Music
1932 results
Page 152
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Articles
3 minute read
Handel's "Messiah' by Philadelphia Singers and Philadelphia Orchestra
The Messiah as Handel must have heard it
Handel's Messiah, often watered down to a benevolent Christmas carol, got the all-out passionate Baroque interpretation this magnificent oratorio deserves. Credit conductor Paul Goodwin, a stickler for historical intent.
Articles
2 minute read