Capriccio

Opera Album Review: Two Surrealistically Delightful One-Acts

July 8, 2023
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Bohuslav Martinů, one of the greatest Czech-born composers, reveals a dark-comic sensibility in his rarely performed “Knife” and “Bridge” operas.

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Opera Album Review: Finally on CD — a Searing ’60s Opera from Russia about the Nazi Era

July 2, 2022
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Moissey Vainberg’s opera powerfully evokes the brutality of Hitler’s extermination camps and the moral ambiguity of postwar Germany.

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Classical CD Review: A Ballet of Human Sacrifice — Set in Ancient Mexico or Post–World War I Germany?

May 1, 2021
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Egon Wellesz’s Weimar era critique of the cruelty of nations that are victorious in war still rings hauntingly true.

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Classical Album Review: Commedia dell’arte Clowns in a World of Heartbreak

December 3, 2020
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Dohnányi and Schnitzler’s “pantomime” The Veil of Pierrette receives its first, and resplendent, recording.

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Classical CD Reviews: Luciano Berio’s Coro, Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass,” and Shostakovich’s “Babi Yar”

February 26, 2020
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The relative infrequency of big Berio releases makes new recordings of his major works into significant, contemporary music events; Dennis Russell Davies’ new recording of Bernstein’s Mass is done in by lax vocals and a paucity of emotional consistency; Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra supply a great Shostakovich Thirteenth Symphony.

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Opera Album Review: The Most Neglected Master of Opera? Carl Maria von Weber, Early and Late

February 13, 2020
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New recordings of Peter Schmoll and His Neighbors and of Euryanthe pose an embarrassing question: why is the opera repertory so narrow?

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Opera Album Review: Oscar Wilde in the Opera House, Part 1 — Zemlinsky’s Intense Setting of “A Florentine Tragedy”

January 21, 2020
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Salome is not the only strong opera based on an Oscar Wilde play. This one-acter by Zemlinsky deserves a place in the repertoire today.

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Classical CD Reviews: Florence Price’s Symphonies nos. 1 & 4, George Antheil’s Symphonies nos. 3 & 6, and 20th-century Russian Orchestral Music

February 1, 2019
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Fine recordings of symphonies by neglected American composers Florence Price and George Antheil; and a curious album from Cornelius Meister and the ORF Radio-Sinfonieorchester Wien.

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Classical CD Reviews: Sir Neville Marriner — The London Recordings, Richard Strauss, Ein Heldenleben, James MacMillan String Quartets

August 28, 2018
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A winning reminder of Sir Neville Marriner’s impressive stylistic range as a conductor, a fine recording of a much-loved and -played Richard Strauss tone poem, and a striking, powerful presentation of the string quartets of James MacMillan.

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