Dolce Suono: Music of Spirit, Longing, and Passion

Five friends on a Sunday afternoon

The Dolce Suono Ensemble presented a program that created the perfect mood for a chamber music concert.

Tom Purdom

Dec 09, 2014 · Articles · 3 minute read

The Variation String Trio debuts a David Ludwig fantasy

The Ludwig-Fauré-Bach connection

The Variation String Trio joined pianist Natalie Zhu in a program that teamed a new piece by David Ludwig with a masterpiece for the same instrumental combination.

Tom Purdom

Dec 02, 2014 · Articles · 3 minute read

The Johannes Quartet at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

Death and war and a Czech barn dance

The Johannes Quartet delves into two intense, highly emotional pieces, and then ends with a foot-stomping dance by Dvořák.

Tom Purdom

Nov 25, 2014 · Articles · 3 minute read

H. Leslie Adams, 26 Piano Etudes

Remembering why we play

We need not be afraid of delving into new music; all communication of the soul didn't cease in the 19th century, or even the 20th.

Maria Thompson Corley

Nov 25, 2014 · Articles · 5 minute read

Philadelphia Orchestra’s organ concert

Battle of the bands? No, a conversation

Organ music never enjoyed as spectacular a presentation in Philadelphia as the Philadelphia Orchestra gave it earlier this month.

Steve Cohen

Nov 22, 2014 · Articles · 3 minute read

Astral Artists and the Chamber Orchestra spotlight the viola

All kidding aside

The accidents of the scheduling process produced two consecutive concerts that spotlighted the viola and proved, once again, that viola jokes are a baseless and vile calumny.

Tom Purdom

Nov 18, 2014 · Articles · 4 minute read

The Philadelphia Orchestra performs Janáček and Mahler

To app or not to app

The Philadelphia Orchestra’s new real-time app may or may not be a good idea, but the real issue is the product itself, not the marketing efforts that surround it.

Tom Purdom

Nov 11, 2014 · Articles · 3 minute read

Nézet-Séguin conducts Mahler (third review)

Could we all use a resurrection? Mahler thought so

Mahler weaves between grief and excitement throughout the symphony. There is no conductor better than Nézet-Séguin in working with these changes, and he is excellent with liturgical and choral music as well. So the last two movements proved to be glorious in his hands.

Victor L. Schermer

Nov 06, 2014 · Articles · 5 minute read

Nézet-Séguin conducts Mahler (2nd review)

Mahler’s tortured world

Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony had nothing to do with Christ and everything to do with the tormented composer’s own yearning for a better life after this one.

Steve Cohen

Nov 06, 2014 · Articles · 3 minute read

Yefim Bronfman at the Perelman

Adventures of the sonata

The three sonatas programmed by Yefim Bronfman in his Perelman Theater recital told a tale of an artist moving from classical assurance to anxious assertion to violent despair.

Robert Zaller

Nov 04, 2014 · Articles · 5 minute read