Music
1939 results
Page 143
Tempesta di Mare revisits Dresden
The glory that was Dresden, before the fire
Tempesta di Mare created a glimpse of an 18th-Century cultural center through music that has survived the defeats of the Seven Years' War and the bombings of the Second World War.
Articles
3 minute read
Opera Company's "Otello' (2nd review)
Verdi vs. Shakespeare
The show went on without a serious hitch as the Opera Company of Philadelphia's Iago, Mark Delavan, sang from a wheelchair, serendipitously adding a new dimension to his otherwise invulnerable character. Verdi's Otello, unlike Shakespeare's Othello, is more archetype than flesh and blood; nonetheless he is an imposing figure in this, Verdi's finest opera.
Articles
5 minute read
Dutoit conducts Grieg and Shostakovich
Strange bedfellows: Grieg and Shostakovich
Grieg and Shostakovich make strange bedfellows, but both the former's Piano Concerto and the latter's Fourth Symphony were well performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Andre Watts was the admirable soloist, and the Orchestra's departing music director Charles Dutoit seems intent on leaving his own legacy.
Articles
6 minute read
Opera Company's "Otello' (1st review)
Otello's unsung heroine
If you see this very capable production of one of the greatest works in the operatic repertoire, I hope you will reflect, as I found myself doing at Sunday's matinee of Otello, on the unsung heroine of this particular tragedy.
Articles
5 minute read
A composer's intentions (Krantz's "Trio')
What did the composer mean to say? And does it matter?
How much do we need to know when we listen to music that presents a portrait of a family? I posed that nagging question to Lynn Henson, who commissioned Allen Krantz's Trio after a Harrowing ordeal.
Articles
5 minute read
Marina Sirtis with Orchestra 2001
She doesn't sing, but what an actress!
For its season opener, Orchestra 2001 delivered the kind of near miss that an innovative organization has to produce now and then. The main event of the evening was a performance by a guest star who didn't sing a note.
Articles
3 minute read
Why piano students cry
The agony and ecstasy of the amateur pianist
Somewhere in the world, a student cries at a piano lesson every 21 seconds. Why all this anguish? I believe that the emotional power of the classical piano literature itself is a powerful contributing factor. I speak from agonizing personal experience.
My evening with Miles Davis (memoir)
‘Guess who I'm snorting coke with?' Miles Davis, up (too) close
When Miles Davis walked into our San Francisco jazz club, I was operating the food concession. Unfortunately for me, food was the last thing the great jazz trumpeter wanted that night.
Articles
6 minute read
Natalie Merchant on tour at the Merriam
Professor Merchant lets her hair down
In her latest song cycle, singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant interprets the words of others through a dizzyingly diverse collection of musical influences, ranging from traditional folk and bluegrass to klezmer, Celtic, classical, jazz and, even a little rock 'n roll.
Articles
3 minute read
Varèse festival in New York
A sudden thirst for Varèse (but only in New York)
Edgard Varèse's music has no melodies and virtually no tonal implications; it's all wild, intense blocks of sound filling up musical and physical space. New York audiences went wild over it, and so did I.