Classical Music
Allen Shawn is one of the great composers of piano music in America today, with seven piano sonatas, various suites and shorter pieces. An astounding concerto of his has been recorded by the remarkable Ursula Oppens.
This BBC Symphony Orchestra series, dedicated to Ralph Vaughan Williams’ nine symphonies, comes to a triumphant end with this disc.
All in all, an ear-opening introduction to an important opera composer — and to the little-known tradition of German-language (with Italian touches) Baroque opera.
Meyerbeer’s Robert le diable paved the way for major works by Meyerbeer himself, Halévy, Verdi, Wagner (in German), Saint-Saëns, Massenet, and others — and this splendid performance shows why.
Conductor and composer Thomas Adès brought more of his intriguing music to Symphony Hall this weekend with two selections from his recent ballet, The Dante Project.
What emerged was a lithe, almost Shakespearean rendition, complete with moments of unexpected humor and an infectious dramatic vitality.
Festival of American Song Records has released an elegant, touching performance of the totally delightful half-hour long “Picnic Cantata.”
Brimming with edge-of-seat intensity and fist-waving theatricality, Julia Wolfe’s oratorio “Her Story” is the unequivocal highlight of the current BSO season.
Aside from English pronunciation issues, the singers put over this remarkably polished and attractive opera by one of England’s great seventeenth-century composers with great panache, matching the superb instrumentalists.
“We take the audience on a journey that’s not part of a traditional approach to opera.”
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