Classical Music

Classical Album Review: “Opalescent” from the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet

April 27, 2022
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Opalescent’s overriding aspect is celebratory – but from a variety of angles.

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Book Review: “Every Good Boy Does Fine” — A Career in Music, Elucidated With Brilliance

April 21, 2022
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Pianist Jeremy Denk is a sensitive and articulate polymath who can elucidate his ideas about music with wit, humor, and style.

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Opera Album Review: The Boston Early Music Festival — One of the Best Recordings Ever of a Baroque Opera

April 16, 2022
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The Boston Early Music Festival returns in person — and in a world-premiere recording of a German Baroque opera.

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“Listening During Covid, Part 10”: So Much Amazing Music to Discover!

April 10, 2022
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The record companies are bringing us unsuspected marvels from past and present that we might otherwise never hear, from astonishing Handel-era works and brand-new American pieces to elegantly performed guitar sonatas from 19th Century Vienna.

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Classical Album Reviews: Mendelssohn Violin Sonatas and Piano Concertos

April 10, 2022
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Some substantial works by composer Felix Mendelssohn remain overlooked.

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Classical CD Review: Cellist Nicolas Altstaedt plays Salonen and Ravel

April 9, 2022
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Cellist Nicolas Altstaed’s recording features a fascinating pairing of pieces by Salonen and Ravel, a stirring reminder of the mysterious powers of common origins and creative invention. Don’t miss it.

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Concert Review: Pianist Jeremy Denk’s “Well-Tempered Clavier” — An Embarrassment of Riches

April 6, 2022
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I have heard many recordings of Bach’s work, but none had the vibrancy of what I heard in Jeremy Denk’s Sunday concert.

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Opera Album Review: The “Fidelio” Story a Year Before Beethoven’s Opera — and in Italian

March 30, 2022
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A new recording of Ferdinando Paër’s Leonora gives us characters we love (or love to hate) in a fresh light

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Music Commentary: Jean Sibelius’s Violin Concerto — The Universal Concerto?

March 27, 2022
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Sibelius’s Violin Concerto is almost something of a phenomenon now: in just eight months, I’ve heard it played by three different fiddlers — Baiba Skride, Lisa Batiashvili, and Inmo Yang.

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Opera Album Review: Saint-Saëns’s Delightful Skewering of the West’s Fantasies of Japan

March 27, 2022
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A major contribution to the recorded repertory, making clear just how effective Saint-Saëns’s The Yellow Princess could be on stage, its nowadays objectionable title repudiated by its varied and nuanced approach to the evocation of the exotic.

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