David Patrick Stearns is a classical music critic and columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
- Audio: Eugene Ormandy conducts Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4
From Japan, now on CD.
Few prominent conductors have such fleeting claims to greatness as Eugene Ormandy - but as the Japanese recording industry is proving, those fleeting moments are unquestionably there.
That sunshiny, yet cool, Doris Day
In life, as on screen, Doris Day never quite says yes, and never absolutely says no. She leaves her fans hoping she'll come out from her seaside California home to say "hi," just like in her girl-next-door movies - and make everything perfect.
- The episodic sameness of the Philadelphians' performance overcame the energy of Vivaldi.Just because Vivaldi's The Four Seasons is about the outdoors doesn't mean it's a good piece to perform there.
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The allure of sibling musicians extends beyond novelty and well into telepathy. Violinist Yehudi Menuhin was always best with his pianist sister, Hephzibah; they claimed to read each other's musical minds. But Christina and Michelle Naughton, who made their Philadelphia Orchestra debut Tuesday at the Mann Center, aren't just sisters, but identical twins, whose musical compatibility is even more keen than their physical resemblance.
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Having nearly lost a significant part of the Philadelphia Orchestra season due to funding shortfalls, the Mann Center for the Performing Arts and its public on Monday evening seemed out to reaffirm their devotion to the ensemble with 5,830 listeners - a head count usually reserved for Yo-Yo Ma or 1812 Overture with fireworks.
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How often do you go to a concert with seven world premieres? Flutist Mimi Stillman asked this question through the introduction of her latest concert by Dolce Suono, the chamber-music collective she formed and directs.
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While many performing arts groups struggle to stay alive, the Buxtehude Consort is struggling to be born. And this early-music ensemble's prospects - even with a name that's obscure to some and repertoire still being rehabilitated - are good.
- Curtis soloists to play at MannThe Curtis Institute of Music's fast track to big-orchestra debuts turns into an express lane at the Monday opening of the Philadelphia Orchestra's summer season.
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Normally a rumor-free zone, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia is the focal point of speculation about its future existence amid the announcement of a dramatically curtailed season and questions about the continued presence of music director Ignat Solzhenitsyn.
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'Fortunately, the hall is solid . . . it can stand the strain." So reads the caption to a Hector Berlioz cartoon showing the composer conducting an array of hardware appropriate to battle as well as music, probably inspired by the Requiem that left Verizon Hall wowed but unrattled in the Thursday finale of the Philadelphia Orchestra's Kimmel Center season.
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Few composers so consistently knew what they were doing as the ever-savvy Gioachino Rossini. But with Il Viaggio a Reims, could he have known he was writing a perfect summer beach opera? One that fulfills as the more-fun-than-substance requirements of a beach novel?
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Fusing unlikely theatrical elements is stimulating even when unlikely to succeed. The whacked audacity of, say, Tod Machover's Brain Opera (which attempted to replicate brain functions in music) or Mark Dendy's Dream Analysis (choreographed psychotherapy with appearances by Martha Graham and Judy Garland) take you out of yourself more than things that are tidy and polished.
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