Astral Artists' "Musical Tapestry'

Musicians who care about their audience

So you want challenging new music that's nevertheless comprehensible and digestible? Astral Artists' “Musical Tapestry” offered young musicians who are not only talented but also eager to recruit converts to their unusual repertory.

Dan Coren

Feb 27, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Curtis grads play Schubert trios

Young composer, young musicians— and grownup emotions

Three of Curtis Institute's most successful graduates of the past 20 years took on two of Schubert's best-loved trios in a concert that explained, among other things, why chamber music audiences tend to be older than Olympic swimmers.

Tom Purdom

Feb 24, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read

Opera Company's "Turandot'

A little more light on the subject

The Opera Company's Turandot boasts a pleasant tenor in Francesco Hong, an innovative director in Renaud Doucet and a colorful set borrowed from the Dallas Opera. Why, then, was the stage in near-darkness for much of the opera?

Steve Cohen

Feb 24, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read

Vertigo String Quartet at Curtis Institute

To be young and tackling mature masters

The youthful Vertigo String Quartet, all Curtis graduates in their mid-20s, returned to give an alumni recital in Field Concert Hall with one of their teachers, Steven Tenenbom, in a program of late Brahms and Shostakovich, followed by compositions by two of their own members. Already accomplished, this group should, happily, be with us for some time to come.

Robert Zaller

Feb 24, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

One tenor's musical odyssey

Between black and Baroque: One adventurous tenor's musical odyssey

The versatile black tenor and musicologist Darryl Taylor has evolved from rhythm and blues to Classical to African American art song. Lately he's singing Baroque music written in the 18th Century for castrati. Can this one-man musical life force straddle several worlds without short-changing any of them?

Maria Thompson Corley

Feb 18, 2009 · Articles · 6 minute read

Brahms German Requiem by Chamber Orchestra (2nd review)

God's favorite agnostic

Ignat Solzhenitsyn leads a moving performance of a work that ventures into the deepest emotional areas of human life.

Tom Purdom

Feb 17, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read

Brahms German Requiem by Chamber Orchestra (1st review)

Another challenge for the Chamber Orchestra (it's called the Perelman Theater)

The Choral Arts Society's performance of Brahms's German Requiem was in many ways a cornucopia of musical riches. But the acoustics of the Perelman Theater made it as frustrating as it was satisfying.

Dan Coren

Feb 17, 2009 · Articles · 5 minute read

Lyric Fest's "Music in the White House'

A White House variety show

Lyric Fest sampled the tastes of U.S. presidents, whose musical interests could be surprisingly sophisticated. In the process, “Music in the White House” inadvertently reflected another important aspect of American culture: our inherent cosmopolitanism.

Tom Purdom

Feb 10, 2009 · Articles · 5 minute read

"A Scandal in Bohemia,' by Orchestra 2001

Sherlock sings

This new opera about Sherlock Holmes creates a true Holmesian atmosphere, obviously written by someone who understands the Holmes legend. Thomas Whitman's music ranges from workmanlike to inspired.

Tom Purdom

Feb 10, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Cleveland Orchestra plays Mozart and Shostakovich

Cleveland's odd couple at the Kimmel

With the Philadelphia Orchestra AWOL for the month of February, the visiting Cleveland Orchestra came to the Kimmel Center to pick up some of the slack. Conductor Franz Welser-Most has a habit of rushing fast passages and clipping end-phrases, but his reading of the Shostakovich Leningrad Symphony proved a crowd-pleaser.

Robert Zaller

Feb 10, 2009 · Articles · 5 minute read