Critic's alert: Catch these concerts

If you have a taste for the unusual – or for Mozart -- here are some concerts you won’t want to miss.

Dan Coren

Jan 19, 2008 · Articles · 1 minute read

The trouble with Beatles impersonators (1st review

The four performers in “Rain: The Beatles Experience” have consumed the past 20 years imitating the Fab Four on stage. At what point does a performance devolve into psychosis?

Rain: The Beatles Experience. Through January 20, 2008 at the Academy of Music, Broad and Locust Sts. (215) 893-1999 or www.kimmelcenter.org.

Jim Rutter

Jan 19, 2008 · Articles · 4 minute read

Orchestra plays Higdon 'Concerto 4-3'

Could the great Leonard Bernstein possibly be upstaged at the opening night of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s “Bernstein Festival”? Such was the case with Philadelphia composer Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto 4-3, which electrified the almost-sold-out audience at Verizon Hall.

Philadelphia Orchestra. Opening program of the Bernstein Festival: Higdon Concerto 4-3; Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet overture; Bernstein West Side Story Dances

Lewis Whittington

Jan 13, 2008 · Articles · 3 minute read

Voces Novae's "For So The Children Come'

Sophia Lyon Fahs knew what she was talking about when she said fathers and mothers “feel glory in the sight of a new life beginning.” Elizabeth Alexander’s musical adaptation was the most personally moving piece I encountered this past Christmas season.

Voces Novae et Antiquae: Alexander, For So the Children Come. Jody Applebaum, soprano; Jodi Nieman, alto; Peter de Mets, tenor. Robert A.M. Ross, conductor. Through January 6, 2008 at Fleisher Art Memorial,

Tom Purdom

Jan 13, 2008 · Articles · 4 minute read

Piffaro's "Vespers'

Piffaro, Philadelphia’s Renaissance band, gambled a major program on a single work by one Philadelphia composer. Kile Smith gave them one of the major events of the music season.

Piffaro: Smith’s Vespers. The Crossing chorus and vocal solos, with Piffaro Renaissance instruments. Donald Nally, conductor. January 5, 2008 at Lutheran Church of the Holy Communion, 2110 Chestnut St. 215-235-8469 or www.piffaro.com.

Tom Purdom

Jan 13, 2008 · Articles · 4 minute read

Orchestra's program gobbledygook

How, Dan Coren wonders, could the Philadelphia Orchestra’s program notes mangle the definition of a simple term like “octave” so badly? And how could they be so misguided about the nature of Mozart’s music? And haven’t you always wondered what “diatonic” and “chromatic” really mean? Read on.

Dan Coren

Jan 01, 2008 · Articles · 6 minute read

Solzhenitsyn plays Brahms

We don’t usually think of Brahms as a composer for the piano. So can an all-Brahms piano program work? Ignat Solzhenitsyn gave the answer in his Curtis Institute recital, and it was, resoundingly, yes.

Ignat Solzhenitsyn: Four piano works by Brahms. December 16, 2007 at Curtis Institute, 1726 Locust St. (215) 893-5252 or www.curtis.edu.

Robert Zaller

Dec 18, 2007 · Articles · 3 minute read

Stockhausen: The road not taken

At a critical point in his career, the composer Karlheinz Stockhausen took the wrong fork in the road. That’s a shame, because he inspired me to take the right fork.

Dan Coren

Dec 11, 2007 · Articles · 1 minute read

Dolce Suono: Triumph of the winds

After 19-plus seasons as a reviewer, our critic admits he’s undervalued a major musical form. In appropriate hands, the wind quintet can produce an interplay of tone colors and well-defined instrumental voices that puts it in a class by itself.

Dolce Suono: Ibert’s Trois Pieces Breves, Reicha Quintet #20 in D minor, Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin (arr. Mason Jones), Barber’s Summer Music (Mimi Stillman, flute; Geoffrey Deemer,

Tom Purdom

Dec 11, 2007 · Articles · 3 minute read

Hélène Grimaud plays Beethoven

The pianist Hélène Grimaud plays as if she has thought deeply about every single note. It’s as if Grimaud is hearing Beethoven’s lyrics in her inner ear.

Philadelphia Orchestra: Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto; Edgar Varèse’s Ameriques; Ravel’s La Valse. James Conlon, conductor; Hélène Grimaud, piano. December 7-8, 2007 at Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center. (215) 893-1900 or www.philorch.org.

Dan Coren

Dec 11, 2007 · Articles · 4 minute read