Dynamic minimalist program by Mobtown

May 13, 2008

Last weekend's music scene in Baltimore afforded me some interesting deja vu sensations.

Recent columns

• Candlelight is faithful to Messiaen's 'Quartet'

  May 6, 2008

  If there is music in the next world, it may well sound like Olivier Messiaen's does in this one. Certainly no composer ever believed more fervently in an afterlife -- he was a devout Catholic -- or tried harder to translate that faith into notes.

• Vibrancy of Tortelier, BSO resonates loud and clear

  April 28, 2008

  Had the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performed its latest program on the other side of the Atlantic over the weekend, it might have found itself in severe legal trouble.

• Celebrating the Peabody

  April 22, 2008

  The 150th anniversary of the founding of the Peabody Institute was such a milestone last year that the celebration is still going on. It will reach a peak Saturday with a gala evening that will see music of multiple genres breaking out in practically every corner of the facility on Mount Vernon Place.

• Choir gives sacred sounds angelic tones

  April 15, 2008

  With a lineage going back more than 550 years to the reign of Henry VI, the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, enjoys a sterling reputation for tonal beauty and technical polish. The current roster of boys and young men, led with impeccable taste by Stephen Cleobury, lived up to that reputation before a capacity crowd of 1,600 Sunday evening at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen. People started arriving more than two hours early for the event, quite a testament to the choir's appeal.

• Fischer and NSO masterfully sculpt Mahler's Second

  April 8, 2008

  Some weekends, you just go from musical high to musical high. Friday night, the rush came from hearing a performance of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony in Washington that really did reach an uplifting peak. Saturday night, it was a riveting encounter with Elliott Carter's thorny, ingenious String Quartet No. 5 in Columbia. On Sunday came the curious and strangely appealing combination of 20th-century minimalism played on 18th-century instruments in Baltimore.

• Modern, atonal and complex works

  April 1, 2008

  To a large extent, modern music is in the ear of the beholder, but there are various characteristics that your average audience would agree on as constituting this genre - undetectable (and certainly un-hummable) melodies, confusing rhythms, unexpected sounds emanating from traditional instruments.

• Hear 'Messiah,' watch 'Messiah' or sing it yourself

  November 27, 2007

  It's Messiah time again, when choral groups large and small tackle Handel's stirring oratorio. Looking around at this year's many performances, some offer extra points of interest.