David Patrick Stearns

David Patrick Stearns is a classical music critic and columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Email David Patrick at dstearns@phillynews.com

Gil Shaham was in top form, showing originality playing Brahms´ "Violin Concerto."

Nézet-Séguin on course for a long run

By David Patrick Stearns, Inquirer Music Critic

1:08am

Yannick Nézet-Séguin might be expected to end his first season as Philadelphia Orchestra music director with some sort of awesome bang, if only because he's that kind of guy.

Decorated World War I veterans (from left) Philippe (Mal Whyte), Henri (Peter DeLaurier), and Gustave (Dan Kern) in "Heroes."

'Heroes' in war and in life, by Lantern Theater

By David Patrick Stearns, INQUIRER CULTURE CRITIC

05/23/2013

When people give so much of themselves early in life, does it stand to reason that there's next to nothing left for the remaining years?

The Lysistrata Project 05/20/2013: Through June 2 at the Walnut Street Theatre's Studio 5, Ninth and Walnut Streets. Tickets: $17-$22. 215-423-0254 or www.simpatico.org
James Levine rises again at Carnegie Hall podium 05/21/2013: By David Patrick Stearns, Inquirer Music Critic

NEW YORK - The reaction to James Levine's return to conducting Sunday can only be described in Yiddish: Geschrei - an outcry like no other.
An ancient tactic - no sex - for a modern issue 05/21/2013: By David Patrick Stearns, INQUIRER CULTURE CRITIC

So often in the fine arts these days, everything has to be called a "project," always sounding a bit more like research or fact-finding than anything creative. But in the case of Simpatico Theatre Project's premiere, The Lysistrata Project, at Walnut Street Theatre's Studio 5, the creators perhaps didn't know what else to call it.
Rattle provides some twists to modern music 05/17/2013: By David Patrick Stearns, Inquirer Music Critic

Any other conductor would test an audience's loyalty with a Philadelphia Orchestra program featuring particularly bizarre modern music. But Simon Rattle knows his people. And though he programmed György Ligeti (as might Christoph Eschenbach), and, at one point, swiveled around and yelled toward the audience (as did Riccardo Muti), there was no loss of good will and, in fact, a standing ovation on Thursday for Ligeti's Mysteries of the Macabre.
Retold fairy tales charm in Princeton production 05/15/2013: By David Patrick Stearns, Inquirer Culture Critic

PRINCETON - "Is this professional or volunteer?" asked one of the younger audience members at Into the Woods, now playing at the McCarter Theatre Center in a production by the Fiasco Theater. Good question.
Haydn's "Creation" - without the visual flapdoodle 05/13/2013: By David Patrick Stearns, Inquirer Music Critic

Every so often, the classical music world decides to advance into the visual age with busy video screens, often with interesting outcome, though ultimately feeling redundant because everything you need to see is in the music already.
Cabaret show with a bit of Dean Martin 05/08/2013: By David Patrick Stearns, INQUIRER CULTURE CRITIC

Iconic crooners don't get any more comfy than Dean Martin, who ambled through his performing life with supreme ease and deceptive artistry, most apparent when he wasn't making fun of himself. Supposedly, he was so cool that his heart beat only five times a minute.
Early view of anti-Semitism 05/08/2013: "The Yellow Ticket" was filmed in 1914 and again in 1918 in Warsaw. Full of shame and propaganda, its authenticity can be haunting.

By David Patrick Stearns, Inquirer Music Critic

Now that the Kimmel Center has disassembled the imaginary time machine that long dominated its lobby, the Gershman Y across the street has something closer to the real thing: The reconstituted 1918 film The Yellow Ticket, which was partly filmed in the later-razed Warsaw ghetto and was one of the first cinematic exposés of anti-Semitism.
A Mozart finale for Chamber Orchestra 05/08/2013: By David Patrick Stearns, Inquirer Music Critic

The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia doesn't end its season with a bang, but with the sort of alternative mandate in which Mozart's less-often-played Symphony No. 29 is an appropriate grand finale.
A Wagner overdose in Curtis concert 05/08/2013: By David Patrick Stearns, Inquirer Music Critic

If Wagner's music is as addictive as many say it is, the rehab centers are going to be jammed with Curtis Institute students after a Wagner-overdose concert Sunday at the Kimmel Center, aided by vocal performances from Heidi Melton and Eric Owens that the Metropolitan Opera's current Ring cycle would be lucky to have.