Jonathan Blumhofer
This was a “Resurrection” Symphony for today: urgent and unsettled, yes, but also searching, persevering, and, ultimately, triumphant. If the weekend turns out to have marked conductor Benjamin Zander’s last go-around with this masterpiece, what a way to finish.
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It is serendipitous that James Ehnes added Brahms’ two viola sonatas to his repertoire; Patrick Messina, Lise Berthaud, and Fabrizio Chiovetta’s new recording of Bruch’s “8 Pieces for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano” serves the piece admirably.
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A conspicuously inviting account of Béla Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, and a welcome surprise: Aram Khachaturian actually wrote a pretty good piano concerto.
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The Sphinx Virtuosi is terrific: the group’s unified tone and articulations, impeccable responsiveness and technique, and command of stylistic nuance are all of the first rank.
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A pair of pleasant traversals of the French master’s complete piano music, or thereabout, from the still-relative-newcomer Seong-Jin Cho and the established Jean-Efflam Bavouzet.
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Violinist James Ehnes and the BBC Philharmonic supply some truly great performances; violinist Benjamin Schmid revels in composer Friedrich Gulda’s freewheeling sense of play.
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Semyon Bychkov supplies an extraordinarily well-played account of Mahler’s Third; Paavo Järvi’s version of Mahler’s Fifth avoids the more idiosyncratic excesses of Leonard Bernstein’s superb 1987 Vienna recording.
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Nash Ensemble’s new album captures much of what makes Claude Debussy’s chamber music so fresh and beloved. Orion Weiss’s Arc III is smart, timely programming, dispatched with insight and care.
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Sir Simon Rattle and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra solve the riddle of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 7. The conductor and the London Symphony Orchestra also offer a refreshingly impish, characterful traversal of music by Kurt Weill.
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Cultural Commentary: On the National Arts
There’s nothing benign about what just happened on the banks of the Potomac. Indeed, the president’s move makes history of the most nefarious kind: for the first time, the federal government has hijacked what is supposed to be the nation’s premiere arts institution in an effort to explicitly censor voices and viewpoints it deems undesirable.
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