(left to right) David Devan, general director/president of Opera Philadelphia; Richard Worley, Phila. Orch. chairman; Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Phila. Orch. music director; Allison Vulgamore, Phila. Orch. CEO & president; Opera Phila. Chairman Daniel Meyer
Even before The Philadelphia Orchestra's new music director took up his post, he'd begun reaching out to other arts organizations. As WRTI's Jim Cotter reports, the Orchestra is now set to present an ambitious co-production of a Richard Strauss masterpiece with Opera Philadelphia.
The modern game of golf comes from Scotland, where in the mid 19th century it also became a subject for artists. WRTI’s Susan Lewis considers the relationship between art and golf in Victorian Great Britain, as a Philadelphia Museum of Art exhibition spotlights an 1847 masterwork: The Golfers. Museum Curator of European Painting Before 1900 Jennifer Thompson says the large painting is one of the most celebrated in the genre.
We’re trying to kick-start spring on Now is the Time, Sunday, March 24th at 10 pm. Leaps and Bulls is all funky frogs and swamps, from the group Blob. Yes, Blob. Gary Schocker tempts us out of the house with Out of Doors Duets for two flutes, and Ned Rorem’s long-limbed Day Music and Night Music is for violin and piano.
The Symphony No. 5 of Charles Fussell is an expansive memorial to Virgil Thomson, and Ronn McFarlane honors all things spring with modern music for the lute, in Over the Green Earth.
Hiccups and sneezes are not a standard accompaniment to a performance of classical music. But when was the last time a live performance was free of coughing? At a classical music concert, rules of etiquette demand silent immersion in the music - no cell phones or texting of course, no talking, and a limited array of acceptable responses to the performance.
Economics Professor Andreas Wagener, who specializes in social policy at Leibniz University of Hannover in Hannover, Germany, reviews the research and outlines six motives for why there’s more than the usual amount of coughing during classical concerts.
David Lindsay-Abaire would seem to have a case of multiple creative personalities. The Pulitzer-winning playwright wrote the book and lyrics to Shrek the Musical and worked on the screenplay to The Great and Powerful Oz.
He’s now represented by a hugely different theatrical work at the Walnut Street Theatre, a play titled Good People about hard-scrabble life and class struggle in South Boston, or “Southie.” The Philadelphia Inquirer’s David Patrick Stearns spoke to the playwright in his Brooklyn home and discovered that Good People is the real him.
For the first time in almost 30 years, The Philadelphia Orchestra is performing Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. The monumental oratorio fell into obscurity for decades after Bach's death in 1750. Composer Felix Mendelssohn's production of the work in 1829 helped spark the modern Bach revival. Susan Lewis considers Bach’s life and work.
On March 28th through 30th, The Philadelphia Orchestra performs the uncut Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, with costumes and dramatic lighting at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia.
Music lives at Westminster Choir College at Rider University in Princeton, New Jersey. As WRTI's Jim Cotter reports, the college's Westminster Symphonic Choir has, for almost 90 years, been performing with the world's foremost orchestras under some legendary conductors, including Leopold Stokowski, Arturo Toscanini, Bruno Walter, Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, Pierre Boulez, Robert Shaw, Kurt Masur and on and on.
Joe Miller is professor of conducting and chair of conducting for organ and sacred music at Westminster Choir College. This week, his Westminster Symphonic Choir performs Bach’s St Mathew Passion with The Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nezet-Seguin, a Westminster Alum.
Tune in on Sunday, March 24th for our monthly broadcast of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. Music Director Dirk Brosse will conduct the ensemble in the world premiere of Jonathan Leshnoff's Cello Concerto, featuring renowned Russian cellist Nina Kotova. The program also includes Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 1. Sunday, March 24th, 5 to 6 pm.
Violinist Maria Bachmann with Jill Pasternak on Crossover Saturday, March 23, 2013
This week on Crossover, violin virtuoso Maria Bachmann returns to update us on her recent happenings since her last visit in the fall of 2010.
A student of Ivan Galamian and Szymon Goldberg at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music, she was awarded the school's Fritz Kreisler Prize for outstanding graduating violinist. Bachmann made her professional debut in New York in 1987 after placing first in the Fritz Kreisler International Violin Competition in Vienna. She has since established herself as a leading concert and recital hall artist worldwide.
Bachmann is perhaps best-known for her performances of new music by George Rochberg, Leon Kirchner, Albert Glinsky and Paul Moravec. Her debut recording on BMG, released in 1993, featured works from the 20th century, accompanied by award-winning pianist Jon Klibonoff. But her musical interests are wider than just new music. Another BMG release of the Beethoven and Mendelssohn violin concertos was very well received.
In 2010, she gave the world premiere performance of Moravec's Violin Concerto at the Kimmel Center with Philly's Orchestra 2001. She repeated that performance this past March with South Jersey's Symphony in C, under Rossen Milanov, which was recently broadcast on WRTI. We'll hear an excerpt from that performance on this show. Moravec has written fourteen solo and chamber works specifically for Bachmann.
Bachmann is also known for her chamber music performances, having appeared in concert and on recordings with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. She founded the Bachmann-Klibonoff-Fridman Piano Trio in 1993, which for a time was the resident ensemble at WQXR Radio in New York. In 2001, she formed Trio Solisti, comprised of Bachmann, Klibonoff, and cellist Alexis Gerlach. Bachmann is also artistic director of the Telluride Music Festival, for which Trio Solisti is the founding ensemble.
Bachmann performs on a 1782 violin by Nicolo Gagliano.
We'll hear the aforementioned excerpt of the Moravec violin concerto on the show, plus music from her new Bridge release called, French Fantasy. Bachmann is accompanied by pianist Adam Neiman on the disc, performing works of Debussey, Franck, and Saint-Saens.
Listen for Jill's conversation with violin virtuoso Maria Bachmann on Crossover, Saturday morning, March 23rd at 11:30 am on WRTI-FM, with an encore the following Friday evening at 7 pm on HD-2 and the All-Classical web stream at wrti.org.
