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Pieter Bruegel the Elder, “The Peasant Dance”

The Johannes Quartet at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

Death and war and a Czech barn dance

The Johannes Quartet delves into two intense, highly emotional pieces, and then ends with a foot-stomping dance by Dvořák.

Tom Purdom

Nov 25, 2014 Articles 3 minute read

H. Leslie Adams: a composer who commissions himself.

H. Leslie Adams, 26 Piano Etudes

Remembering why we play

We need not be afraid of delving into new music; all communication of the soul didn't cease in the 19th century, or even the 20th.

Maria Thompson Corley

Nov 25, 2014 Articles 5 minute read

Jacobs (left) with Yannick conducting: Look, Ma, no hands! (Photo: Neil Santos)

Philadelphia Orchestra’s organ concert

Battle of the bands? No, a conversation

Organ music never enjoyed as spectacular a presentation in Philadelphia as the Philadelphia Orchestra gave it earlier this month.

Steve Cohen

Nov 22, 2014 Articles 3 minute read

The viola is no joke. (Photo by aethir via Creative Commons/Wikimedia)

Astral Artists and the Chamber Orchestra spotlight the viola

All kidding aside

The accidents of the scheduling process produced two consecutive concerts that spotlighted the viola and proved, once again, that viola jokes are a baseless and vile calumny.

Tom Purdom

Nov 18, 2014 Articles 4 minute read

Is it time to bring the orchestra experience into the 21st century? (Performance at the Bolshoi Theatre, 1856)

The Philadelphia Orchestra performs Janáček and Mahler

To app or not to app

The Philadelphia Orchestra’s new real-time app may or may not be a good idea, but the real issue is the product itself, not the marketing efforts that surround it.

Tom Purdom

Nov 11, 2014 Articles 3 minute read

Gustav Mahler, photographed in 1907 at the end of his period as director of the Vienna Hofoper.

Nézet-Séguin conducts Mahler (third review)

Could we all use a resurrection? Mahler thought so

Mahler weaves between grief and excitement throughout the symphony. There is no conductor better than Nézet-Séguin in working with these changes, and he is excellent with liturgical and choral music as well. So the last two movements proved to be glorious in his hands.

Victor L. Schermer

Nov 06, 2014 Articles 5 minute read

Nézet-Séguin conducts Mahler (2nd review)

Mahler’s tortured world

Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony had nothing to do with Christ and everything to do with the tormented composer’s own yearning for a better life after this one.

Steve Cohen

Nov 06, 2014 Articles 3 minute read

Yefim Bronfman at the Perelman

Adventures of the sonata

The three sonatas programmed by Yefim Bronfman in his Perelman Theater recital told a tale of an artist moving from classical assurance to anxious assertion to violent despair.

Robert Zaller

Nov 04, 2014 Articles 5 minute read

Marching to his own drummer. (photo by nickelbabe, via Creative Commons/pixabay)

Calvin Hampton: An appreciation

An American genius

Calvin Hampton dared to take musical chances. While the results are uneven, his better compositions deserve a place in the repertoire.

Michael Lawrence

Nov 04, 2014 Articles 3 minute read

Protesters at the Met: What makes this production different? (Photo: Marla Diamond/WCBS 880)

The 'Klinghoffer' kerfuffle

How to respond to Klinghoffer

Censoring art has been an irresistible temptation since Plato’s time. It was a bad idea in ancient Greece, and it’s a bad idea today, as the kerfuffle over John Adams’s Death of Klinghoffer illustrates.

Robert Zaller

Nov 04, 2014 Articles 5 minute read