Despite “Middle C”’s relative cheeriness, the novel passes a tough sentence on the human race, so uncompromising that its protagonist has a hard time writing it down.

In the end, the technological snafu probably did more than the musical selections themselves to prove that listening to symphonic music ‘live’ is not a stuffy affair.

Respect for the building and its makers, respect for the historical study of art, respect for the visitor’s relation to the displays. These are qualities that I find in the New Rijksmuseum and missed in the old one.

There is a steadiness about Nicholas Roe’s writing that is deceptive; the life in the Life does not jump off the page, but it accumulates during the reading so that something of what it felt like to be around John Keats remains, as things do when truly experienced.

“A Constellation of Vital Phenomena” is spectacular.

May is inevitably one of the busiest times of year on the Latin, gospel, and R&B concert calendars as promoters hold Mother’s Day’s events and try to lure audiences indoors one last time before the start of summer.

While reading Andre Maurois’ “Climates” you feel your world narrowing in uncomfortable ways.

The return to the standard repertoire, which, since January, has been the orchestra’s primary focus, is safe, unassuming, and (potentially, at least) creatively stifling.

In George Balanchine’s Serenade and Symphony in C and in Wayne McGregor’s Chroma, architecture comes to the fore, but not exactly conveying the message that company director Mikko Nissinen seems to have intended.

The first Boston Calling Music Festival, plus Buffalo Tom, Mean Creek, Andrea Gillis, and Math the Band.