Jonathan Blumhofer

Classic Music Album Review: Quatuor Diotima — György Ligeti’s “Metamorphosis”

March 8, 2023
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Quatuor Diotima evince a thorough command of György Ligeti’s style, as well as a breathtaking grasp of the demands he makes on the instruments.

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Classical Music Album Review: Beatrice Rana plays Schumann

March 7, 2023
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Pianist Beatrice Rana, joined by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and conductor Yanick Nézet-Séguin, plays the daylights out of Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor.

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Classical Album Reviews: Gianandrea Noseda and Franz Welser-Möst Conduct Prokofiev

March 3, 2023
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Two takes on the orchestral music of Prokofiev — one impish and unpretentious, the other revelatory.

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Classical Album Review: Daniel Barenboim conducts Schumann

January 28, 2023
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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.

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Classical Album Review: “God’s Time” — Guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan Plays the Music of J. S. Bach

January 26, 2023
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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.

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Classical Album Reviews: Dvořák’s Poetic Tone Pictures, Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, & “Immensity Of”

December 23, 2022
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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.

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Classical Music Commentary: Top Classical Performances and Recordings of 2022

December 15, 2022
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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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Classical Album Review: Rued Langgaard’s Symphony No. 1

December 6, 2022
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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.

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Classical Album review: Clarinetist Anthony McGill’s “American Stories”

December 5, 2022
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These stories occupy their own, distinctive spaces but they share something intangible. A kind of humanity, maybe? Perhaps.

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Classical Album Review: Czech-Born Composer Erwin Schulhoff — “Shapeshifter”

November 3, 2022
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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.

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