Concert Review: The Philadelphia Orchestra By Ton Koopman

Ilia Goldshtein

MUST 0812

11 April 2016

The Philadelphia Orchestra

The Philadelphia orchestra put on a outstanding performance with a range of different compositions. From my own lack of experience, it is difficult to compare this concert with many others that I have attended; however, it was an outstanding and fascinating show. I have never experienced such a clear and unique sound quality from so many musical instruments playing simultaneously.

The opening performance was J.S Bach orchestral Suit No. 3 in D major, composed by Ton Koopman. The whole orchestra performed this piece with instruments including the violin, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, and many more.

Bach's Third Orchestral Suite holds as one of the most often played

The orchestra started playing the piece without the two harpsichords. The beginning of the piece began with a very low and depressing sound, but by the end of the Largo, it was slightly less depressed due to the higher instruments that began to play and the additions of the harpsichord add uniqueness to the music mood. This piece consisted of fewer instruments than the first. And before the piece began, the stage hands rearranged the sitting position of the performers. The two harpsichords were rolled to the middle of the stage and the whole orchestra was surrounding them, with the small string instruments such as violins and violas in the front and the rest of the percussion instruments as harp were in the

At the end of 1777, Mozart told his father that he would compose three short, simple concert and a few quartets for the flute, despite his dislike of the flute (Huscher). This work was ordered by the wealthy Dutch surgeon and amateur musician named Ferdinand De Jean (Huscher). Mozart wrote this piece for a standard string orchestra with two flutes and horns. During the performance of this piece, Jeffrey Khnaer was extremely wonderful to watch because of the intensity he brought to the stage. He was not reading any music throughout the performance, which made it all the more fascinating. As a member of the audience, Khnaer became the main important point during many aspects of the piece, which had 3 movements, Allegro maestoso, Adagio non troppo, and Rondo especially during his solo. He maintained a high level of intensity throughout the performance and it was his passion that made the whole piece stand out. Almost all of the instruments performed this piece however, the flute sound was the one that made this piece stand out from the others. Moreover, it was interesting to hear the difference between when the musicians were using the mute and when they were not. This piece was arguably the best performance of the entire