Music

1932 results
Page 147
Kant couldn't solve this problem, but maybe I can.

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?
Dan Coren

Dan Coren

Articles 4 minute read
'I can't get a handle on this composing software.'

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.

Andrew Kevorkian

Articles 3 minute read
Did good music end with Puccini?

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
Taki: Force of nature.

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.
Robert Zaller

Robert Zaller

Articles 3 minute read
Patton: Mutliple talents.

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.
Tom Purdom

Tom Purdom

Articles 3 minute read
Weilerstein: Emotional show-and-tell.  (Photo: Lucio Lecce.)

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.
Maria Thompson Corley

Maria Thompson Corley

Articles 3 minute read

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.
Steve Cohen

Steve Cohen

Articles 3 minute read
Oka: Two sides of the violin.

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.
Tom Purdom

Tom Purdom

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
Sheehan: Sense of urgency.

Tempesta di Mare's "Lamentations of Jeremiah'

Reflection yes, but hold the repentance

In the hands of Tempesta di Mare, an 18th-Century Holy Week lament becomes a warm and sensual Saturday night serenade.
Tom Purdom

Tom Purdom

Articles 4 minute read