Jonathan Blumhofer
Pianist Bertrand Chamayou demonstrates just how mercurial and influential Ravel could be; composer-pianist Stephen Hough’s Piano Concerto casts a Ravel-like spell.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“American Excursions” manages — and in a brisk fifty-nine minutes — to provide an impressive degree of racial, gender, and stylistic diversity.
The story of this album is that violinist María Dueñas enters as a star but emerges as a brilliant and preternaturally thoughtful artist.
There’s much to recommend in Behzod Abduraimov’s rendition of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2, which is both highly characterful and a lot of fun to listen to.
Some unfortunate misfires in a collection that, otherwise, has a lot going for it.

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