Classical Music

Concert Review: Du Bois Orchestra Serves Up a Feast of Music by Black Composers

February 19, 2024
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The performance conveyed the essence of the Du Bois Orchestra’s mission: when played with exuberance, long-neglected and little-played works can generate as much excitement as they do wonder that they were ever overlooked.

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Opera Album Review: A Short but Virtuosic Opera from 1786 Receives Its First Recording

February 17, 2024
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Even without international-caliber singers and players, Giovanni Piaisello’s “Amor vendicato” works much magic.

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Classical Concert Review: Karina Canellakis Conducts Bartók and Haydn

February 14, 2024
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Karina Canellakis’s tour through Bartók’s “Bluebeard’s Castle” showed why she remains a conductor who continues to exercise a remarkable interpretive power.

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Music Commentary: In Memoriam, Seiji Ozawa (1935-2024)

February 13, 2024
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Taking in the totality of Seiji Ozawa’s life and career, it seems clear that Boston got him in his prime and that he largely returned the favor, ingratiating himself with the community, at times truly elevating the BSO while conveying a lot of joy and energy in the process.

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Concert Review: Boston Symphony Orchestra plays Smyth, Bruch, and Mendelssohn

February 8, 2024
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Given its considerable strength and vitality, Ethel Smyth’s music deserves its newfound place in the limelight. Let’s hope the BSO programs more of her music again soon.

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Concert Review: Soprano Renée Fleming and Pianist Inon Barnatan — Voices of Nature

February 7, 2024
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It is always a thrill to be in the audience when the legendary American soprano Renée Fleming performs.

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Concert Review: Cameron-Wolfe’s “Heretic” — As Played by Aaron Larget-Caplan

January 30, 2024
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Guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan managed to keep the micro-opera’s crazed figure sympathetic as he blurred the lines between reality and delusion.

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Opera Album and Video Review: The Baroque Does the Bible

January 28, 2024
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Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s 1686 “David and Jonathan” brings ancient characters to life in this 2022 Chateau de Versailles production, brilliantly staged, danced, sung, and played.

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Concert Review: Pianist Hélène Grimaud — Combining Gritty Force and Dark Ecstasy

January 23, 2024
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Hélène Grimaud’s performances of Brahms, Busoni, and Beethoven drew on the strengths of her boldly imaginative powers, which have only deepened over the past two decades.

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Opera Album Review: From Denmark with Love, Passion, Irony, and Much More — Works by Carl Nielsen and Helge Bonnén

January 23, 2024
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Carl Nielsen’s vivid biblical opera “Saul & David,” here paired with Helge Bonnén’s remarkable concert adaptation of poems from “Spoon River Anthology.”

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