Classical Source: Philadelphia Orchestra/Yannick Nézet-Séguin at Carnegie Hall

Reviewed by Lewis M. Smoley

Tod Machover’s Philadelphia Voices, in its New York premiere, is a truly contemporary work catering to today’s audiences who crave the familiar over the artistic. Not to say that this spectacular mélange for voices, orchestra and taped material garnered from Philadelphians themselves, is not musically creative but its focus is clearly to connect more with a wider audience. In Philadelphia Voices, Machover pieces together spoken material collected from thousands of Philadelphians and intersperses it with poetry and conversation sung by a vast chorus that combines contemporary melodic stylistic qualities with sometimes dense contrapuntal passages. The texts contributed by “folks like us” are strung together to celebrate aspects of Philadelphia that are enjoyed most by those who live and work there.

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