Music
Symphonic music wasn’t composer Florence Price’s strong suit. Rather, she was much more at home working in smaller forms or for her own instrument.
This is a release that showcases many of Andris Nelsons’ strengths, including his strong sensitivity for instrumental colors, blends, and balances. At the same time, it also demonstrates the conductor’s hit-or-miss nature with the core repertoire.
I applaud She & Him’s selection of Brian Wilson tunes while at the same time feeling that some are not well-suited to their loungey, languid pop stylings.
“One of the positives to come out of this whole [pandemic lockdown] experience is that everyone found out what is important in their lives. Those of us who love music realized just how special it is.”
Sultan has a solid lock on my year-end best of 2022 list. Let’s make the world a little smaller and make this album a hit.
Guitarist Eddie Condon quotes a mobster on jazz: “…it’s got guts and it don’t make you slobber.”
I was pleased to encounter all three compact operas. Lennox Berkeley seems to me more and more an admirable, indeed lovable composer, and a bit of a chameleon. I like him in all his various colors.
To some degree, everything fit under the resilient umbrella that the late George Wein raised at the edge of Newport Harbor.
The Stone Age is only about the gossip, to the point where even when something (potentially) true comes along, it still reads like trash.
New recordings serve up fine performances of music from Latin America, Brazil, and post-1918 England. And a novel sends its main character back two centuries into Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro.
Fest Review: IFFBoston Shorts — Part One