Classical Music
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 only serious flaw in Boston Lyric Opera’s stripped-down staging approach to Aida was that not all the participants were quite up to the organization’s usual standards.
Among Artistic Director Holly Druckman’s goals is to turn Cappella Clausura into a “very serious player in the Boston early-music-new music scene.”
The performance of the Jerusalem Quartet was marked by considerable poise, polish, and personality.
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.
It’s a rare treat to hear these three Francis Poulenc sonatas on a single program.
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.
The Boston Chamber Music Society’s greatest strengths lay in its skill in letting the music breathe.
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