Sonata-form made easy (Part 2)

Can you feel the ground shift? Or: Sonata-form in a nutshell

An elegant little tune from a Haydn Symphony contains in embryonic form all the essential ideas of sonata-form. The trick is learning to hear the same ideas on a time scale ten times as long. Listen closely and you’ll appreciate how a slight shift can send a tune off in an entirely new direction.

Dan Coren

Sep 01, 2007 · Articles · 4 minute read

Those who can, should

After I’d spent 50 years as a check-depositing writer, it took a chance remark by Yumi Kendall, the Philadelphia Orchestra’s young assistant principal cellist, to convince me once and for all that I hadn’t wasted my life.

Tom Purdom

Aug 28, 2007 · Articles · 7 minute read

Alan Gilbert: The conductor as leader

Conductors must possess three critical personal qualities. Alan Gilbert, the new music director of the New York Philharmonic, displayed two of them the first time I saw him conduct at Curtis. And that was before I heard him conduct a major symphony.

Tom Purdom

Aug 28, 2007 · Articles · 4 minute read

You too can enjoy sonata-form (really)

Sonata-form is to me what the New Testament is to a born-again Christian. If I can sell you on the beauties and pleasures of examining how Classical music is put together, you’ll hear sounds of a magnificence you’ve never encountered before.

Dan Coren

Aug 11, 2007 · Articles · 5 minute read

"Peter and the Wolf" at the Mann

If you feel children can’t achieve full adulthood without learning that an oboe can imitate a duck, you’d probably find this animated film version of Peter and the Wolf is less successful than a traditional narrated performance. But the kids on hand learned that a trip to the orchestra can be fun.

Philadelphia Orchestra: Britten Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Purcell, Prokofiev Peter and the Wolf, Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1 in A Min

Tom Purdom

Jul 31, 2007 · Articles · 4 minute read

Lang Lang at the Mann

Yellow River is that rare item, a successful piece of democratic art. But Lang Lang’s histrionics are no substitute for the passion he should communicate through his piano.

Philadelphia Orchestra: Mozart Overture to The Marriage of Figaro, Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major; Various China Air Suite, Yellow River, concerto for piano and orchestra. Lang Lang, piano; Long Yu, conductor. July 18, 2007 at Mann Music Center. (215) 893-1900 or

Tom Purdom

Jul 24, 2007 · Articles · 4 minute read

Orchestra's second "East Meets West' program

The Philadelphia Orchestra’s second “East Meets West” program at the Mann explored more aspects of the musical interchange. But the Mann’s cavernous space requires a bigger tone than Midori produced on this occasion.

Philadelphia Orchestra: Ravel Suite from Mother Goose; Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major; Tan Dun Overture: Dragon and Phoenix from Heaven Earth Mankind; Debussy La Mer. Rossen Milanov, conduct

Tom Purdom

Jul 24, 2007 · Articles · 3 minute read

Mendelssohn's real tragedy

What would the world have been like if the Fates had been just a little kinder and allowed Schubert and Mendelssohn to know each other’s music as contemporaries? Mendelssohn was, I believe, the most musically gifted of all his famous contemporaries: the only composer in music history smart enough to assimilate Mozart’s music successfully. Yet his music makes we want to scream.

Dan Coren

Jul 14, 2007 · Articles · 7 minute read

Milanov vs. Eschenbach

BEETHOVEN AT THE MANN, or:
THE GREAT ESCHENBACH DEBATE continues

When Milanov conducted the Shostakovich, I realized it was a perfect expression of the feelings I associate with the quiet, sober veterans I met immediately after World War II. I didn’t hear any of that in Eschenbach’s performance.

Philadelphia Orchestra: Higdon Concerto for Orchestra, Beethoven Symphony Number Nine. Arianna Zukerman, soprano; Jennifer Hines, mezzo-soprano; Stephen Tharp, tenor; Stephen Powell, baritone; Philadelphia Singers Chorale; Ro

Tom Purdom

Jul 07, 2007 · Articles · 5 minute read

Eschenbach vs. Milanov

When Milanov conducted the Shostakovich, I realized it was a perfect expression of the feelings I associate with the quiet, sober veterans I met immediately after World War II. I didn’t hear any of that in Eschenbach’s performance.

Philadelphia Orchestra: Higdon Concerto for Orchestra, Beethoven Symphony Number Nine. Arianna Zukerman, soprano; Jennifer Hines, mezzo-soprano; Stephen Tharp, tenor; Stephen Powell, baritone; Philadelphia Singers Chorale; Ro

Tom Purdom

Jul 07, 2007 · Articles · 5 minute read