http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/david_patrick_stearns RSS Feed for Inq Col David Patrick Stearns en-us Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:02:38 GMT http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/david_patrick_stearns/20091120_Eschenbach_goes_deep_into_Mahler_s_Seventh.html Christoph Eschenbach saved the strangest for last in his complete Mahler symphony cycle with the Philadelphia Orchestra. After the folksy tunes and nature description of Mahler's first four symphonies, the orchestral apocalypses of the fifth and sixth, the dizzy-making gargantuanism of the eighth, and elegiac lyricism of the ninth and 10th, the nocturnal but discomfiting Symphony No. 7 arrived on Wednesday under ex-music director Eschenbach. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/david_patrick_stearns/20091118_Janacek_s_unsparing_prison_drama_a_rare_opera_treat.html NEW YORK - The marquee value could hardly be less inviting, but serious operagoers shouldn't deprive themselves of Leos Janacek's From the House of the Dead in a powerful new Metropolitan Opera production by Patrice Chéreau. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/david_patrick_stearns/20091118_Pavel_Haas_Quartet_at_the_Seaport.html Great string quartets aren't unusual around here, thanks to the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, but even in the most august company, the Pavel Haas Quartet on Sunday was a peak experience. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/david_patrick_stearns/20091117_Solzhenitzyn_leaves_Chamber_Orchestra.html Pianist/conductor Ignat Solzhenitsyn is moving on after 16 years conducting the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia - though not entirely: With yesterday's announcement that Dirk Brossé will succeed him as music director came the news that Solzhenitsyn, as conductor laureate, will lead one program a season. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/david_patrick_stearns/20091117_AVA_stages__Falstaff_.html The buzz that greeted the Academy of Vocal Arts' new production of Falstaff hung in the air at the weekend's opening night: Verdi's great ensemble opera was an easy vocal reach for the Academy's young singers, who were said to be charmed and fired by charismatic veteran stage director Tito Capobianco. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/david_patrick_stearns/20091116_As_if_in_a_Lisbon_cathedral__c__1660.html Piffaro, the Renaissance Band, has long been the go-to ensemble for the exploration of lost musical continents, this weekend's concerts revealing a pocket of repertoire whose existence is now so marginal you'd never think to look for it. In collaboration http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/david_patrick_stearns/20091116_A_joyous_one-day_Brahms_festival.html Like most great ideas, Astral Artists' one-day Philadelphia Brahms Festival immediately posed the question of why it hadn't been done anytime recently. Probable answer: Does Brahms' chamber music need a festival? By no means is it neglected, but as the three-concerts-on-one-Saturday festival showed, there's plenty to be said for focusing the attention of listeners and performers, proving the old Mae West aphorism, "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful." http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/david_patrick_stearns/20091115_Her_radical__rumbling_vision.html NEW YORK - Among downtown New York composers, few stick so relentlessly to the cutting edge as Julia Wolfe. Now 50, she recently wrote a piece for nine bagpipes that sent her two children running for cover in her SoHo loft. Even her husband, Michael Gordon, who with her cofounded the composer collective Bang on a Can, has been moving toward more mainstream music for opera and film. Back home in Blue Bell, Wolfe's mother supports her daughter's performances with a dignified stoicism. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/david_patrick_stearns/20091112_Adventurous_City_Opera_s_latest_savior.html NEW YORK - Only Lincoln Center Plaza separates triumph from disaster. While operatic conservatives dig in their heels against innovations afoot at the Metropolitan Opera, across the way the tentatively resurrected New York City Opera - whose unofficial mandate is to do things that might make Met-goers boo - opened in a much-improved State Theater last weekend with a sexy, concept-heavy production of Mozart's Don Giovanni. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/david_patrick_stearns/20091112_Dark_Brahms__Debussy_descendants.html Great music can go unheard when listeners don't have the context to understand it, or because the message behind the notes isn't so welcome. Overcoming both hazards, Tuesday's Music from Marlboro concert (presented by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society) left a pleasantly stunned audience with familiar composers but seldom-heard notes.