Music
1939 results
Page 105
Dolce Suono's "Debussy and The Baroque'
Time-tripping with Debussy
Leave it to Dolce Suono to find a connection between Claude Debussy (1862-1918) and Baroque composers: The man incorporated early music movements into his work, just as he absorbed the influence of jazz and Asian art forms.
Articles
4 minute read
The great debate: Sackbut or trombone?
Were the Dark Ages really dark? Or: Do musical instruments improve?
Is the modern trombone a better instrument than its Renaissance ancestor, the sackbut? That's like asking, "is Mahler better than Monteverdi?"
Articles
4 minute read
Opera Philadelphia's "Magic Flute' (2nd review)
What should you expect from a dying composer?
If Mozart hadn't died two months after its 1791 premiere, his inconsistent and interminable Magic Flute might well have been remembered as a sideshow on the composer's path to greater achievements.
Articles
4 minute read
Piffaro showcases Laughing Bird
The faces (and voices) are familiar
Piffaro gave a younger early music group a helping hand and hosted a Saturday night musical party.
Articles
3 minute read
Opera Philadelphia's "Magic Flute' (1st review)
Mozart's last hurrah (and a few kind words for the Masons)
Mozart's The Magic Flute is a triumph of comic genius over turgid plot and Masonic mumbo-jumbo. Opera Philadelphia's highly entertaining production, first staged by the Canadian Opera Company, brings it off nicely.
Articles
6 minute read
Orchestra 2001 plays Crumb and Gorecki
From Hitler to Apollo, in just 30 years
Small music groups get short shrift in this year's Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts. Orchestra 2001 earned a spot by contriving a program that focused on two wildly different historic events.
Articles
4 minute read
My ticket to glory, 1950 (a memoir)
How do you get to Philadelphia? Practice, practice
I was a small town boy of eight when I was drafted into a children's accordion band. My musical efforts paid off with a TV appearance and my first mind-boggling visit to a real city— Philadelphia— where I rode my first elevator and subway train, ate in my first automat, and saw my first black people.
Articles
10 minute read
Verdi's "I Lombardi' in concert in NY
Verdi's forgotten stepchild
Verdi's much-neglected I Lombardi has much to offer in the way of innovative music and vivid scenes. A concert version featuring the superb voices of Angela Meade and Michael Fabiano may help rescue it from its undeserved obscurity.
Articles
4 minute read
Chamber Orchestra's "Fall of the Berlin Wall'
Another rebirth of freedom
The Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts commemorated a major 20th Century event with the right music conducted by the right conductor.
Articles
5 minute read
Bach's Passions, two ways (3rd review)
Ethereal music, disturbing words
Until a few decades ago, audiences who weren't German were not cognizant of the words in Bach's Passions. Now, with projected translations, audience members notice, and some of them are disturbed— and rightly so.
Articles
6 minute read