Music

1916 results
Page 101
Sawallisch was once a young man, too.

Philadelphia Orchestra's season finale (2nd review)

Yannick and Sawallisch: Across the great divide

The Philadelphia Orchestra paid tribute to the last music director who embodied the Old World tradition while celebrating its first season under the sort of leader it needs today.
Tom Purdom

Tom Purdom

Articles 3 minute read
You think you're landing, but Wagner keeps putting you off.

The bearable weight of a German chorus

German culture, up close and personal

I've been asked to sing in a German men's chorus. Many of the singers came from Germany decades ago but still speak English with heavy accents. Some revere Wagner; some survived Hitler. What brings us together?
Kile Smith

Kile Smith

Articles 6 minute read
Shaham: Less stern, more loving.

Philadelphia Orchestra's season finale (1st review)

Sawallisch in heaven, and merriment on Earth

Given its financial troubles, the Philadelphia Orchestra's morale is a legitimate concern for music lovers everywhere. To judge from Friday's evidence, the future looks sanguine.
Steve Cohen

Steve Cohen

Articles 3 minute read
Rattle: Vindicating Stokowski, 70 years later.

Rattle and Hannigan with the Philadelphia Orchestra (3rd review)

Kicking the Fantasia habit

The big news about last weekend's Philadelphia Orchestra concerts wasn't the shock music that occupied the first three-quarters of the program. It was Simon Rattle's rebuttal to the Disneyfied Beethoven Sixth that has prevailed in the public mind since Fantasia in 1940.
Steve Cohen

Steve Cohen

Articles 4 minute read
Zhu: A piano that sings.

Dolce Suono's Debussy farewell

Debussy and his putative successors

Dolce Suono ended its season-long tribute to Debussy by combining a Debussy retrospective with a new music event.
Tom Purdom

Tom Purdom

Articles 4 minute read
Hannigan (left) and Rattle channel Ligeti: Both a parody and a celebration.

Philadelphia Orchestra plays Ligeti (2nd review)

Is Ligeti the Orchestra's savior?

When was the last time you heard a Philadelphia Orchestra concert that included the crumpling of newspaper as a part of the score? Not to mention the audience laughing out loud throughout the performance?

Articles 3 minute read
Ames: Fearless to the point of recklessness.

Verdi's "Macbeth' in Wilmington

Verdi's not so hidden agenda

With Macbeth, Verdi wasn't merely adapting a great work of literature; he was nudging history forward in real time.
Steve Cohen

Steve Cohen

Articles 4 minute read
Hannigan: Like the Queen of the Night on LSD.

Rattle and Hannigan with the Philadelphia Orchestra (1st review)

From the sublime to the macabre

Simon Rattle, conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra's penultimate concert of the season, reminded us that it's easier for a visiting conductor to choose the road less traveled than for the helmsman of the Orchestra, for whom the risk of empty seats is not to be taken lightly.
Robert Zaller

Robert Zaller

Articles 7 minute read
Louis XIV often got into the act.

Tempesta di Mare: Four Baroque entertainments

Music, entertainment— or both?

Baroque music languished in the 19th Century because it seemed tame next to Beethoven or Brahms. It was merely entertainment— albeit for musically sophisticated audiences, as Tempesta di Mare reminded us.
Tom Purdom

Tom Purdom

Articles 2 minute read
Hahn: Strangely attracted to Korngold.

Yannick conducts Mahler and Hilary Hahn (2nd review)

Mahler's message: Who needs transitions?

Yannick Nézet-Séguin probed beyond the obvious in Mahler's First Symphony, but I wish he'd pushed Hilary Hahn to play a less predictable work.
Tom Purdom

Tom Purdom

Articles 4 minute read