Music

It took less than a minute for world-music mix masters 3 Mustaphas 3 to convert Tuesday night's patient capacity crowd at the Barbary into a throng of dancing partygoers. The almost-instantaneous mass mood swing at the first of two shows came after an hour delay due to a power outage. Shortly after taking the stage with the wandering folk melodies of "Valle E Gajdes," the six-piece band's understated but incessant rhythms began working their magic - transforming those who were motionless into masters of merengue, forcing those navigating the crowd to move in sync with the music.

More than ever, special-interest ensembles in the classical music world have to be seen as impressively as they're heard. It's survival and opportunity. Piffaro, the Renaissance Band, has delivered many fine programs, but Eden: The Polyphonic Paradise of Jacob Obrecht & Hieronymus Bosch has an intense visual element thanks to projections of Bosch's fantastical paintings. So this is the one with legs: After last weekend's concerts here, Piffaro and the Flemish vocal group Capilla Flamenca tour to New York, Nashville, Tenn.

The Grand Old Lady of Locust Street, the revered Academy of Music, is back in business today after a six-month, $10 million renovation to the backstage area and roof. Tonight's opening of the Opera Company of Philadelphia's "Carmen" is the first presentation after the completion of the 10-year, $40 million project. The past six summers have seen renovation of the lobby, stage, seating area, chandelier, ceiling and other facilities, as well as construction of concrete and steel understructure below the original 1857 triple U-shaped brick foundation.

Quiet elegance. Surprising passion. Inspired dullness. George Winston's show Thursday at the Academy of Music reflected a variety of music and styles. Many of the selections in his two-hour concert were quite entertaining. Others, especially some of his own compositions based on the four seasons, meandered. A terrific pianist, Winston sometimes played too long on one piece. Season- oriented works such as "Thanksgiving" and "Moon" drift on as he plays a few too many variations on a slender theme.

The discovery of an exciting new violist - Teng Li's Sunday recital at the Trinity Center for Urban Life definitely qualifies her - entails more than the appearance of a new musical personality. Unjustly neglected repertoire is also part of the package, and because this music is haunted by fewer ghosts of past great violists, the door is open to more individualistic playing than usual. The China-born Teng emerged from Bejing Central Conservatory to the Curtis Institute of Music at the age of 16. She was recently appointed principal violist of the Toronto Symphony, though to judge from this recital (presented by Astral Artistic Services)

BEHIND THE MUSIC: CAT STEVENS, 9 p.m. Sunday, VH1 To launch its new season of emotional roller-coaster biographies of famous and/or forgotten musicians, the VH1 series "Behind the Music" begins with the rock music equivalent of "Garbo Speaks!" That's because, in Sunday's 90-minute special, Cat Stevens talks. Even at his zenith in the early 1970s, when "Tea for the Tillerman" and "Teaser and the Firecat" fed hit after hit ("Wild World," "Father & Son," "Peace Train," "Morning Has Broken")

It does no good to mourn for a program not played, but the Philadelphia Orchestra, scrambling to substitute for a convalescing Wolfgang Sawallisch, replaced his intriguing program with a conventional one. Before he had to cancel because of surgery, music director-designate Sawallisch had planned the orchestra's first performances ever of Beethoven's Prometheus ballet and what would have been his first public thoughts about Copland's music....

How better to greet April Fool's Day (and weekend) than with music and mirth? Conductor Peter Nero emphasizes "Comedy Tonight" in the first-half selections. Then the versatile Klein does his songs 'n' schtick with the Pops, a road-tested "symphony act" that "presents just the right combination of intelligence and taste," Klein told us. That's true even on his (and music collaborator Bob Stein's) you're-growing-older musical signposts like "Colonoscopy" which "opened up a whole new world for me," Klein sings in mock wonder.

Jacob Buczak,8, touched his thumb to a single button on an omnichord, and out came a foot-tapping, jazzy bass beat. Jacob bounced his whole body in delight and vigorously shook his curly blond locks. "Yes," cheered Jackie Pack, clapping her hands together. "That's the first time he's ever done that. . . . He's been doing miraculous stuff. " For Jacob, it was an extraordinary feat. He has cerebral palsy, which confines him to a wheelchair and twists his fingers into a clumsy jumble.