Around the U.S.

CHICAGO – Besides delivering clutch solos in big orchestral works, principal players also thrive in the concerto spotlight, as Chicago Symphony clarinetist Stephen Williamson did in the premiere of Christopher Theofanidis' evocative essay.

SUN VALLEY, Idaho – Established three decades ago as a summer enterprise, the Sun Valley Music Festival in recent years has spread its winter wings with indoor chamber concerts, this year curated by and spotlighting pianist Joyce Yang.

NEW YORK – Tenor Brandon Jovanovich heads the cast as the vengeful and obsessive Capt. Ahab in composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer's adaptation of Herman Melville's novel. But the adventure's sole survivor has been renamed.

NEW YORK – Over the course of three different programs at Carnegie Hall, conductor Riccardo Muti and the Vienna Philharmonic, a collaboration that dates back more than half a century, offered nothing less than kaleidoscopic musical riches.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – John Luther Adams' Become Ocean, played by the Charlotte Symphony under Yaniv Dinur, was an elaborately staged musical reflection on how life emerged from the seas and could return there sooner than we might imagine.

NAPLES, Fla. – In his first season as chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, Antonio Pappano is emphasizing homegrown music, and his theme has been evident in the LSO’s tour concerts in California and Florida.

NEW YORK – Violinist Hilary Hahn returned from a six-month, injury-related hiatus with a distinctive account of the Brahms with the NY Philharmonic under Matthias Pintscher, showing how far she has evolved since I first heard her in the mid-'90s.

SEATTLE – Judging from the packed audience at this Seattle Opera presentation, director Barrie Kosky's mixture of delightful animation and copious silent-film references continues to speak to opera lovers and curiosity-seekers of all ages.

LOS ANGELES – Gustavo Dudamel led the LA Philharmonic's three-week "Mahler Grooves" opener with the First Symphony's discarded "Blumine," the Adagio from the Tenth, and songs with Ekaterina Gubanova and Simon Keenlyside.

LONG BEACH, Calif. – A non-traditionalist in the mold of John Cage, Pauline Oliveros left much to the performers' imagination. Long Beach Opera's production of El Relicario des Animales caught the work's mystically weird perspective on nature.

OBERLIN, Ohio – Like their namesake, the Impressionist painter Mary Cassatt, the all-female Cassatt Quartet creates art with women at the center. With Brahms and Shostakovich, the foursome offered Dorothy Rudd Moore's Modes.

BOSTON – Composer/librettist Mark Adamo's take on Aristophanes' bawdy comedy, semi-staged by Odyssey Opera and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project conducted by Gil Rose, comes to grips not only with war but also with fate and identity.

NEW YORK – Brooklyn native Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen aced his first hometown solo recital, a varied program at Carnegie's intimate Weill Hall. His panache and artistry, with pianist John Churchwell, drew listeners' vociferous approval.

CHICAGO - Sondra Radvanovsky cemented her standing as one of our major operatic artists with a thrilling program, "The Puccini Heroines," comprising 12 arias and encores performed with spotless technique and artistic panache.

NEW YORK - The low-budget production of Strauss' potboiler by Heartbeat Opera left the original 100-minute run time nearly intact while reducing the enormous score to eight players of reed instruments and two busy percussionists.

BOSTON – Korngold's post-Freudian operatic psychodrama demands to be an organic unit: theater, music, ideas. The Boston Symphony's version, led by Andris Nelsons with Christine Goerke and David Butt Philip, gets at most of that.

CHICAGO – Esa-Pekka Salonen, who enjoys a rare double as eminent conductor and composer, shepherded the Chicago Symphony and organist Iveta Apkalna in his Sinfonia concertante, part of a dazzling mix with works by Strauss and Bartók.

PORTLAND, Ore. – On a program with the world premiere of Andy Akiho’s motoric but playful new work, the ensemble 45th Parallel Universe offered a kaleidoscope of minimalist-influenced music by Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Daniel Wohl.

NEW YORK – A program by Brooklyn’s Talea Ensemble embraced Boulez's creative life from the original 1945 Notations, and the New York Philharmonic under David Robertson spotlighted the composer at his peak with Pli selon pli.

MINNEAPOLIS – While Nielsen concertos figured notably in the Minnesota Orchestra's two-week festival led by music director Thomas Søndergård, the focus was on works by living composers from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland.