Saved by rock ’n roll

No kidding: How rock expanded my musical horizons

It’s easy for a professional Classical musician like me to get stuck in a rut. Then rock music reminded me why I became a musician in the first place.

Michael Lawrence

Dec 14, 2013 · Articles · 4 minute read

‘On Looking,’ by Alexandra Horowitz

A walker in the city (who really opens her eyes)

Walking is an utterly mundane way to experience our environment. It’s also one of the conceptually richest— especially if, like the cognitive psychologist Alexandra Horowitz, you choose perceptive companions.

Judy Weightman

Dec 14, 2013 · Articles · 5 minute read

Three things I try to learn from Bach

The power of embarrassment (and other lessons from J.S. Bach)

Bach’s music doesn’t grasp, rant or bemoan, because he has it already. But if it’s not your thing, he won’t storm the heavens or renounce the earth or curse you for your philistinism: He’s not going to change, just to find out what your thing is.

Kile Smith

Dec 14, 2013 · Articles · 5 minute read

Ayane Kozasa viola debut at Trinity Center

A dazzling viola debut (and that’s no joke)

In her Philadelphia recital debut, Ayane Kozasa transformed the ugly duckling of instruments into the belle of the ball.

Dec 10, 2013 · Articles · 2 minute read

Orchestra plays Brahms and Berlioz (2nd review)

An experiment in the nosebleed section

Does music in concert halls really sound best in the balconies? Conventional wisdom thinks so. But is this notion fact or fantasy?

Steve Cohen

Dec 10, 2013 · Articles · 3 minute read

A real miracle (not on 34th Street)

Miracle in Bryn Athyn (such as it is)

For the last 60 years or so, no Christmas tale has bored people of all ages more than Miracle on 34th Street. Who could have imagined the genuine miracle this show produced last weekend at my conservative Christian high school alma mater?

Alaina Johns

Dec 10, 2013 · Articles · 4 minute read

Lynne Olson’s ‘Those Angry Days’

America’s forgotten civil war

The struggle over America’s entry into World War II remains a subject of perennial interest. Lynne Olson’s new book weaves the complex strands of the story while bringing its protagonists— especially the impenetrable Charles Lindbergh— vividly to life.

Robert Zaller

Dec 10, 2013 · Articles · 7 minute read

Pig Iron’s ‘Twelfth Night’ (1st review)

A night of Shakespearean hits and misses

Pig Iron Theater attacked Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night with all the gusto and finesse of a bar brawl, to the audience’s delight, but not so much to mine. But check out that theater!

Gary L. Day

Dec 10, 2013 · Articles · 4 minute read

Beckett’s ‘All That Fall’ in New York

Two battered old souls, together for eternity

Nothing much happens in Beckett, just as nothing much happens in Chekhov. Except the passage of time… and a lifetime.

Carol Rocamora

Dec 10, 2013 · Articles · 5 minute read

Hélène Grimaud tackles Brahms (1st review)

Grimaud meets the gruff German genius

Johannes Brahms was a musical genius who never quite polished his rough edges. Hélène Grimaud gave his brawny first Piano Concerto a deeply poetic and thoughtful reading.

Dec 10, 2013 · Articles · 3 minute read