Jonathan Blumhofer
Two takes on the orchestral music of Prokofiev — one impish and unpretentious, the other revelatory.
Even if this isn’t the most interpretively satisfying of Daniel Barenboim’s traversals through this repertoire, it is a deeply revealing one that draws on a lifetime of experience with this music.
Guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan new release is arresting for how natural the transcriptions sound: it’s as though they’d been intended for this instrumentation all along.
A trio of reviews of recordings that include sadly neglected pieces by Dvořák, pianist Mitsuko Uchida’s phenomenal Diabelli Variations, and a haunting, arresting round-up of new music by the Departure Duo.
For balance and virtuosity, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra plays Rued Langgaard’s “Klippepastoraler” for all it’s worth. That just doesn’t end up being very much.
These stories occupy their own, distinctive spaces but they share something intangible. A kind of humanity, maybe? Perhaps.
This is a strongly-played effort that makes a powerful case for the vitality and worth of Erwin Schulhoff’s oeuvre, particularly his mature chamber music.
Overall, this is a strong program done in by unsatisfying recorded sound.
Pianist John Wilson, like his mentor Michael Tilson Thomas, is a servant of the music rather than its dictator and he knows both when and how to step back and let it speak.
Classical Music Commentary: Top Classical Performances and Recordings of 2022
What a great year 2022 was for classical music recordings: the canon, new music, neglected music – all of it was well-represented and from all comers.
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