Ebb And Flow

Mahler works his magic best in a proper hall. Hearing the angst-ridden Romantic out of doors you miss many of his delicacies and torments. Surely that's one reason so many stayed away from Thursday night's Philadelphia Orchestra performance at the Mann Music Center, in which the amphitheater held half as many listeners as capacity, and the lawn benches also had disappointing vacant spots. The Symphony No. 3 in D Minor is Mahler at his most pantheistic. Indeed, the composer intended its cymbals, drums and trumpets to celebrate and describe the natural world that he loved with immense passion.

Even when you stand up to your neck in water at the bottom of the towering and majestic Iguazu Falls in Argentina, it's difficult to go with the flow. Water, Roland Joffe reports with the authority of a filmmaker who has immersed himself in the subject, is the most exasperating and elusive thing to catch on film. "It changes course so quickly," said the director of The Mission. "You can be looking at it rush past a rock, and it will go from one side to the other. You never know what it's going to do, and when you think you've got it right, the clouds roll in and the light changes.

If you know a "water music," chances are it's the one by Handel. But there's another, less-known major baroque work that uses water as its inspiration: Telemann's Hamburg's Ebb and Flow. And when it comes to painting musical pictures about water, the Hamburg work practically overflows with images. "Unlike Handel's Water Music, which has great melodies and textures that we all love, the Telemann is a very programmatic piece," says Elissa Berardi, a flutist and leader of Philomel, which performs the rarely heard piece this weekend.

There used to be a billboard at North Philadelphia's old Connie Mack Stadium advertising Tastykakes. The rectangular space adorning the outfield wall represented cooperation between neighboring icons: Tasty Baking Co. was housed on nearby Hunting Park Avenue in what then was a thriving commercial area. Thirty-seven years ago, the Phillies relocated six miles down Broad Street in South Philadelphia, finding a more profitable climate in which to conduct their brand of commerce. Now, Tasty Baking has announced it will follow that same C bus route even farther south, to the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

Flyers forwards Tony Amonte and Jeremy Roenick and goalie Robert Esche have been selected to play for the United States in this summer's World Cup of Hockey. Detroit defenseman Chris Chelios and Dallas forward Mike Modano are among 13 players back to defend Team USA's championship. San Jose coach Ron Wilson will be the coach. Other forwards chosen are Dallas' Bill Guerin, Detroit's Brett Hull, Colorado's Steve Konowalchuk, Boston's Brian Rolston, Ottawa's Bryan Smolinski, St. Louis' Doug Weight and Keith Tkachuk, the New York Islanders' Jason Blake, Calgary's Craig Conroy, Buffalo's Chris Drury, Washington's Jeff Halpern and New Jersey's Jamie Langenbrunner.

No explanation is adequate for the ebb and flow of singular talents on particular instruments. In one generation, violinists abound; in another, pianists are pre-eminent. Yo-Yo Ma played last night with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Music Center to remind the audience that an age of cellists is flowing strongly just now. This 32-year-old cellist is the emblem of a remarkable group of young players whose technique knows no limit and whose musicality makes their virtuosity invisible in the midst of the exalted music-making.

The rain yesterday couldn't dampen Joe Syrnick's enthusiasm when the chief executive officer of the Schuylkill River Development Corp. announced details of the first rowing regatta on the lower river Oct. 22. Not even the thunderous idling of a CSX locomotive and freight train, which had pulled itself alongside the site of a scheduled news conference in the park near Race Street, could squelch the mood. "Great cities have great rivers," Syrnick told reporters, broadcast crews, public officials and residents.

James Edward Jackson Jr., a jazz musician and member of the Sun Ra Arkestra, died Sunday. He was 65 and lived in Germantown. Jackson, whose friends and followers called "Jac," was found dead in his bedroom in the band's Germantown rowhouse. He died of arterial sclerosis, according to the band's trombonist, Tyrone Hill. "He was one of the most dedicated musicians I've ever seen," Hill said. A bassoonist also known for playing a drum carved from a tree trunk, Jackson taught himself to play the flute while growing up in New Haven, Conn.

On Wednesday night in Toronto, the 76ers concluded their pre-break schedule with a 104-93 loss to the Raptors, a game whose ebb and flow mirrored that of the season's first 51 games: first a speedy slide downward and then a quick burst of gaining ground, with a sense of confusion throughout. In that loss, the Sixers trailed by as many as 23 points, exploded to tie the game with just over two minutes remaining, and then exhibited some frustration afterward. At the start of the third quarter, coach Eddie Jordan removed power forward Elton Brand from the lineup in favor of rarely used guard Royal Ivey.

Success is not without a price tag. Dottie Pepper knows. She won four times on the LPGA tour in 1996. Each victory means a return trip this year to every site for media days. Which explains why Pepper, after finishing in a tie for 35th at the McDonald's LPGA Championship in Wilmington, flew from Philadelphia to Rochester, N.Y., yesterday morning and back to the Atlantic City airport in the afternoon. She then caught a flight to Texas, where she is conducting a clinic today. So many commitments, so little time.

CARS FILLED with vacationers whiz along U.S. Route 13, destined for Virginia Beach, North Carolina's barrier islands and other places known for the very thing they are passing by - an easygoing region with natural beauty, pristine beaches, outdoor recreation and some of the freshest seafood you will find anywhere. The Virginia Eastern Shore is the tip of what's known as the Delmarva Peninsula, beautifully situated between the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay. About 3 1/2 hours' drive from Philadelphia, it begins at Chincoteague Island and reaches southward 60 miles to Cape Charles, a charming, blink-and-you'll-miss-it town at the foot of the 21-mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.

On Wednesday night in Toronto, the 76ers concluded their pre-break schedule with a 104-93 loss to the Raptors, a game whose ebb and flow mirrored that of the season's first 51 games: first a speedy slide downward and then a quick burst of gaining ground, with a sense of confusion throughout. In that loss, the Sixers trailed by as many as 23 points, exploded to tie the game with just over two minutes remaining, and then exhibited some frustration afterward. At the start of the third quarter, coach Eddie Jordan removed power forward Elton Brand from the lineup in favor of rarely used guard Royal Ivey.

Building a new Southport Marine Terminal south of the Walt Whitman Bridge to attract more container cargo ships and thousands of jobs has been a goal of the city and state for years. But tight credit and the bad economy have delayed bids to start the project. Two bids for constructing the terminal came in last spring, but state officials called them "unresponsive. " Still, the state says it intends to try again to move ahead on the terminal, estimated to cost at least $375 million, as the economy recovers and ships and cargo begin moving again.

The slight current of the Maurice River pulls at Mike Trout. It's the one place the Millville High star centerfielder can escape and relax these days, fishing and crabbing with friends, away from the ebb and flow of the baseball world that has been tugging at him the last few weeks. Tomorrow night, Trout's life could take a dramatic turn if his name is called - as expected - in the first round of Major League Baseball's amateur draft. The 6-2, 200-pounder has been contacted by all 30 major league teams and 27 team representatives have visited his South Jersey home.

If you linger on South Ninth Street long enough, it can come to have the feel of a boulevard of broken dreams - and not just because trash bags are heaped on occasion at the very base of the "Italian Market" signpost. A sausage-maker tried to get a merchants' Web site going. Nobody wanted to chip in, he says. SEPTA bus service got cut back, you'll hear, after stall owners complained their canopies were getting clipped. Every two hours, workers at Superior Pasta have to run out to move their cars to another meter or risk a ticket: The fine can be half a day's pay. And so on. It's not just trash-phobic suburbanites who dump on the Ninth Street Market.

ONE OF THE oldest baseball clichés is that it's not a sprint, it's a marathon. Unless, of course, it's the rain-delayed Game 5 of the World Series with play resuming in the bottom of the sixth and a World Series trophy shimmering just across the finish line for the Phillies. Last night it was a sprint. With that in mind, with each decision Philadelphia's Charlie Manuel and Tampa Bay's Joe Maddon had to make having the potential to change the season, here's a look at what each manager did during the abbreviated 4-3 Phillies clincher . . . and how it turned out. Bottom of the sixth Move: With righthander Grant Balfour on the mound, Manuel sent lefthanded-swinging Geoff Jenkins up to bat for pitcher Cole Hamels.

And so, with the approach of Memorial Day, that annual if-the-calendar-says-so, it-must-be-a-beach-day fantasy, my 12th as a local, these are the questions that I ask myself and that others ask me: Am I happy it's almost summer? Well, kinda, sorta, yeah. Though this will be the second straight year I'll be missing in action on Memorial Day weekend, due to various family events up and down the Eastern Seaboard. But that's OK. Last year, when I returned on Memorial Day, it was amusing to see the town feel so spent all of a sudden.

Tuesday's full moon stayed an extra day and planted itself over Hawk Hill. At least that's how it felt last night as St. Joseph's survived a bizarre game and a late charge to outlast Massachusetts, 81-77, at Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse. If the Hawks' 98-92 win over the Minutemen two weeks ago was a clean game of basketball, last night's oddity was the werewolf version. With an early start time of 6 p.m. came one of the more ugly first halves you'll see, a second half played as if it were on a playground, and other quirks as St. Joe's (11-5, 3-1 Atlantic Ten Conference)

There used to be a billboard at North Philadelphia's old Connie Mack Stadium advertising Tastykakes. The rectangular space adorning the outfield wall represented cooperation between neighboring icons: Tasty Baking Co. was housed on nearby Hunting Park Avenue in what then was a thriving commercial area. Thirty-seven years ago, the Phillies relocated six miles down Broad Street in South Philadelphia, finding a more profitable climate in which to conduct their brand of commerce. Now, Tasty Baking has announced it will follow that same C bus route even farther south, to the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

It was a glorious summer day, so I went swimming at the township pool. I've been a regular since the days when my two young sons would go with me. I'd swim laps and my 5-year-old would walk along the edge shadowing me until I finished my swim and he could ask me for snack money. Like most of the children they grew up with, the boys lost interest when they reached puberty and didn't want to be seen anywhere with their parents. I noticed that most parents stopped going when their children did, but I continued to enjoy it, because I could swim laps there in the open air and because of the little group that sought shade under an enormous weeping willow tree.