I had seen this earlier this year, with the New York Philharmonic. I rather enjoyed watching the movie clips again, but it’s pretty much a cash cow for the performing orchestra. Nothing terribly memorable about 90% of the music. The conductor of this program, Cristian Macelaru, is the Associate Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Not as dynamic as David Newman and the Philharmonic, but enjoyable nonetheless. This is a particularly good experience, I think, for children. And there were certainly plenty at this performance!

In it’s second year, the NYO-USA visited their home turf, Carnegie Hall, in one of their earlier tour stops this summer. An impressive young group of musicians! What a great experience for young, up-and-coming musicians. This year’s conductor was David Robertson with violin soloist Gil Shaham.

• Bernstein – Symphonic Dances from West Side story
• Britten – Violin Concerto, Op. 15
• Samuel Adams – Radial Play
• Mussorgsky – Pictures at an Exhibition

New York Times Review

The final Summertime classics of the 2013-14 seasons was a rousing tribute to America – a “Star Spangled Spectacular.” It usually is with a musical group from one of the armed services. This year the featured group was the U.S. Marine Drum and Bugle Corps.

The program began with a recovered arrangement of the Star Spangled Banner from former NY Philharmonic conductor Arturo Toscanini.  You can read the story here. Then the brass and percussion sections were featured in Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man. The first half ended with Copland’s Clarinet Concerto and Associate Principal Clarinet Mark Nuccio as soloist.

The second half featured the U.S. Marine Drum and Bugle Corps under the direction of Brian Dix. They were joined by the Philharmonic for some traditional holiday fair including Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever.

New York Times Review

Annually, the Philharmonic plays a couple of “pops-like” concerts prior to hitting the parks circuit in the month of July. For quite some time, the Summertime Classics have been directed by British conductor Bramwell Tovey, complete with spirited commentary.

This evening’s concert focused on Russian classics:

• Shostakovich – Festive Overture
• Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto No. 1 with soloist, Joyce Yang
• Musorgsky – Night on Bald Mountain
• Rachmaninoff – Vocalise
• Tchaikovsky – Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcracker
• Tchaikovsky – March Slave

New York Times Review