Music
1936 results
Page 121
Buxtehude Consort plays Telemann and Handel
An 18th-Century treat for 21st-Century commoners
For us commoners whose living standards are slipping farther behind those of the super-rich, the Buxtehude Consort offered a rare chance to live like an 18th-Century aristocrat.
Articles
3 minute read
Brentano Quartet's three tough pieces
The audience deserves a hand, too
The Brentano Quartet programmed three challenging pieces, in the process reminding the audience that artists deal with their inner conflicts not by resolving them, but by portraying them.
Articles
5 minute read
Curtis Orchestra plays Bernstein and Prokofiev
The late great symphony (and on orchestra without pension issues)
The 1940s were the climactic period of the modern symphony, a fact not unrelated to the programmatic needs of World War II. Prokofiev's Fifth celebrated the end of the war, while Leonard Bernstein's Second explored postwar Angst. Both were vigorously performed by the Curtis Orchestra in its midwinter concert.
Articles
6 minute read
Wagner's “Götterdämmerung” at the Met
The letdown of the gods: Robert Lepage phones it in
What's the meaning of Wagner's Ring cycle— the destruction of civilization or the birth of a new world? Robert Lepage's tepid Götterdämmerung suggests a third possiblity: nothing much, really.
Articles
3 minute read
Chamber Orchestra spotlights McGill and Mackey
If Mozart used Twitter
The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia paired the rising young clarinetist Anthony McGill with a world premiere by Steven Mackey, whose career straddles the worlds of rock and the Big Five orchestras.
Articles
4 minute read
Dolce Suono: Mahler and Schoenberg
The not-so-odd couple
Mahler the traditionalist and Schoenberg the atonal apostate actually liked and respected each other. But at this concert, Shulamit Ran's Moon Songs spoke to me above all.
Articles
5 minute read
Tempesta di Mare's "Italians in Vienna'
When Italy conquered Austria
Tempesta di Mare's “Italians in Vienna” raises an interesting question: Who was greater— Vivaldi, or the Hapsburg Emperor Leopold I?
Tempesta di Mare: “Italians in Vienna.” Vivaldi, Concerto for Two Flutes in C, and Perche son molli; Caldara, Concerto for Cello in D Minor; Parsile, Le sofferte; Jommelli, Trio No. 6 for Two Flutes and Cello in D; Fux, Trio Sonata in A; Badia, La Fenice. Michael Maniaci, soprano; Emlyn Ngai, concertmaster. February 4, 2012 at Arch Street Meeting House, 320 Arch St. (215) 755-8776 or www.tempestadimare.org.
Articles
3 minute read
Verdi's "Oberto' by AVA
Before Verdi was Verdi
Verdi demonstrated amazing talent in this first effort, staged when he was 26 years old. Credit AVA's Christofer Macatsoris for beating Muti and Levine to the punch.
Articles
2 minute read
Nicola Luisotti leads the Orchestra
Leaping Luisotti, or: The return of the hyperkinetic conductor
Guest conductor Nicola Luisotti opened his debut performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra with the hokiest of Stokowski's Bach transcriptions. More substance emerged in the Shostakovich Violin Concerto and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, but Luisotti's podium antics didn't enhance his otherwise straightforward readings.
Articles
6 minute read
Leila Josefowicz at the Perelman
Unexpected pleasures
From de Falla to John Adams, the violinist Leila Josefowicz explored the world beyond the standard repertoire. I ended up getting my biggest satisfactions from the three pieces I had least looked forward to.
Articles
3 minute read