Music
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Page 161
Wagner's "Ring' cycle (Part 5: "Siegfried')
Siegfried: Wagner's All-American boy
Wagner's Siegfried is a dumb, muscular bully”“ a hard fellow to like. But 19th-Century Americans had no such problem: Wagner deliberately created an aggressive modern man who defies all the rules of the past, just like the Americans who were boldly opening the West by pushing aside everything that stood in their way.
Articles
7 minute read
Chamber Orchestra turns cautious
Et tu, Chamber Orchestra? Or: The bland leading the bland
After two seasons of adventurous programming, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia has reacted to hard economic times with a coming season that will offend nobody. Symphonic repertory in Philadelphia has become the musical equivalent of the menu at a high-end retirement community: pretty good, meal by meal, but deadly dull over the long run.
Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio at the Perelman
Enormous changes at the last minute
A late cancellation turned what promised to be an unusual and intriguing program of trios— with clarinet, horn, and piano joining the strings— into more ordinary fare. But the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, with guest Ricardo Morales, performed with the aplomb of a fine veteran group in works by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Tchaikovsky.
Articles
3 minute read
Wagner's "Ring' cycle (Part 4: 'Die Walküre')
Die Walkure: Wotan's children (and Hitler's too?)
Wagner really was at the top of his game when he wrote Die Walküre. Perhaps he was energized by the chance to glamorize incest and throw it in the face of conventional society. But his greatest inspiration was the difficult father-daughter relationship between Wotan and Brünnhilde.
Articles
7 minute read
Choral Arts: Bach's B-minor Mass (2nd review)
Bach and religion: What a combination!
A myriad of barriers confronts a successful performance of the B-minor Mass. On this occasion, the audience was rewarded with one of those performances that can be a treasured memory for a lifetime.
Dolce Suono's "Rouge, blanc et bleu' (2nd review)
That obscure but sublime French connection
The long and complex relationship between the U.S. and France is reflected in their music, but with distinct differences in style and approach. Dolce Suono contemplated the musical and historical connections in a concert of three French composers plus a new French-influenced work by Philadelphia composer Andrea Clearfield.
Articles
6 minute read
Four Mother's Weekend concerts (1st review)
Take Mom to a musicale
With masterpieces by Bach, Beethoven and Debussy, and a historical range that covered 1496 to 2009, these four Mother's Weekend concerts should have satisfied any reasonably cultured mother's tastes.
Articles
6 minute read
Simon Rattle conducts Bruckner's Eighth
The temptations of Sir Simon
Is Sir Simon Rattle still the One Who Got Away? In the second of his recent concerts with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the flamboyant conductor offered a spacious and compelling reading of Bruckner's sprawling Eighth Symphony that drew marvelous playing, especially from the strings.
Articles
3 minute read
My mother's greatest gift
Everything I needed in life, my mother taught me at the piano
My mother, the descendant of slaves, was a piano teacher who never pushed her kids to become musicians. But she insisted that all of us learn to play the piano. The sense of dedication we'd derive from that experience, she reasoned, would lead us to succeed in a profession that provided a good living, whatever it might be.
Articles
8 minute read
Wagner's 'Ring' cycle (Part 1)
An egomaniac for all seasons: Learning to love Richard Wagner
The Metropolitan Opera's current Ring cycle may be the last ever produced in the traditional four-night, 15-hour style envisioned by Richard Wagner. I've attended Wagner's operas for decades. Now I must persuade my neophyte wife to appreciate this brilliant (albeit obnoxious) composer before it's too late.
Articles
6 minute read