Carol Jantsch with 1807 & Friends

The tuba gets its turn

It's hard to resist smiling at the thought of a tuba playing the lead in a chamber piece. But Carol Jantsch, the Philadelphia Orchestra's new principal tuba, quickly proved she had come to produce music, not laughs.

Mar 28, 2009 · Articles · 2 minute read

Tempesta di Mare recreates Madame Levy's Salon

Bach resuscitated (with a little help from the Jews of Berlin)

Tempesta di Mare visits the salon of a musically sophisticated Berlin lady who helped revive Bach and launch the career of her grandnephew, Felix Mendelssohn.

Tom Purdom

Mar 24, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Curtis Opera's "Wozzeck' (3rd review)

Who you calling atonal?

Alban Berg's opera, Wozzeck, gets a bad rap as being atonal, unmelodic and, therefore, inaccessible to most of the public. In fact Berg's passionate music matches the story perfectly.

Steve Cohen

Mar 23, 2009 · Articles · 6 minute read

Jade Simmons: Life after Miss America

Is there life after the Miss America pageant?

Must a beauty queen be shallow? As a pianist and a crusader for Classical music among urban youth, concerts for autistic audiences and teen suicide prevention, Jade Simmons is just getting started.

Maria Thompson Corley

Mar 23, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Curtis Opera's "Wozzeck' (2nd review)

A timeless world abandoned by God

The Curtis Opera production of Alban Berg's Wozzeck, the signature opera of German Expressionism, made the most of the cramped facilities of the Perelman Theater, with lead singers Shuler Henley and Karen Jesse in good voice and Mark Barton's lighting particularly accenting the brooding and anguished score. Georg Buchner's timeless story of a maddened soldier who kills the one thing he loves remains as relevant as ever.

Robert Zaller

Mar 21, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read

Curtis Opera's "Wozzeck' (1st review)

A searing operatic experience (that I'd just as soon skip)

Here I am in my mid-60s, having devoted most of my life to the study of classical music, and I still haven't come to terms with the music of Alban Berg. The Curtis Institute's production of Wozzeck was superb, but listening to it was an appalling experience I have no desire to repeat.

Dan Coren

Mar 19, 2009 · Articles · 5 minute read

Lyric Fest's "Voices of the Sea'

Of mermaids and slave ships

Lyric Fest made its debut on the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society schedule with a program that could have used more of its customary narrative drive.

Tom Purdom

Mar 17, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Two pianists: Polonsky and Podgurski

There's something about Anna

Pounding, pedaling and darting like quicksilver, the slender young pianist Anna Polonsky stole the show at her duet recital with cellist Peter Wiley. At the Art Museum, by contrast, the jazz pianist Neil Podgurski showed a different, quieter side with a new band.

Michael Woods

Mar 17, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read

Jurowski's latest Orchestra 'audition'

The Jurowski watch

In a well-conceived and generally well-executed program of Berg and Mahler, Vladimir Jurowski once more dropped his card into the Philadelphia Orchestra's conductor sweepstakes. The performance of Mahler's rarely heard choral masterwork, Das klagende lied, should be remembered as one of the season's highlights. But please can the condescending pre-concert talks.

Robert Zaller

Mar 13, 2009 · Articles · 5 minute read

Lucinda Williams at the Keswick

A country icon finds her cruising speed

Dark though her subjects have been over the years, Lucinda Williams now gives the impression of being completely at ease with herself and her fellow musicians and reveling in 30 years of her own repertory.

Dan Coren

Mar 10, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read