Cameron Kelsall is a classical music critic based in Philadelphia. He has been writing for Bachtrack since 2019. His byline also appears regularly in Opera News, Parterre Box, Broad Street Review and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Cameron has a particular affinity for the music of Mahler and Bruckner, and he plays piano, saxophone and clarinet to varying degrees of competence. You can follow him on Twitter at @CameronPKelsall.
Ernő Dohnányi's Symphonic Minutes made its first appearance on a Philharmonic subscription program since 1940, followed by a stirring account of Bartók’s Third Piano Concerto with Sir András Schiff.
The ARD International Music Competition holds a yearly Winners Festival for its laureates. Violinist Alexandra Tirsu and horn player Yun Zeng speak about the transformative experience of participating.
“Years ago, I composed for the great Chaliapin. Now he is dead, and so I compose for a new kind of artist, the Philadelphia Orchestra.” Cameron Kelsall explores the relationship between Sergei Rachmaninov and the orchestra he composed for in exile.
The Ukrainian-Finnish conductor finds fresh insight in Sibelius' Fifth Symphony and introduces local audiences to the living Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodi.
The principal guest conductor brings a rough edge to the orchestra's sound in Brahms' First Symphony, with Gil Shaham projecting lyrical elegance in the composer's Violin Concerto.
Carl Orff's bawdy choral work shares a program with the sweet and sincere Credo, a rediscovered work by the American composer and arranger Margaret Bonds.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads Dawson's first appearance in a subscription concert just this week, programmed alongside Robert Schumann's Piano Concerto with rising soloist Tony Siqi Yun.
The popular pianist performs all four of the Russian composer's piano concertos, plus his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, over the course of two nights at Verizon Hall.
Franz Welser-Möst creatively fused Schubert's “Unfinished” Symphony with Berg's Lyric Suite, before leading an opulent performance of Mass no. 6 in E flat Major.
The young American conductor leads propulsive readings of Ravel and John Adams in his Philadelphia Orchestra debut, and partners perfectly with soloist Augustin Hadelich in Sibelius' Violin Concerto.
A season in Verizon Hall rarely goes by without a performance of Dvořák’s New World Symphony, yet the Principal Guest Conductor brings new insights to the fore of this familiar piece.
In 2018 Israeli conductor and pianist Lahav Shani was appointed chief conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic at the age of 27 – becoming one of the youngest chief conductors anywhere in the world. He discusses the orchestra’s musical adaptability, precision, and ability to dig deep.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra pair Clara Schumann's inventive Piano Concerto in A minor with Florence Price's fascinatingly complex Third Symphony, bookended by unnecessary Ravel.
