‘Bach to Bartók’ an RPO journey worth taking

David Raymond, CITY Newspaper. Click here for the original article. Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Alban Berg – great composers but only occasional visitors to Kodak Hall at best — finally made it on the same Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra program last night. The evening also included a 20th-century standard, Béla Bartók’s Concerto... read more

Jennifer Higdon’s Lovely New Harp Concerto

David Hurwitz, Classics Today. Click here for the original review. Yolanda Kondonassis plays a mean harp, and Jennifer Higdon has written a lovely concerto to exploit her abilities. Lasting about 20 minutes, its four shapely movements have titles that aptly characterize the music without asking listeners to fit a square conceptual peg... read more

Review: American Rapture

Richard Cummings, MusicWeb International. Click here for the original review.   This is an unusual disc in the way it is presented: the cover gives the most prominent billing among the performers to the harpist, Yolanda Kondonassis, who is featured in only one work; yet the album’s title comes from the shortest... read more

Review: American Rapture

Jean-Jacques Millo, Opus Haute Definition (French). Click here for the original review (with translation). With two world premieres, this album is a godsend that allows you to discover a part of American music. Besides the famous Symphony Nº1 Op. 9 by Samuel Barber, dating from 1936, we can savor the Concerto for... read more

American Rapture

Laurence Vittes, Gramophone. Click here for the original review. The Rochester Philharmonic’s excellent calling card features premiere recordings of Jennifer Higdon’s Harp Concerto, starring Yolanda Kondonassis, and Patrick Harlin’s Rapture, bookending an outstanding performance of Samuel Barber’s First Symphony. Higdon’s concerto, commissioned by a consortium of orchestras from six heartland cities – in... read more

Music Director Ward Stare Conducts an Evening in Vienna

For Immediate Release October 8, 2019 Media Contact:   Nicole Morelle, 454-7311 ext. 245     MUSIC DIRECTOR WARD STARE CONDUCTS AN EVENING IN VIENNA Fundraising Gala and Concert October 12 - Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre Rochester, NY – Music Director Ward Stare and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) will... read more