Jonathan Blumhofer
Things are going well with Monadnock Music: before Saturday’s concert kicked off, managing director Christopher Sink announced that the festival had cleared its financial debts as it heads into next year’s 50th anniversary season.
For those who got to know the Discovery Ensemble over its truncated life, this was a vital ensemble, one that regularly embodied all that’s good about classical music.
What’s clear is that something needs to give and, after nearly thirty-five years of labor-management harmony, it’s apparent that the Met’s problems start at the top.
To judge from the BSO’s responsive playing and the audience’s enthusiastic responses, director-designate Andris Nelsons can’t do much wrong these days. Of course, a decade ago, neither could James Levine.
The emphasis of Monadnock’s coming concerts is, quite happily, American music by composers with strong ties to New England. It’s hard to imagine a more appropriate place to hear such fare or a better group of musicians to play it.
Classical CD Review: San Francisco Symphony’s “West Side Story” — A Brashly Invigorating Performance
The music of West Side Story sounds grippingly urgent and colorful as ever in the hands of one of America’s best orchestras and conductors.
Cuarteto Casals brings out Mozart’s playfulness, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester delivers a solid Dvorak’s Sixth, and James Brawn continues to brilliantly play Beethoven’s piano sonatas.
The Commonwealth Lyric Theater has again brought to the fore an underperformed, unfamiliar masterpiece well worth getting to know. Good for them and lucky for us.
Thanks to CLT’s pluck and commitment to underperformed repertoire, Boston audiences have the chance to check out the rarely performed opera “Mozart and Salieri” for themselves.
Opera Commentary: The Mess at the Met — … curtain!
On the surface, this is a deal that lets both sides go forward having saved face, though a closer look at things suggests that the musicians came out ahead.
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