Orchestra confronts Berg, Mahler— and bankruptcy

A good night for music, a bad one for the Orchestra

Bankruptcy, once a moral disgrace, has become just another way of doing business. Or perhaps you thought the Philadelphia Orchestra was more than a business. This strategy may work in today's de-unionized business world; it works less well when the affected employees are not tool and die workers but world-class musicians openly coveted by other orchestras.

Robert Zaller

Apr 19, 2011 · Articles · 6 minute read

Lyric Fest's Paris Festival

The Fest and the Festival

The Lyric Fest art song series made its contribution to the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts with a program it could stage at any time.

Tom Purdom

Apr 12, 2011 · Articles · 3 minute read

Choral Arts Society's Gesualdo program (2nd review)

Modern voices, Renaissance sins

Matthew Glandorf placed Renaissance Lenten music in context by juxtaposing it with modern artists like T.S. Eliot, Igor Stravinsky, Benjamin Britten, and Dame Edith Sitwell.

Tom Purdom

Apr 12, 2011 · Articles · 3 minute read

Orchestra-Ballet's "Pulcinella' collaboration (1st review)

What was PIFA thinking?

In a concert ballyhooed as an historic co-production of a ballet company and an orchestra, Falla's Three-Cornered Hat was performed complete, but without the dancing. Which begs just one question: Why?

Apr 11, 2011 · Articles · 3 minute read

Choral Arts Society's Gesualdo program (1st review)

The 16th Century's answer to Roman Polanski

The Choral Arts Society's program based on the music of Carlo Gesualdo was daring, and not just because the composer was a triple murderer.

Steve Cohen

Apr 09, 2011 · Articles · 4 minute read

Trio Camille and Buxtehude Consort

The artist as entrepreneur

Two musical go-getters, pianist Matt Bengtson and baritone John Fowler, enhance Philadelphia's musical life while creating opportunities for themselves and their colleagues.

Tom Purdom

Apr 05, 2011 · Articles · 4 minute read

Contemporary music: Two concerts

After the revolution

Philip Glass and George Rochberg may have revolutionized new music, but their work seems almost mannered next to two younger composers who took advantage of their rebellion.

Tom Purdom

Apr 05, 2011 · Articles · 3 minute read

Concert Operetta's "Carp' and "Galatea'

Here come the waltzes

Who introduced the waltz to 19th-Century European romantic theater? Guess again— it wasn't Johann Strauss.

Steve Cohen

Apr 04, 2011 · Articles · 3 minute read

Curtis Opera's 'Cunning Little Vixen'

If we could talk to the animals

Janácek's The Cunning Little Vixen is so brimful with melodies and lush orchestration that it ought to be part of the standard operatic repertoire. Since that won't happen— philosophical allegories lack mass appeal—Curtis deserves our gratitude for reviving it.

Steve Cohen

Apr 03, 2011 · Articles · 2 minute read

Tempesta di Mare's "Characters of the Dance'

Dancing, from Bach to Stallone

Tempesta di Mare combined a first-class Bach performance with a lesson in Baroque dance forms, not to mention a mysterious connection to Sylvester Stallone's Rocky.

Tom Purdom

Mar 29, 2011 · Articles · 4 minute read