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Dan Coren
Second thoughts about my second thoughts
about my Orchestra subscription
DAN COREN
My journalistic conscience has been bothering me for a while now.
That article I wrote in April about canceling my subscription to the Philadelphia Orchestra … well, I’ll still stand by my critique of the Orchestra’s programming. But things don’t always work out as you plan them, do they?
Since the Orchestra subsequently allowed me (and, I suspect, many other people) to pick out three concerts at reduced rates— and in just about exactly the same seats I occupied as a full-season subscriber-- in the end I was able to tailor a series at the Orchestra to my exact specifications.
There. That feels better.
For whatever it’s worth, here’s how I’ve apportioned my Philadelphia concertgoing schedule for the 2006-07 season:
Friday, Oct 13:
Andre Watts playing two Shostakovich piano concertos and Eschenbach conducting the Tchaikovsky Sixth Symphony at the Orchestra.
Thursday, Nov.11:
Wednesday, Nov. 15:A Philadelphia Chamber Music Society concert at the Perelman Theater with Mitsuko Uchida playing the Mozart G minor Piano Quartet and the Schumann Opus 44 Piano Quintet with the Brentano Quartet
Wednesday, Nov. 15:
PMCS again at the Fleisher Gallery in Queen Village, featuring Mussorgsky’s original piano version of “Pictures at an Exhibition.”
Friday, Nov. 17:
On the Kimmel Center Presents series, harmonica player Toots Thielemans opening for jazz legend McCoy Tyner.
Tuesday, Dec. 12:
PMCS again. Peter Serkin playing, among other things, Schoenberg’s Opus 11, Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, a work by Elliot Carter, and the Beethoven “Hammerklavier” Sonata
Monday, Jan 22:
1807 & Friends performing two piano quartets: Mozart’s K. 493 in E-flat and the Brahms Opus 60 in C minor at the Academy of Vocal Arts.
Friday, Feb 2:
Jazz singer Diane Reeves at the Kimmel Center.
Wednesday, Feb 14:
Pianist (and bloggist) Jeremy Denk playing an all-Bach program, a PMCS concert at the American Philosophical Society.
Sunday, Feb. 25:
Kimmel Center Presents the Soweto Gospel Choir.
Sunday, Mar. 18:
An Astral Artistic Services concert at the Trinity Center for Urban life will include three piano trios: Beethoven’s Opus 1, No. 3 in C minor, Mozart’s K. 502 in B-flat , and Schubert’s Opus 99 in B-flat.
Thursday, Apr. 19:
The Kronos Quartet playing “Sun Rings” by Terry Riley, still avant-garde even if he was born in 1935. At the Kimmel Center.
Friday, Apr. 27:
The Orchestra playing Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique” and the Beethoven Violin Concerto.
Friday, May 4:
The grand climax: The Orchestra doing Mahler’s Second Symphony.
There are many more concerts— including some I don’t even know about— that I would attend and write about if I had the time and money. The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia in particular has an especially attractive line-up.
And if that weren’t enough, I have yet to catch up with Dylan’s newest album. But the event I’m anticipating as much as any of these wonderful concerts is the promised release in early November of a new album from the great country/rock singer, Lucinda Williams.
Watch this space.
For more information:
Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Chamber Music Society
Astral Artistic Services
Kimmel Center Presents
1807 & Friends
Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia
about my Orchestra subscription
DAN COREN
My journalistic conscience has been bothering me for a while now.
That article I wrote in April about canceling my subscription to the Philadelphia Orchestra … well, I’ll still stand by my critique of the Orchestra’s programming. But things don’t always work out as you plan them, do they?
Since the Orchestra subsequently allowed me (and, I suspect, many other people) to pick out three concerts at reduced rates— and in just about exactly the same seats I occupied as a full-season subscriber-- in the end I was able to tailor a series at the Orchestra to my exact specifications.
There. That feels better.
For whatever it’s worth, here’s how I’ve apportioned my Philadelphia concertgoing schedule for the 2006-07 season:
Friday, Oct 13:
Andre Watts playing two Shostakovich piano concertos and Eschenbach conducting the Tchaikovsky Sixth Symphony at the Orchestra.
Thursday, Nov.11:
Wednesday, Nov. 15:A Philadelphia Chamber Music Society concert at the Perelman Theater with Mitsuko Uchida playing the Mozart G minor Piano Quartet and the Schumann Opus 44 Piano Quintet with the Brentano Quartet
Wednesday, Nov. 15:
PMCS again at the Fleisher Gallery in Queen Village, featuring Mussorgsky’s original piano version of “Pictures at an Exhibition.”
Friday, Nov. 17:
On the Kimmel Center Presents series, harmonica player Toots Thielemans opening for jazz legend McCoy Tyner.
Tuesday, Dec. 12:
PMCS again. Peter Serkin playing, among other things, Schoenberg’s Opus 11, Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, a work by Elliot Carter, and the Beethoven “Hammerklavier” Sonata
Monday, Jan 22:
1807 & Friends performing two piano quartets: Mozart’s K. 493 in E-flat and the Brahms Opus 60 in C minor at the Academy of Vocal Arts.
Friday, Feb 2:
Jazz singer Diane Reeves at the Kimmel Center.
Wednesday, Feb 14:
Pianist (and bloggist) Jeremy Denk playing an all-Bach program, a PMCS concert at the American Philosophical Society.
Sunday, Feb. 25:
Kimmel Center Presents the Soweto Gospel Choir.
Sunday, Mar. 18:
An Astral Artistic Services concert at the Trinity Center for Urban life will include three piano trios: Beethoven’s Opus 1, No. 3 in C minor, Mozart’s K. 502 in B-flat , and Schubert’s Opus 99 in B-flat.
Thursday, Apr. 19:
The Kronos Quartet playing “Sun Rings” by Terry Riley, still avant-garde even if he was born in 1935. At the Kimmel Center.
Friday, Apr. 27:
The Orchestra playing Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique” and the Beethoven Violin Concerto.
Friday, May 4:
The grand climax: The Orchestra doing Mahler’s Second Symphony.
There are many more concerts— including some I don’t even know about— that I would attend and write about if I had the time and money. The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia in particular has an especially attractive line-up.
And if that weren’t enough, I have yet to catch up with Dylan’s newest album. But the event I’m anticipating as much as any of these wonderful concerts is the promised release in early November of a new album from the great country/rock singer, Lucinda Williams.
Watch this space.
For more information:
Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Chamber Music Society
Astral Artistic Services
Kimmel Center Presents
1807 & Friends
Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia
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