2014 in Review: The Five Best Orchestral Concerts

Our year-end wrapup continues with the best of the concert hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

When Lorin Maazel (left) dropped out of a planned pair of April concerts,
two substitutes (Valery Gergiev and Fabio Luisi) were brought in.
This image was the result and it's my favorite photoshop I did this year.. Photo alteration by the author.

Here at Superconductor, we go to a lot of concerts. And these are five that stood out in 2014 as our year-end best of rolls forward. From the Civil War hymns reimagined by David Lang (and played in the bowels of an aircraft carrier)  to the symphonic weirdness of Carl Nielsen heard at Avery Fisher Hall, these are the five finest from an interesting year at the symphony. Chronological order.

Concert Review: Catching the Waves

The Seattle Symphony plays Spring for Music.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Conductor Ludovic Morlot in rehearsal.

On Tuesday night, the fourth and final Spring For Music festival--that week-long celebration of of North American orchestras at Carnegie Hall with a dedicated focus on modern and obscure repertory--welcomed the Seattle Symphony for a rare New York appearance. The concert, under the baton of Seattle music director Ludovic Morlot featured the New York premiere of Become Ocean, the work that won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Music for its composer John Luther Adams.