REVIEWS
Philadelphia Inquirer
May 15, 2004
Cheers
and a party in a blooming Paris
By Peter Dobrin
Inquirer Music Critic
PARIS - Without warning and with no apologies to Edith Piaf, the
Philadelphia Orchestra's first tune Thursday onstage at the Théâtre
Mogador was "La vie en rose" in a lovely, lilting arrangement
- for four Wagner tubas.
The French horn section played the merry prank at a rehearsal, preparing
for the first concert of the orchestra's European tour that night. "A
little something to make us feel more comfortable playing Bruckner in
Paris," co-principal hornist David Wetherill told his colleagues.
It turned out that the concert itself needed no help from the Little Sparrow
and her spirits. Bruckner's Symphony No. 7, Messiaen's Les offrandes
oubliées, and Beethoven's Overture to Fidelio flowed
from the orchestra with an expressive intensity and sonic richness …
The Parisian listeners greeted Bruckner's slowly shifting granite blocks
of sound with cheers of bravo and a prolonged round of rhymthic clapping
(a tradition with audiences here) that earned an encore: the Prelude to
Act 3 of Wagner's Lohengrin.
… Lots of little things added up to make this first concert the stunner
that it was.
The week that just ended … was something of a Philadelphia week in
Paris. The Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, the orchestra
and the Barnes Foundation teamed up to promote European tourism to Philadelphia.
Audience members at Thursday's concert walked away with plastic Philadelphie
bags containing brochures touting attractions such as the museums, the
Reading Terminal Market, and Le QVC Studio.
The Barnes made its presence known by organizing a small display at a
local travel service that includes reproductions of letters from Albert
C. Barnes to various associates, as well as three reproductions of paintings,
which, fakes though they are, are meant to whet the appetites of Parisians
for Philadelphia culture.
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