Jonathan Blumhofer
Pianist Daniil Trifonov’s no stranger to playing Rachmaninoff with Nelsons and the BSO—they delivered a memorable outing of this very piano concerto in 2019—and, while Saturday’s traversal was periodically rusty, it built in spirit and tightness as the evening proceeded.
Read More
On “hommages,” United Strings of Europe is technically secure, rhythmically precise, richly colored, and ever attuned to matters of nuance and spirit. Tchaikovsky’s output could be uneven, and this installment of Alpesh Chauhan’s continuing traversal of the Russian icon’s orchestral music with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra is proof.
Read More
Neeme Järvi, true to his usual form, favors brisk tempos, which tend to keep things from getting bogged down in Wilhelm Furtwängler’s bog of a Symphony No.2; Nicholas Collon leads a stupendous recording of Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5.
Read More
Violinist Lea Birringer does dazzlingly right by Sibelius and Szymanowski concertos and cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason finds life and defiance in Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2.
Read More
Pianist Bertrand Chamayou demonstrates just how mercurial and influential Ravel could be; composer-pianist Stephen Hough’s Piano Concerto casts a Ravel-like spell.
Read More
Pianist Stewart Goodyear livens up a tried-and-true program with works new and unfamiliar; the husband-and-wife team of Lukas Geniušas and Anna Geniushene survey piano music written on these shores, starting in 1932.
Read More
Pianist Yeol Eum Son is more than up to the demands of J.S. Bach and Maurice Ravel; violinist Bomsori brings exquisite balances and shimmering sonority to Bruch and Korngold.
Read More
Our conversation touched—considerably, as it turned out—on the current political climate and the dispiriting response of the musical world to the rising tide of homegrown authoritarianism.
Read More
Denis Kozhukin is an inspired guide to music geared toward young players by Sergei Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky; Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst serve up mixed rewards in performances of symphonies by Julius Eastman and Tchaikovsky.
Read More
Cultural Commentary: Time for Arts Groups, Large and Small, to Display Some Bona Fide Irreverence
The question before arts organizations and companies is the same one that looms over the rest of us: will they—can they—act before it’s too late?
Read More