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Talking symphony strings for the season of spring with Lloyd Schwartz
WBUR contributing arts critic Lloyd Schwartz joins The Common to discuss classical music.
Lloyd, who is Somerville's poet laureate, a 1994 Pulitzer Prize winner and Fresh Air's classical music critic, also shared recommendations from his latest guide to Greater Boston classical events on offer this spring.
Here are some of his picks:
- The Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and 86-year-old conductor Benjamin Zander will perform Mahler's Symphony No. 2, also known as “Resurrection.” (Here's a performance featuring the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.) Lloyd says "if anyone is going to do a good job with this symphony, it's Benjamin Zander and the Boston Philharmonic." The show will take place on April 18 at Symphony Hall and also will feature Swedish soprano Miah Persson and British mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly.
- There's a solo performance from Russian-American pianist Sergey Schepkin, one of Lloyd's "favorite living musicians," at First Church Boston in Back Bay on May 9. Schepkin will play music from Debussy and Schumann. However, he points to one of the latter's "keyboard masterpieces," "Carnaval," as a highlight.
- A show from "Music for Food," a concert series that raises money for local food pantries, is a great one for those on a budget. The April 13 event will include “silences/larmes” by Helena Tulve, Arnold Schoenberg’s “The Book of the Hanging Gardens” and Francis Poulenc’s “La voix humaine.” Admission to the show at the New England Conservatory's Williams Hall is free, but should you feel moved, a donation of $40 for adults or $15 for students is suggested. All proceeds go to Women's Lunch Place.
You can read the rest of Lloyd's recommendations, as well as more WBUR arts guides which include theater, film and dance here.
