- P.D.
To know the Flemish early- music vocal quartet Capilla Flamenca is to identify its distinctive amber-tinged sound within seconds. In a rare U.S. appearance May 6 and 8 in Chestnut Hill and Wilmington, the group collaborates with Philadelphia's Piffaro in a program featuring the great early-Renaissance polyphony of Heinrich Isaac and Alexander Agricola. In between, on May 7, the group hosts a program featuring a cappella singing from chant to gospel, with area vocal groups. (www.piffaro.com.)
- D.P.S.
The Opera Company of Philadelphia covered its populist base before Christmas with a Handel's Messiah flash-mob video that has topped 7 million views. With the American premiere of Henze's Phaedra June 3 to 12, it gives the cognoscenti their own reason for a hallelujah or two.
- P.D.
The Crossing's Month of Moderns festival at Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill is built around new works set to the words of the Roman philosopher Seneca. The June 18 concert premieres The Waking Sun by local composer Kile Smith, with chorus sections of Seneca-authored dramas about Medea and Oedipus. Says Smith, "They spotlight different psychological dramas that go on in all of us." (www.crossingchoir.com.) - D.P.S.
Spring Arts - Classical Music:
Also of interest
The Curtis Institute of Music marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of alum Gian Carlo Menotti in a Feb. 4 vocal recital. (www.curtis.edu, 215-893-7902.)
Superb elder statesman of the keyboard, pianist Nelson Freire, plays Mendelssohn, Brahms, and more March 3. (www.pcmsconcerts.org, 215-569-8080.)
Astral Artists pairs animator with pianist in an April 9 premiere of Who Stole the Mona Lisa? (astralartists.org, 215-735-6999.)
Longwood Gardens further branches in the direction of a serious arts presenter with an April 15 recital by Olga Kern, Gold Medal winner of the 2001 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. (www.longwoodgardens.org, 215-893-1999.)
The Orchestre National de France, led by Daniele Gatti, presents a program of Debussy's La Mer, Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, and Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major with soloist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. If birthright grants authority, it should be insightful. April 15. (kimmelcenter.org, 215-893-1999.)
If you don't know the piece already, Walton's Violin Concerto might become your new favorite when you hear Gil Shaham perform it May 12 to 17 with the Philadelphia Orchestra. (www.philorch.org, 215-893-1999.)
- P.D.
