Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Classical Music Critic
There is lots today about Phil Ramone, the music producer who died Saturday, and his work with the Paul Simons and Billy Joels of the music industry. But not mentioned is his history in Philadelphia with a different genre. Read about his extremely successful outing with the Curtis Institute of Music orchestra here.
Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Classical Music Critic
The Philadelphia Orchestra exited bankruptcy in July. But in the months since, the orchestra has been settling up debts and taking care of other administrative matters, and has been responsible for filing a certain amount of paperwork with U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
The reorganization was a significant chapter in the life of the organization, and as such, it's perhaps worth noting that with the signing of an order Wednesday by Judge Eric L. Frank, the bankruptcy cases of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Academy of Music are officially closed.
When it filed for Chapter 11 in April 2011, the Philadelphia Orchestra became the first major U.S. orchestra to declare bankruptcy.
Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Classical Music Critic
Ah, look at all the happy people. Where do they all come from?
If the Philly Pops were smart, they’d get their email addresses, all those young(ish) Beatles fans who came to hear a show conductor Michael Krajewski called “authentic recreations” of an English band that broke up 43 years ago. Members of the Classical Mystery Tour, cloaked in accents and hippy garb, sang and played Lennon and McCartney favorites in Verizon Hall Friday night while Krajewski and his band played back up.
I claim no special authority on the repertoire – being, in the ‘60s, too young to be fully sentient. But then again, a lot of people in the ‘60s weren’t fully sentient, and the act seemed a decent if not particularly striking imitation of the real thing. Others looked convinced. By the end, hundreds of listeners were swaying lit cell phones in the air to an encore, “Hey, Jude.” And it was oddly hilarious to watch an unintended anti-authority pantomime playing out in the conductor’s circle – an usher telling these cell phone wavers to turn them off and put them away. At a certain point he gave up. Leave it to the Kimmel to start acting nervous when people start having fun. Really, what could have been the harm?
Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Classical Music Critic
A concert of Beatles tunes may not give Michael Krajewski as much creative opportunity as he will have in future programs, but Friday night the pops conductor makes himself known with his first concerts leading the Philly Pops. Krajewski is slated to take over as music director in 2013-14. Information here.
Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Classical Music Critic
Three of six winners in the Metropolitan Opera's 2013 National Council Auditions are students at Philadelphia schools.
Bass-baritone Brandon Cedel, 25, studies at the Curtis Institute of Music, and is set to graduate in May. Lyric coloratura Sydney Mancasola, 25, is a resident artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts, as is South African bass-baritone Musa Ngqungwana (pictured).
On Monday at 7 p.m., the winners will perform a concert of operatic excerpts at WQXR with Met star and former National Council winner bass-baritone Eric Owens. You can watch and listen here.
Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Classical Music Critic
The Vienna Philharmonic is once again acknowledging its Nazi past (to an extent). It has opened up its archive (to some people), granting access to independent researchers (for a certain period of time).
The orchestra not only contained many members of the Nazi party and two in the SS during the war, but the Philharmonic also presented a coveted honor to a convicted Nazi - two decades after the end of World War II.
That was then, and this is now? Most striking is this current response from the orchestra about its responsibilities going forward:
Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Classical Music Critic
This program is repeated Sunday at 2 p.m. Information here.
Although orchestra programs are set years in advance, they sometimes presage events in a way that makes them strangely relevant by the time they reach the stage. Rudolf Buchbinder’s Verizon Hall appearance Friday night with the Philadelphia Orchestra coming so soon after Wolfgang Sawallisch’s death brought symbolic as well as practical implications. The Viennese pianist was a close Sawallisch associate, and after the conductor was too ill to return to fulfill his laureate duties, Buchbinder would arrive here as soloist with the maestro’s greeting in hand.
Buchbinder this time brought added artistic assent. The two shared musical elegance and a penetrating understanding of the composer’s intent. With the added podium authority of Christoph von Dohnányi – he having arrived at 83 handsome and nimble – Friday night was about as close as any will ever get again to a Sawallisch-esque experience.
Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Classical Music Critic
The power, the control, the macho head games. The thrill of having so many souls hanging on your every gesture. It's Roger Federer, of course, but as you'll see here, it's not the tennis giving him that glint in his eye.
Listen to what one of the commentators calls him at 1:37 into the clip. The man may have missed his true calling.
First posted on Norman Lebrecht's Slipped Disc.
Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Classical Music Critic
I'm sure no one planned it this way, but pianists in the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society season so far have followed a red line from piece to related piece - from the Schubert Sixteen Deutsche Tänze, D. 894 played by Imogen Cooper a couple of weeks ago, back to Jeremy Denk's Schumann Davidsbündlertänze in December, and to Wednesday night's Janácek On an Overgrown Path played by Jonathan Biss.
The three works share a lot, but Biss, as you'll read in the review, created echoes within echoes.
Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Classical Music Critic
To the extent that you put stock in competitions, it might be interesting to know that of the 30 competitors recently announced for the 14th Van Cliburn International Competition, five are graduates of the Curtis Institute of Music.
They are (with Curtis graduation dates):
Sara Daneshpour, United States (2007); Ruoyu Huang, China (2012); Claire Huangci, United States (2007); YouYou Zhang, United States (2005); and Eric Zuber, United States (2007).
Peter Dobrin is a classical music critic and culture writer for The Inquirer. Since 1989, he has written music reviews, features, news and commentary for the paper, covering such topics as the Philadelphia Museum of Art at the Venice Biennale, expansion of the Curtis Institute of Music, the Philadelphia Orchestra's bankruptcy declaration in 2011, Philadelphia's evolving performing arts center and the general health of arts and culture.
Dobrin was a French horn player. He earned an undergraduate degree in performance from the University of Miami, and received a master's degree in music criticism from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where he studied with Elliott Galkin. He has no time to practice today.
