Music

1932 results
Page 134
Levin: Mozart's first artistic struggle.

Robert Levin deconstructs Mozart

Mozart's stumbling block

As the pianist/professor Robert Levin demonstrated, everything came easily to Mozart the young genius until he had to tackle fugue composition. For the first time, he had to push his imagination. From this process, Mozart's true voice emerged.

Articles 3 minute read
Hargis: Center of attention.

Piffaro at the court of Ferrara

When violinists roamed the streets

Philadelphia's own Renaissance wind band joins forces with a traveling violin band to recreate the first outbursts of the modern multi-section orchestra.
Tom Purdom

Tom Purdom

Articles 3 minute read
Khaner: Something old, something new.

Orchestra's two flute concertos

Inspiration sans charisma

With Charles Dutoit sidelined, the Orchestra's principal flutist, Jeffrey Khaner, provided the necessary star power by performing premieres of two flute concertos, one of them nearly 400 years old.
Dan Rottenberg

Dan Rottenberg

Articles 1 minute read
Solzhenitsyn: End of the adventure?

Chamber Orchestra: Solzhenitsyn returns (2nd review)

Solzhenitsyn's balanced return

Ignat Solzhenitsyn returned to his old stomping ground to lead the Chamber Orchestra through two well-balanced classics and a moving mid-century experiment with 12-tone music.
Tom Purdom

Tom Purdom

Articles 3 minute read
Does King Sigismund III resemble me?

My personal stake in "Boris Godunov'

Boris Godunov and my ancestors

To you, Boris Godunov is a convoluted opera about a power struggle among Russian madmen a long time ago. To me, it holds a possible key to my family's history.
Steve Cohen

Steve Cohen

Articles 6 minute read
Solzhenitsyn: Spontaneous?

Solzhenitsyn plays Mozart for non-purists (1st review)

What did Mozart really want?

Are Mozart's scores sacrosanct as they are written? Or are they an invitation to play 18th-Century jazz? Ignat Solzhenitsyn, appearing as piano soloist and conductor laureate with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, left no doubt about his answer.
Dan Coren

Dan Coren

Articles 3 minute read
Haefliger: Suddenly, eyes opened.

Pianist Andreas Haefliger at the Perelman

A thing for Wagner

The young German pianist Andreas Haefliger didn't seem fully engaged when he played Mozart and Liszt. Only when he got to Wagner did he seem to catch fire.
Steve Cohen

Steve Cohen

Articles 2 minute read
Gill: What you can do with a single piano.

Jeremy Gill works at Settlement (2nd review)

Book of hours, book of life

Composer Jeremy Gill placed two of his own works side by side with pieces by two of the 20th Century's greatest composers and tapped into the deeper currents of the classical tradition.
Tom Purdom

Tom Purdom

Articles 4 minute read
Gill: Don't sit near the gong.

Jeremy Gill works at Settlement (1st review)

Jeremy Gill's ancient sounds and rituals

Jeremy Gill's music is particularly concerned with sound qualities, to the extent that he'll move his performers to different parts of the hall during the course of a work. It seems to be a signature for this promising young composer.

Articles 3 minute read
Gergiev: Sharp edges and accents.

London Symphony plays Mahler's Seventh

Mahler's ugly duckling

Mahler's Seventh Symphony is one of the most rarely performed of his scores, in part because it lacks (or eschews) the overall dynamic structure of his more popular works. But it's a satisfying work in the right interpretive hands, and Valery Gergiev was at least intermittently successful in it with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Robert Zaller

Robert Zaller

Articles 5 minute read