Music

1916 results
Page 140
Goodman: A highlight of my musical life.

Philadelphia Harp Music Festival

Crowded program, empty pews

The Philadelphia HarpMusicFest presents able musicians playing attractive programs. All it needs is an audience.
Tom Purdom

Tom Purdom

Articles 3 minute read
Betinis: Liberation, Islamic style.

Philadelphia Singers' all-American concert

When composers confront technology

The Philadelphia Singers' new emphasis on American choral music wisely exploits conductor David Hayes's conviction and understanding.
Tom Purdom

Tom Purdom

Articles 4 minute read
Lollipops for his fans.

Yo-Yo Ma at the Kimmel (1st review)

Ma's middle-aged crisis, or: Brahms, where is thy sting?

Yo-Yo Ma delivered beautiful tone but neither bite nor flashes of anger in his confusingly bland Brahms. Brahms wants his Sonata No. 1 to both shout and whisper; Ma chose to sit comfortably somewhere in between.

Articles 3 minute read
Ma and Stott: Acoustics? What acoustics?

Yo-Yo Ma at the Kimmel (2nd review)

How an artist makes a difference

What force could nearly fill Verizon Hall to hear a cellist, even a great cellist, especially on a night when the Phillies were fighting for survival in the National League championship series?
Dan Rottenberg

Dan Rottenberg

Articles 2 minute read
Bryn Terfel as Wotan: It's the characters that matter.

The Met's "Das Rheingold' in HD-Live (1st review)

Ready (at last) for your close-up, Herr Wagner

The Metropolitan Opera's recent HD-Live broadcast of Das Rheingold was a more successful realization of Wagner's dramatic and musical intentions than I could have ever believed possible. The overall result was gripping psychological drama in which Wagner's marvelous music operated subliminally beneath the action, just as Wagner intended.
Dan Coren

Dan Coren

Articles 6 minute read
Baird: One of her best.

Choral Arts Society's Salzburg Vespers

Mozart's Vespers, in their original setting

Matthew Glandorf embedded Mozart's Salzburg Vespers in the musical elements of an actual church service. In the process he offered a new look at an old favorite.
Tom Purdom

Tom Purdom

Articles 3 minute read
Glassman (left), Amsellem: A black man, or merely suntanned?

Opera Company's "Otello' (3rd review)

Where's the terror?

The Opera Company of Philadelphia's production of Verdi's Otello was beautifully sung, staged and orchestrated. What it lacked was violence.
Steve Cohen

Steve Cohen

Articles 6 minute read
Stone: An 18th-Century collaboration. (Photo: Eileen Lambert.)

Tempesta di Mare revisits Dresden

The glory that was Dresden, before the fire

Tempesta di Mare created a glimpse of an 18th-Century cultural center through music that has survived the defeats of the Seven Years' War and the bombings of the Second World War.
Tom Purdom

Tom Purdom

Articles 3 minute read
Delavan (left), Forbis: Who is the greater monster— Iago or Otello? (Photo: Kelly & Massa.)

Opera Company's "Otello' (2nd review)

Verdi vs. Shakespeare

The show went on without a serious hitch as the Opera Company of Philadelphia's Iago, Mark Delavan, sang from a wheelchair, serendipitously adding a new dimension to his otherwise invulnerable character. Verdi's Otello, unlike Shakespeare's Othello, is more archetype than flesh and blood; nonetheless he is an imposing figure in this, Verdi's finest opera.
Robert Zaller

Robert Zaller

Articles 5 minute read
Watts: After 50 years, still committed.

Dutoit conducts Grieg and Shostakovich

Strange bedfellows: Grieg and Shostakovich

Grieg and Shostakovich make strange bedfellows, but both the former's Piano Concerto and the latter's Fourth Symphony were well performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Andre Watts was the admirable soloist, and the Orchestra's departing music director Charles Dutoit seems intent on leaving his own legacy.
Robert Zaller

Robert Zaller

Articles 6 minute read