Music
1933 results
Page 147
Unindicted war criminal to play at Mann Center
How low can the Orchestra go? Will you welcome, please, Condoleeza Rice!
No one seriously pretends that Condoleeza Rice is qualified to play the piano in public, much less with an orchestra that has played with Rubinstein and Horowitz. Her notoriety alone, as the Bush administration's prime enabler, has attracted the Mann's programmers.
Articles
4 minute read
Listening to music: Aesthetics or psychology?
Right brain, left brain: How do you listen to music?
What constitutes beauty in music? How do the conscious and unconscious interact when we make aesthetic judgments? Is a Beethoven quartet in some way a more worthy experience than Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians?
New light on Beethoven's Fifth
The pedestrian truth about Beethoven's Fifth
Where do musicians find their inspiration? A letter from Beethoven to his musicologist second cousin Moishe Gunzburg, recently discovered in a closet in my West Philadelphia apartment, sheds new and startling light on the origins of the great composer's most famous symphony.
Articles
3 minute read
New music and so-called music 'lovers'
So you call yourself a music lover?
Is it really true that most music lovers dislike "new music"? As a critic for the past 25 years, I can attest that new music is becoming more accessible, and its audiences are expanding. This is an encouraging development. It means that music lovers are opening their minds to the creative voices of our time.
Articles
3 minute read
Papadakis memorial concert at Drexel
Muscular music for a muscular president
Konstantinos Papadakis eulogizing Constantine Papadakis? That's precisely what happened when the local Greek pianist performed a memorial recital in honor of Drexel's late president and his own namesake. The program consisted of works by Chopin and Barber, and was finely performed by a musician of outstanding sensitivity and intelligence.
Articles
3 minute read
Piffaro's "Music From 17th-Century Spain'
Song and dance in Renaissance Spain
Piffaro mounts a song and dance variety show and places 17th Century Spanish music in a well-researched context.
Articles
3 minute read
When musicians won't sit still
If Horowitz could sit still, why can't Alisa Weilerstein?
Musicians today are trained not just to play but also to “perform.” But excessive movement by a performer isn't merely a visual distraction; it can impede execution as well.
Articles
3 minute read
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Verdi's "La Traviata' at the Met
Tall, handsome, and he can sing, too
The Metropolitan Opera will soon retire Franco Zeffirelli's lavish production of La Traviata. The compensation is this spring's debut of the dashing tenor James Valenti. The opera world hasn't seen this combination of voice and stature since Franco Corelli.
Articles
3 minute read
New music: Three concerts
Up against six centuries of champions, or: The appealing audacity of new music
The new music played at Philadelphia concerts may or may not be the music of the future. But it can be pretty satisfying in the present, as its growing audiences attest.
Articles
5 minute read
Network For New Music plays Michael Hersch (1st review)
Our new Prince of Darkness
Michael Hersch's A Forest of Attics is complex, ferocious and disturbingly dark— in short, very refreshing at a time when ebullient tonality is all the rage. Hersch writes with an emotional honesty that leaves him naked.
Articles
3 minute read