Jonathan Blumhofer

Concert Review: The Bard in Boston, Part 2

February 9, 2016
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Everyone on stage seemed to sense that this was a special occasion and the BSO, accordingly, played with an extra jolt of electricity.

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Concert Review: The Bard in Boston – Part 1

February 2, 2016
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This season’s three-week commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death – the first such thematic series of Andris Nelsons’ BSO directorship – go off to a compelling start.

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Album Review: Bertrand plays Dutilleux and Debussy plus Mendelssohn Symphonies nos. 3 & 4 (Harmonia mundi), and Forsythe sings Handel (Avie)

January 26, 2016
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Three new classical music albums: two are superior, one is a bit of a mixed bag.

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Fuse Concert Review: Orchestre National de France at Symphony Hall

January 25, 2016
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My snoring neighbor left during intermission (he was roused a bit when the musical vigor picked up in the finale of the Mozart).

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Classical Music Commentary: 2016 Orchestral Winter/Spring Season Preview

January 10, 2016
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The upcoming season is a remarkably robust one in terms of the variety of offerings and the quality (and number) of participating ensembles.

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Classical Music Commentary: “Boulez est mort”

January 8, 2016
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And yet, for all the violence of his youthful polemics and his unflinchingly-held beliefs, Pierre Boulez was neither demagogue nor ideologue.

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Classical Album Reviews: Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 3 and Mass in C (SFS Media), Music for Harp (Innova)

January 3, 2016
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Beethoven’s Mass in C is the highlight. Would that the San Francisco Symphony’s performance of the Third Concerto had more electricity.

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Fuse Remembrance: Kurt Masur (1927-2015)

January 3, 2016
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Kurt Masur leaves behind a complex legacy, one that’s not neatly (or easily) summed up by the caricature of a stern, conservative, Old World German maestro.

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Classical Album Review: Manfred Honeck conducts Beethoven’s Symphonies nos. 5 and 7

December 20, 2015
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This is truly exciting, world-beating Beethoven, played with gusto and a kind of musical intelligence that you simply can’t take for granted.

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Music Feature: Best Classical Performances of 2015

December 17, 2015
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Of course, it’s a tricky business to summarize a classical music scene as busy and wide as Boston’s.

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