Piano

The Eaken Piano Trio brought two fascinating yet incomplete works to the Fleisher Art Memorial yesterday afternoon. The first, a movement from Rebecca Clarke's Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano, we can only hope was a kind of tease for another concert - when the musicians will play the entire work. The second, by Philadelphia composer Margaret Garwood, was commissioned last year by the trio and has yet to be finished. For the first two movements of her Hommages, Garwood chose to pay tribute to composers Olivier Messiaen and Alberto Ginastera.

Beethoven's Sonata in A major (Op. 47), known as the Kreutzer sonata, a looming presence in the Highlands Duo repertoire, was the peak at the end of the trail at a recital on Saturday at the Germantown branch of the Settlement Music School. The violinist and pianist, however, made their most dramatic musical statements earlier. Violinist Kate Ransom and pianist Anthony Sirianni billed the concert as a Carnegie Hall preview. Their debut is set for Feb. 4. Ransom and Sirianni met in 1984 at the Highlands Chamber Music Festival in North Carolina (hence the name)

Tori Amos is a lucky woman. Many talented pop singer-songwriters and pianists never work with a band or producer who can assist in creating an album as dynamic and chilling as Amos' Little Earthquakes (Atlantic), released last year. Amos also found a director capable of producing a music video that grabbed four nominations at this year's MTV awards. Tuesday's concert at the Keswick Theater in Glenside, the first of two sold-out nights that featured only Amos and her piano, made it evident how important those people were in launching her career.

After a tender, Chet Baker-influenced reading of "Where or When" in which his ruminative vocals were supported by appropriately shaded piano chords, Harry Connick Jr. told Sunday's near-capacity crowd at the Academy of Music that he didn't fully consider the song's lyric until his 38th attempt to record it for the When Harry Met Sally . . . soundtrack. This may have seemed an endearing confession to the majority of the crowd, which was wild about 22-year-old Harry - his Armani suit, his suave patter, his Sinatra affectations, his piano theatrics, his boyish New Orleans charm.

JAVON JACKSON QUARTET. Blue Moon Jazz Cafe and Restaurant, The Bourse Building, 4th Street between Market and Chestnut. 7:30 and 10 p.m. Sunday. Tickets: $20. Info: 215-413-2272. As the tide of young neo-traditional jazz saxophonists ebbs, those left ashore face a problem: How to grow musically, yet be unique among the dozens of sax players out there. Javon Jackson is at this stage, and the 30-year-old with the unadorned style has selected a piano-less quartet as the vehicle with which to experiment.

Though not rare, Christoph Eschenbach's returns to the keyboard - his first career - are infrequent and special occasions indeed. On piano, he practices his art under circumstances more circumscribed than when conducting, and with a bristling brinksmanship inherent to challenging repertoire prepared in an inevitably limited time between conducting assignments. The young Eschenbach triumphed with intimidating repertoire, but the pianist-turned-conductor took on a piece that was in some ways as difficult on Sunday in a Philadelphia Orchestra Chamber Music concert.

Violinists - but few others - know the Camille Saint Saens Sonata No. 1 in D minor (Op. 75) - a handsome structure, whose flamboyance is supported by technical terrors. Jascha Heifetz made it one of his many signature pieces, and his interpretation is as good a reason as any that it is so seldom heard on the concert stage. After his Olympian perfectionism, who would dare? Cho-Liang Lin dared Thursday night at the Port of History Museum during a duo recital with pianist Andre-Michel Schub presented by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society.

Danilo Perez makes his own opportunities. Playing Thursday evening at the Meiji-En restaurant, the pianist surprised his audience by adding an extra beat to the five-note, two-measure clave rhythm at the heart of most Afro-Latin music. Such heresy! Compositions that use 5/4 time signatures are more common in Bulgaria than Latin America. But Perez, who employed the device on "The Voyage," sees that fifth beat as a way to create even more permutations in his rhythmic explorations.

Beginning with three sales today, auctions over the next few days will offer rich opportunities to bid on dolls, glassware, Bucks County arts and crafts, and a miniature piano that once belonged to comedian Jimmy Durante. The piano, a so-called Tom Thumb, will be offered by Bonnie Brae Auction at one of today's sales, starting at 8:30 a.m. at the gallery on Route 724 in Spring City. It originally was in Palumbo's, the South Philadelphia restaurant that once was as famous as Durante himself until it was destroyed by fire a decade ago. Auctioneer Dana Knowlton expects it to sell for $4,500 on account of its provenance.

Lou Stein played piano in Billy Krechmer's house band for six or eight months bridging the years 1940-1941. He was 18 or 19 at the time and full of the urgent priorities of youth. He was a hard swinger in the rhythmic sense, long on intuition and flexibility, very insightful about the music of the day. Now, from the far reaches of nearly five decades, Lou Stein considers his fleeting apprenticeship in Krechmer's claustrophobic gin mill at 1627 Ranstead St. a period of great value to his musical development.

MYRTLE SIMS PERRY always put on her finest outfit for church, complete with the big hats that she made herself, her nails impeccably sculpted. "As a young child she was always told by her mother to give God her best and that's why she loved to dress in her finest," her family said. "She was the diva of the church," said her daughter, Cheryl Curry. Myrtle was not only a fashionable dresser at her church, the United House of Prayer for All People, in South Philadelphia, she played the piano for three choirs at services, directed one of them, the Echoes of McCollough, created bulletins, handled correspondence and was chairwoman of the church's Women's Day. Myrtle Perry, who took on multiple jobs to support her family over the years, died May 2 of complications from surgery.

Often lost amid all the exactitude issuing from conservatories today is the reason we make music in the first place. It's not about being able to play all the notes or play them in tune. Interpretation has to mean something if it is to be worth the trouble, especially since the trouble is considerable. How fortunate, then, must be the students of Miriam Fried, the violin pedagogue who teaches at the New England Conservatory. On Sunday night, for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, she came to the Perelman Theater with one of her progeny - in fact, her prime progeny, pianist Jonathan Biss, who happens to be her son. Whatever their offstage dynamics may be, in terms of musical substance it was a performance of equals - if very different ones.

IF YOU COULD make it at Spider Kelly's, you had already made it in the Philly jazz scene. After all, John Coltrane played there, as well as organist Jimmy Smith and numerous other local luminaries at a time ('50s and '60s) when Philadelphia was the place to be for the best in jazz. It was a tough crowd. A piano player kept a bottle of wine and a pistol under his piano. The denizens expected only the best in their kind of music, and they got it. The likes of Louis Jordan and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, playing at the nearby Earle Theatre, came by to scoop up talent for their bands.

Beirut-born Michael Penniman - Mika to you - might not seem the dream of teen lasses and sorority girls. He's high-pitched, slight-of-build, and makes exuberant music that's an au courant, hit-making encapsulation of all things Glam Rock and fussily British (Sparks, Elton). Yet, there he was - all snug-fitting tux and tight curls - thrilling an all-ages crowd of gals and the boys who love them during a sold-out show at Union Transfer Monday in what was billed as an "intimate evening with . . . " What that meant was that his usually crowded stage and busy arrangements were stripped down to just Mika trilling theatrically and hammering piano, with instrumentalist/vocalists along for the bumpy ride.

Jane Peebles Whitten, 83, an educator, musician, and philanthropist who taught at West Chester University, died of complications of a stroke Wednesday, March 6, at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. She was married for 55 years to Benjamin Whitten, a pianist and teacher who died in 2010. Mrs. Whitten was a gourmet cook long before cable television featured celebrity chefs, and she would constantly try new recipes from Craig Claiborne and Julia Child, her family said. "She could make music in the kitchen like few people I have known," said Peter Orth, who studied piano with the Whittens before going to the Juilliard School and on to a career as a pianist.

There's so much lavish, lovely Christmas adornment at the Voorhees home of Tina and Rocco Fiorentino that it's difficult to take it all in. And no wonder: In every room of this contemporary house with a rich, deep color palette, Santa is there, grinning from walls or tabletops, resting on shelves. No two representations of the jolly old guy are alike. "I guess I have a thing about Santa Clauses," Tina Fiorentino admits with a sheepish smile. "I've definitely lost count. " This is a place where Christmas is epic, elegant, and homey - a place thoroughly enjoyed by the guests who cascade through it during holiday season.

Like a promising matryoshka doll, Jeremy Denk's Tuesday night recital at the Kimmel Center kept revealing itself. The program's halves seemed split into the cerebral, Bach's Goldberg Variations , and the deeply personal, Schumann's Davidsbündlertänze . Each of these pieces released a series of smaller ones (18 movements in the Schumann, 32 in the Bach) from which sprang smaller and even more complex characterizations. This was a makeup recital; the pianist's October appearance for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society was washed out by Sandy, its program of Brahms and Liszt now lost.

Phyllis Ragan, 88, a concert pianist who found her true calling as a piano teacher in Delaware County, died Dec. 3 of respiratory failure at the Sunrise Senior Living facility in Lafayette Hill. Mrs. Ragan, the former Phyllis Wheeler, graduated from Upper Darby High School in 1942 and attended the Juilliard School in New York City. In the mid-1940s, she became a concert pianist, winning acclaim. She placed at the piano auditions for the 1943 Eisteddfod, a competition in Wales, but decided not to compete.

FORMER PHILADELPHIA City Councilman, civic leader and piano player Ed Schwartz died Thursday morning at age 69. Schwartz had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2010 but had been feeling better and was frequently spotted attending Council's weekly Thursday sessions. He last attended two weeks ago, before the Thanksgiving break. The cause of death has not been determined. Jane Shull, Schwartz's wife, suspects that he died from a heart attack. "He had a pretty serious heart condition that could not be addressed anymore," Shull said.

SYDELLE LEVIN still remembered being stowed in the bottom of a boat and covered with hay and blankets for her family's escape from Russia. They were fleeing the latest pogroms against the Jews by Cossack raiders in the early 20th century. The family made its way to Romania and then, miracle of miracles, to the United States and Philadelphia in 1920. At Ellis Island, her name was changed from the original Sasha to Sarah, and ultimately, while in William Penn High School, in Philadelphia, she picked Sydelle.