Final Concert

Libor Pesek's week with the Philadelphia Orchestra produced not only able conducting but a glimpse of some Czech music that deserves rediscovery. In his final concert Thursday with the orchestra at the Mann Music Center, Pesek led Martinu's The Frescoes of Piero della Francesca. The piece may have reminded listeners of the orchestra's once-close connection with the composer when he taught at Curtis and at Princeton four decades ago. And it reminded me of the wealth of good music in his much- neglected catalogue, some of which this orchestra premiered.

The Bensalem High School Jazz Ensemble is the state champion for the fifth year in a row. The annual Cavalcade of Bands contest draws high school jazz bands from throughout the state. Bensalem won in the championship contest last month at Wissahickon High School. The band's final performance this year is at the high school's spring concert at 7:30 p.m. June 8. Admission is free. The high school is at 4319 Hulmeville Rd. in Bensalem. CREATIVE WINNERS The William Penn Middle School won first place in the Odyssey of the Mind Pennsylvania State Finals last month.

The last trumpet will sound today at the Streitwieser Trumpet Museum near Pottstown. The collection of more than 1,000 instruments will be moved later this year from the Montgomery County museum to Schloss Kremsweg near Linz in Austria, and founder Franz Xavier Streitwieser will move with his collection. In a final concert at the museum, the All American Cornet Band will perform at 3 p.m. It will play the program it performed to open the museum in 1980. The closing of the museum ends a dream for Streitwieser, the Austrian-born trumpeter.

Bruce Springsteen may be a closer, but Bon Jovi is lined up to be the opening act next spring at the new stadium for the New York Giants and the Jets, according to a newspaper report. It's fitting for Jersey boys - Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi - to be part of history at the Meadowlands. On Oct. 9, Springsteen performed the final concert at Giants Stadium, which is slated for demolition after the current National Football League season. Last night, the Boss finished a four-date series at South Philadelphia's Spectrum, which also has a date with the wrecking ball.

Souvenir, Stephen Temperley's memory play about the 12-year relationship between 1940s society warbler Florence Foster Jenkins (more on that warbling in a moment) and her stalwart piano accompanist Cosme McMoon, gets evergreener every year. Its Broadway run was brief — though not quite as brief as Jenkins' real-life, one-night-only Carnegie Hall sellout — but Souvenir still thrives in the regions. Center City Theatre Works' current effort marks the show's third recent local production, and with good reason.

A Town & Country section article Aug. 3, citing music company owner Eric Nemeyer, said that "about 10 years ago the trend in band music moved away from the 'oompah' tradition of John Philip Sousa. " I resent the statement. For the benefit of Mr. Nemeyer and thousands of other young people who never had the pleasure of listening to the Sousa Band, I give a few facts. The band was organized by Mr. Sousa in 1892. In a few years it was considered one of the finest concert bands in the world, until his death in 1932.

Devotees of the Philadelphia Folk Festival will have several new faces to check out this year. Newcomers to the festival at Old Pool Farm near Schwenksville Aug. 28 to 30 will include Darden Smith, Lucinda Williams, Zulu Spear, Ranch Romance and others. The weekend's events also includedance and music workshops, special performances and activities for children, the sale of handmade arts and crafts and more. Picnicking is encouraged, and food and beverages also will be for sale at the site.

You can set your watch to the little music box that pops out of the facade of Suntory Hall a half-hour before concert time. Two bronze mechanical men emerge and turn some wheels and a series of cylinders, and pipes blow Wagner's music onto a crowd gathered on the plaza. The doors to Tokyo's premier orchestra hall open, and the audience walks in. There's something Teutonic about the drill, something very ceremonial and orderly - like Wolfgang Sawallisch himself, the maestro who opened this hall 10 years ago and who even today maintains a love affair with the Japanese public.

When Tim Denny, Haverford Township recreation director, was considering how to turn a former sewer plant into a public park, he envisioned a place like the Jersey Shore: a place for quiet reading, active play and community concerts. Next Sunday, his vision will become a reality when Merry Place Park on Glendale Road hosts the final concert of the first Haverford International Youth Festival for Music and the Arts. "Merry Place Park is a place for people of all ages and all abilities.

This summer, the Philadelphia Orchestra's series at the Mann Music Center will be reduced from six to five weeks, a total of 15 programs in the PNC Bank Concert Series. Those missing three concerts will instead be played in greater Philadelphia neighborhoods from June 19-25, with exact locations still being determined. This new approach for the orchestra continues some precedents, as the famed ensemble has performed at the closing of Broad Street Station, the opening of the Convention Center, at Independence Day concerts on the Parkway, and at Independence Hall for the President's Summit in 1997.

Souvenir, Stephen Temperley's memory play about the 12-year relationship between 1940s society warbler Florence Foster Jenkins (more on that warbling in a moment) and her stalwart piano accompanist Cosme McMoon, gets evergreener every year. Its Broadway run was brief — though not quite as brief as Jenkins' real-life, one-night-only Carnegie Hall sellout — but Souvenir still thrives in the regions. Center City Theatre Works' current effort marks the show's third recent local production, and with good reason.

Bruce Springsteen may be a closer, but Bon Jovi is lined up to be the opening act next spring at the new stadium for the New York Giants and the Jets, according to a newspaper report. It's fitting for Jersey boys - Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi - to be part of history at the Meadowlands. On Oct. 9, Springsteen performed the final concert at Giants Stadium, which is slated for demolition after the current National Football League season. Last night, the Boss finished a four-date series at South Philadelphia's Spectrum, which also has a date with the wrecking ball.

ASHLEE Simpson and Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz wed Saturday night at her parents' home in Encino, near L.A. Ashlee's dad, Joe Simpson, performed the ceremony and sister Jessica was the maid of honor. (Early wedding reports made no mention of Tony Romo.) People magazine, who allegedly tossed away 7-digits for pics from this B-list event, said the event had an "Alice in Wonderland" theme. For a wedding? Did the couple Jabberwock down the aisle? Did the champagne say "Drink Me" and the cake say "Eat Me"?

Three free neighborhood concerts will fill out the Philadelphia Orchestra's summer schedule, greeting music lovers in New Jersey, Chestnut Hill and West Philadelphia. Two venues, Camden's Wiggins Park and University City's Clark Park, are return bookings. The new site is Chestnut Hill's Pastorius Park, which annually also hosts 10 Wednesday evening summer concerts. All three 7 p.m. programs will be led by the orchestra's associate conductor, Rossen Milanov, and all are likely to be heavily attended.

Anyone who wants to attend a concert at the Dell East - known for its rhythm and blues, hip-hop, jazz and gospel acts - will have to buy a summer ticket on faith, for now. As of yesterday, performers for Monday night and the remaining five dates in the annual summer concert series at the East Fairmount Park amphitheater had yet to be announced. Some city officials attributed the delay to contract-reform legislation, while others cited long-standing mismanagement at the city-run venue.

Fifteen hours after securing his front-row standing position at the head of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Bruce Fikes raised his hands to the darkened sky, awestruck at the chance to sing along - live - with Elton John. And sing he did, along with fans to all ends of the Parkway, as John launched into a crowd favorite, "The Bitch Is Back. " The neighborhood went wild. "If this was at the Wachovia Center, it would cost a lot of money. But I'm here," said Fikes, 42, who lives in North Philadelphia and makes pretzels in Camden.

It's a giant concrete doughnut, an oversized octorad - that's architect Hugh Stubbins' term for the building's rounded rectangular shape - that opened on April 10, 1971, and will host its final concert when Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow and the Goo Goo Dolls play there on Saturday. Veterans Stadium's history as a concert venue isn't as illustrious as you might expect - many of the most legendary South Philadelphia stadium shows were held across the street at John F. Kennedy Stadium, from the Peter Frampton/Yes show that drew more than 100,000 in 1976 to Live Aid in 1985 to the Amnesty International show with Bruce Springsteen, Sting and Peter Gabriel in 1988.

This is it, maestro Wolfgang Sawallisch's final program as the Philadelphia Orchestra's sixth music director. And he's made sure it will be memorable, programming the mighty Beethoven Symphony No. 9, the "Choral. " Sawallisch's poor health forced him to drop out of the upcoming tour, as well as last week's concerts. But he'll summon every bit of energy for the last two Kimmel Center shows at 2 p.m. today and 8 p.m. tomorrow. The Philadelphia Singers' David Hayes makes his Orchestra conducting debut on the first half, conducting Brahms' "Song Of Destiny.

Due to the recent rejection of school budgets throughout New Jersey, I've taken the liberty of composing a letter to the tens of thousands of parents of school-age children who were no-shows on voting day, if only to prepare them for what may lie ahead. Ahem. Dear Parents, Budget constraints have necessitated some changes in our typical school activities and curriculum. Please note the changes below, effective sooner than you think: Instrumental music and choral lessons have been eliminated.

A. Brockie Stevenson has hit many spots on the artistic and geographic map. As an enlisted man in Europe during World War II, he drew and painted military images and earned himself a one-man show in London before the war's end. Back in the United States, he enrolled in classical training at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and later he took a nine-year sojourn in Peru, where he began painting the natural environment. Experiments with abstract painting ensued, and finally a summer in Maine plunged him into an Americana of clotheslines, fences, lighthouses, and simple country settings.