Classical Music
CD recordings keep bringing us unexpected treasures, including chamber works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Samuel Adler, and the (by turns) exquisite and powerful opera Armida by Mozart’s contemporary — who was not his murderer — Antonio Salieri.
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Berkeley’s Nelson reinforces my sense that many fine composers of the twentieth century have largely slid off the map because they did not cater to the obsession of many critics and academics with “the New at all cost.”
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A young ensemble, the USE is a technically accomplished one and, regardless of the interpretive strengths or weaknesses of each reading, the group’s sheer skill level is evenly impressive.
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A surprisingly moving collection, all of it mightily played and sung by musicians who clearly intuit John Harbison’s musical language.
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Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.
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Newly recorded in the original German, Anton Reicha’s Lenore offers a vivid response to Bürger’s famous “Gothic” ballad from 1774.
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Joseph Horowitz’s short, punchy, well-sourced, and compulsively readable book argues for bringing back the forgotten works of important Black composers.
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Thanks to a blend of compositional technique and solid musical grounding in each of the works, “Flames to Ashes” exceeded easy categorization.
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Music Commentary: Top Classical Performances and Recordings of 2021
Here are a handful of concerts that stand out from the past several months, as well as my favorite albums of 2021 – apparently even a global pandemic can’t stop the surprisingly resilient classical music recording industry.
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