MUSIC

IN CELEBRATION OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Five Piano Sonatas George Walker, Steven Beck Bridge

A sequence of piano sonatas offers one of the most direct looks into a composer’s most private and most practical obsessions, not to mention one easy way to measure the evolution (or lack of evolution) of their compositional techniques. Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, and Schubert turned them out by the dozen. The romantics were more cautious, with Chopin, Brahms, Schumann writing only three each. In the 20th century, certain Russians regained ground in terms of sheer numbers, such as Mednter (14), Scriabin (10), Prokofiev (9) and Ustvolskaya (6). As for some prominent Americans, Copland, Carter and Barber wrote one, Ives wrote two, Sessions three and Wuorinen four. George Walker is one of the few leading American composers of the 20th century to produce as many as five piano sonatas. Taken together, they securely chart a lifetime of stylistic change. Walker was the first black person to break through various glass ceilings: the first to be accepted at the Curtis Institute of Music, first to study with Nadia Boulanger and the first to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music. Walker is also one of the only major composer-pianists to have recorded worthy performances of virtuoso standard repertoire including Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto and the Brahms second piano concerto.

Buddy Collette in Concert - Live Buddy Collette Bridge

A fluent multi-instrumentalist, and the composer of everything from TV jingles to chamber music to jamsession staples, Buddy Collette has tended to be a victim of his own versatility. But The Buddy Collette Big Band in Concert, which captures a 1996 performance in Washington, D.C., is probably his best calling card to date. For one thing, it demonstrates that the 75-year-old leader remains in fine form on the tenor sax, clarinet, and (especially) flute—check out his nuanced reading of “Blues in Torrance,” and the way his ebullient solo keeps bumping up against the tune’s descending harmonies. What’s more, the disk showcases Collette’s compositional gifts. He’s concocted some rousing vehicles for his 19-piece band, and the bright, brassy arrangements on “Andre” and “Blues Number Four” suggest late-period Basie, alternating catchy riffing with piquant solo voices. Among the latter, Garnett Brown delivers some attractively gutbucket trombone, while saxophonist Louis Taylor comes out swinging on “Magali.” There’s also a guest appearance by the leader’s old comrade-inarms Chico Hamilton, who drives the ensemble through a heated version of “Buddy Boo.” But despite his aversion to hogging the spotlight, this is clearly Collette’s show—and it’s about time, isn’t it? —James Marcus

Dorothy Maynor in Concert Dorothy Maynor, Arpad Sandor, piano Bridge

The release of this newly re-mastered 1940 recital by the great Dorothy Maynor is cause for celebration. Historian Rosalyn M. Story writes, “In the history of American singers, Dorothy Maynor stands out as an artist endowed with the power to exalt, to transport the hearer above the realm of the ordinary and beyond the limits of normal expectation.” A discovery of Serge Koussevitzky, who called her, “a musical revelation,” Maynor quickly established herself as one of the great talents of the era. This recital program contains riveting interpretations of songs and arias from the German and French and American repertoire. Maynor’s last group, and her encores focus on Negro spirituals. Writing in the Washington Post, Paul Hume called Maynor’s voice, “a starspangled glory; its effortless beauty haunted audiences that came to love the singer as much as the song.” It was that kind of communication that endeared Maynor to audiences, and made her one of her country’s greatest singers.

Leontine Price, Great Performances Leontyne Price and Samuel Barber Bridge

This award-winning disc compiles two live performances featuring Leontyne Price and Samuel Barber. The 1953 recording features the spectacular 26-year-old Leontyne Price, accompanied by Samuel Barber at the Library of Congress. The duo’s entire recital is issued complete for the first time. In this recital Ms. Price and Mr. Barber give the world premiere performance of Barber’s “Hermit Songs,” and perform Henri Sauguet’s “La Voyante” (The Fortune Teller) and other songs by Barber, Poulenc and Fauré. The remarkable 1938 recording, released to the public for the first time, gives us the 28-year-old baritone, Samuel Barber in 12 songs, accompanying himself at the piano. This rare recording reveals Barber as a performer of uncommonly deep communicative power. The 1938 recording (issued in cooperation with Mr. Barber’s estate and the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia) includes folk songs from England, America, the Tyrol and Tuscany as well as lieder by Schumann, Brahms, Mendelssohn, C.P.E Bach and Schubert.

Algonquin Cecil Taylor Bridge

The visionary piano virtuoso Cecil Taylor was commissioned by the Library of Congress to write a work for violin and piano in 1999. The result was Algonquin—an intensely joyful dialogue between violinist Mat Maneri and Taylor. Taylor’s score bridges the gap between jazz and classical music–between improvisation and notated music. As annotator Bill Shoemaker writes: “A Taylor score opens a moment of intense creativity, but only for that moment; afterwards, the score is merely part of the record, fodder for the files. What endures in Taylor’s music defies notation, conventional or otherwise. It begs the question: Is a score that is little more than an outline, and designed only for a single use, as legitimate as one where all aspects of performance are specified, and has been repeatedly performed over for years, decades and even centuries? Given the exhilarating energy conveyed through this recording, the answer is surely yes.” n

<15 JABARI ASIM

Your five main characters in “Yonder” go through harrowing, unforgiving beginnings to get to a fulfilling finale.

Part of the most horrific circumstances— I knew that at some point, my story would revolve around the question of “How do we get out of this?” I had to establish what this is before I could create the puzzle to get them out of harm’s way so that the reader could appreciate all that was at stake. There are five narrators: two couples and an itinerate minister named Ransom. At first, I was going to have it be just one of the main antagonist’s stories, his narration through the entire story, but as his partner had her own version of events, her story emerged, and the need for her to tell her tale. Multiple narrators is a much trickier proposition, but I figured what the heck? From there, the challenge was to make them vastly different, present them with wildly different circumstances and life experiences, and make them complementary personalities. One character may be brave but not so reflective, while another is his opposite, even spiritual. I thought it would be interesting to have people who love each other have that challenge between them.

Disrupting security to find freedom, even when that security is sad, horrific, and wrong, is at the heart of “Yonder.” Freedom is the goal for everyone. What was the challenge in writing what freedom looks like?

Each character has their own needs and their own goals, as well as an eye on what each of them is giving up to attain those goals. There’s something pragmatic at work for some of the characters, as this isn’t the best life, but the hurdle becomes the unknown, not knowing what else is out there. There are a lot of ‘what ifs’ about leaving one life for another that may be even worse. I wanted each character to discuss the understanding and the risks of where they were and where they might be going. There are generations of Black people who say that they would not have stood for slavery, that they would have fought back or run. It’s very easy for us to impose that judgment on people who lived in circumstances not our own or not of this present. But we could hardly imagine all of what they had to go through to arrive at the decisions they made for themselves or their families. People don’t consider blood relations, parents, children, and partners. Leaving loved ones behind is no simple task. n < 8 THE LIST / CITY

tric musical that won many a Tony and is now just down the block from where you live.

February 18 ZOPA Kung Fu Necktie.

Whether you know well the rhythm or rhyme of the New York City avant-indie rock trio, ZOPA, and its just-released debut album La Dolce Vita, is less of a problem once you get that its centerpiece is Michael Imperioli. The actor was forever a part of NYC’s underground arts scene at the top of the 1980s, Photo: Andrzej Liguz. which meant working in the close quarters of theater and music tied together as one. While ZOPA’s Elijah Amitin and Olmo Tighe made their way, solely through song, Imperoli became a “Goodfella,” a “Soprano”, and, most recently a tourist in HBO’s White Lotus season two, before doubling back to the trio, its single “In Pink,” and now, their full length. Plus, Kung Fu Necktie!?! Two yesses at once.

February 18–September: Harry Potter: The Exhibition The Franklin Institute

Along with The Cauldron Bar opening in Midtown Village/the Gayborhood, J. K. Rowling’s boldest creation (beyond the flight of fancy that is her weird personal opinion about identity) gets a comprehensive, immersive, interactive exhibition into all aspects of the Wizarding World, the Harry Potter series, and the Fantastic Beasts prequels. Not only does this sound very cute, it will also take a whole hell of a lot less time than those many books and that series of three hour+ movies.

February 22–27 Beautiful: The Carole King Musical Kimmel Cultural Campus

After the January 2022 passing of Ronnie Spector, the need to revive the vibe of what Carole King, Barry Mann, Gerry Goffin, Cynthia Weil, Neil Sedaka and Neil Diamond built and made classic is more necessary than ever. One problem: how do you do this without celebrating the truly heinous producer and songwriter Phil Spector who built that world with King, and formed a Wall of Sound around The Ronnettes, Darlene Love and others with King, Goffin, Mann and Weil’s help? Sorry to throw a damper on a fun evening out at the theater, but this is pop’s great conundrum all wrapped up in a not-so-neat bow. n

WHERE TO FIND ICON

ALLENTOWN

Allentown Art Musuem Baum School of Art Blick Art Civic Theatre Crown Supermarket Da Vinci Center Fegley’s Brew Works Lehigh Valley Chamber Hava Java Jewish Community Center Johnny Bagels Miller Symphony Hall Primo Cafe & Gelato Starbucks Venny’s Pizza Weis Food Market

BETHLEHEM

Ahart’s Market Azar Supermarket Banana Factory/ArtsQuest Bethlehem Brew Works Bethlehem Library BOX: Bethlehem House Gallery Cafe the Lodge Compact Disc Center Crown Supermarket Déja Brew Coffeehouse Designer Consigner Donegal Square Godfrey Daniels Hotel Bethlehem Johnny’s Bagels & Deli 1 Johnny’s Bagels & Deli 2 Latin Cruise Lore Salon L.V. Convention Center Mama Nin Rocecheria Menchies Moravian Book Store PBS Channel 39 Redner’s Warehouse Market Saxby’s Shoprite Snow Goose Gallery The Bagel Basket The Café The Cup/Lehigh University The Flying Egg Boutique Diner Valley Farm Market WDIY FM Lehigh Valley Wegman’s Supermarket Weis Market Wise Bean Zoellner Arts Center Alba Home A Mano Gallery Anton’s at the Swan A Touch of the Past Antiques Bear Apothecary Blue Raccoon BOX: Lambertville Station BOX: 5 & Dime BOX: Guiseppe’s Ristorante Bucks Espresso Del Vue Dry Cleaners Frame Shop Gio Salon Heritage Lighting Inn of the Hawke Lambertville House Niece Lumber People’s Store Rojo’s Roastery Swan Bar Walker’s Wine & Spirits Welsh’s Liquor

CENTER VALLEY

DeSales Performing Art Center

EASTON

3rd Street Alliance Buck Hall (performing arts Ctr) Ciao! The Cosmic Cup Easton Public Market Film & Media Studies Bldg. Gallery On Fourth Karl Stirner Arts Building Lafayette Art Gallery @Lehigh U. Lehigh Valley Chamber Playa Bowls Quadrant Book Mart/Café Sette Luna State Theatre The Strand Terra café W Graphics Williams Center for the Arts Williams Visual Arts Building LAMBERTVILLE

NEW HOPE

Alpha Dermatology Citizen’s Bank BOX: CVS & McCaffrey’s First National Bank Giant Supermarket Jamie Hollander Gourmet New Hope Cleaners New Hope Star Diner Penn Community Bank Wedgwood Bed & Breakfast 1830 Rittenouse 2101 Cooperative Inc 220 W. Rittenhouse Adademy House Acme Supermarket Adelphia House Anthony's Coffeeshop Arden Theater Aria Condos Arts Tower Condos Belgravia Condos Benjamin Franklin House Bishop's Collar Bluestone Lane BOX BOX (trolley turnabout) BOX (The Met) BOX (Craftworks BOX (Milcrate Cafe) Brauhaus Brewery Co Cafe Ole Center City One Chestnut Lofts City Fitness City Hall Visitors Lobby City Tap House City View Condos 1820 Rittenhouse Condos 1900 Rittenhouse Square Constitution Building Cosmopolitan Condos Dessert Crazy Earth Cup/Sam's Place Ellelauri Boutique Evil Genius Beer Company FOX29 Studio - Greenroom Franklin Tower Free Library of Philadelphia Fresh Grocer Good Dog Bar & Restaurant Good Karma Café Good Karma Café Good Karma Café Green Aisle Grocert Green Eggs Green Eggs Midtown Green Line Café Green Line Café Hawthorne's Café Hinge Cafe Historic: The Touraine Condos Historic: Waterfront Condos Historic: Waterfront Condos Historic: Trinity Condos Historic: Logan Condos Honey's Sit and Eat Hopkinson House (mailroom) IGA Supermarket Jefferson Hospital Jefferson Hospital (Main ) Jefferson Hospital (East) JJ'S Food Market Joe’s Coffee ShoP Johnny Brendas Kelly Writer's House Kite & Key La Colombe Torrefaction Last Drop Latimer Deli Left Bank Apartments Lucky Goat Coffee House Mad Rex Restauran Marathon Grill Mariposa Food Co-op Masala Kitchen Kati Rolls Memphis Taproom Metropolitan Bakery Milk & Honey Milk and Honey Café Milkboy Milkcrate Café Mixto Bar & Restaurant Mulberry Market Museum Towers National Liberty Museum National Mechanics Nook Bakery & Coffee Bar North Bowl OCF Coffee House Old Nelson Food Market One Franklin Towne Condos Oregon Market Palm Tree Market Philadelphia Java Co Pier 3 Condos Pier 7 Condos Pizza Brain Plough and the Stars Punk Burger Race Street Cafe Rally Coffee Reading Terminal Reanimator Coffee Rittenhouse Market River Loft Riverview Apartments Rodriguez Free Library Rotten Ralph’s Saladworks Sassafras Market Saxby’s Coffee Rittenouse Shop Rite Shop Rite (Bridge/Harbison) Shop Rite (shelf) Silk City Sporting Club at Bellevue Standard Tap Starbucks Stateside Steap & Grind Suburban Station Supremo Food Market Suya Suya Sweat Sweat Fitness The Bean Cafe The Carlyle Apartments The Collonade The Dorchester (mail room) The Dorchester (lobby) The Foodery The Foodery The Good Spoon The National at Old City The Phoenix The Sterling The View at Old City The Westbury Apartments The Wireworks Tivoli Condos Tuscany Apartments Tuscany Cafe (Rittenhouse) Walnut Towers Warwick Condos Watermark Waterworks World Cafe Live Yakitori Boy Zama

PHILADELPHIA

<16 BOOKS

is anything but. A naked young man lies dead in the street, the apparent victim of a collision with a truck hurtling through the dark. But any thoughts of accidental death vanish when a blood trail leads to a nearby home.

Inside, a young woman lies butchered. The identity of the male victim and his role in the horror remain elusive, but that of the woman creates additional questions. Adding to the shock, Alex has met her while working a case. Cordelia Gannett was an internet influencer who’d gotten into legal troubles by posing as a psychologist. Even after promising to desist, she continued to amass clicks and ads by counseling followers.

Upon closer examination, Alex and Milo discover that her own relationships are troublesome. Has that come back to haunt her in the worst way? Is the mystery man collateral damage or will he turn out to be the key to solving a grisly double homicide? As the psychologist and the detective explore L.A.’s meanest streets, they peel back layer after layer of secrets and encounter a savage, psychologically twisted, almost unthinkable motive for violence and bloodshed.

The Prophet’s Wife by Libbie Grant Avon, $16.99

In 1825, Emma Hale marries an itinerant treasure-digger who has nothing but a conviction that he speaks directly to God. His name is Joseph Smith and he will found the Mormon religion. While the Mormon religion runs beyond the grasp of its founder, Emma struggles to maintain her place in Joseph’s heart and the religion that has become her world. Joseph maintains his authority by issuing ever-stranger commandments on God’s behalf, culminating in an edict that men should marry as many women as they please. Polygamy only sets them further apart, and soon their communities are ravaged by violence at the hands of their fellow Americans. For Emma, things take a personal toll as Joseph brings in a new woman whom Emma considers a sister. She knows there will never be peace until Joseph faces the law. But on the half-wild edge of the frontier, he’s more likely to find death at the hands of a vigilante posse than a fair trial. For the sake of her people—and her soul—Emma must convince the Prophet of God to surrender... and perhaps to sacrifice his life. n < 10 FILM ROUNDUP

it’s astonishing how palatable they seem in context. The film revolves around several buried secrets, not only among the women, but the country in which they live. It’s debatable if the story’s political thrust entirely meshes with the intentionally overripe central relationship. But there’s something resonant and deeply moving about the big swings Almodóvar takes here, even if they don’t completely connect. [R] HHH1/2

The Worst Person in the World (Dir. Joachim Trier). Starring: Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Hans Olav Brenner. Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s drama—the third in his loose “Oslo Trilogy” that includes Reprise and Oslo, 31 August—is an odd duck. Broken into 12 chapters, with a Prologue and an Epilogue, it follows four years in the life of a young woman named Julie (Renate Reinsve), who pursues multiple careers while pingponging between two men, macho comic artist Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie) and sweet, doughy barista Eivind (Herbert Nordrum). The film begins in an agitated register that nicely mirrors Julie’s own indecision. But as the story unfolds, she becomes less and less the focus, despite appearing in every scene. In truth, she seems a construct through which the Aksel character (and perhaps Trier himself) can express a begrudging perspective on humanity. It must be admitted that Lie gives his all to a moving climactic monologue that nails the feeling of being left behind by the culture to which you’ve dedicated yourself. Yet how strange that a seemingly female-centered tale should turn out to be, at heart, a rather shallow and regressive male weepie. [R] HH1/2 n

Solution to THEMELESS NO. 18 < 8 THE LIST / VALLEY

nicely eclectic, esoteric mix of old and new CDs and LPs, movie and music DVDs, and hordes of cassettes—a feast for lo-fi guys like me. Pleasant surprises abound: a “Soul Train” boxed set; a video collection of Frank Sinatra concerts; Italian soundtrack numbers cut by Chet Baker, the great jazz trumpeter; BBC sessions from Renaissance, the orchestral rock band with classical Russian chops. A robust sense of history is nurtured by co-owner Mary “Radak” Radakovits, whose radio show Rock with Radak is a soul/garage/girl-group thrill (6-9 p.m. Wednesdays on WLVR 91.3 FM/HD2). (1365 Easton Ave., Bethlehem; 610-868-3070; cdcenterpa.com)

The Old Library Bookshop is guarded by a scale-model knight in armor. A storybook mascot suits a storybook store opened by a daughter-and-mother team in 1996 in Hellertown’s old public library and run since 2000 in a former Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall in Bethlehem. Shelf after shelf holds delight after delight: a memoir by Dr. Rock Positano, Joe DiMaggio’s healing orthopedist and preferred dinner mate; the novel Bech at Bay signed by author John Updike; a volume of molten, electric paintings by James Paul Kocsis, whose Nisky Hill Cemetery monument features his and his wife’s life masks. The stacks are framed by a banquet of framed prints: landscapes, cityscapes, even an ad for a 1940 movie starring Mickey Rooney as young Thomas Edison. (1419 Center St.; 610-814-3434; oldlib.com)

Lehigh University’s campuses are contemporary sculpture gardens, with many pieces donated by Muriel and Philip Berman, the late philanthropist/provocateurs. One of the most playful works is Menashe Kadishman’s “Trees,” eight towering rusty rectangles with cut-out tree forms that double as portals to real trees arranged in a similar diagonal grove. The magnetic installation invites walking around and through; it’s truly enter-active. (Murray H. Goodman athletic complex, Bethlehem; 610-758-3615; luag.org)

The Cathedral Church of the Nativity is an architectural hodgepodge, a Gothic Revival castle, fortress and stone dragon. Last year it was humanized by seven “cascades” of netted fabric flowers tumbling from the window frames of an impressive semicircular gallery. Made by Yarns of Love volunteers, they are beautiful memorials and gorgeous prayers. (Corner of 3rd Street and Route 378, Bethlehem; 610-865-0727; cathedralnativity.org) n

<5 LIKE A BIG PIZZA PIE

The moon is fortunate to have ended up beyond the Roche Limit, which is the point where it is safe from the Earth’s destructive ways. Mars has a moon that is spiraling toward the planet a handful of feet per day, and in something like 50-million years it will crash into the surface with the residuum becoming a ring. That will be visually dramatic but probably a bad time to book your visit.

We know a lot about what the moon is made of. The other bodies in our solar system vary quite a bit in makeup from each other, but the earth and moon are significantly similar. The way it always faces the earth is called tidal lock. Of the different ways earth and moon could have come to be in that situation, the only theory supported by the fact we have identical isotopes is an impact 4.5 billion years ago with a Mars-sized body, referred to by scientists as Theia. When the dust settled, there was the moon; part Theia, part us.

The effects of the moon’s cooling and contracting on its terrain have been helpful in determining both its history and structure. By analyzing remnant magnetic fields, we understand how its overall magnetic field (which used to be as strong as earth’s) weakened to almost nothing as its insides cooled and changed composition. Put that together with observations of orbital and rotation variations, rock samples that were brought to the surface by eruptions and impacts, Doppler shift of radio transmissions, and measurements of surface movements from the cooling, and that’s amore.

Celestial bodies stretched and bulged and banged into each other more often in the early days. It was a tough neighborhood to live in, which is one reason why nobody was here. But we are now. The moon plays a cultural role in our history as far back as you look. It has filled the jobs of deity, clock, and calendar. It shows up in stories, movies, songs, poems, and legend. The moon is hard to ignore, hanging up there all round and bright. For many creatures, it’s impossible to do without; it’s their migratory GPS. Our own species has never existed when that huge gravitational mass wasn’t moving seas and continents twice a day with precision you can measure clocks by . . . so why would you think it influences us less than it does a duck.

Let me mention here that the moon is still the same size and mass regardless of phase. When we observe a full moon, the sun is (roughly) on the opposite side of the earth from it, and when we see a new moon (or more likely don’t), the sun is in that same part of the heavens. But the entire moon is always there. It’s the combined tidal pull of both moon and Sun that moves oceans, guides wildfowl, and confuses New Jersey drivers.

When I look at the moon, the throughgoing realization that my friends here, and in New York, and in Maine, could be seeing and feeling the very same things as I am at that moment gives me a deep sense of awe. I can include friends on other continents, Bruce in Wales, Marian in Belgium, and Diop in Senegal, all seeing the same thing and giving wonder. How can you not? n