Jonathan Blumhofer
Our classical music critics supply their favorites, albums and concerts, from over the past year.
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Though none of the works exhibit the stylistic flashiness of Fernande Decruck’s better-known contemporaries, they all suggest a musician of singular—and sometimes idiosyncratic—vision.
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The Arvo Pärt compositions here showcase a composer of remarkable stylistic coherence—but never dramatic complacency or creative stasis.
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The album ends up paying dividends, not just for fans and students of 20th-century composition, but for anyone interested in the broader reach and global development of classical music in the last century.
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Though Sibelius’s music has come to define whatever Finnish music is supposed to sound like, he certainly wasn’t the country’s only active, turn-of-the-20th-century composer.
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“Standard Stoppages” is a veritable cornucopia of sounds experienced in multifarious combinations, showcasing a diversity of fresh, inventive, and satisfyingly expressive voices operating at full tilt.
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A new recording of Carl Nielsen’s Symphony No. 5 from the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Edward Gardner captures much of what makes the composer’s writing in it sound so fresh.
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Both players are long-time friends and recital partners; the pair thrive on tackling big stylistic and musical contrasts that are tied together by performances that were both interpretively thoughtful and technically accomplished.
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How our memoirist and the man who shook Mickey Mouse’s hand crossed paths is characteristic of the author’s good fortune and perseverance.
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Arts Commentary & CD Reviews: On The Kennedy Center, Ben Folds, & Gustav Mahler
What have Donald Trump and John F. Kennedy got in common? Besides the office they hold, not much. Certainly not an appreciation for the arts: Trump is to the field what McDonald’s is to fine dining.
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