Curtis Opera's "Wozzeck' (2nd review)

A timeless world abandoned by God

The Curtis Opera production of Alban Berg's Wozzeck, the signature opera of German Expressionism, made the most of the cramped facilities of the Perelman Theater, with lead singers Shuler Henley and Karen Jesse in good voice and Mark Barton's lighting particularly accenting the brooding and anguished score. Georg Buchner's timeless story of a maddened soldier who kills the one thing he loves remains as relevant as ever.

Robert Zaller

Mar 21, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read

Curtis Opera's "Wozzeck' (1st review)

A searing operatic experience (that I'd just as soon skip)

Here I am in my mid-60s, having devoted most of my life to the study of classical music, and I still haven't come to terms with the music of Alban Berg. The Curtis Institute's production of Wozzeck was superb, but listening to it was an appalling experience I have no desire to repeat.

Dan Coren

Mar 19, 2009 · Articles · 5 minute read

Lyric Fest's "Voices of the Sea'

Of mermaids and slave ships

Lyric Fest made its debut on the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society schedule with a program that could have used more of its customary narrative drive.

Tom Purdom

Mar 17, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Two pianists: Polonsky and Podgurski

There's something about Anna

Pounding, pedaling and darting like quicksilver, the slender young pianist Anna Polonsky stole the show at her duet recital with cellist Peter Wiley. At the Art Museum, by contrast, the jazz pianist Neil Podgurski showed a different, quieter side with a new band.

Michael Woods

Mar 17, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read

Jurowski's latest Orchestra 'audition'

The Jurowski watch

In a well-conceived and generally well-executed program of Berg and Mahler, Vladimir Jurowski once more dropped his card into the Philadelphia Orchestra's conductor sweepstakes. The performance of Mahler's rarely heard choral masterwork, Das klagende lied, should be remembered as one of the season's highlights. But please can the condescending pre-concert talks.

Robert Zaller

Mar 13, 2009 · Articles · 5 minute read

Lucinda Williams at the Keswick

A country icon finds her cruising speed

Dark though her subjects have been over the years, Lucinda Williams now gives the impression of being completely at ease with herself and her fellow musicians and reveling in 30 years of her own repertory.

Dan Coren

Mar 10, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read

"Vita Nuova' at Alice Tully Hall (New York)

Dante meets Alice Tully: An anti-composer's anti-opera

New York's renovated and reopened Alice Tully Hall is buxom and Botoxed, and there's padding too in one of its featured premieres, Vladimir Martynov's oratorio-cum-opera Vita Nuova, though some payoff in the end.

Robert Zaller

Mar 03, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Dolce Suono's search for the ancient Greeks

In search of antiquity

What did ancient Greek music sound like? We'll never know. But Dolce Suono took us on a worthy quest to provide an answer.

Tom Purdom

Mar 03, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Vienna Philharmonic at Verizon Hall (2nd review)

The odd couple: Lang Lang with the Vienna

The extremely well balanced Vienna Philharmonic is accustomed to shouldering a huge and diverse workload. But last week it assumed what struck me as a dispiriting assignment: playing second fiddle to the histrionics of piano virtuoso Lang Lang.

Steve Cohen

Mar 01, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Vienna Philharmonic at Verizon Hall (1st review)

An orchestra like a seamless bolt of cloth

The Vienna Philharmonic, in its first Philadelphia appearance in six years, showed again why it's in a class by itself among the world's orchestras in a program of Wagner, Chopin, and Schubert. Soloist Lang Lang, alternately brilliant and frustrating by turns, left a more mixed impression.

Robert Zaller

Mar 01, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read