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Penderecki's first priority was 'liberating sound.'

Curtis Symphony at the Kimmel (1st review)

What did Tchaikovsky mean? (and other unanswerable questions)

Can we not hear the Pathétique simply as a symphonic composition in four movements without extra-musical connotations of any kind? Does it matter whether Tchaikovsky had an agenda in mind? Would it matter if he had spelled it out?

Robert Zaller

Apr 18, 2014 Articles 4 minute read

The Takács Quartet: This international ensemble is among the best in the business. (Photo © Ellen Appel)

The Takács Quartet performs at Perelman

Dwelling with the angels

The Takács Quartet, a frequent guest of the Chamber Music Society, performed the rarely-heard Shostakovich Second Quartet and the Beethoven Fifteenth, with two brief works by Anton Webern that proved a connection as well as a contrast.

Robert Zaller

Apr 14, 2014 Articles 4 minute read

(Moore, Frank, ed. "Portrait Gallery of the War." New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1865. Courtesy of the General Libraries, the University of Texas at Austin. )

Listening to Lincoln: Dave Burrell's Civil War Concerts

An ear-opening musical evocation of a Civil War massacre

The feeling at this world premiere was akin to attending a musical salon in Paris and hearing a breakthrough work performed for a small elite audience: The room was small but filled with eager listeners. That is how great work often begins in the arts and sciences.

Victor L. Schermer

Apr 14, 2014 Articles 6 minute read

Visiting fairyland. ("Study for 'The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania,'" c. 1849, Joseph Noel Paton.)

The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia plays Schumann, Britten, and Haydn

The glories of the useless

Ignat Solzhenitsyn leads the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia through three examples of the useless, irrelevant, and un-metaphorical art extolled in two recent BSR essays.

Tom Purdom

Apr 10, 2014 Articles 3 minute read

Gertrude Stein, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1935

Lyric Fest presents 'Dear March - Come In!'

A medley of female voices, genus Americana

Lyric Fest presents a musical variety show based on the highly individual voices of American women poets.

Tom Purdom

Apr 03, 2014 Articles 3 minute read

The double bar

When is an ending not an ending?

Kile Smith

Apr 01, 2014 Articles 4 minute read

Philadelphia was one of four cities (along with Miami, Los Angeles, and San Francisco) that commissioned Tal Rosner to create the visuals that accompanied Four Sea Interludes.

The Philadelphia Orchestra plays Benjamin Britten

Britten and friends

Benjamin Britten hovers around the list of the greatest 20th-century composers without quite making the cut, but the somewhat belated centennial anniversary concert conducted by Donald Runnicles made a persuasive case for him.

Robert Zaller

Mar 31, 2014 Articles 3 minute read

Victor Herbert’s ‘Cyrano’ and “Madeleine’

The Victor Herbert you never knew

Most of us associate Victor Herbert with sentimental ballads. Two of his forgotten operettas this week reminded us how diverse his work really was.

Steve Cohen

Mar 29, 2014 Articles 3 minute read

Khaner let his flute do most of the talking.

Chamber Orchestra: Mozart and controversy

Old audiences and the young Mozart

Where are the young audiences? Did Mozart hate the flute? Was the young Mozart a genius or merely a talented prodigy? Arguing about music after a concert may be fun, but the performers usually get the last word.

Tom Purdom

Mar 29, 2014 Articles 4 minute read

The Artemis Quartet: A problem in the programming.

Artemis Quartet at the Perelman

Missing body report

Whatever else you may say about Beethoven, even at his most ethereal and refined, his is a music that speaks through the body. You don’t play him like Debussy or Fauré.

Robert Zaller

Mar 29, 2014 Articles 4 minute read