12 classical music concerts that’ll make your heart sing this spring

Five seasons into the pandemic/post-pandemic era, some classical concerts are finally selling out. It’s not happening across the board, but attendance at a number of recent performances has been significantly healthier than post-pandemic lows.

This spring promises to continue the trend, especially given the strong roster of artists and works on the way and a noticeable return of artistic ambition. A new weeklong citywide organ festival has popped up. At the Kimmel Center, a revived visiting orchestra series is off to a strong start.

The incandescent pianist Mitsuko Uchida is slated for three programs this spring — in a song cycle, a four-hand piano recital, and a concerto. Blockbusters like Carmina burana, Schubert’s Trout Quintet, and Mozart’s piano concertos might not be novelties, but they all arrive with maverick artists or unusual twists. What this means in its most hopeful reading is that arts groups are figuring out how to widen the appeal while still being true to themselves.

This may or may not be the full recovery for which everyone has been waiting. But whatever it is, it sure feels good to sit in a hall again some nights with nary an empty seat in sight.

Schubert’s song cycle Die Winterreise appears locally every few years — Sanford Sylvan, Gerald Finley, and Randall Scarlata are among the singers who have taken it on — but here it will be performed by an unusually charismatic duo. Uchida, masterly as she is, can be an unpredictable pianist. And when Padmore sang Schubert’s Schwanengesang here in 2017, the tenor painted sound beautifully in various textures and light, but he is older now. All of which only makes this performance of Schubert’s 24-song meditation on the winter of the soul even more alluring. Limited tickets remaining.

March 12, Perelman Theater, pcmsconcerts.org, 215-569-8080

Whether or not you’re a fan of the famous work by Orff, the insights of conductor Fabio Luisi are good reason to hear this Philadelphia Orchestra performance with the Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia and other vocal forces. It’s paired on a program with Emanuel Ax in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25, featuring a kind of local debut. Ax will be playing an unusual piano designed by the late Kimmel Center architect Rafael Viñoly fabricated by Belgian piano maker Chris Maene — with a curved keyboard.

March 15-17, Verizon Hall, philorch.org, 215-893-1999

Florence Price’s works performed on a 1927 Möller organ by Alan Morrison at Tindley Temple. The 1926 Colombian silent film Garras de Oro accompanied live by Parker Kitterman playing a 1928 Austin at Rodeph Shalom on North Broad Street. Organs in houses of worship, organs in gardens, and organs in concert halls add up to the Philadelphia Organ Festival making its debut with nine concerts by a flock of organists at various venues in the region.

March 15-23, Various locations, phillyorganfestival.org

Anthony McGill and Demarre McGill — principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic and principal flutist of the Seattle Symphony, respectively — appear with harpist Charles Overton and the Catalyst Quartet. The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society program includes a world premiere by former Imani Winds hornist Jeff Scott.

March 28, American Philosophical Society, pcmsconcerts.org, 215-569-8080

Gorgeously and good-heartedly, the first movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27 lives a secret life as a rule-breaker. All is serene, but consider this: a development section with 55 measures — a full two minutes — elaborating on the thematic material without ever settling into a key for more than a few notes. Rarely is such daring so deftly managed. Pianist and conductor András Schiff plays and conducts the concerto three times with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the first night of which presents the work (along with Haydn’s Piano Concerto in D Major) in the orchestra’s new “Orchestra After 5″ format — a shortened concert that includes a post-performance chat hosted by conductor Tristan Rais-Sherman. The two remaining performances come in the regular two-hour concert format.

April 4-6, Verizon Hall, philorch.org, 215-893-1999

Four-hand piano music doesn’t get heard much in the concert hall, and yet the genre is a trove of enormous beauty. Here, two exquisite pianists sample some of the best — all Schubert, including the serene Rondo in A Major, D. 951 and raging Allegro in A Minor, D. 947, Lebensstürme. Limited tickets remaining.

April 5, Perelman Theater, pcmsconcerts.org, 215-569-8080

Mahler’s driving, demonic, serene, deeply worrisome, sardonic, chillingly dark, triumphant, despondent and ultimately devastating Symphony No. 6 is the sole work on the program for this third visiting ensemble in the revived international orchestra series at the Kimmel. On the podium: the one who got away, Simon Rattle, who was once hotly pursued as Wolfgang Sawallisch’s successor at the Philadelphia Orchestra.

May 1, Verizon Hall. ensembleartsphilly.org, 215-893-1999

You can follow the journey of the vixen in this comic strip-inspired story, or you can sit with eyes closed and marvel at Leos Janacek’s rich, uniquely piquant compositional voice. Curtis Institute of Music alum Vinay Parameswaran leads students from the school’s opera department, its orchestra, and the Philadelphia Boys Choir.

May 2-5, Perelman Theater, curtis.edu, 215-893-7902

The Trout Quintet — need we say more? Schubert’s thrilling Quintet in A Major, D. 667, the Trout, is performed by three members of the Brentano Quartet with double-bassist Joseph Conyers and pianist Jonathan Biss. It is paired on the program with the Brentano in Beethoven’s Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130. Limited tickets remaining.

May 12, Perelman Theater, pcmsconcerts.org, 215-569-8080

At his 2007 Kimmel Center recital, the reliably original Russian-born pianist played 10 encores (or was it 11?). Kissin returns to the Kimmel with the classic repertoire of Beethoven, Brahms, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev — but that’s just the printed program; afterward, anything is possible.

May 15, Verizon Hall, ensembleartsphilly.org, 215-893-1999

Ravel’s vast and sensuous orchestral canvas is presented here by the Philadelphia Orchestra led by an exacting colorist, Esa-Pekka Salonen. Also on the program: Saariaho’s Lumière et Pesanteur and Salonen’s own Sinfonia concertante for organ and orchestra.

May 16-18, Verizon Hall. philorch.org, 215-893-1999

The vocal cast for this favorite is superb: Nicole Car as Mimi, Stephen Costello as Rodolfo, Leah Hawkins as Musetta, and Christian Van Horn in the role of Colline. But there’s another star of Puccini’s score that is just as rare as a great Mimi, and that’s the orchestra. To have the power and polish of the Philadelphia Orchestra with Yannick Nézet-Séguin in this concert version of the opera promises an experience on a higher plane.

June 7 and 9, Verizon Hall.philorch.org, 215-893-1999