This summer’s best outdoor classical concerts (and some fantastic indoor ones)

For the classical purist, it’s not going to be a summer of great depth or generosity. As the arts world continues to find its way back from the pandemic, the path that has emerged is paved with the best of genre-testing intentions: getting audiences back in the hall and — dare we hope? — the habit.

But do you really need an orchestra as virtuosic as the Philadelphia Orchestra playing the score live to a screening of Aladdin?

Actually, there’s no generalizing about what the musical value might be of having a great orchestra play film scores or with bands like Dispatch, both of which are slated with the Philadelphia Orchestra this summer at the Mann Center. Sometimes experiments work, sometimes not.

It’s not the busiest summer calendar ever. But think of it as classical stepping its toe ever so gingerly back into the water while hoping that ever-more listeners might follow.

(June 18, Mann Center) The orchestra opens a six-concert season at the Mann with one of only two core-classical concerts this summer in Fairmount Park. Assistant conductor Austin Chanu leads the ensemble in an all-Tchaikovsky program with the Symphony No. 6 (“Pathétique”), a suite from Swan Lake and the 1812 Overture. Fireworks follow. Information: manncenter.org, 800-653-8000.

(June 23, Longwood Gardens) Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition in its usual Ravel orchestration and the Harry Potter Symphonic Suite (John Williams, Patrick Doyle, Alexandre Desplat) are performed by the orchestra in Longwood’s Open Air Theatre. Information: longwoodgardens.org, 610-388-1000.

(June 26, Temple Performing Arts Center) The orchestra’s free neighborhood concert hasn’t exactly ended, but the name has disappeared and the series isn’t as intrepid as it once was. Still, the ensemble will travel up Broad Street to Temple University for this free concert of works by Adolphus Hailstork; Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges; Scott Joplin; Florence Price; Duke Ellington; Jessie Montgomery; and William Grant Still. Assistant conductor Austin Chanu is on the podium. Information: philorch.org.

(June 29, Stoneleigh) Calling its June outdoor concerts “Bridgerton”-inspired, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia performs Mozart at Stoneleigh, the magnificent estate and gardens in Villanova donated by the Haas family to Natural Lands. On the program: the ecstatic overture to The Marriage of Figaro, and the Serenade No. 10 in B-flat major (Gran partita) — a work for winds of great atmosphere and peacock-like colors. The program is also played, if not outdoors then at least near our little patch of urban green, Rittenhouse Square, on June 27 at the Church of the Holy Trinity. Information: chamberorchestra.org.

(July 22, Mount Gretna) The Baroque orchestra visits Mount Gretna Playhouse, about an hour and a half west-northwest of Center City, for Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with Apollo artistic director Jeannette Sorrell and violinist Alan Choo. The rest of the Gretna Music season in the open-air theater includes string quartets, pianists, and other chamber music from now through Sept. 7. Information: gretnamusic.org.

(July 24, Mann Center) The pianist of the eponymous trio does an amazing metamorphosis of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue that stylistically moves back and forth in time. Assistant conductor Tristan Rais-Sherman leads the Philadelphia Orchestra in a program that also includes Adolphus Hailstork’s An American Port of Call, Florence Price’s Symphony No. 3, and James P. Johnson’s Victory Stride, which might be one of the most lusciously ecstatic four minutes in all of American music. Information: manncenter.org, 800-653-8000.

(July 27-Aug. 4, Academy of Vocal Arts and Jacobs Music) Rising competition winners (Huiping Cai and Junwen Liang) and established artists (Jerome Lowenthal and the Westhuizen Duo) pull into Philadelphia for this year’s mix of concerts and master classes. Charlotte Hu opens the festival with an all-Liszt recital July 27. Information: pypa.info.