Nézet-Séguin conducts the Orchestra (3rd review)

A day and a night in Vivier's Paris (in just 13 minutes)

Claude Vivier's Orion took me on a sprightly 13-minute tour of Paris. In the process, it managed to make Brahms seem tedious by comparison.

Michael Woods

Dec 12, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Nézet-Séguin conducts the Orchestra (2nd review)

In defense of leisurely pacing

Poor César Franck— even the Philadelphia Orchestra's program annotator chides his symphony for being repetitive. But in an age before cell phones, TV and recordings, concerts provided leisurely immersion in beautiful sounds.

Steve Cohen

Dec 12, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read

Chamber concerts: 1807 and Amerita

Across the generation gap

In two local chamber concerts, the retired Philadelphia Orchestra cellist Lloyd Smith teamed up with his young successor, Yumi Kendall.

Tom Purdom

Dec 08, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read

Nézet-Séguin conducts the Orchestra (1st review)

Conductor shortage? Where?

Let the auditions continue: Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the young music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic and principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic, made a return appearance with the Philadelphia Orchestra and brought fresh energy to two Romantics and a modern.

Robert Zaller

Dec 08, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Mendelssohn Quartet's farewell concert

Three ages of man, one last time

The Mendelssohn String Quartet, disbanding after 30 years, played a program of early Mendelssohn, early middle Bartok, and late Beethoven to a capacity house. Whatever the reasons for the Quartet's separation, they were in full communion for this finale. Their intimacy and feel for inner balances will be missed.

Robert Zaller

Dec 08, 2009 · Articles · 5 minute read

The Academy's acoustics: A forgotten treasure

Let's set the record straight: The Academy's maligned acoustics

Conventional wisdom holds that the Philadelphia Orchestra “has never had a hall worthy of its sound.” Not so. From the Orchestra's founding in 1900, the Academy of Music's acoustics drew nationwide raves from musicians, conductors, audiences and architects alike— until the Academy's stewards began tampering with it in 1960.

Steve Cohen

Dec 01, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Orchestra plays Mozart and Bruckner (2nd review)

From one extreme to another

Guest conductor Jaap van Zweden proved he could jump from the small-scale grace of Mozart to the somber massiveness of Bruckner.

Tom Purdom

Dec 01, 2009 · Articles · 2 minute read

Orchestra plays Mozart and Bruckner (1st review)

After perfection, what's next?

The Dutch-born conductor Jaap van Zweden performed Mozart's 19th Piano Concerto and Bruckner's Ninth Symphony in his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra, with soloist Horacio Gutierrez giving a fine account of the Mozart. Van Zweden knows what he wants and mostly got it from the Orchestra, though the last, dying notes of the Bruckner were almost predictably fluffed in the horns.

Robert Zaller

Dec 01, 2009 · Articles · 5 minute read

Pianist Anna Polonsky at Fleisher

Polonsky aroused

The pianist Polonsky brings a determined personality to the keyboard, and her attack is so concentrated, and so vivid, that at one point the rocking of her body brought a flashback of the New Wave band Devo to mind.

Michael Woods

Nov 28, 2009 · Articles · 2 minute read

Verdi's "Falstaff' by the Academy of Vocal Arts

An intimate Falstaff

Can a mere 17 voices (and no chorus) do justice to Falstaff? As the Academy of Vocal Arts demonstrates, Verdi's last masterpiece is an opera that benefits from intimacy.

Steve Cohen

Nov 22, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read