Reviews

Music From the Inside Out

Classical gets its Behind the Music

By MATTIAS FREY | March 6, 2006

3.0 Stars

MUSIC FROM THE INSIDE OUT: Hal Robinson on bass

Through a series of individual and group interviews, Daniel Anker explores the head, heart, and bowels of the Philadelphia Orchestra. This is hardly the reverent or glamorous document one might expect of such an august body. Anker portrays the musicians not as cosmopolitan heroes but more like a talented club of awkward geeks. One string player relates how schoolmates thought the perpetual bruise on her neck (from habitual practice) was a love bite. Acclaimed violinist David Kim explains how Jerry Maguire inspired his transition from solo performer to orchestra member. These anecdotes are Anker’s coup. The stuttered, lisped, and generally ineloquent interviews form a revealing counterpoint to the fluency of the musicians’ performance. By examining the prosaic innards of virtuosos, Anker diagnoses vulnerability as a pre-requisite of the sublime.