Classical Music
Could it be that Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Symphony in F-sharp is the big kahuna of our symphonic music?
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Composer Michael Daugherty’s lovely survey of 20th-century touchstones continues; violinist Philippe Quint plays a lineup made up (mostly) of commissions.
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Pianist Daniil Trifonov’s no stranger to playing Rachmaninoff with Nelsons and the BSO—they delivered a memorable outing of this very piano concerto in 2019—and, while Saturday’s traversal was periodically rusty, it built in spirit and tightness as the evening proceeded.
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On “hommages,” United Strings of Europe is technically secure, rhythmically precise, richly colored, and ever attuned to matters of nuance and spirit. Tchaikovsky’s output could be uneven, and this installment of Alpesh Chauhan’s continuing traversal of the Russian icon’s orchestral music with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra is proof.
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The new “Portrait” package contains five hours of music by Bizet that is mostly unknown to music lovers and music lovers. Plus one of his best operas, a one-act written just before “Carmen”: 1872’s “Djamileh,” which is set in a harem.
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Neeme Järvi, true to his usual form, favors brisk tempos, which tend to keep things from getting bogged down in Wilhelm Furtwängler’s bog of a Symphony No.2; Nicholas Collon leads a stupendous recording of Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5.
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Violinist Lea Birringer does dazzlingly right by Sibelius and Szymanowski concertos and cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason finds life and defiance in Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2.
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Rockport Chamber Music Festival is in the midst of a stellar season. Saturday evening, the brilliant pianist (and writer) Jonathan Biss gave a sensational recital of two late Schubert sonatas—a music lover’s dream.
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Played and sung with verve in its New England premiere, “Frederick Douglass” stands as the most significant revival BMOP has undertaken in recent years.
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Pianist Bertrand Chamayou demonstrates just how mercurial and influential Ravel could be; composer-pianist Stephen Hough’s Piano Concerto casts a Ravel-like spell.
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Arts Remembrance: In Memoriam — Tom Stoppard