ArtsWatch

Because it has a great acoustic, and because Philadelphia Orchestra concerts there usually come after performing the same program several times, Carnegie Hall is often the site where you hear the Philadelphia Orchestra in its highest form. Maybe it's also something about players being charged for a different sophisticated audience.
Friday night's Paradise and the Peri in Carnegie was dappled with great moments - but also marred by some surprising disarray. The chorus, the Philadelphia Singers Chorale, wasn't in top form. Simon Rattle seemed to lose control of the ensemble at one point. A trumpet entrance was early. This time, Philadelphia got better than New York.
But I'd sit through Friday night again if I could, not only to get a handle on what happened, but also to linger in that performance's opening orchestra-only moments, when every player was absolutely on, and when the sonority was so smooth and luxurious it was, well, paradise. That must be what the Peri heard on the other side of heaven's gates luring her in.

Karlheinz Stockhausen has died, The Guardian reports. Much admired as a composer, perhaps less so as philosopher, he was 79.

Dailyinterview.net proceeds with a strategy to send web traffic through the roof by chatting with yours truly. The double lure of classical music and arts journalism - who could resist?

Conductor Antonio Pappano had a dulling affect on the Philadelphia Orchestra last night (Thursday). The program is familiar territory to the ensemble - Glinka, Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3, Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2. Pappano not only added little in the way of interpretive thought or stylistic philosophy, he also managed to strip the Rachmaninoff of a lot of its tension. My colleague David Stearns will have a review in Saturday's paper, and maybe he liked it more than I did. My guess though is that Pappano is off the unofficial list of candidates for the job of music director here. You can judge for yourself tonight.

It sounds like $400 million gets you a lot more performing arts center in China than it does in the U.S. The New York Times reports that the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, near Tiananmen Square, opened over the weekend. To read about what you might hear in "the egg," read Matthew Westphal.

Another Kimmel Center departure. Larry Fitzkee, vp for facilities at the Kimmel since 2002, is the new senior director of facilities and operations at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. In his new position, an announcement says, Fitzkee will be responsible for security, house management, production, engineering, housekeeping, facility maintenance and parking services. He will be a member of Peter B. Lane’s senior executive management team and will have a day-to-day responsibility for facility oversight, operations management, financial management and capitol project management.
If Lane's name sounds familiar, you might remember him as head of the Mann Center until recently. A search for his replacement continues.