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“For Forever”:

Glenn L. Rudolph 01/09/2018 Essays, Music As Language
One reason I enjoy late night TV is the opportunity it often affords for discovering new, unusual musical artists and performances. Last Call with Carson Daly does that for me, as did the Late Show with David Letterman. Since Letterman’s retirement, Stephen Colbert’s shows have occasionally surprised me with unexpected musical rewards. On December 22, the Colbert show repeated a show from earlier in the year, May 22 to be exact. Colbert’s second guest was the singer/actor Ben Platt who, at the time, was performing the lead role in the musical Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway. Dear Evan Hansen was…
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Tell Tale: Short Stories by Jeffrey Archer

Glenn L. Rudolph 12/17/2017 Books, Reviews
Back in November, I learned of the author, Jeffrey Archer, while listening to Michael Smerconish’s SiriusXM show. I had never heard of, or read Jeffrey Archer’s work, but I’m here to tell you, this collection of 14 short stories (eight of which were inspired by true events) is fantastic. Unique, the first story of the collection was written as a response to a challenge from the New York editor of Reader’s Digest. The task was to write a story of exactly 100 words – not 99, not 101. The story was to have a beginning, middle and end, and was…
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Discovering Wild and Wonderful Jazz

Glenn L. Rudolph 08/04/2016 Recordings, Reviews
When asked to name their favorite kind of music, many folks will say they listen to mostly one kind; be it country, hip hop, hard rock, rap, etc. I, and most of my musician friends and acquaintances will tell you we listen to many different styles of music and our current favorite changes often, frequently triggered by a chance hearing of some new piece of music in concert or, as in my case in many instances, on TV. My recording collection is pretty eclectic: it contains classical music from the Renaissance to the avant-garde, lots of choral music of all…
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PSO – J.S. Bach: St. John Passion

Glenn L. Rudolph 03/06/2016 Concerts, Reviews
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra March 6, 2016 J.S. Bach: St. John Passion Manfred Honeck, conductor Sam Helfrich, director Vocalists: Martin Lattke, Paul Armin Edelmann, Sunhae Im, Andrey Nemzer, Thomas Cooley, Lucas Meachem, Alexander Elliott, Jeffrey Klefstad, Amelia D’Arcy, Jonathan MacDonald The Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh Bach, Beethoven and Brahms – the classical music triumvirate, the original killer B’s. I have been a huge fan of J.S. Bach’s music since I had the opportunity to sing his B Minor Mass as an undergraduate music student in Cincinnati. Universally acknowledged as a genius, his music is not programmed by symphony orchestras as much…
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PSO – Conrad Tao: Pángu

Glenn L. Rudolph 11/01/2015 Concerts, Reviews
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra November 1, 2015 Tao: Pángu Gershwin: Concerto in F major for Piano and Orchestra Strauss: Symphonia Domestica Conrad Tao: Pángu When I select PSO concerts each season to include in my subscription, as a composer, I naturally focus on concerts that include contemporary works. And so my primary interest in this concert was Conrad Tao’s Pángu. Pángu is a short, concert overture length work (7 minutes) for full orchestra. The composer’s program notes first relate the Chinese creation myth of Pángu and then proceed to detail how the composition reflects various aspects of the myth. Pángu is…
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Casablanca

Glenn L. Rudolph 03/01/2015 Concerts, Reviews
Casablanca Released: January 23, 1943 Michael Curtiz, director Max Steiner, composer I’m embarrassed to say that, until the PSO presented it on February 15th, I had not seen the movie Casablanca. I understood well that it is a classic; among the finest movies created, but while I love movies, most of my collection is post-2000. I am a huge fan of film scores, however, and am actually in the process of developing a continuing education course on the history of film scores. So when I received an email from the PSO announcing that they would be presenting Casablanca at Heinz Hall with…
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Branca & Theofanidis Symphonies

Glenn L. Rudolph 12/26/2014 Essays, General, Recordings, Reviews
This post is as much a philosophical discussion of what a symphony is, or should be, as it is a review of two symphonies, so I’ve posted it under both Essays and Recording Reviews. While I was compiling my list of favorite symphonies and preparing to teach a new course on the symphony, I realized I needed to bring my knowledge of contemporary (post-Stravinsky) symphonies up to speed. So while accumulating recordings for my library, I began organizing my thoughts around what it means to compose a symphony – what are my expectations when I listen to a work titled…
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Pittsburgh Camerata: Dec 20, 2014

Glenn L. Rudolph 12/21/2014 Concerts, Reviews
Pittsburgh Camerata Recounting the Nativity St. Andrews Episcopal Church This was the one concert on my list that I anticipated most. I’ve had the pleasure to sing with the Pittsburgh Camerata and was their assistant conductor for a year back in the early 1990’s. It was the most polished ensemble I ever had the opportunity to conduct and I had a blast. The Camerata was a semi-professional choir back then; it is a fully paid, professional ensemble now and their sound yesterday evening was wonderful. For me, the litmus test for a choir’s sound, professional or not, is the tenor…
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