January 13-19, 2005

musicpicks

Philomel

classical

What didn't Benjamin Franklin do? The eternal embodiment of our city was, arguably, the greatest dilettante in modern history. He was an enthusiastic collector and player of many musical instruments, and the inventor of the glass armonica, which was adopted by none other than Mozart. Franklin was no slouch as a musician, either. His house on Market Street was a center of musical life in Colonial Philadelphia. Philomel, the venerable baroque ensemble, honors Franklin on this 299th anniversary year of his birth with a bouquet of works that the old man would have known in his day, as played on period instruments. The program mixes high- and middle-brow musical art in a manner that was common in the 18th century, a format that Philomel can dispatch with breezy, delightful aplomb. As musical co-director and harpsichordist Bruce Bekker notes, "concerts here [in the late 18th century] brought together not just a small coterie of music-lovers but a wide range of social classes, from tradespeople and shopkeepers to the upper crust." It would be wonderful to recreate that audience as well as the music. This three-concert series concludes with dramatic resonance in a space that Franklin himself visited regularly: historic Christ Church in Old City.

Fri., Jan. 14, 8 p.m., St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Chestnut Hill; Sat., Jan. 15, 8 p.m., St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Doylestown; Sun., Jan. 16, 4 p.m., Christ Church, Second and Market sts., 215-487-2344.

—Peter Burwasser