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With some of my fellow Maccabees, 1950. I'm in the middle. And no, we weren't Jewish.

My ticket to glory, 1950 (a memoir)

How do you get to Philadelphia? Practice, practice

I was a small town boy of eight when I was drafted into a children's accordion band. My musical efforts paid off with a TV appearance and my first mind-boggling visit to a real city— Philadelphia— where I rode my first elevator and subway train, ate in my first automat, and saw my first black people.

Jim Tirjan

Apr 14, 2013 Articles 10 minute read

Fabiano (left), Meade: Making the spectacular seem effortless.

Verdi's "I Lombardi' in concert in NY

Verdi's forgotten stepchild

Verdi's much-neglected I Lombardi has much to offer in the way of innovative music and vivid scenes. A concert version featuring the superb voices of Angela Meade and Michael Fabiano may help rescue it from its undeserved obscurity.

Steve Cohen

Apr 13, 2013 Articles 4 minute read

Chamber Orchestra's "Fall of the Berlin Wall'

Another rebirth of freedom

The Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts commemorated a major 20th Century event with the right music conducted by the right conductor.

Tom Purdom

Apr 09, 2013 Articles 5 minute read

Bach's Passions, two ways (3rd review)

Ethereal music, disturbing words

Until a few decades ago, audiences who weren't German were not cognizant of the words in Bach's Passions. Now, with projected translations, audience members notice, and some of them are disturbed— and rightly so.

Steve Cohen

Apr 09, 2013 Articles 6 minute read

If I listen carefully to the robin's songâ€” or to a foreign languageâ€” I get the gist of the conversation.

We speak in music

To peek inside the human soul, stop reading and listen

Our written language may be poetic, but a large part of our spoken communication is music. And often it's our music rather than our words that reveals our inner landscape to each other.

Pete M. Wyer

Apr 09, 2013 Articles 7 minute read

Bach's Passions, two ways (2nd review)

Back-to-back Bach, or: Sympathy for Pontius Pilate

The Philadelphia Orchestra's dramatic production of Bach's St. Matthew Passion won't soon be forgotten. But it benefitted from its juxtaposition with a traditional performance by Vox Amadeus.

Tom Purdom

Apr 02, 2013 Articles 5 minute read

The Borodin: In place of ear candy, caviar.

Borodin Quartet plays Shostakovich and Beethoven

Shostakovich, by those who knew him well

The Borodin Quartet, in its first Philadelphia visit in 15 years, brought a more burnished Shostakovich than we're accustomed to hearing. That's because these Russian musicians are no longer “discovering” Shostakovich, as the West still is.

Robert Zaller

Apr 02, 2013 Articles 6 minute read

Orchestra plays Bach's "St. Matthew Passion' (1st review)

The paradox of genius

In a magnificent performance of Bach's transcendent St. Matthew Passion, Yannick Nézet-Séguin made the most of the drama and emotion contained in the story of Christ's betrayal and crucifixion. That wasn't necessarily Bach's choice, but a work of genius lends itself to multiple interpretations.

Victor L. Schermer

Apr 02, 2013 Articles 5 minute read

Who saved the Opera Company?

Nothing succeeds like a successor, or: Philadelphia opera history, rewritten

Robert Driver claims he saved the Opera Company of Philadelphia in the 1990s— and the Inquirer critic has swallowed his self-serving narrative. As Driver's predecessor, I can attest that he takes credit that he doesn't deserve.