Jonathan Blumhofer
Violinist Kristin Lee revels in ragtime; pianist Jihye Chang commissioned a series of keyboard etudes from eight Boston-based composers.
Conductor Robert Treviño celebrates what we might call the dawning of the North American vernacular school; composer Ethan Iverson displays a fascination with instrumental color.
Wow. Stewart Goodyear can play Prokofiev. The Czech Philharmonic and Tomás Netopil are compelling advocates, playing Dvořák with plenty of rhythmic zest and tonal warmth.
There are already countless fine documents of the Sibelius Concerto, but Canadian violinist James Ehnes finds new angles from which to examine this favorite; Frank Dupree is a dexterous keyboardist whose grasp of Nikolai Kapustin’s jazzy style is assured.
The whole effort culminated in the finest orchestral performance these ears have heard in Boston since, well, the last time the Berliner Philharmoniker was here.
The Belvedere Series is a chamber music group whose mission of bringing the art form to new audiences is matched by an admirable desire to expand and redefine just what the canon is. Even better: that ambition is backed up by top-flight programming, playing, and musicianship.
The performances on the recording exhibit no conception of Shostakovich’s style – where is this music’s irony and sarcasm, let alone pathos? – not to mention any sense of how to navigate large-scale forms.
Not all of Atlanta Symphony Orchestra conductor Nathalie Stutzmann’s ideas about Dvorak’s Ninth Symphony add up, but there is not much to argue with in Czech Philharmonic Orchestra director Semyon Bychkov’s take on Dvorak’s Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Symphonies.
Carlos Simon’s gifts and voice are real even, as with every composer, his muse sometimes leads him down errant pathways.
There’s plenty in Magnus Lindberg’s viola concerto to occupy the ear, and pianist Claire Huangci makes the complex passagework of a trio of American composers speak with breathtaking ease.
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