The Who across the generations

Adolescence revisited: My lifelong journey with The Who

For more than 30 years the legendary British band The Who has guided me through the vicissitudes of adolescence and adulthood. Now The Who is preparing to play the Super Bowl. Can I share my personal heroes with the rest of the world?

J.F. Pirro

Jan 23, 2010 · Articles · 5 minute read

Dolce Suono's Barber celebration (2nd review)

A composer with a foot in two camps

With a little help from three of Samuel Barber's protégés, Dolce Suono afforded a glimpse into the confluence of traditional and modern idioms that was Barber's hallmark.

Victor L. Schermer

Jan 23, 2010 · Articles · 3 minute read

Met's "Carmen' — the HD theatrical version

Swept away by those movie close-ups

My reservations about the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Carmen were swept away when I saw the luscious Latvian mezzo Elina Garanca on a big movie screen.

Steve Cohen

Jan 22, 2010 · Articles · 3 minute read

Orchestra tackles Mahler and Strauss

Romanticism's swan song

Replacement conductor Juanjo Maena performed the scheduled Adagio of Mahler's great but incomplete Tenth Symphony and Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs, but substituted mid-period Beethoven for mid-period Martinu. The results were mixed, with Strauss faring best but sluggish tempos marring the Mahler and Beethoven.

Robert Zaller

Jan 19, 2010 · Articles · 6 minute read

Dolce Suono's Barber celebration (1st review)

He did it his way

Dolce Suono and the Curtis Institute celebrated the 100th birthday of an odd kind of iconoclast—- an individualist who refused to enlist in the avant-garde.

Tom Purdom

Jan 19, 2010 · Articles · 4 minute read

Metropolitan Opera's new "Carmen'

Carmen's biggest challenge: Up against Franco's fascists

The Metropolitan Opera's new production of Carmen, set in fascist Spain of the 1930s, contains three outstanding elements: its Carmen, its Don José and its conductor. Their relative importance may well be in reverse order.

Steve Cohen

Jan 16, 2010 · Articles · 5 minute read

Chamber Music Society's all-Schubert program

With a little help from Schubert's friends

For its all-Schubert program, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society had to replace two of its scheduled soloists. No problem, because that's pretty much the way Schubert himself got started.

Tom Purdom

Jan 16, 2010 · Articles · 3 minute read

"Tales of Hoffman' at the Met

Play it again, Jacques

Nit-picking critics have jumped on the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Tales of Hoffman for using a “discredited” version of the Offenbach score. A more valid criticism is the treatment of the opera's central character, which is key to our understanding of the composer himself.

Steve Cohen

Jan 09, 2010 · Articles · 6 minute read

Musicians with two careers: Pro or con?

The neurologist plays the flute, or: A musician's case for dual careers

Musicians are taught to spend their waking hours practicing, to the exclusion of all other interests. Does such single-mindedness make them better musicians? That hasn't been true in my case— nor, I suspect, was it true for dual-career musicians like Schumann, Paderewski and Charles Ives.

Maria Thompson Corley

Dec 22, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Tempesta di Mare plays Bach

Putting Bach in his place

Tempesta di Mare, in one of its best concerts, surrounded Bach's Fifth Brandenburg Concerto with four well-chosen pieces by his contemporaries and forerunners.

Tom Purdom

Dec 22, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read