Classical Music

Enjoy the music while you can. The economic downturn has had no immediate impact on classical-music programming, which is devised and funded at least a year in advance and is, for the moment, perfectly safe. It may even be more accessible these days: Tickets could be easier to come by, especially if many are left over from subscription sales. But the stock-market gyrations that began last fall will be felt come next fall. So here it is: the glory that is 21st-century Philadelphia - for however long it lasts.

President Reagan has not yet sent Philip Habib to the bunker housing the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS), but some high-level problem-solver may be needed before that group detonates another round of Grammy Awards. In the past, the Grammys for classical-music recordings have escaped broad notice for the fundamental reason that prizes are at best meaningless in art and at worst destructive. Pictures of Soviet composers wearing their medals make musicians laugh - a little sadly.

Unlike its counterparts overseas, the American classical music industry has never made enough of a fuss about music of its own. This is due partly to the conservative nature of the art form itself: Patriotism, like protest movements, usually circles round the masses rather than more elitist groups. Then, too, it has taken a long long time to get over our cultural inferiority complex. Lacking a Three B's of American repertoire to enthuse over, major record companies here have gladly stuck to safer European classics - which in recent years has been easy to do, because a number of firms have been sold to conglomerates based abroad.

The Kimmel Center is presenting less expensive, less exotic visiting orchestras. Local ensembles are increasing collaborations, so that the same event does double or triple duty by counting as a concert in the brochures of multiple organizations. And the city's musical face to the larger world, the Philadelphia Orchestra, has been in bankruptcy more than nine months and doesn't hope to exit until sometime after the filing's first anniversary. Times are tough. Young artists from the Curtis Institute of Music are leaving the nest and heading into careers of equal parts risk and promise.

  Theater Amadeus Combines intrigue, suspense, comedy & passion. Closes 10/27. Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad St.; 215-546-7824. www.wilmatheater.org . $37-$60. Peter Pan Take a journey to Never Never Land. Closes 9/30. Cumberland Players at the Little Theatre, Sherman Ave. & South East Blvd., Vineland; 856-692-5626. www.cumberlandplayers.com . $10. Anything Goes Cole Porter's famous musical. Closes 9/29. Playcrafters Theatre, Store Rd., Skippack; Reservations recommended: 610-584-4005; www.playcrafters.

Outing has come to classical music, and the Schubert is flying off the shelves. So is the Chopin. Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saens, Bernstein and Britten, too. They are among the composers grouped together on Out Classics, an RCA release making a big splash. Trumpets an invitation on the back of the CD: "Revel in over an hour of seductive classics by eight of the world's greatest composers who just happen to be gay. " Hordes are taking RCA up on the offer, even though no one can be sure whether all of these composers really happened to be gay. The disc has made the Billboard Top Classical Albums chart for the last several weeks, jockeying neck-and-neck with Sensual Classics, Too. That CD offers works by straight composers, but also aims squarely at a gay market by featuring on its cover, as does Out Classics, a homoerotic photo.

Usually Lissette, 11, is at the center of the action - whether playing kickball, rollerblading, swinging, or throwing a ball. Music, however, pulls her to a corner of a room to be by herself. She will sit on the floor, hum, and do sign language. Classical music is her favorite, with Beethoven and Mozart leading the way. Church music runs a close second. She'll nod and smile when she hears "Jesus loves me, this I know. " When Lissette went into foster care, from a background of abuse and neglect, she could often be found going through the garbage, looking for food.

It becomes more evident each fall that many of the best classical music concerts in the region take place in Delaware County and nearby communities that are conveniently accessible to county residents. The performances include the Sunday afternoon chamber music concert series under soft chandelier light in the ballroom of Wallingford Community Arts Center, the Lansdowne Symphony Orchestra and specific concerts in the Wayne Concert Series. The 65-member Lansdowne Symphony Orchestra, for example, has provided outstanding classical music in Lansdowne since 1945, when it was common for most suburban residents to travel to Philadelphia to hear orchestras.

You know Mendelssohn's Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream like the back of your hand thanks to a second-grade teacher who first set the fairy score aglow in your imagination. But did you ever hear the abrupt gesture a few minutes into the score as the donkey bray it was meant to evoke? On a purely abstract level, Smetana's M? Vlast is wondrous music. But it doesn't fully reveal itself unless you already know about ??rka's revenge on the male race, and that the impertinent bassoon part near the end is the snore of the men she lulls to sleep.

For all the grand and eccentric characters in classical music, the medium has stood somewhat apart from the electronic visual age - until it began mating with DVD. It looks like a happy honeymoon. Who, for example, would have thought that Dame Felicity Lott's memorable recital two years ago at the Kimmel Center - enjoyed by 700 or so local voice-lovers - could be taken home from the DVD bins of retail stores or ordered on Amazon.com Web pages? Pianophiles still mourn the absence of the Russian Grigory Sokolov, who made a blinding impression here years ago but no longer tours the United States.

Theater 1812 Productions: It's My Party - The Women & Comedy Project An exploration of the role of comedy in women's lives. Closes 5/19. Plays & Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey St.; 215-592-9560. www.1812productions.org . $28-$38. A Little Night Music Award-winning Sondheim musical. Closes 6/30. Arden Theatre, 40 N. 2nd St.; 215-922-1122. $36-$48; $15 children 12-18. Acting Naturally: Blithe Spirit A novelist finds himself haunted by the ghost of his first wife. Closes 5/19.

Noteworthy upbringing recalled What fond memories of my father, a classical clarinetist, came to mind while reading Caeli Smith's article ("A populist plea for classical music," March 25). Passionate about his craft, my father practiced well into his eighties for two to three hours a day. When I was younger, my father would take me to the Academy of Music, going backstage afterward to talk to his friends and fellow musicians. During performances, Dad would relate the history of the composer and the reason for the work, making the music all the more tangible, emotional, and interesting.

By Caeli Smith I often ride the subway with my violin, and the sight of the instrument's case slung over my shoulder as I squeeze into a crowded compartment tends to spark comments from strangers. "Oh, I played violin for four years in elementary school!" As they reminisce, I begin to understand that they no longer have a relationship with classical music; it's all in the past for them. These conversations, although pleasant, leave me disturbed. If so many people studied classical music as children, why don't they take pleasure in it later in life?