Caldwell Titcomb
There is no doubt that Christian Tetzlaff stands among the very top rank of today’s violinists. Reviewed By Caldwell Titcomb It’s not often that one enters Jordan Hall and sees a completely empty stage—no chair, no piano, no music stand. But all that was needed was a bare floor to accommodate the 43-year-old, German violinist…
Read MoreBy Caldwell Titcomb Feb. 3, 5, 6: The Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) stages Benjamin Britten’s “Turn of the Screw,” based on Henry James’ tense ghost story. Conducted by Andrew Bisantz. The singers and production staff are all making their BLO debuts. The Castle at Boston Park Plaza & Towers, 130 Columbus Avenue, Boston. 7:30 p.m.
Read MoreThis Rhode Island theater merits praise for its courage in staging dramatist Sarah Kane’s highly unorthodox portrayal of severe depression. 4:48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane. Directed by Tony Estrella. Presented by The Gamm Theatre, Pawtucket, RI, through February 7. Reviewed By Caldwell Titcomb The Gamm Theatre in Pawtucket merits praise for its courage in staging…
Read Moreby Caldwell Titcomb Time was when Boston had a City Censor, and books and plays drummed up trade by getting “Banned in Boston.” The Boston Modern Orchestra Project, headed by conductor Gil Rose, came up with the deliciously punning title “Band in Boston” for its Jordan Hall concert on January 22. Indeed there was not…
Read MoreBy Caldwell Titcomb The Cantata Singers, founded in 1964, has for 27 years had David Hoose as its Music Director. This year Hoose chose Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) as the composer to be featured in all four of the season’s concerts. There were numerous fine composers working in the seventeeth century, but Schütz is the greatest…
Read MoreBy Caldwell Titcomb Jordan Hall in Boston was filled to capacity for the January 8 Celebrity Series recital by pianist Emanuel Ax. Now 60 years old, he has long harbored a reputation as a serious and thoughtful musician.
Read MoreBy Caldwell Titcomb Jan. 6,7,8,9,12: The Boston Symphony is led by Ton Koopman (b. 1944), Dutch keyboardist, conductor, and specialist in early music, knighted in 2003 in the Netherlands. With a bow to Haydn, the bicentennial of whose death occurred in 2009, there are two works: Symphony No. 98 in B-flat Major (1792), and Cello…
Read MoreBy Caldwell Titcomb Courtesy of the Celebrity Series, the Emerson String Quartet, founded in our country’s bicentennial year of 1976, was in town for a Jordan Hall concert on December 4. Since the founding cellist and viola player served only briefly, the current members – Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer, violins; Lawrence Dutton, viola; David…
Read MoreLeonard Bernstein was the most charismatic conductor of the last century. Gustavo Dudamel is the most charismatic of this one – and is likely to remain so for a long time to come. By Caldwell Titcomb In the arena of classical music, the world’s most exciting personage continues to be Gustavo Dudamel, the dynamo from…
Read MoreBy Caldwell Titcomb Dec. 1: The Tufts Early Music Ensemble, including singers and instrumentalists, will present a free concert of secular music by the great 15th-century composer Guillaume Dufay and his contemporaries, whom we rarely get to hear in live performance. Distler Performance Hall, Granoff Music Center, Tufts University, 8 p.m.
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Music Commentary: New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Fest versus French Quarter Fest