Philadelphia Orchestra with Curtis soloists

The Philadelphia Orchestra's summer concerts at the Mann Music Center usually feature big name, sure-draw soloists like Pinchas Zukerman or Itzhak Perlman. The sellout programs tend to feature performers who've already appeared on Public TV. This year the Orchestra broke with that tradition and opened with three concerts that spotlighted students from Curtis Institute.

Given the current state of arts financing, the collaboration with Curtis must have looked like an attractive way to save money. But the student status of the soloists didn't necessarily mean the Orchestra was mounting an inferior product. The future soloists at Curtis routinely fill Orchestra dates as part of their training. Curtis doesn't exploit its students by overscheduling them, but it does give them the opportunity to acquire experience. The soloists all sported bios that included appearances with the likes of the Marlboro Festival, the Shanghai Symphony and the Seoul Philharmonic.

The most impressive musician in the lineup was pianist Kyu Yeon Kim, who soloed in Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto. To be sure, hers was the meatiest assignment of the three concerts, but she had to work with a concerto that requires a soloist who fully understands musical poetry. Kim rose to the challenge by producing the kind of melody lines that evoke complex emotional responses merely because of the way they're shaped.

Vivaldi's overrated Four Seasons

The weakest assignment went to violinist Yu-Chen Tseng. He did a good job with Vivaldi's Four Seasons but couldn't overcome my bias against a piece I've heard too many times in the past few years.

I have nothing against familiar works. I'm probably the only music writer in recent history willing to admit he still enjoys Beethoven's Fifth— and I did, in fact, get my usual charge from the performance of the Fifth that closed last month's first Mann concert. But the Fifth is a monumental, musically varied piece that works with a range of deep, basic feelings. The Four Seasons, on the other hand, isn't even Vivaldi's best violin concerto.

Sister act

Christina and Michelle Naughton could turn into a novelty act if they aren't careful. They're twins, they're young, and they play piano duos together. Fortunately, they're talented musicians who've come under the influence of a school that can help them avoid that trap.

The free Curtis student recitals throughout the school year are a central event for Philadelphia's most dedicated music aficionados. The Haughton sisters gave the Fairmount Park audience a glimpse of the mix of high-level music making and dedicated youthful brio that characterizes the performances in the cultural magnet at 18th and Locust.

The mayor also rises

The other newcomer on the Mann stage was an aspiring actor named Michael Nutter, who read the Ogden Nash satiric verses that have become a traditional accompaniment to Saint-Saëns's Carnival of the Animals. Hizzoner the mayor swallowed a few words, but overall he read his script with a straightforward style that allowed Nash's inspired nonsense to do everything it's supposed to do.

Nutter endeared himself to this particular constituent by turning around and watching certain parts of the performance. He was obviously fascinated by some of the things the Naughton sisters were doing with their pianos and the unusual techniques the first violins employed to produce odd sounds from their instruments. I'll gladly vote for almost any politician who indicates he's interested in something other than his next election.

One new work, too

Conductor Rossen Milanov actually scheduled a new work in the midst of all the week's tried and true Mann programming. Rainbow Body, by Christopher Theofanidis, draws on two religious sources. It starts with a chant by the medieval Christian mystic Hildegard von Bingen and combines Bingen's vision with the Buddhist idea that enlightened beings return to the universe as pure light when they die.

Rainbow Body begins quietly, with the chant emerging from a "halo" of sound. The chant is repeated several times and then, just as the melody threatens to become cloying, Theofanidis launches into a series of jagged, arrhythmic episodes that make full use of the orchestra's resources.

The ending could have been ethereal. Instead, the composer plays against expectations and produces a big, triumphant exit.

Milanov has scattered other samples of new music through the Orchestra's schedule ever since he took charge of the Mann concerts. Usually the novelties have been followed by the same kind of applause the audience bestows on Beethoven and Mozart. Rainbow Body seems to have been just as popular, in fact, as the encore that closed the third concert— a high-spirited rendition of John Phillip Sousa's Washington Post March, chosen by texted votes from the audience.