Classical Music
Handel & Haydn Society captured all of this and then some with a vigorous, focused performance that was a marvel of controlled fury.
Saariaho’s music is often lush and vibrant, to be sure, but it also can lose track of its musical purpose and meander excessively from time to time. Not so in “Circle Map.”
Considered by some to be a guardian of ancient music, Jordi Savall has inspired adulation for a variety of reasons, but in the end it’s because he plays the viol or viola da gamba better than just about anyone else alive.
November features a number of visits from celebrated performers, from Kelly O’Connor and Thomas Adés to the Takács Quartet. Music for Food also presents its second concert/benefit of the season.
That Symphony Hall was probably a third empty is inexplicable, but, if you missed any of these concerts, it’s truly your loss. These were among the BSO’s benchmark performances of the last decade.
If you think contemporary music is the domain of fusty academics and has no bearing on (or relationship to) the outside world, you really need to check out “Canzonas Americanas.”
Herbert Blomstedt and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig present us here with what is easily the most memorable classical box set of 2012 and, possibly, the most important addition to the Bruckner discography in a generation.
It was an absolute pleasure to finally hear the extraordinary clarinetist Anthony McGill in person, and clearly the audience felt the same, because there were several curtain calls and much cheering.
Nareh Arghmanyan is a personality and technique that thrives on performing Romantic music, and it was her Rachmaninov and Schumann that were most impressive on a recital that also featured the Second Bach Partita.
It’s a pity we can’t hear the Discovery Ensemble every week – it’s a group that radiates energy and models inventive programming.
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