At the risk of sounding like one of my professors, I must begin this short study with a one of those annoying questions that at first seems terribly obvious, but becomes more and more complicated as you try to answer it. That is:  what exactly is a lute? Historians can’t seem to agree on this point, probably because what we think of today as a lute didn’t go by that name until the twentieth century. Like all instruments, it has evolved pretty dramatically over the ages, and while we can confidently trace its various transformations back to the sixteenth century, things before then are a bit, well . . . foggy. There are so many incarnations of this instrument, from the graceful, oval-shaped instrument we find in Egyptian paintings to the modern, almost tear-drop shaped instrument and everything in between. Deep bellied, shallow bellied, 12 strings, 35 strings – any incarnation you could dream of has probably existed.

The lute as depicted in an Egyptian wall painting

Historians and lute enthusiasts seem to have narrowed the argument down to one main point of contention over the relationship between the short-necked lute (which can be traced back to Near Eastern cultures during the seventh century) and the long-necked lute (which has origins in ancient Egypt around 1300 BCE).  The short-necked lute is much closer to our contemporary version of the lute, but there is an unmistakable similarity between the chordophone depicted in Egyptian art (see photo above) and the instrument that shows up in the Middle Ages. Did the short-necked lute evolve from its long-necked friend from the neighboring continent? Are they perhaps cousins? Or are they not related at all? Smarter beings than I have argued both sides equally unsuccessfully, so I will leave the question up to you.

This Andalusian ivory box dates from 968 and shows one of the earliest representations of an Oud

Fuzzy possible Egyptian origins aside, it is agreed upon that the Bulgars (a people usually associated with slightly more energetic activities than the study of music) brought an early version of the short-necked lute called a Kabuz to the Balkans where it migrated to Spain by means of the Moors, who called their instrument an Oud. The origin of the name ‘lute’ is derived from this word, which in Arabic is ‘al-ʿūd’ or  literally translated, ‘the wood’[i]. By 1500 the Spanish had come up with the vihuela de mano, an instrument tuned like the lute, but shaped slightly differently.

After 1500 the lute was distributed throughout Europe in various shapes and sizes. By the end of the Renaissance there were seven different sizes that ranged all the way to the ‘great octave bass’. Most medieval and Renaissance music was improvised, so little sheet music survived. During the Baroque period, the lute became more of an accompaniment instrument until it was replaced by the harpsichord and later the piano.

Whether or not you believe that the lute came from the Egyptians or the Moors, I predict you will enjoy the beauty and excitement that Hopkinson Smith has in store for you during his “Renaissance Evening” program on Thursday at the American Philosophical Society.

Jill opened Jet Wine Bar just over a year ago after returning from her archaeology adventures.  She acquired her passion for wine, and considerable expertise, while traveling through Syria, Turkey and Armenia. She strives to combine these personal experience of place and history with the wines that are produced there at her friendly, accessible wine bar located at 1525 South Street.

As a wine enthusiast, Jill strives to make unusual wines more accessible to Philadelphians. She searches for excellent wines from unusual (or less typical) countries and focuses on rarer and ancient grape varietals. On Thursday, February 2^nd, Jill will pair two such wines with Hopkinson Smith’s recital at the American Philosophical Society – the perfect complement to this rare appearance in the States by one of the world’s great lutenists. Choose between a German, off-dry red wine (made with Dornfelder grapes) by Louis Guntrum, or Quattro Mani Tocai, a Slovenian white wine.

Come ready to send your ears and taste buds to Europe for an evening of uncommon wine and music.

In the true spirit of patriotism, we are inspired to produce only premium American ales and lagers. Our devotion to quality and tradition ensures that we use only the finest ingredients: whole flower hops, the best grains, cultured brewer’s yeast, and most exceptionally, water from the deep rock aquifer located on the Twin Lakes Farm. Our pure water, perfectly balanced and rich in minerals, adds a refreshing smoothness and unique quality to our beer.

Their 25 barrel, steam-fired, gravity-fed, five vessel brew house and tasting room is a converted art studio and tractor barn at the historic Twin Lakes Farm (est. 1826) in Greenville, Delaware.  From this historic, 252 acre farm, nestled in the beauty and rich heritage of Delaware’s Brandywine Valley, Chris Bell will bring two beers to taste at Peter Orth’s piano recital on Friday, January 27^th at the American Philosophical Society.

Greenville Pale Ale

This ale’s name represents both the brewery’s local roots in Greenville, Delaware and their commitment to green technology for the future. Greenville Pale Ale is a traditional American style Pale Ale, rooted in the Pacific Northwest brewing heritage. The light colored medium bodied ale uses whole flower cascade hops with an all natural two-row barley malt. This produces a light Pale Ale that explodes with rich full flavor. This refreshing ale has an immediate floral-citrus taste that comes from using the cascade hops. It’s been described as light, musty, and fresh with pale barley malt flavor, a balanced sweetness and a hint of smoke; a citrus orange appeal with a subdued fruitiness and an ale yeast finish. This ale’s caramel flavored body and light carbonation combine for extreme drinkability.

Tweeds Tavern Stout

Named after the historic Tweeds Tavern, which was the first tavern in the first state, this Stout features mellow, mild and milky sweet ale yeastiness, a pleasant roasted malt chocolate elegance and a smoothly balanced body. The subtle but pervasive carbonation produces a thick rich foamy mocha head that clings to the glass. Twin Lakes uses four varieties of whole flowered hops to bring on an extremely bitter, expertly balanced coffee like finish. Classy and full flavored Tweeds Tavern will quickly become your favorite dark beer.

The subtitle to our next Social Series partner says it all. In a city known for cheesesteaks and soft pretzels, Sweet Freedom Bakery (SFB) is Philadelphia’s first and only bakery that is completely free of gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, corn, refined sugar, peanuts and certified kosher. Actually, it is the only bakery in the country that is free of the top eight allergens (milk, eggs, peanuts, tree-nuts, fish, shellfish, soy, wheat).

Opened by former health counselors Heather Esposito and Allison Lubert, Sweet Freedom Bakery has been featured on The Food Network’s “Cupcake Wars” and The Cooking Channel’s “Food(ography).” Located on South Street, just west of Broad, the bakery has not only attracted many people with allergies to certain foods but also a faithful following of patrons who have found that baking with better ingredients actually makes things taste better!

Sweet Freedom will be sharing samples of their delicious creations on Wednesday, January 25th at the American Philosophical Society. Come early for a tasting of mini-cupcakes & mini-chocolate chip cookie bars before hearing cellist Marcy Rosen perform sonatas by Beethoven, Barber and Thuille with Lydia Artymiw on piano.

Guitarist Pepe Romero:

Since my birth, I have felt the guitar to have such a strong unifying force in our family that it impossible for me to imagine how I would have developed outside of my family. We have learned together, played together, lived together and become part of each other.

Chef Jose Garces:

My passion for cooking comes from my early memories of preparing meals for my family with Mamita Amada.  Even when I was a child, I was drawn to the joy of cooking a great meal.  I have always loved the way that food can transform a person’s whole outlook and really make their day.

This similarity in how both chef and musician came to love their art through their family is what seems like a suitable combination for this week’s dinner and a concert recommendation.  Garces started his first Philadelphia restaurant in 2005 and named it after his grandmother – Amada.  Serving traditional tapas, he combines the wealth of flavors found in Spain’s unique position between Africa and Europe and its dual Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines.  This unique blend brings an ever-rotating menu of options and will make every return to the restaurant a new experience.

The same goes for Pepe Romero and his PCMS debut recital at the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater.  He never ceases to amaze audiences with his technical flourish and his thrilling interpretations have inspired a number of distinguished composers to write works specifically for him, including Joaquín Rodrigo, Federico Moreno Torroba and his father, the famous Celedonio Romero – all of which will be on the program this Friday, January 20^th.

Once again, here’s to fine food and magnificent music!

ECCO essays ambitious program:  David Patrick Stearns of the Philadelphia Inquirer reviews our January 6th concert with ECCO (East Coast Chamber Orchestra)

Feltsman offers a memorable recital:  David Patrick Stearns on Vladimir Feltsman’s January 11th recital

Afterward, you’d resume your stroll till you arrived at a concert hall, just a few blocks away.  You’d greet the gentleman at the will call table as you pick up your ticket and then find your seat.  And then, still in the dream, you’d be listening to Chopin Ballades roll off the keys of a grand piano.

Once you come to, you’ll have realized the bistro was Parc on the corner of 18^th and Locust, the hall was the Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center, the gentleman was Brad, and the pianist – Vladimir Feltsman.

Of course, you’re not in Paris, but neither does this have to be a dream.  Enjoy of evening of French fare and music this Wednesday, January 11^th.

For our seventh artist interview of the season, pianist Peter Orth was gracious enough to sit down and answer a few questions about his upcoming program at the American Philosophical Society. Here are his answers. I hope they help to illuminate the artist behind the music, and that learning a bit more about this program inspires you to attend Mr. Orth’s recital on January 27th at 8 pm.

Peter Orth

Juliet Woods:  How did this program come together? Why did you choose these particular pieces?

Peter Orth:  Well,  recital programs are very personal and subjective things. Everyone has a different idea of what might work for the public, but the over-riding thing about them is that whatever one is learning or feels like playing in any given season determines their make up. Of course there are other considerations too. Maybe one is invited to play certain works, but not an entire program, and then you might end up building a program around that. Then there are birthday years of composers; we just had Liszt and Stravinsky, for example. And there you have parts of my program for Philadelphia. There is really no rhyme or reason in my case. There are so many layers and aspects to playing a program that one does the best one can. You see how it goes, and you find out immediately if a program works.

JW:  You first began your piano studies here in Philadelphia. What are some of your memories of being a young musician in this city?

In addition, watch for the release of ECCO’s first CD recording on January 9th – just three days after their PCMS concert.

With Pablo Casals’ 135th birthday fast approaching, I am reminded of the extraordinary friendship between this acclaimed cellist and my mother, Kate. They first met in Munich in 1921, he already famous for his wondrous playing, and she a 22 year old, newly wed to an eminent music critic. The times were joyous and vibrant, Munich a center of the musical world. All of that changed in 1933 when Hitler became Germany’s chancellor.

On June 30, 1934, Hitler rounded up over 90 people and summarily executed them. He justified the purge, called the Night of the Long Knives, by insisting it was necessary to save Germany from insurgency and chaos. Among those murdered was my mother’s first husband, Willi Schmid. Months later the Nazis confessed they had assassinated him by mistake. It was small consolation to my mother and her three young children.

Upon learning of the death of Schmid, Casals was deeply shaken. This and subsequent persecutions, foreshadowing the horrors to come, led to Casals’ decision to no longer concertize in fascist countries…or ones that recognized fascist regimes. The Munich days were over.

A collage of Casals letters to my mother

It was not until 1937 that my mother heard Casals play again. By that time she had fled Germany, mistakenly thinking that she and her children would be safer in Austria. Casals had invited her to a concert he was giving in Vienna on December 5. Sitting in the concert hall next to another old friend, the conductor Wilhelm Furtwaengler, both of them were spellbound by Casals’ playing. “It was heavenly,” she wrote the next day, “I was with Casals for several hours afterwards — he possesses a wonderful sensitivity and a deep tenderness that emanates from infinite goodness.”

The person she was corresponding with was the man who would become her second husband: my father. Herman Hoerlin was a physicist, a world record-breaking climber and fervently anti-Hitler. In a rare exception to Nazi racist laws that forbid marriages between Aryans and Jews, my parents wed in 1938 and fled to the United States. It was another fourteen years before my mother saw Casals again, although they continued to correspond.

In 1950, Kate received a joint letter from Casals and Alexander Schneider saying, “You must come here next year — we both adore you.” It was postmarked from Prades, a small French village where Casals had been living in seclusion since he left his native Spain in protest against Franco’s tyranny. Schneider (known as Sasha) of the Budapest Quartet had persuaded the great Maestro to play in public again on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of Bach’s death. In the summer of 1951, my mother traveling with her dear friend, Eva Feuermann, the widow of another celebrated cellist, was once again among her treasured old friends.

A photo of Casals signed for the author

Music had become the stream of continuity in my mother’s life, transcending time and place and sustaining her through tragedies and upheavals. In subsequent years she attended the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico as well as the Marlboro Music Festival for many summers, timing her visits with the presence of Casals, who brought his enormous talents and passion there from 1960 to 1973.

By that time, my family had moved to the Atomic City of Los Alamos, New Mexico, quite a distance from the hills of Vermont. On one of her trips east, the Maestro had quietly asked her, “Ma Cherie, why does your kind and good husband make bombs?” The winner of the U.N. Peace Medal could not reconcile that my father could work for disarmament while employed by a huge war machine. “Ma Cherie” carefully explained my father’s quest for enforceable bans on high altitude nuclear testing.

I am not sure whether this was convincing to Casals. My mother once described Casals as “…one of the few men who never made a compromise.” Whether that was good or not is debatable. What remains uncontested is how much my mother’s 50 year relationship with him was precious to her and, I think, to him. This December 29, Casals’ birthday, music lovers should spend a moment celebrating this immortal cellist and remarkable man.

OCTOBER

Pamela Frank and Friends (David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer)

Arnaldo Cohen Plays Liszt (David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer)

Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio premieres Zwilich (Chuck Holdeman, Local Arts Live)

Violinist Christian Tetzlaff “nearing perfection” (David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer)

Ying Quartet at the Perelman Theater (Robert Zaller, Broad Street Review)

NOVEMBER

Tenor Nicholas Phan… American take on Purcell and Britten (David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer)

Brooding performance by “master violinist” Leonidas Kavakos (David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer)

Pianist Richard Goode shines with Beethoven, stumbles over Chopin (David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer)

Angelika Kirchschlager:  Songs from waning 19th century (Daniel Webster, Philadelphia Inquirer)

A look at violinist Arnold Steinhardt’s master class (Tim Bosworth, LocalArtsLive)

DECEMBER

St. Lawrence Quartet offers a splendid Golijov (David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer)

Curtis 20/21 shows its mettle with Siddhartha’s Dream (David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer)

Pianist Christian Zacharias at Kimmel Center (David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer)

Principal in Cleveland, regular at the Happy Dog:  Preview feature on flutist Joshua Smith (David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer)

Flutist Joshua Smith’s hand-picked program (David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer)
Have reviews of your own to share? We encourage you to add your own musical musings in the comments below.

Happy holidays from all of us at PCMS. Thanks for joining us throughout 2011!

In order, here’s the rundown of the works you can expect to hear this Friday night, broken down by category along with the recordings each are drawn from (of course there will be a couple of encores as well).

Anonymous 4

LADYMASS

Prosa:  Gaude Virgo Salutata (An English Ladymass)
Conductus:  Ave Maria salus hominum (The Lily & the Lamb)
Carol:  Ecce quod natura (On Yoolis Night)

LEGENDS

Antiphon:  Que es ista (A Lammas Ladymass)
the wood and the vine (David Lang, 2011)

PROPHECIES

Song:  Mainte chançon ai fait (la bele marie)
Conductus:  Ave virgo virginum (la bele marie)
Lectio ysaye prophete:  Surge et illuminaire (Darkness into Light)
Lection:  Apocalypse 21:1 – 5 (1000:  A Mass for the End of Time)

VISIONS & MIRACLES

Ballad-carol:  Lullay my child – This ender nithgt (The Cherry Tree)
The Lamb (John Tavener) (Wolcom Yule)
Conductus:  Nicholai presulis (Legends of St. Nicholas)
Song:  Novus Annus Adiit (Christmas Music from Medieval Hungary)
Trope:  Gratulantes celebremus festum (Miracles of Sant’Iago)

SISTERHOOD

Hymn:  An teicheahd go héigipt (Wolcum Yule)
Antiphon:  Studium divinitatis (Hildegard of Bingen) (11,000 Virgins)
Antiphon:  O quam mirabilis est (Hildegard of Bingen) (The Origin of Fire)
Motet:  Claustrum/Virgo viget/FLOS FILIUS (Secret Voices)

WONDROUS LOVE

Carol-ballad:  The Cherry tree carol (The Cherry Tree)
Folk hymn:  Wondrous love (What wondrous love is this) (American Angels)
Fuging tune:  Bethlehem (William Billings, 1778) (The Cherry Tree)

Anonymous 4 appears on Friday, December 16th at 8 pm at the Church of the Holy Trinity on Rittenhouse Square. For tickets and information, visit the concert page or call the PCMS Box Office at 215-569-8080.

Their program, titled Anthology 25, is a collection of ancient, traditional and modern works from each of the group’s 19 prize-winning, chart-topping harmonia mundi cds, in one, two, three and four voices, ranging from 11th century plainchant, richly harmonic English conductus and spicy French motets of the 13th century, exotic 15th century Hungarian polyphony, 19th century sharpe note hymns and contemporary works.

For a quick preview, I’ve included the segment from 6ABC Loves the Arts and an excerpt from a December 8th review of the same concert in Denver.

…Anonymous 4 remains as spellbinding as ever…an antidote against the increasingly high-tech, impersonal world we live in.  There is no accompaniment, no amplification and no fancy staging. It’s just four rarefied voices — pure, simple and stunning. It’s a formula that has worked for 25 years.

In this yuletide concert, the group ranged across several languages, including early English and French, and touched on vocal traditions from Hungary to Spain and even Appalachia. While most of the selections were written sometime in the Middle Ages (none older or more mystical than the dark-hued section from a 10th century Mass that ended the first half), the program also included a couple of contemporary works. Most notable was “The Wood and the Vine,” a semi-narrative new work written in a medieval spirit by David Lang, founder of the new-music ensemble, Bang on a Can.

Manayunk’s famous Krooks Mill Pale Ale is a well-balanced hoppy American style pale ale with a generous usage of fine 2 row pale and a touch of crystal malt.  This beer is copper in color and is finished with “C” hops from the Pacific Northwest, which provide a wonderful floral aroma.

Every year Manayunk brews a single batch of Festivus Holiday Ale using an original recipe.  The rich plum and raisin flavor in this batch is certainly a feat of strength while the complex spice profile and dark specialty malts shouldn’t be included in anyone’s airing of grievances.

We hope you come on Sunday and enjoy the Beer at 2 PM, then Brahms and Beethoven at 3.

Juliet Woods:  How did this program come together? Why did you choose these particular pieces? 

Joshua Smith

Joshua Smith:  This program plays with love. Romanticism as a movement (with its corresponding expressions of turbulence, its manic energy, and its embrace of the awareness of the life cycle) and romance as a journey (and the corresponding life-affirmations that come from yearning, loving, hoping, resigning, and maybe eventually finding peace) are the philosophical currents that unite all of these pieces. Curating programs is one of my great joys, and these themes intersect here on so many levels that it’s hard to talk about it briefly, but I’ll try:

Schumann epitomized the role of the tortured lovelorn artist so completely that most all of his music seems autobiographical. While Three Romances has no specifically ascribed program, it embodies all of the above tendencies: it’s tempestuous and yet calm, pushes and then pulls, feels simple but complicated. It’s a soulful and spontaneous journey.

Debussy’s use of Greek mythology reflected the Belle Epoque’s fascination with exoticism. In Syrinx and Faun, Pan suffers the frustration of pining after elusive wood nymphs. They’re intricately beautiful pieces, both connected not only to myth, but to French poetry, and both impressionistic and expressive. I’ve always thought of Syrinx not only as a tale of unrequited love, but as an exploration of creativity: Syrinx, the nymph, is transformed into riverside reeds, which Pan uses to create a flute, thus giving himself a way to express his love through music.

Schubert’s songs explored boundaries between classicism and romanticism, using music and poetry to express love and loss. Die schöne Müllerin focuses on the unrequited love of a young man for a miller’s daughter. In Trockne Blümen (“Dried Flowers”), the emotional turning point of the song cycle, the man considers suicide, equating his awareness of the seasonal cycle — that withering flowers may bloom again — with his reconciliation with death. Schubert, maybe more than anyone I can think of, played with harmony to create instantaneously shifting expressions of emotion, and the song captures psychological complexities in a very narrative way. Schubert, who had his own psychological struggles, expanded on this song’s arc in his remarkably virtuosic variations for flute, so that each variation carries with it the narrator’s internal struggle with yearning, his acceptance of winter/solace in death, and his vision of spring/hope for rebirth. The piece, being a set of variations, maps this psychological journey over and over, and, interestingly, manages to be more uplifting at its conclusion than the original song.

No one would think of Elliott Carter as a Romanticist, but I would, at least on the basis of Scrivo in Vento (“I Write in Air”), call him an Expressionist. The source of inspiration for Carter was Petrarch’s Rime Sparse 212 (“Blessed with sleep, and content with languor…. I’m paid with tears and grief…”) Again, unrequited love tortures the narrator of the poem, and the flutist/protagonist explores his manic struggles to find peace.

Carl Reinecke captures these struggles, too, in his “Undine” sonata. Undine, a water sprite, yearns for connection to the human world so that she may have a soul. Abandoning the water, she is raised by foster parents and falls in love with a knight, but must eventually choose between this love and her natural world in the sea. Water, here, paradoxically symbolizes both consciousness and rebirth as well as subliminal yearnings, again affirming life and its crazy mysteries.

JW:  You have worked with pianist Christina Dahl before. Tell me a little more about what it’s like to work with her.

JS:  Tina is brilliant and fun and funny. The creative process is a great adventure for us. I think she remembers anything she has ever heard, so she draws on a great wealth of anecdotes and allusions when we experiment with atmospheres and colors. She’s greatly responsive, too, so even when we plan things, they don’t always need to work exactly the same way twice — there’s a fantastically spontaneous feeling when we play together. And maybe the most inspiring thing I’ve taken from her is a sense that playing can be uncomplicated in many ways: “just get out of the way and sing” is a place that’s easy to go with her.

JW:  Not only are you the Principal Flute in the Cleveland Orchestra, you regularly appear as a soloist and as part of chamber ensembles. I am a violinist, and the prospect of juggling that many commitments seems overwhelming to me, yet you seem to manage with such skill and ease. How do you balance all these different pursuits and still have time to practice?

JS:  I try to convince myself that all of the pieces of my puzzle are not so different from one another. If I learn how to satisfy some aspect of orchestral playing, in other words, I can usually somehow apply that to chamber playing, and vice versa. And I’m pretty much always practicing, I’ve noticed, whether it’s in front of an audience, or in my imagination when I take my dogs out. I find that all this juggling doesn’t really become easier with experience (though I’m glad it appears that way!) But it does become more and more fun.

Joshua Smith, flute and Christina Dahl, piano appear on Tuesday, December 13th at the American Philosophical Society, 427 Chestnut Street. For tickets and information, visit the concert page or call 215-569-8080.

Presenting PCMS’ Annual $10 Ticket Day on Thursday, December 8^th from 9 AM to 8 PM.

This annual tradition is both a way to celebrate the season and provide a way to give your entire family (and even a few friends) the gift of great music that stays within your budget.  Don’t make the mistake of giving oven mitts, scented candles and those itchy wool sweaters.  PCMS has prepared your shopping for you – and you can be sure it’s the best deal around.  Where else can you see the following 12 world class artists in concert for only $10!

• Friday, January 6:  ECCO (East Coast Chamber Orchestra)
• Sunday, January 8:  Sophie Shao, cello and Ieva Jokubaviciute, piano
• Sunday, January 29:  Leila Josefowicz, violin and John Novacek, piano
• Friday, February 10:  Kim Kashkashian, viola and Robert Levin, piano
• Sunday, February 19:  Brentano Quartet w/ Ignat Solzhenitsyn, piano
• Monday, February 27:  Ysaye Quartet
• Wednesday, March 14:  Jerusalem Quartet
• Thursday, March 29:  Marc-André Hamelin, piano
• Tuesday, April 10:  Quatuor Mosaïques
• Sunday, April 29:  Philharmonic Winds of New York
• Sunday, May 6:  Tokyo Quartet II
• Thursday, May 10:  Christian Gerhaher, baritone and András Schiff, piano

Call us on Thursday, December 8^th at 215.569.8080 or stop by the box office (1616 Walnut Street, Suite 1600) between 9 AM and 5 PM.  Online ordering is extended until 8 PM that night at www.pcmsconcerts.org.

Check out these CDs or their corresponding MP3 downloads prior to their performances.

Daedalus Quartet – Tuesday, November 22^nd at the Perelman Theater
Music of Fred Lerdahl – String Quartets No. 1, 2 & 3

St. Lawrence Quartet – Friday, December 2^nd at the Perelman Theater
Sea to Sea – works by contemporary Canadian composers

Christian Zacharias – Wednesday, December 7^th at the Perelman Theater
Mozart Piano Concertos – K 238, 451 and 415 (387b)

Anonymous 4 – Friday, December 16^th at the Holy Trinity Church on Rittenhouse Square
Secret Voices – Chants & Polyphony from the Las Huelgas Codex

St. Lawrence Quartet (Christopher Costanza, right)

Juliet Woods:  How did this program come together?  Why did you choose these particular pieces? 

Christopher Costanza:  Programs come together as a result of a number of factors: the repertoire the quartet is performing and offering in a given season; proposed programs the quartet offers, made up of combinations of pieces from the season’s master repertoire list; and requests from the concert presenter. In this case, a conversation between PCMS and the St. Lawrence String Quartet’s manager (who always discusses and confirms program choices with us) resulted in our December 2nd Philadelphia program. This particular program was shaped around the Philadelphia premiere of our new Osvaldo Golijov quartet; the Schubert G Major quartet (Schubert is a great love and inspiration for Osvaldo) is an ideal choice to balance the Golijov work; and the Beethoven Op. 18, No. 5 quartet is a lively, energetic and exciting way to open the program.

JW:  You’ve performed Golijov pieces before in Philadelphia, and here you will present the Philadelphia premiere of his new work Kohelet. What is it like working with Osvaldo, and how did your collaboration come about?

CC:  The musical collaboration between the SLSQ and Osvaldo Golijov goes back to the summer of 1992, when the quartet and Osvaldo worked together at Tanglewood. Osvaldo and the SLSQ were “assigned” to each other; Osvaldo was to write a new work for the young SLSQ to be premiered at a Tanglewood performance that summer. The result was Yiddishbbuk, one of Osvaldo’s early and most significant successes. In the process of working together, Osvaldo and the SLSQ became great friends, and that friendship continues very strongly to this day.  Working with Osvaldo is always exciting and inspirational. He has a way of writing music and describing his musical thoughts, ideas and intentions in the most vivid way imaginable, so that our work together results in a deep understanding of the honest and sometimes complex emotional substance in Osvaldo’s music. It’s nearly impossible to write many of these ideas and thoughts on the pages of the music — I often feel that the interactive working relationship we’ve had with Osvaldo is key to grasping and executing his conception. Perhaps these work sessions should be recorded or filmed so that other performers and interpreters of his works for generations to come will have a clearer understanding of his ideas!

JW:  The SLSQ has been performing for well over 20 years now and is still going strong, continuing to inspire audiences with its fresh, energetic approach.  What do you do as a group in order to stay motivated and inspired?  

CC:  We perform over 100 concerts per season, mostly in North America, and with annual tours to Europe and occasional concert journeys to Australia, New Zealand, Asia and South America. Quartet life is tiring but always exciting and inspiring. We have the most fantastically complete and inspired body of repertoire imaginable, and with nearly annual commissions from great composers (plus all the great works commissioned for other ensembles worldwide), that rep list grows richer by the day. We feel very fortunate to have remarkably varied musical opportunities, and we’re thankful every day that we have a chance to do what we love doing the most. And that includes teaching and interacting with amazing students and faculty at Stanford University, where we’ve been in residence since the late 90′s. Our residency plays a key role in our ability to stay active and inspired, and perfectly balances our sometimes crazy touring life. One other thought:  we still rehearse regularly and quite a lot, and we are completely devoted to the idea that we must always strive to get better and better with each day of work and in each performance.

JW:  What comes to mind when you think about performing in Philadelphia?  Are there differences here compared to concerts back home (in California) and abroad?

CC:  On a certain level, a concert is a concert, and all concerts are taken equally seriously no matter where we play or what type of venue we encounter.  Philadelphia is always an exciting place for us to visit for a performance:  the musical traditions in Philly are deeply rooted, and I feel that audiences there have a deep appreciation for great chamber music, an appreciation that goes back generations and generations. The performance history in your great city is awe-inspiring, and we always feel an extra charge of energy to be in a place of such musical importance. It’s hard to note specific differences between the Philadelphia audiences and those elsewhere; I would just like to say that every time we play in Philly, we feel that we have a large, devoted, knowledgeable and enthusiastic audience with us. It’s always a treat to be a part of the Philly concert scene!

The St. Lawrence Quartet appears on Friday, December 2 at 8 pm at the Kimmel Center. For tickets and information, visit the concert page or call 215-5690-8080.

The Education Program has a special fund that subsidizes over 1,000 tickets that enables area high school and college students to attend for free every year.  Students who attend our master classes are invited to attend that artist’s concert.  PCMS is also always looking for high school, college and private teachers who are interested in bringing a group of students to a concert for free.  Hearing a live concert by a renowned artist is a wonderful enhancement to any education.

Our Student and Young Friends Program has been growing and gaining momentum over the past couple of years.  Anyone under 35 (student or graduate) can sign up for access to last minute FREE tickets and special offers, invitations to special pre- and post-concert events along with the chance to win prizes such as restaurant gift cards, Flip Cameras, iPods and more!

What could make attending concerts more accessible and affordable than a free ticket every once in a while?  Well, how about attending an entire season (60 concerts) for $30 if you’re a student or $60 for patrons under the age of 35.  The Unlimited Pass helps assimilate young patrons into the concert experience by offering them any seat in the house and granting them every privilege and benefit of a regular subscriber.  This flexibility gives this generation the freedom to explore the variety within each season as they hone their interest in chamber music.

With 60 concerts to explore, don’t forget the other side of our Society.

So what’s the difference?  When listening to new music, I ask audiences to consider the following:  First, it’s only a compilation of sounds, and it really can’t hurt you. Second, there is a huge variety of musical styles today—most are very different from one another.  Third, it is music of our time, and reflective of the world in which we all live.

Composing art music never has paid much, and this remains true today. The real incentive, I believe, is to make something unique, which is real, true to oneself and expressive of the creator’s life and artistic experiences. How can we expect a composer living in New York City, in 2012, to write music that sounds like a composer who lived, say, in Vienna in 1787, or in France in 1905? Would we really want them to?

Once, after hearing a Brahms quartet, an audience member asked me, “Why can’t you write a piece like this?”  I replied, “I don’t need to—Brahms already did.”  Hearing a piece composed in the style of Schumann, Brahms or Fauré might provide some momentary pleasure, but it won’t last. The piece won’t sustain our interest. It will soon seem like what it is—imitative and contrived.

An important part of why we love the great composers, from Bach to Stravinsky and beyond, is because they had courage, a clear voice, strong convictions and a unique artistic persona. It is not easy to accomplish this today, as musical styles have been thoroughly excavated now for several centuries. Yet this goal cannot be neglected. Composers must be true to themselves before they can truly move others.

When we listen to new music, we should hold these pieces to a high standard, but we owe composers—and ourselves—patience, an open mind, and an expectation for artistic integrity.

Now in its 47^th season, Musicians from Marlboro will be returning to Philadelphia on Tuesday to perform at the American Philosophical Society. The ensemble features violinists Tim Fain and Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu; violists Kyle Armbrust and Michael Tree; and cellist Peter Myers in a wonderful all-strings program.

How are Musicians from Marlboro groups formed? Each summer, Co-Artistic Directors Richard Goode and Mitsuko Uchida choose three or four performances that they feel are so compelling that they should be shared with audiences around the country. Each of these works is then used as the foundation for a different tour program. The result: Three programs of diverse repertoire, each featuring a work that has previously been performed at Marlboro by the touring ensemble.

Composer Frank Bridge

This fall’s tour features Frank Bridge’s rarely heard string quartet, written in 1906, which was performed at Marlboro in 2009 by Tim, Cindy, Michael, and Peter. If you want a preview, you can listen to the 2009 performance of the first movement below.  Surrounding this work will be Mozart’s String Quintet in C Minor, K. 406 (which Mozart transcribed from an earlier Serenade for wind octet), and Mendelssohn’s fiery, romantic String Quintet in B-flat Major, Op. 87.

It will no doubt be a wonderful concert, so head out to the American Philosophical Society on Tuesday to hear it!

Bridge String Quartet, 1st Movement

Ben Davis is the Festival and Tour Manager at Marlboro Music and is responsible for hiring the festival’s summer staff, coordination of events at the seven-week festival, and managing the Musicians from Marlboro tours each year. 

David Finckel and Wu Han lead the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

Among our east coast brethren, New York’s Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) probably comes closest to the PCMS model. Although it offers about half the number of concerts, CMS’s 32-concert series features a compelling variety of big names and up-and-comers. The co-artistic director-couple of David Finckel and Wu Han (right) provides strong artistic leadership. Like PCMS, the organization fosters a high-quality education program and actively commissions new works. CMS also offers a $60 special program for younger concertgoers, but it limits members to three concerts, as opposed to PCMS’ Unlimited Card Program, which offers anyone 35 and under access to all 60 PCMS events for that same $60 price. Ten dollar tickets are also available to students (PCMS does this too), but CMS limits them to rush-only (PCMS permits students to reserve anytime).

Of course, New York City offers a wealth of other chamber music options. Venerable Carnegie Hall presents a comparable number of chamber music concerts and recitals to PCMS, and with significant artistic overlap, but at much higher prices. If you wanted to hear baritone Christian Gerhaher with András Schiff, for example, the cheapest seats at Carnegie are $43, whereas with PCMS it’s never more than $23 (plus the $4 Kimmel surcharge) for the best seats in the house. On the other end of the price spectrum from Carnegie, the century-old People’s Symphony series offers a trio of subscription packages that range from $37-$61 for an entire six-concert series; Richard Goode, the Juilliard Quartet and many other core PCMS artists are prominently featured.

Outside of Midtown, the 92nd Street Y’s solid series features about a dozen concerts per season (this year’s slate includes two of my personal favorites in the Quatuor Mosaïques and the Tokyo Quartet). Mannes College’s Schneider Series presents a seven-concert season focused on compelling young groups such as the Elias and Old City Quartets and Musicians from Marlboro. Downtown clubs such as Bleecker Street’s Le Poisson Rouge inject innovative programming, alternative venues and alcohol into the chamber world. In the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, Bargemusic presents a wide variety of concerts (often mixed ensembles and nearly always at $35 a ticket). And on the other side of the bridge, the 10-year old Brooklyn Chamber Music Society presents nine concerts per season at $30 per ticket.

To the south, Washington D.C. is another chamber music haven, between the 23-concert, eight-venue Washington Performing Arts Series (tickets start at $23 and go up to $115 depending on artist and venue; student tickets are offered but limited) and the Kennedy Center’s Fortas Series, which features 12 concerts, significant artist overlap (the Orion and Takács Quartets and the KLR Trio, to name a few) and the regular participation of Kennedy Center Music Director and former Philadelphia Orchestra conductor Christoph Eschenbach. Tickets for most concerts in the series cost $32-$50.

To the north, Boston’s BCMS has been around for almost 20 years. Its 2011-12 slate includes a dozen concerts (including four summer sessions) and features a number of piano quintets. Tickets for this series typically range from $20-$53.

While all of these presenters do wonderful work — after all, they are our partners in the field, and if we weren’t so busy attending our own concerts, we’d be going to theirs! — may I be so bold as to say that PCMS compares favorably in quality, variety, affordability and accessibility? We like to think to so, but of course we’re not the sole arbiters. What do you think? We welcome your thoughts and comments below.

To be perfectly honest, as much as I had been looking forward to jumping into the concert season, by the time Friday evening rolled around, a stressful week of college classes and a long day at work had left me feeling decidedly skeptical in regards to my ability to focus on an evening of Mozart. After all, he has never been one of my favorite composers. His music, to me, has that off-putting quality so often found in elegant things: on the page it doesn’t look terribly intimidating, but when one gets around to playing it, one always finds that it is, in fact, appallingly complex in a manner I’ve always found cold and aloof. (Yes, yes, I know it is petty to dislike a man because his music is difficult to play, but what can I say, I have a decidedly petty streak that hides behind my winning smile).

Considering my somewhat luke-warm feelings towards Mr. Mozart, you might understand why I settled somewhat dubiously into my seat for the pre-concert lecture, bracing myself for what I feared would be an inevitable snoozefest. As usual, I could not have been more mistaken. Jonathan Coopersmith, the chair of Musical Studies at the Curtis Institute, gave an intriguing and amusing lecture that, because of the intimate setting, really felt more like a conversation. Coopersmith’s talk centered around the rather large collection of letters that  Mozart wrote to his father, wife, siblings and friends. For anyone who has seen the film Amadeus, the sharp contrast between the man in these letters and the celebrated composer will come as less of a surprise, but for those of you are not familiar, let it suffice to say that Mozart was not exactly a model of propriety. When he wasn’t composing lewd poems on subjects I shall not venture to mention here, he was vehemently complaining to his father or writing to friends in the hope that they might lend him money. While most of these incidences are quite amusing, they also serve as a sobering reminder that the legendary composers were something less than the gods they sometimes appear to be. On the contrary, they were deeply, often tragically human. Mozart, despite his genius, spent most of his life living on the edge of disaster and destitution, constantly having to beg his friends for the next hundred gulden to tide him over until his next lucky break.

With these insights in mind, I sat amidst my fellow audience members as the lights dimmed and the quiet chatter of pre-concert anticipation slowly died down. The Emerson Quartet, as always, performed pristinely, bringing to their four selections the light clarity that is the most essential, and yet also the most challenging, aspect of Mozart’s quartets. The dignified, harmonious music soared throughout the hall, landing ethereally on our ears. As I sat transfixed by the incredible synthesis rising from the four instruments, I thought back to those irreverent, hilarious and yet also deeply moving letters. While this music may at first glance seem so refined, so elegant, so lofty that it almost lacks humanity, that is not the case at all. In those immaculate notes I could just faintly make out the voice of a man:  a genius to be sure, but also a flawed, scared, tired little man who was reaching toward a perfection he could never attain in life, but could perhaps come close to in his own way, using his own unique voice. Sometimes it is unpleasant, almost exasperating, to be reminded that a fellow, puny and defective human is capable of producing such perfection because it begs the question:  What am I doing that is so great? Usually (at least in my case) the answer is not always terribly encouraging. In the end, however, while Mozart’s music reminds us of our shortcomings, it also inspires us to overcome them — because if someone like Mozart could make music like that, who knows what tremendous things we might accomplish?

Why? Well, I like to think it’s my charming southern accent and movie star good looks (I’m from Los Angeles and usually have my eyes closed during photographs). However, evidently it was my background in music (bassoonist) and business (I ran my own internet marketing company for about a decade) that sealed the deal.

Since taking over marketing efforts in 2010, I’ve made use of my internet background in a number of ways, the most important of which has been implementing a formal SEO (search engine optimization) strategy. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the ins and outs of SEO, the goal of it is simple:  to position your website (or other online assets) at the top of search results for particular terms. Sounds simple, but as the internet has grown in both size and importance, it’s become highly competitive (check out this NYTimes article about JC Penny to see how cutthroat it can be).

By the Numbers
SEO is an activity that lives and dies on numbers. We receive a monthly report from our SEO partner detailing our entire online campaign; traffic, conversions and rankings reports are summarized alongside stats for incoming links, PageRank, and Domain Authority — metrics that help us determine the effectiveness of our efforts.  To show you some numbers:

1. We now have 41 terms that rank on the 1st page of Google, Yahoo!, or Bing.  37 of those are ranked 1-3.
2. Our revenue from online orders has increased 32% in the last 18 months.
3. Traffic from Google increased just 5% this year, but revenue from that traffic increased 19%

Why SEO?
Simply put, as a marketing director, I want PCMS to be highly visible within our target market. As a marketing director with a relatively small budget, I want to do that as cheaply as possible. If I looked at it from a one year perspective, in spite of the above numbers I’d probably rate SEO at the bottom of my list of priorities. However, since I’m lucky enough to have the stability to be able to take a long term view, SEO is actually near the top of my list — and that’s because it is where all the growth is. Building a strong foundation in SEO allows me to take advantage of the growth of the internet and to position our product in front of more and more people at a very affordable price.

A  good example is a phrase we targeted a while back:  Kimmel Center concerts.  It’s not the most highly searched term, but since we perform 30+ events each year at the Kimmel Center, I want to be in front of users who are attracted to the Kimmel Center’s widely known name. As you can see by the below screenshot, we currently rank #3 for this term (it fluctuates each month).

PCMS' Current Ranking for "Kimmel Center Concerts" on Google

Budget
As my brother is fond of saying:  ”So, and about the money?”  While I can’t divulge the exact details of my SEO contract, it is about 10% of our marketing budget. After brochure printing and design costs, it’s our next biggest chunk of money. We work on a monthly retainer basis with a local firm, and after a year of partnership, we’ve been very pleased and impressed with their approach. As I used to ask my clients when I ran a web design firm, “Do you think the internet will be more important or less important 5 years from now?” The answer is so clear that it’s a bit of a painful question to ask!

How did we make room in the budget to afford SEO, which is inherently a long term return on investment? Well, we cut out a big chunk of print advertising. At one point, weekly newspaper ads consumed a whopping 30% of our annual budget; we have since cut it down to about 3%. While we may be missing some visibility in the newspaper, we’re confident about the trends and our prospects online moving forward.

Activities
There are two kinds of SEO activities in our campaign: the ones that we handle internally and the ones that our SEO firm helps us with externally. Here is a run down:

• Internal activities. We maintain our blog at least three times per week and write quality content for our website and emails. We engage with our audience through Facebook, and we write about three press releases or articles per month that we hand off to the SEO firm for optimization and distribution.
• External activities. Our SEO firm helps us in maintain our keyword list, ensuring proper usage on our website. They also review our website code periodically and help us adjust to changes in web standards and best practices — everything from XML sitemap structure to mobile presentation and load speed. Beyond that, they help with our link building activities by making sure we’re in the proper directories and by distributing optimized releases and articles. Finally, they prepare a monthly report and action plan, outlining tasks for us and for them. Recently, we also initiated a Facebook advertising campaign for our Young Friends program with assistance from their Pay Per Click expert.

Why SEO Makes Sense for PCMS
I explained in a previous post how certain factors that make our organization stronger artistically or otherwise (multiple venues, one night concerts, different artists for each performance, etc.) can actually dilute our ability to market effectively on a small budget. However, our fragmented season and diverse offerings are in many ways extremely well suited to SEO.

While high rankings are nice and the visibility is a huge strength for our organization going forward, the main benefit is much simpler. SEO has pushed us to be more informed and more intentional with our online activities and has given us as perspective — a philosophy of sorts — for how to market online. This confidence is a massive time saver . Instead of introducing new ideas and directions each week, we are working steadily towards clear and measurable goals.

In each post, I will suggest pairing a particular concert with a restaurant that features cuisine from the same region of the world as the music you will later enjoy. Just as you would pair the right wine with your meal, why not complement the concert you’re attending with the right food?  Schnitzel before Beethoven and Brahms, Crêpes with Ravel and Debussy, Gazpacho and Paella prior to Rodrigo and Albéniz, and a good burger and local beer before Ives and Korngold… the possibilities are endless.

To kick of the series, I was browsing the calendar and noticed Nicholas Phan’s program of English songs by Purcell and Britten. On top of that, his opening song is titled “If Music be the Food of Love.”  What better way to start a concert and this food blog series!  So I took to the streets in search of fare that was truly English (a hard thing to find, even among the numerous pubs in Philadelphia).

I soon settled upon the Elephant & Castle, the 19th and Market Street establishment that offers a selection of  classic British fare and an extensive beer and scotch collection that together make it one of the better spots for Anglophiles on this side of the pond.  I would recommend their house favorite, Fish ‘n Chips, and for a good British beer, try Fuller’s ESB.

I know it’s a bit far from the American Philosophical Society’s Benjamin Franklin Hall, but well worth it because Elephant & Castle is graciously offering PCMS patrons 10% off dinner before Nicholas Phan’s recital on Friday, November 4^th and throughout the weekend. Just bring your ticket stub and enjoy.

Stay tuned for more pairings and special offers from PCMS. Here’s to the love of food and the “food of love.”  Cheers!