{"id":15860,"date":"2024-01-30T13:39:06","date_gmt":"2024-01-30T18:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/?p=15860"},"modified":"2025-03-17T13:42:42","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T17:42:42","slug":"review-the-philadelphia-orchestra-presents-brahmss-german-requiem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/review-the-philadelphia-orchestra-presents-brahmss-german-requiem\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Philadelphia Orchestra presents Brahms\u2019s German Requiem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.broadstreetreview.com\/reviews\/the-philadelphia-orchestra-presents-brahmss-german-requiem\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">From The Broad Street Review<\/a><\/p>\n<p>By Linda Holt<\/p>\n<p>The Philadelphia Orchestra hit the trifecta last weekend with a savory program of music inspired by humanity\u2019s spiritual journey as Yannick N\u00e9zet-S\u00e9guin led a world premiere by <strong>Mason Bates<\/strong>, Luis Ernesto Pe\u00f1a Laguna\u2019s Oraison for chorus and orchestra, and Brahms\u2019s massive A German Requiem.<\/p>\n<p>If anything, this program of works embracing contemporary and classical values was almost too much good music to absorb and appreciate, and that is not a complaint. The concert opened with Bates\u2019s colorful Nomad Concerto for violin and orchestra, starring violinist <strong>Gil Shaham<\/strong> (for whom the piece was written) and an abundance of exotic percussion instruments. (Rutes and Thai gong, anyone?) Laguna\u2019s multilingual work headed the second part of the program. For the Brahms finish, the stage and conductor\u2019s circle teemed with 174 musicians and choristers as the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir, in its usual superb form (directed by Joe Miller), took the stage alongside the orchestra, featuring soprano Jeanine De Bique and baritone Christopher Maltman, each guest soloist tucked neatly in a high corner of the conductor\u2019s circle overlooking the stage.<\/p>\n<p>The Nomad Concerto by itself is an absorbing, moving, and sometimes convivial delight, with Shaham navigating the technical difficulties of the score like an Olympic skier racking up gold medals. Ornamenting the work with spiccato (bouncing), pizzicato (plucking), and techniques I never dreamed possible, such as playing legato and pizzicato at the same time, Bates takes the listener through four encounters (literally \u201cmovements\u201d) in the nomad\u2019s life. These are the Song of the Balloon Man, Magician at the Bazaar, Desert Vision: Oasis, and Le Jazz Manouche. Whether you listen to this as an integrated, 25-minute concerto or focus on a particular section (I loved the soulful third movement, based on a Jewish song of sorrow and hope), the work is a breath of fresh air. It elevates and entertains, reminiscent in many places of Berlioz\u2019s viola masterpiece, Harold in Italy.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.broadstreetreview.com\/reviews\/the-philadelphia-orchestra-presents-brahmss-german-requiem\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read the full review.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From The Broad Street Review By Linda Holt The Philadelphia Orchestra hit the trifecta last weekend with a savory program of music inspired by humanity\u2019s spiritual journey as Yannick N\u00e9zet-S\u00e9guin led a world premiere by Mason Bates, Luis Ernesto Pe\u00f1a Laguna\u2019s Oraison for chorus and orchestra, and Brahms\u2019s massive A German Requiem. If anything, this &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/review-the-philadelphia-orchestra-presents-brahmss-german-requiem\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4256,7031,4317,7397,7398,3669],"class_list":["post-15860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-composer","tag-gil-shaham","tag-mason-bates","tag-nomad-concerto","tag-philadelphia-orchestra","tag-violin"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15860"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15861,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15860\/revisions\/15861"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/8426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}