Jonathan Blumhofer

Classical Album Review: “Dependent Arising” — Lots of Sound and Fury

August 28, 2023
Posted in , , ,

A three-movement concerto for violin and orchestra, “Dependent Arising” fuses the worlds of heavy metal, punk rock, and 20th-century classical composition into a furious, frenetic, sometimes tortured thirty-minute whole.

Classical Album Review: Pierre-Laurent Aimard Plays Bartók’s Piano Concertos

August 27, 2023
Posted in , , ,

Ultimately, then, we’ve got something special here: a fresh take on some canonic works by a conductor and soloist whose bread-and-butter is this very fare.

Classical Album Review: Rautavaara & Martinů Piano Concertos

July 30, 2023
Posted in , , ,

Move over, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, and Bartók: the pantheon of great Third Piano Concertos is growing.

Classical Album Review: Charles Villiers Stanford’s “Requiem”

July 29, 2023
Posted in , , ,

This new recording of Charles Villiers Stanford’s”Requiem” by Martyn Brabbins, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO), and the University of Birmingham Voices, is beautiful and often memorable.

Classical Music Album Review: John Corigliano’s Piano Music

July 28, 2023
Posted in , , ,

An album that does admirable justice to one of the most prolific, significant, and increasingly long-lived composers of a remarkable generation.

Classical Music Album Review: Violinist Randall Goosby Plays Concertos by Max Bruch and Florence Price

July 27, 2023
Posted in , , ,

Randall Goosby’s sophomore album proves that the violinist is the real deal.

Classical Album Review: Karina Canellakis conducts Bartók — Pretty Much as Good as They Come

May 29, 2023
Posted in , , ,

This is an album of top-notch orchestral playing. Yet the real star is Karina Canellakis.

Book Review: “Beethoven in the Bunker” — A Welcome, But Scattered, Point of Departure

May 28, 2023
Posted in , ,

In place of coherent, in-depth analysis, the author has provided us with a series of short profiles on various individuals, some of them familiar, others less so. The tack presents problems that can’t be overcome.

Classical Album Review: Martin Fröst’s “Ecstasy and Abyss” — A Mixed Bag of Mozart

May 27, 2023
Posted in , , ,

The best items in this all-Mozart album are the concertos.

Classical Album Review: Violinist Maria Ioudenitch’s “Songbird” Soars

May 26, 2023
Posted in , , ,

Violinist Maria Ioudenitch seems to know how to get directly at the expressive core of this fare without devolving into showboating or histrionics.

Recent Posts

Popular Posts

Categories

Archives