Pianist

PRINCETON — Conductor Rossen Milanov has been making the Philadelphia version of the Grand Tour: Last week was Symphony in C in Camden, Friday was the Curtis (his alma mater) Symphony Orchestra at the Mann Center, and Sunday — most notably — was his end-of-season Princeton Symphony Orchestra concert at Richardson Auditorium here. In a program featuring Brahms' Symphony No. 4 and a new work by Princeton composer Sarah Kirkland Snider, Milanov stepped out from behind his image as dependable, congenial Rossen to become a conductor who wields demonic power.

Keen listeners might find a poignant layer or two around Charles Dutoit's final stroke as chief conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Ravel's Daphnis and Chloé ends on a nearly unbearably brilliant A major chord — the key German poet Christian Schubart believed messaged the hope, upon parting, of seeing one's beloved again. Verizon Hall's Thursday night capacity audience seemed to be yearning already. A standing ovation for the conductor began gathering even before the music's start, just after he glided on stage and neared the podium.

Don't look for Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes at tonight's Philadelphia Orchestra concert at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. Due to illness, he canceled his Thursday-through-Saturday concerts, where he was to perform Bartok's Piano Concerto No. 2. Efforts were made to replace him with the 20-year-old Chinese pianist Yundi Li, who couldn't be released from concert commitments in Paris. However, the Philadelphia Orchestra is close to confirming what will be Li's U.S. orchestral debut, for July 2003 at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts.

When it comes to Peter Cincotti, the wunderkind who played Penn's Annenberg Hall with his quartet Saturday night, the biggest question is this: Can we believe the hype? The answer: Yes and no. The easy answer would be to say that Cincotti is everything we've been led to believe by the latter-day Tin Pan Alley publicity machine. Yes, he is, as a musician, mature beyond his years. He is a maddeningly exacting pianist, a true pro and craftsman who has mastered the styles of those who preceded him. As a vocalist, he is far less seasoned.

Soprano Benita Valente and pianist Cynthia Raim have been performing Spanish programs on tour, and they extracted four unusual samples from their repertoire for a recital Sunday at the Convention Center. The songs were from Cancionero de Pedrell by Roberto Gerhard, the Swiss- born composer who studied in Barcelona and pulled on Catalonian identity like a sweater. Three of the songs were in Catalan; one was in Spanish, and all featured the composer's approach of enlarging rhythms as the songs develop.

A lot of hype surrounded pianist Sandrine Erdely-Sayo's American premiere of Juan-Carlos Sedero's Lyrical Suite on Sunday at the Ethical Society. Most of it was unjustified. The French-born Erdely-Sayo, who in 1990 came to Philadelphia to study at the University of the Arts, was one of several pianists who received the Argentine composer's seven-section score. The taped performance she sent back to the composer so impressed him that he chose her to give the world premiere last summer in France.

Vladimir "Billy" Sokoloff, pianist and senior member of the Curtis Institute faculty, died yesterday morning after a long illness. He was 84. Dr. Sokoloff was known for his artistry as a chamber music player. At the Curtis, he taught many hundreds the finer points of musical partnership. Beginning in his student days, he had partnered with the greats - violinist Efrem Zimbalist, soprano Marcella Sembrich, violist William Primrose and cellist Emanuel Feuermann He counted Philadelphia Orchestra principals as colleagues and chamber partners, including flutist William Kincaid and oboist Marcel Tabuteau.

Traditions thrive in Philadelphia, traditions such as the Academy Morning Musicales, a series created in 1905 by the enterprising members of the West Philadelphia Women's Committee of the Philadelphia Orchestra. At 93, it's still flourishing. Yesterday, a piano recital by Rieko Aizawa brought the 1997-98 series to a close. A capacity crowd demonstrated palpable enthusiasm. The pianist, a Curtis grad, is 23. She recently made her New York debut and soon heads for the St. Louis Symphony for a concerto.

In classical music, where a strong-willed personality is an asset, students don't always resemble their teachers in any discernible way. But in the case of Cecile Licad, the apple didn't fall very far from the tree. Licad's recital Sunday clearly revealed the influence of one of her three teachers at the Curtis Institute of Music, Rudolf Serkin. (Mieczyslaw Horszowski and Seymour Lipkin were the other two). Serkin's presence was especially apparent in Mozart's Fantasia (K. 475)

Orchestral color was everything in the early years of this century, and the French - or French-inspired - came from the subtlest palettes. That was the message of the Philadelphia Orchestra's concert Wednesday at the Mann Music Center. Artistic director Charles Dutoit has made this final week of the season an essay on French orchestral invention and influence, and in his concert Wednesday shaped what was one of the most interesting programs of the season. With Spanish pianist Alicia de Larrocha as soloist, Dutoit made half a concert from Turina's Rhapsodia sinfonica and Falla's Noches en los jardines de Espana, and completed the essay by playing all of Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe ballet.

Keen listeners might find a poignant layer or two around Charles Dutoit's final stroke as chief conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Ravel's Daphnis and Chloé ends on a nearly unbearably brilliant A major chord — the key German poet Christian Schubart believed messaged the hope, upon parting, of seeing one's beloved again. Verizon Hall's Thursday night capacity audience seemed to be yearning already. A standing ovation for the conductor began gathering even before the music's start, just after he glided on stage and neared the podium.

PRINCETON — Conductor Rossen Milanov has been making the Philadelphia version of the Grand Tour: Last week was Symphony in C in Camden, Friday was the Curtis (his alma mater) Symphony Orchestra at the Mann Center, and Sunday — most notably — was his end-of-season Princeton Symphony Orchestra concert at Richardson Auditorium here. In a program featuring Brahms' Symphony No. 4 and a new work by Princeton composer Sarah Kirkland Snider, Milanov stepped out from behind his image as dependable, congenial Rossen to become a conductor who wields demonic power.

A classically trained pianist who writes songs that are sometimes playfully quirky and sometimes complexly arty, Regina Spektor has a habit of going on the road to open for rock-and-roll dudes. In 2003, she opened for the Strokes on her first tour, which included a stop at the Tower Theatre, where she will headline Saturday. She just wrapped up a stint opening for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. "I feel like since [the tour began in] Denver, I've just gone to the University of Awesome for a few weeks," she said from Austin, Texas, on the last date of the Heartbreakers' tour.

Pianist Garrick Ohlsson hasn't always worn the mileage of his four-decade career lightly: His fingers are almost always in fine shape, but he sometimes leaves his heart in San Francisco (which is his home). The all-Liszt recital he chose for himself Thursday at the Kimmel Center, however, had few places to hide, showing the 64-year-old artist at his peak on all levels. After Liszt's 200th birthday in 2011, so many performances of the composer's Piano Sonata in B minor have gone under the bridge that only Pierre Laurent Aimard's recording is one I'd want to hear again.

Walnut Street Supper Club is the most nostalgic of the bunch, but it isn't the only place where you can enjoy dinner and a show. Here are a few others: Live From Loew's: A monthly performance series at the Solefood Restaurant and Lounge inside Loew's Hotel. March 19, features "rockjazz" pianist and Camden native ELEW (a/k/a Eric Lewis); April 26 showcases singer-songwriter Sarah Miles. No cover or minimum. 12th and Market streets, 215-627-1200, www.loewshotels.com/Philadelphia-Hotel . Eddie Bruce & Friends: The veteran Philly crooner does four sets every Friday at SugarHouse Casino backed by the Tom Adams Trio and featuring a changing roster of guest performers.

Few current pianists have played and recorded as much Rachmaninoff as Nikolai Lugansky. And no orchestra had such an intensive association with pianist/composer Rachmaninoff as the Philadelphia Orchestra. The combination is such that each side welcomes the other almost as if they're cousins. Maybe they are. "Here, this music is unbelievably close," Lugansky said Thursday, having just rehearsed Rachmaninoff with the orchestra. "This is the best Russian style. " But what such a collaboration actually would sound like on Friday and Saturday night at the Kimmel Center performances of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 - and how much Lugansky would follow in the composer's footsteps - remained to be seen.

Somebody needed to program the orphans in Beethoven's output, and pianist Anton Kuerti was the one to do it at his Philadelphia Chamber Music Society recital Wednesday at the Kimmel Center. Never a glamour pianist, the 73-year-old Vienna-born, Canada-based Kuerti - his hair longer and wilder than ever - has been performing cycles of Beethoven sonatas for as far back as I can remember (40 years) and is a model of nonapologist performers. As majestic as Beethoven can be, his piano sonatas contain some of his most private music - cranky, quirky, and not always clear in what it has to say, especially pieces published not in a litter, but by themselves, without catchy subtitles or nicknames.

Musicians today are writing and blogging, speaking directly to their public, involving readers in, yes, process - but also gathering up fans and a cache of personal investment that may or may not have anything to do with the music itself. Does it really matter what the pianist had for breakfast? Friend me, the classical world pleads. Jeremy Denk is an especially appealing denizen of the electronic ether. Tuesday night's intermission crowd at the Perelman Theater lit up with chatter about his recent New Yorker essay, an illuminating gaze at his own reflection in recordings.

Bulgarian-born French pianist Alexis Weissenberg, 82, whose love of music saved him and his mother from a World War II concentration camp and carried him to performances with Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein, has died. Bulgaria's Ministry of Culture on Monday confirmed the death of Mr. Weissenberg, who was born into a Jewish family in the capital, Sofia, but spent most of his life abroad and became a French citizen. An only child, Mr. Weissenberg recalled sharing "musical joys" learning piano and listening to recordings and concerts with his mother, before studying piano with a famous Bulgarian composer, Pancho Vladigerov.

GENEVA - Bulgarian-born French pianist Alexis Weissenberg, whose love of music from the age of 3 saved him and his mother from a World War II concentration camp and carried him to the heights of performances with Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein, has died. He was 82. Bulgaria's Ministry of Culture yesterday confirmed the death of Weissenberg, who was born into a Jewish family in the capital Sofia but spent most of his life abroad and became a French citizen. Weissenberg suffered from Parkinson's disease.