ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT: EXPERT PICKS
GAZETTE.COM/BESTOF
BY DAVID SCKOLNIK GO! CLASSICAL MUSIC CRITIC
LARGE ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE “MAHLER 4” BY COLORADO SPRINGS PHILHARMONIC Pikes Peak Center, 190 S. Cascade Ave., 520-7469, csphilharmonic.org
There were two other philharmonic performances that could have garnered top honors in 2013: April’s “Gardens of Spain” and May’s “Verdi Requiem.” But this concert was special. It was designated as a tribute to music director emeritus Lawrence Leighton Smith, who had just died. The performance of this Mahler symphony conducted by Smith’s successor, Josep Caballé-Domenech, was a spiritual and musical wonder. World-class soprano Jessica Rivera brought the work home with a silky sheen.
SMALL ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE “MASTERY” BY VERONIKA STRING QUARTET Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., veronikastringquartet.com
There’s great chamber music up for sale all year long in our region. Even with the vast variety of instrumental combinations put before us, the art form’s standard bearer, the string quartet, should shine brightest among all. This group gets it right all the time. The group’s season opener of Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Schubert touched the entire spectrum of emotions while transfixing the audience throughout.
SOLO PERFORMANCE (INSTRUMENTAL)
SOlO pErFOrMAnCE (inSTruMEnTAl): BiOn TSAnG in dvOrAk CEllO COnCErTO
BION TSANG IN DVORAK CELLO CONCERTO
MArk MATSOn
Colorado College Summer Music Festival, 389-6552, coloradocollege.edu
Technically, Tsang is not eligible for this award. He’s a seasonal import for the miraculous Colorado College Summer Music Festival. But he has been doing this since 2001 while making more than a few off-series appearances at CC. It’s just that no single performance all year mined the soul of music as beautifully as this. A technical tour-de-force that completely transcended the notes on the score.
MOVER AND SHAKER
SOLO PERFORMANCE (VOCAL)
THOMAS WILSON
VALERIE NICOLOSI IN “THE SOUND OF MUSIC”
Wilson’s in a class of his own. He has been a stalwart of our local professional orchestra in the trumpet section for more than 23 years — adding leadership roles over time. He brought the chamber orchestra from a financial and artistic abyss to the vital music organization it is today. With all of that, it was his beautifully written and performed program exploring Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” for the philharmonic in February 2013 that confirmed his status as a community treasure.
Opera Theatre of the Rockies, Armstrong Theatre, Colorado College, 14 E. Cache La Poudre St., operatheatreoftherockies.org
Nicolosi has become the lead voice for the art of singing in southern Colorado. Whether in churches, concert halls or the operatic stage, she’s always engaging and consistent in her performances. As Mother Abbess, her rich mezzo made the most of what should always be the musical highlight of the “The Sound of Music” — the inspiring “Climb Every Mountain.”
58 I BEST OF THE SPRINGS I 2014 I THE GazETTE
Associate conductor of the Colorado Springs Philharmonic and music director of the Chamber Orchestra of the Springs csphilharmonic.org, chamberorchestraofthesprings.org
MOVER AND SHAKER: THOMAS wILSON COURTESY PHOTO