With activity on my book on the Curtis String Quartet ramping up and my own chamber music activity increasing--all to the good mind you--I haven't taken the time to blog about every concert. But there have been three remarkable experiences lately.

The first I want to tell you about was Kim Kashkashian's viola recital as part of the PCMS series on 10 February over at the American Philosophical Society on Chestnut Street. She is a terrific violist and played an all-Schubert…

Curtis offered its 42nd student recital on Monday night and it was a knockout. Nigel Armstrong led off with two Paganini caprices, #4 and #24, as altered by his teacher, Arnold Steinhart. As must have thought it wasn't hard enough the way Paganini wrote it and made it harder. Armstrong has everything imaginable, a supple right arm, a nimble left hand, lots of personality and stage presence and musicianship, and a bow tie to boot. You don't see that much.

Second in the order…

Something for everyone Monday night at Curtis, from Bach to Stravinsky. Steven Waarts led off with Beethoven's 7th violin sonata. This is one of the most beautiful of Beethoven's 10 sonatas, and beautifully played.

Next up, Jenny Chen began a set of 4 groups of pieces: a selection from Bach's Well-tempered Clavier, part 2; two of 12 etudes, Op. 10, by Chopin; a piece by Debussy, and then Three Movements from Petrushka by Stravinsky. Very engaging playing, as…

The Orion Quartet--Daniel and Todd Phillips,who are brothers, trading duties on 1st and 2nd Violin, Timothy Eddy, cellist, and Steve Tennenbom, on the staff at Curtis, violist--put on a fine performance at the Seaport Museum. It was the latest on the PCMS series.

The first half of the program was devoted to Mozart's C Major quartet, "the dissonant," and Johannes Brahms's 1st string quartet, opus 51, No. 1. Todd Phillips played the 1st on both of these pieces. The Mozart was…