Classical Music

Short Fuse Podcast #36: An Interview with Neal Goren, Conductor and Artistic Director of Catapult Opera

March 31, 2021
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New podcast host Elizabeth Howard talks to Neal Goren about contemporary opera: the trends, attracting new audiences, and how opera can be adapted for the internet.

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Opera Album Review: Rossini’s Splendid Passover Opera for Paris — “Moïse et Pharaon”

March 26, 2021
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Just in time for Passover: another fine world-premiere Rossini recording, the 1827 French version of his Moses-in-Egypt opera.

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Arts Commentary: In Memoriam, James Levine (1943-2021)

March 22, 2021
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Do any of his accomplishments – including James Levine’s raising the level of an orchestra’s playing to new heights – really excuse sexual predation?I’d argue in the negative.

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Classical Album Review: Hilary Hahn’s “Paris” — A Thrilling Ride

March 19, 2021
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Violinist Hilary Hahn’s blend of musical curiosity, expressive savvy, and technical excellence doesn’t often appear in one person.

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Classical Music Album Review: Gil Shaham & The Knights Play Beethoven and Brahms

March 12, 2021
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These two performances showcase a group of instrumentalists whose collective musicianship is electrifying: full of just the right combination of wonder, play, and discovery this much-loved repertoire needs in order to sound fresh and truly come to life.

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Opera Album Review: An Opéra-Comique from 1832 Shines Again in a Superb Recording

March 10, 2021
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Performed 1600 times in Paris, then forgotten, Hérold’s brilliantly witty, Le pré aux clercs shines again in a splendid recording.

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Listening During Covid, Part 5: New and Forgotten Repertory Brings Unexpected Delights

March 9, 2021
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Musicians active in Boston, Washington DC, and Australia discover previously unrecorded gems, including works by women composers and composers of color.

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Opera Album Review: Saint-Saëns’s Opera about a Little Silver Bell Works Its Magic

March 7, 2021
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The world-premiere recording of a first rate production of a brilliant, fantastical opera, unstaged and unheard since 1914.

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Classical Album Review: Michael Tilson Thomas Conducts Alban Berg

March 5, 2021
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The San Francisco Symphony is a model of complexity: tonally warm but texturally clear; rhythmically on edge but never abrasive in character; beautifully blended throughout.

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Classical CD Review: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra plays Beethoven’s Ninth

February 27, 2021
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Manfred Honeck’s one of the finest and most exciting Beethoven conductors around, but his interpretive decisions result in an account of the Ninth’s climactic sequence that comes over as episodic and mannered.

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