Top pianists, Bernstein’s ‘Candide,’ and Joe Hisaishi in ‘Spirited Away’ suite will help get you through the spring

The idea that the concert hall could be impermeable to events in the outside world is and always was a bit of a lie. What continues to be true is that the relationship between art and the attendee is deeply personal.

One listener’s Schubert is an escape from daily worries; for another, it’s a reminder that the composer, in an atmosphere of government repression and censorship, answered with works that continued to speak to the world long after his brief 31 years.

Perhaps the silver lining to our particular epoch is the start of taking nothing artistic for granted; after all, there are no guarantees that the variety and quality Philadelphia will hear this classical spring will continue.

Here’s another: the case for why art must continue has now been sharply drawn. More than at any other time in decades, we are fully conscious that creation and experiencing it on both sides of the footlights is a core human need.

We fail to nourish it at our peril.

For anyone flummoxed over the onetime Philadelphian’s dip into Disney tunes a few years ago, Lang Lang proffers Chopin. There are a dozen mazurkas and one polonaise on his Kimmel Center piano recital program, plus Fauré's Pavane and Schumann’s Kreisleriana. ensembleartsphilly.org, 215-893-1999

Always musically provocative, the much-worshipped pianist plays Beethoven’s two-movement Sonata in E Minor, Op. 90; Schoenberg’s just-this-side-of-total-despair Opus 11 Three Pieces; and an uninterrupted backward vault over the eras (with no pause) from Kurtág’s Márta ligaturája into Schubert’s Sonata in B Flat Major, D. 960. pcmsconcerts.org, 215-569-8080

The overture we hear all the time. The operetta it was written to open, not so much. To help celebrate the school’s centenary, the Curtis Institute of Music mounts a production of a work by one of its starriest alums, Leonard Bernstein. David Charles Abell conducts, Emma Griffin directs, and Jeffrey Page choreographs. curtis.edu, 215-893-7902

Picture four principal players from four orchestras: flutist Demarre McGill in the Seattle Symphony, oboist Titus Underwood in the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, clarinetist Anthony McGill in the New York Philharmonic, and bassoonist Bryan Young in the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. Now imagine them joining in the same piece, and you have Principal Brothers No. 1-4 by James Lee III. Also on the program are works by Valerie Coleman and Villa-Lobos, and the world premiere of a work by Errollyn Wallen. pcmsconcerts.org, 215-569-8080

The mandolinist/singer-songwriter joins the Philadelphia Orchestra in a work from his own hand: Attention! — an autobiographical narrative song cycle that includes experiences like the time he “attempted to impress a Starbucks executive and met Carrie Fisher as a result,” according to an orchestra blurb. ensembleartsphilly.org, 215-893-1999

The Curtis Institute faculty members perform works of Poulenc, Valerie Coleman, and Paquito D’Rivera; and the Philadelphia premiere of Viet Cuong’s Sextet for Wind Quintet and Piano. curtis.edu, 215-893-7902

The British early music vocal ensemble visits Longwood with a program aptly focused on the role of nature in our lives. Included is the meditatively circuitous Descendi in Hortum Meum by 16th-century Franco-Flemish composer Cipriano de Rore. longwoodgardens.org, 610-388-1000

David Hayes conducts the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia in a program featuring the 89-year-old pianist who left Russia for the U.S. in 2022 in protest of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Voskresensky — who studied with, among others, famed pianist and pedagogue Lev Oborin — performs two Mozart concertos, both with their share of darkness: No. 9 in E flat Major, K. 271, “Jeunehomme,” and the No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466. chamberorchestra.org, 215-893-1999

It’s often called one of the great achievements of Western art, and yet Opera Philadelphia has never touched it. The last time the Philadelphia Orchestra performed a full version of the opera was in 1934, with Fritz Reiner conducting. Now it’s finally here, with highly regarded Wagnerians Nina Stemme as Isolde and Stuart Skelton singing Tristan, no less. Led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin in a concert version, the Philadelphia Orchestra performs the work twice, both matinees (with a running time of 4 ½ hours including two intermissions). ensembleartsphilly.org, 215-893-1999

After illness forced him to postpone leading the Philadelphia Orchestra in January, the composer of scores for Hayao Miyazaki’s films has rescheduled. The program remains the same: a suite drawn from Hisaishi’s music for Spirited Away, his Symphony No. 2, and, featuring the orchestra’s own Choong-Jin Chang as soloist, his Saga for viola and orchestra. ensembleartsphilly.org, 215-893-1999