In Friday’s (5/2) New York Times, James R. Oestreich writes, “Spring for Music, the annual weeklong festival of North American orchestras at Carnegie Hall, begins and ends with requiem settings: the New York premiere of Christopher Rouse’s Requiem, performed by Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic on Monday, and a little drama built around Mozart’s Requiem, performed by Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra on May 10.… 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.” Funding for further editions of Spring for Music has not materialized, and this will be the event’s final year. “The festival chooses orchestras mainly on the strength of the programs they propose: the adventurousness of the repertory, the extent to which it reflects the orchestra’s specific mission and the way the works are combined and conceptualized.” In addition to the above two orchestras, participants this year are the Seattle Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Winnipeg Symphony, and Cincinnati Symphony. The article includes a sidebar on each orchestra including number of musicians, budget, and information about its Spring for Music program.
Posted May 5, 2014
