Classical Music

Classical Album Review: A Glorious Offering of Unrecorded and Other Rarely Performed Bizet Works

July 7, 2025
Posted in , , ,

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.

Read More

Classical Album Reviews: Järvi Conducts Furtwängler & Collon Conducts Sibelius

July 4, 2025
Posted in , , ,

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.

Read More

Classical Music Album Reviews: Violinist Lea Birringer Performs Sibelius & Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays Shostakovich

July 2, 2025
Posted in , , ,

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.

Read More

Concert Review: Pianist Jonathan Biss — Masterful Performances of Schubert

July 1, 2025
Posted in , , ,

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.

Read More

Opera Review: Boston Modern Orchestra Project Sheds New Light on “Frederick Douglass”

June 25, 2025
Posted in , , , ,

Played and sung with verve in its New England premiere, “Frederick Douglass” stands as the most significant revival BMOP has undertaken in recent years.

Read More

Classical Album Reviews: “Ravel Fragments” & Stephen Hough plays Hough

June 23, 2025
Posted in , , ,

Pianist Bertrand Chamayou demonstrates just how mercurial and influential Ravel could be; composer-pianist Stephen Hough’s Piano Concerto casts a Ravel-like spell.

Read More

Classical Music Album Reviews: Stewart Goodyear and “Hallelujah Junction”

June 21, 2025
Posted in , , ,

Pianist Stewart Goodyear livens up a tried-and-true program with works new and unfamiliar; the husband-and-wife team of Lukas Geniušas and Anna Geniushene survey piano music written on these shores, starting in 1932.

Read More

Opera Album Review: Finally, Verdi’s Original 1857 Version of “Simon Boccanegra” Gets the Recording It Deserves

June 21, 2025
Posted in , , ,

The skillful Mark Elder leads a fine cast, including the superb Peruvian tenor Iván Ayón-Rivas.

Read More

Classical Music Album Reviews: Ravel/Bach and Bruch & Korngold Violin Concertos

June 19, 2025
Posted in , ,

Pianist Yeol Eum Son is more than up to the demands of J.S. Bach and Maurice Ravel; violinist Bomsori brings exquisite balances and shimmering sonority to Bruch and Korngold.

Read More

Concert Review: Boston Camerata’s “Gallery of Kings” — Uses and Abuses of Power, ca. 1300

June 17, 2025
Posted in , , ,

Through story, song, missives, and popular gibes at authority, the Boston Camerata program looked at kings remembered for their great deeds and those commemorated for their bumbling idiocy.

Read More

Recent Posts

Popular Posts

Categories

Archives