A season energized by Annenberg

The classical season is back-loaded in favor of spring - in number of concerts, but also in sheer artistic impact, which my colleague David Patrick Stearns and I survey below.

Part of the boost (though not all) comes via the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts, which debuts April 7 and runs through May 1. One of Leonore Annenberg's final acts of generosity before her death, the project has allowed for some artistic chance-taking amid a financial climate otherwise not conducive to adventure.

The festival has also fostered partnerships among arts groups. The practice of joint ventures was ticking upward anyway - largely encouraged by foundations - but now the trend has accelerated.

The Philadelphia Orchestra and Pennsylvania Ballet, neighbors though they are, might never have otherwise found each other for a production of Pulcinella. Likewise puppeteer Robert Smythe and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia teaming on L'Histoire du soldat.

Where the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts is concerned, there's no guarantee that the Kimmel will be able to raise the money necessary to repeat the venture. But cast aside thoughts of sustainability for now and focus on the art, much of which promises to be powerful and even important.

And who knows what enduring value may come of some of these partnerships, even if their particularly munificent matchmaker in chief has left the scene.

- Peter Dobrin, Inquirer music critic

Spring Arts - Classical Music:

Conductor as performance artist? So it seems with Michael Tilson Thomas, who is a sort of musico-theatrical tour guide in The Thomashefskys Feb. 15 and 16 at the Kimmel Center - referring to his grandparents, who were the heartbeat of New York's rollicking early-20th-century Yiddish theater. Also, Feb. 10 to 12, he guest-conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra in a program including the suite from Leonard Bernstein's late-period opera  A Quiet Place . (215-893-1999, www.philorch.org.)

- David Patrick Stearns