Classical Music
The relative infrequency of big Berio releases makes new recordings of his major works into significant, contemporary music events; Dennis Russell Davies’ new recording of Bernstein’s Mass is done in by lax vocals and a paucity of emotional consistency; Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra supply a great Shostakovich Thirteenth Symphony.
It was as if the pianists were performing in a small drawing room for a few friends, not at Jordan Hall.
A pianist of real character and refinement – plus a huge career in Europe – Lucas Debargue was on hand to lend his musicianship to a relatively rare outing of Franz Liszt’s Piano Concerto no. 2.
Storytelling is big business in concert halls these days, and as a yarn spinner Sarah Walker is in a class her own.
New recordings of Peter Schmoll and His Neighbors and of Euryanthe pose an embarrassing question: why is the opera repertory so narrow?
Odyssey Opera revels in the glittering wit and touching moments of this full-length chamber opera by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, better known for his Hollywood film scores and some wonderful guitar pieces.
Arnold Rosner’s writing in each act is strongly contrapuntal, metrically unpredictable, and idiomatically scored. The music is marked by constantly shifting colors, a strong sense of rhythm, and a healthy dose of lyricism.
John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London are one of the new decade’s most exciting partnerships; Javier Perianes’ album with the Orchestre de Paris is quite clever; Is Liszt’s music trash? The debate continues.
Ádám Fischer’s reading of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony is breathtakingly clean.
Another operatic version of Oscar Wilde’s one-act love triangle that ends with the woman’s husband murdering her lover, to her enraptured delight.
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