THE BASICS: BPO Assistant Conductor Fernanda Lastra (lead image) conducts music by Berlioz, Saint-Saens (with guest artist Ms. Avery Gagliano at the piano), and Mendelssohn at Kleinhans Music Hall, Saturday, May 10 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, May 11 at 2:30 pm. Tickets at the door or call 716-885-5000.
Runtime: 2 hours, including one intermission
The focus is on youth this Mother’s Day weekend as BPO Assistant Conductor Fernanda Lastra makes her Classics series debut and welcomes 2024 Curtis Institute of Music grad Avery Gagliano to play the BPO’s new Steinway Grand at Kleinhans. Adding to the youthful energy, at Saturday night’s concert (which encores this Sunday, May 11, 2025 at 2:30 pm) the evening began with Robin Parkinson, the energetic head of Education and Community Engagement, calling up on to the stage recent award winning school music teachers and four high school scholarship winners (see below for details). With both orchestra and audience erupting in applause, the tone was set.
Then out strode Ms. Lastra to conduct the lively Roman Carnival overture by one of the wild men of classical music – Hector Berlioz – composed while he was in Italy, on a year-long stay as part of his Prix de Rome prize package. It’s fun and features English horn player Anna Mattix in some gorgeous solo work.
After some earlier in the season interminable waits for the piano to be rolled out on stage, the BPO wisely had the brand new Steinway already in place, so no sooner had the applause died down for the Berlioz when Fernanda Lastra was back on the podium with the evening’s featured soloist, Ms. Avery Gagliano, to play Camille Saint-Saens Piano Concerto No. 5 (of five) with the subtitle “Egyptian” it having been composed on a trip to Luxor, Egypt.
Unlike concertos for other instruments, piano concertos are almost exclusively composed by pianists, and great ones at that. Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms were phenomenal keyboard artists, as were Mozart (both Wolfgang and Nannerl), Mendelssohn (both Felix and Fanny) and Schumann (both Robert and Clara). Camille Saint-Saens [say “kah-MEE sand-SAWNS”] is in that group, and like Chopin, wrote piano lines that “float” above the orchestra. It takes a light but 100% confident approach, and Gagliano had it all, with each note distinct and ringing even in the middle of lightning-fast runs.
Speaking of Chopin, Ms. Gagliano was the winner of the First Prize and Best Concerto Prize at the 2020 National Chopin Piano Competition. That feathery light touch is her specialty and conductor Lastra, also a pianist, kept the orchestra at just the right balance so as not to overshadow, but rather support, the soloist.
Now, for some reason, Saint-Saens doesn’t get the love and attention that I think he deserves. In a recent poll of WNED (now BTPM) classical radio listeners, who were asked to name their favorite composers, Saint-Saëns didn’t make the Top 20. That’s just wrong! Although I’m probably guilty too. For next weekend’s BTPM Classical on-air “Piano Palooza,” each on-air host was asked to choose two works featuring the piano. While Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 5 was in my top five, I ultimately chose chamber works featuring the piano by Schubert and Tchaikovsky. So I was immensely gratified to see that the BPO had scheduled the “Egyptian” Piano Concerto for this weekend’s BPO concert. I love it, and if you don’t know it, I’m pretty sure that you will too.
After intermission, the BPO continued to explore the theme of travel as inspiration with Mendelssohn’s incredibly popular Symphony No. 4, the “Italian,” a delightful set of musical postcards from the composer’s time in Italy. Mendelssohn, like Saint-Saens, was able to “featherstitch” (a term introduced by radio host Karl Haas) notes together to create a flowing, airy sound. It was a perfect companion to the Saint-Saens.
A little more about Fernanda Lastra:
You may recall that in October 2023, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra announced the contract extension and promotion of Fernanda Lastra, the Argentina-born conductor who was hired as a BPO Conductor Diversity Fellow in September 2022. In recognition of her dedication to outstanding performances, passion for community engagement, and talent on the podium, Lastra was named Assistant Conductor to complement her role of Diversity Fellow, with her initial two-year contract extended through the 2024-25 concert season. That season isn’t over yet, and here’s some good news.
Fernanda Lastra will be conducting 11 of the 14 Summer Series Concerts all this July, 2025 at venues from Ellicottville down south to Lewiston, Niagara Falls, and Niawanda Park in the northtowns. Eleven concerts over 25 days in July? Really? Yes, Fernanda Lastra is the perfect Assistant Conductor to BPO Music Director JoAnn Falletta, two of the highest-energy ladies I know.
You may have read or heard about the current Washington administration’s directive to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to cut funding for DEI initiatives. At least three cultural institutions in Buffalo, including the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, received word from the NEA announcing a change in guidelines in response to executive orders signed by President Trump. The NEA would no longer fund programs that promote DEI. The BPO has long been, and will continue to be, providing programming as part of their IDEA initiatives (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access).
This is a shame when you consider all that the BPO does for the community, which was proudly on display at Kleinhans Music Hall during the BPO’s annual Celebration of Music Education, presented in partnership with the Erie and Niagara County Music Educators Associations. This year’s honorees were:
BPO/ECMEA Award for Excellence in Music Education:
- Lawrence Dubill (Hamburg Central School District)
- Tami Feldman (Orchard Park Central School District)
- Thomas Stroth (Clarence Central School District)
- BPO/NCMEA Award for Excellence in Music Education:
- Claudia Andres (Wilson Central School District)
- Friends of the BPO Young Musicians’ Scholarships
- 1st Prize: Angelina Fetterly, voice (Clarence High School)
- 2nd Prize: Samuel Gugliuzza, violin (Canisius High School)
- 3rd Prize: Aidan Tardif, trombone (Frontier High School)
- Yadzinski Foundation Scholarship for the Arts:
- Ethan Hart, saxophone (Williamsville North High School)
The BPO Leadership in Music Education Award recognized Sue Fay Allen and Carl Klingenschmitt for their decades-long impact on music education in Western New York. “From founding the Community Spotlight program to creating scholarship opportunities, coordinating volunteer efforts and strengthening partnerships, their legacy continues to inspire.”
The next BPO concerts at Kleinhans will be the annual “Patriotic Pops” concert with the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus. A chorus member told me that the moving highlight of that concert is the armed forces salute which recognizes everyone in the audience affiliated with any of the many branches of the military. That’s Friday, May 23 10:30 am “Coffee Concert” followed by the evening concert, Saturday May 24 at 7:30.
Diversity doesn’t just apply to people, but also instruments. Popular with jazz and rock bands, the saxophone isn’t a complete stranger to classical, but it is a rarity. On another “Coffee Concert, “Friday, May 30 at 10:30 am, followed by an evening concert, Saturday, May 31 at 7:30, along with popular works by Copland, Ginastera, and Bernstein, JoAnn Falletta will conduct Adolphus Hailstork’s “Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Strings,” featuring also saxophone soloist Timothy McAllister.
Kleinhans Music Hall is at “3 Symphony Circle” Buffalo, 14201 where Porter Avenue, Richmond Avenue, North Street and Wadsworth meet at a traffic circle. Visit www.bpo.org or call 716-885-5000. Full-service bar in the lobby or across the lobby in the Mary Seaton Room. Masks are optional.