Commentary

Holiday Commentary: Making Room for the Stranger

December 25, 2025
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Sometimes the stranger is someone who is very well known to us, like a father whose strange ways include a devotion to a certain story about a childhood in Wales.

Arts Commentary & CD Reviews: On The Kennedy Center, Ben Folds, & Gustav Mahler

December 24, 2025
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What have Donald Trump and John F. Kennedy got in common? Besides the office they hold, not much. Certainly not an appreciation for the arts: Trump is to the field what McDonald’s is to fine dining.

Arts Feature: Best Movies (With Some Disappointments) of 2025

December 17, 2025
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Our demanding critics choose the best films (along with some disappointments) of the year. And there is plenty of disagreement.

Locke’s List for 2025: Notable Operatic Recordings and a Few Non-Operatic Ones

December 10, 2025
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First recordings of major works and splendid recordings of some others, from Handel to Raff and from Boston’s Musicians of the Old Post Road to the astonishing operatic soprano Aleksandra Kurzak.

Arts Remembrance: Tribute to Jazz Producer Alex Lemski

December 6, 2025
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Being a one-man or one-woman band while toiling in the shadows is not glamorous work. Over the last 13 years, producer Alex Lemski undertook this role and supplied a great deal of exciting, important music to the people of Boston.

Arts Commentary: Rich in Creativity — But Nothing Else

December 5, 2025
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Predictably, when you get to the discussion of money, honey, the rubber hits the road.

Arts Remembrance: In Memoriam — Tom Stoppard

December 2, 2025
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One of the great playwrights of the 20th century, Tom Stoppard wrote to entertain, but with intellectual rigor.

Arts Remembrance: Jimmy Cliff (1944-2025)

November 26, 2025
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Up until the end, it seems, Jimmy Cliff was still seeing clearly — and eager to share that vision with us.

Jazz Commentary: The Enduring Enigma of Chet Baker

November 21, 2025
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I take a look back at the compelling documentary “Let’s Get Lost” because of the recently released “Chet Baker Performs and Sings: Swimming by Moonlight”, 15 unreleased studio recordings made by the trumpeter.

Cultural Commentary: France Marks the 10th Anniversary of the Bataclan Attacks

November 15, 2025
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The aftermath of a terrorist act becomes an opportunistic event for those selling us a certain bill of partisan geo-political goods… while simultaneously diminishing our latitude as citizens.

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