") , a scant couple of years removed from an almost crippling strike, was--by all accounts--a triumph.  "What a night—surely the height of the festival!" wrote reviewer Sedgwick Clark of Musical America.  Past festivals have included the likes of the National Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Albany Symphony, and orchestras from Houston, Edmonton (Alberta), Milwaukee, and many more.

This year's festival includes no new orchestras but will feature the kind of fascinating (and unexpected) programing for which the short-lived series has become known.

Monday, May 5:  The New York Philharmonic, Alan Gilbert, Music Director; with Jacques Imbrailo, baritone, the Westminster Symphonic Choir, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus

• Christopher Rouse:  Requiem (NY Premiere)

Tuesday, May 6:  The Seattle Symphony, Ludovic Morlot, music director

• John Luther Adams: Become Ocean (NY Premiere)

• Edgar Varèse: Déserts 

• Claude Debussy: La Mer

Wednesday, May 7:  Michael Christie, conductor, with Richard Zeller (baritone, Wrestling Bradford) Sara Jakubiak (soprano, Lady Marigold Sandys) Charles Robert Austin (bass-baritone, Praise-God Tewke) Christopher Pfund (tenor, Sir Gower Lackland) Eastman-Rochester Chorus (William Weinert, director) Bach Children’s Chorus of Nazareth College (Karla Krogstad, director)

• Howard Hanson: Merry Mount (concert performance)

Thursday, May 8:  The Winnepeg Symphony, Alexander Mickelthwate, music director, with Tanya Tagaq, Throat Singer and Dame Evelyn Glennie, percussion.

• R. Murray Schafer: Symphony No. 1

• Derek Charke: 13 Inuit Throat Song Games

• Vincent Ho: The Shaman: Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra

Friday, May 9:  The Cincinnati Symphony, James Conlon, Cincinnati May Festival Music Director, with Latonia Moore, soprano; Ronnita Nicole Miller, mezzo-soprano; Rodrick Dixon, tenor; Donnie Ray Albert, baritone and the May Festival Chorus.

• John Adams: Harmonium

• R. Nathaniel Dett: The Ordering of Moses (NY Premiere)

Saturday, May 10:  The Pittsburgh Symphony, Manfred Honeck, Music Director, with Sundae Im, soprano; Elizabeth Deshong, mezzo soprano, Benjamin Bruns, tenor; Liang Li, bass; F. Murray Abraham, speaker; and the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, along with the Schola Cantorum of St. Agnes Church.

• Anton Bruckner: Motet Ave Maria

• Francis Poulenc: Final Scene from Dialogues of the Carmelites

• James MacMillan: Woman of the Apocalypse (NY Premiere)

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Requiem and Death in Words and Music

Anthony Tommasini aptly expressed his near-grief at the closing of Spring for Music:  "It is with gratitude and sadness that I am looking forward to the fourth annual Spring for Music festival. Gratitude because each year this weeklong series of orchestra concerts at Carnegie Hall has been so exciting. Sadness because this spring’s festival (running from May 5 to 10) will be its last."

Oh, to be in NYC this week.  Tickets are a mere $25 per concert.  Would that someone pick up the mantle of Spring for Music and give it another go...