By Jesse Moreau
BUFFALO — For the second time this month, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra is asking its audience to hear something no one has heard before.
This morning’s Coffee Concert at Kleinhans Music Hall opens with the world premiere of Jonathan Leshnoff’s Symphony No. 5, a three-movement work written for the orchestra. Music Director JoAnn Falletta conducts the 10:30 a.m. performance and a second one at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, on a program that also puts Associate Concertmaster Amy Glidden out front for Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 and closes with Brahms’s Second Symphony.
It comes less than two weeks after the orchestra premiered Richard Danielpour’s Francis: An Oratorio in Nine Scenes on Oct. 10 and 11, a performance Buffalo Spree reported was being recorded for Naxos. Two world premieres in one month is a lot of new music for any American orchestra, let alone one in a city Buffalo’s size.
‘A wonderful present’
Mr. Leshnoff’s music travels widely. His publicity materials say his music has been played by more than 100 orchestras, and The New York Times once called him “a leader of contemporary American lyricism.” He is the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s composer in residence this season.
Ms. Falletta’s note in the concert program treats the new symphony as a gift to the orchestra.
“To open the concert, we have a wonderful present, a world premiere of a piece written for the BPO,” she wrote. “Jonathan Leshnoff, a leader in American contemporary music, has written a powerful and lyrical symphony for our orchestra, and we are honored to perform that work this weekend.”
The connection runs back through a Buffalo musician. Ms. Falletta told Buffalo Spree that she first met the composer when she guest-conducted his First Violin Concerto with the late, Buffalo-born violinist Charles Wetherbee.
“I was immediately taken by the luxurious romanticism of Jonathan’s style of composition,” Ms. Falletta said in that interview. “He has a very generous patron who commissions his works and who allows him to offer the premiere performances to the orchestras of his choice. I am grateful that Jonathan chose the BPO to perform his Fifth Symphony.”
Three new symphonies in one season
That arrangement is a good deal for Buffalo. New orchestral works are often paid for by the orchestras that premiere them, sometimes in consortiums with other ensembles. By Ms. Falletta’s account, this one came to Kleinhans because the composer, with a patron behind him, chose the BPO.
The Fifth is the first of three Leshnoff symphonies scheduled to be premiered and recorded this season, according to an announcement distributed by his publicist, First Inversion. The Sixth, written as a reflection on the city of Baltimore, goes to the Baltimore Symphony and Jonathon Heyward. The Seventh goes to the Santa Rosa Symphony in California.
The program lists the Buffalo symphony’s three movements only by their markings: “Molto rubato,” a movement marked at 106 beats per minute, and a closing movement marked “Slow.” The orchestra has not published a note from the composer describing the piece, so this weekend’s audiences will be the first to find out what it sounds like.
Mr. Leshnoff has been generous about the orchestras that play him. When Baltimore named him composer in residence, he said, “They interpret my music superbly, with energy and sensitivity. I am musically inspired just at the thought and I know that this collaboration will be remarkable.”
Twenty-five years in the second chair
The middle of the program belongs to Ms. Glidden, who has sat beside the concertmaster for a quarter century. A Wichita, Kansas, native, she founded the violin program at Buffalo State University and plays with the East Aurora Chamber Music Festival and the Buffalo Chamber Players, according to her BPO biography.
She told Buffalo Spree she picked the Bruch by asking around.
“Three people in a row, two of my own students and a respected colleague at Buffalo State, told me that the Bruch Violin Concerto was the top choice, while the Mendelssohn came in second!” Ms. Glidden said. “I could tell that music lovers cherished the Bruch, and I wanted to share it with the audience that has supported me during my twenty-five years as Associate Concertmaster.”
She will play it on a French violin made by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume around 1850.
“I’ve been spending the past few months making sure my instrument is in the best possible condition to fill Kleinhans Music Hall with a full, soloistic tone,” she said. “I feel fortunate to be the caretaker of a historically significant instrument.”
Ms. Falletta, in her program note, called the Bruch “a perfect concerto, filled with warmth, depth, a pristine structure, and unforgettable melodies — perfect for Amy!”
New music on a flat budget
The premieres arrive as the orchestra’s public support stands still. As The Buffalo Chronicle reported Tuesday, County Executive Mark Poloncarz’s proposed 2027 budget holds the BPO at $950,000, the same as this year and $5,000 below what it received in 2025. The Erie County Legislature votes on the budget in early December.
The orchestra’s October calendar shows how it is trying to fill seats beyond the subscription crowd. The season listings include a costume-friendly Symphonic Spooktacular on Sunday afternoon, an informal one-hour BPO UpClose concert on Oct. 30, led by Ms. Glidden, with the audience seated around the musicians, and a Hauntingly Halloween program on Oct. 31 followed by a dance with DJ Milk.
If you go
“Glidden Plays Bruch,” with the world premiere of Jonathan Leshnoff’s Symphony No. 5, is at 10:30 a.m. today and 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Kleinhans Music Hall, 3 Symphony Circle. A Musically Speaking pre-concert talk begins one hour before Saturday’s performance. Tickets are available at bpo.org or from the box office at 716-885-5000.
Photo: The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra at Kleinhans Music Hall. Schetm / Wikimedia Commons, CC0, cropped.
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