Classical Music

Classical CD Reviews: David Lang’s “love fail,” Christopher Rouse’s Orchestral Music, and Hub New Music’s “Soul House”

July 26, 2020
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For fans of David Lang and/or one of the country’s best choirs, this is a can’t-miss release; Christopher Rouse’s Fifth is about as fresh and engaging a Symphony as the composer wrote; Hub New Music plays the daylights out of Robert Honstein’s Soul House.

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Classical CD Reviews: Philip Glass, “Music in Eight Parts,” Thomas Adès, “In Seven Days,” and Anna Clyne, “Dance”

July 23, 2020
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Music in Eight Parts is a welcome and inviting addition to the Philip Glass canon; the Summer of Thomas Adès continues with a stirring new recording of the British composer’s keyboard work; Anna Clyne’s Dance is, without a doubt, one of the finest pieces I’ve heard this year.

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Arts Commentary: Reviewing Music, Re-viewed

July 14, 2020
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Our opera-loving reviewer contrasts his own pieces, written 48 years apart, on the same Offenbach operetta.

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Book Review: “The Heart of a Woman” — The Life and Music of Florence B. Price, America’s First Important Black Woman Composer

July 13, 2020
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It wasn’t until 2009 that a trove of Florence B. Price scores was discovered in a dilapidated house in down-state Illinois and a revival of interest in this most remarkable of composers began in earnest.

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Classical CD Reviews: Beethoven Complete Piano Concerto Box Sets

July 5, 2020
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It’s Beethoven’s 250th birthday year: reviews of four sets of the complete piano concertos from, respectively, Paul Lewis, Stewart Goodyear, Inon Barnatan, and Stephen Hough.

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Classical CD Reviews: “Key of A,” “Metamorphosis,” and “Reminiscences of Brazil”

July 3, 2020
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An impressively original release from violinist Lara St. John and pianist Matt Herskowitz; a tremendous Ligeti performance from the Jupiter String Quartet; Justin Badgerow releases a finely curated and played survey of mostly 20th-century solo piano music from Brazil.

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Classical CD Review: “Janáček: Solo Piano,” Schumann & Mendelssohn Chamber Music, Philip Glass Piano Works

July 2, 2020
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Pianist Thomas Adès proves himself a sympathetic champion of Czech composer Leoš Janáček; it’s not often that a Schumann-Mendelssohn album focuses on the music of Clara and Fanny (rather than Robert and Felix); Jenny Lin’s performances of piano pieces by Philip Glass don’t lack for style or technical command.

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Classical CD Reviews: Beach & Elgar Piano Quintets, Mark Abel’s “The Cave of Wondrous Voice,” and Ibragimova plays Shostakovich

July 1, 2020
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It took more than a century, but Amy Beach’s Piano Quintet has finally got the recording it deserves; it would be hard to beat the all-star line-up featured in The Cave of Wondrous Voice; and ready for some flawless Shostakovich?

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Performing Arts Series: Stories of Surviving COVID-19 — New England Conservatory

June 26, 2020
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What lies beyond COVID-19 for the arts community?

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Opera CD Review: Spontini’s Wacky Comic Opera, in Which Nothing Is as It Seems

June 9, 2020
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Metamorfosi is a marvelously effective and amusing one-act opera that would suit college opera workshops splendidly.

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