Music

Music Review/Interview: Foxes & Fossils — 50 Million YouTube Views Can’t Be Wrong

February 1, 2021
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Even though they are a cover band, Foxes and Fossils’ performances are fresh and delightful. While faithful to the originals, they are not slavish imitations.

Opera Album Review: Donizetti’s Teacher Takes Center Stage — Mayr’s “I Cherusci”

January 31, 2021
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This splendid world-premiere recording proves that, as an opera composer, Johann Simon Mayr had “the whole package.”

Classical Album Review: Jasper & Jupiter Quartets play Mendelssohn, Visconti, and Golijov

January 31, 2021
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This joint album from the Jupiter String Quartet and Jasper String Quartet is striking for its backstory but really memorable for its smart program and fine execution.

Book Review: “What, and Give Up Showbiz?” — The Busy Life of Boston Impresario Fred Taylor

January 28, 2021
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Boston’s Fred Taylor was by turns (and often simultaneously) a recording engineer, promo man, artist manager, talent scout, press agent, newspaper columnist, concert promoter, club manager, nightclub owner, restaurant, and movie house owner.

Jazz Album Review: Dave Stryker’s “Baker’s Circle” — Welcoming the Past

January 27, 2021
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This is a well-rounded session of disciplined, well-crafted composing and soloing, with established and up-and-coming players mixing it up with style and commitment.

Jazz Album Review: “Garden of Expression” — Virtuosic Meditations

January 25, 2021
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It’s easy to single out each of these musicians, but listeners will hear the three as nearly one, which is surely what this trinity intended.

Opera Album Review: Before “Carmen,” There Was Massenet’s Spanish-Tinged “Don César de Bazan”

January 24, 2021
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World premiere recording of an utterly delicious 1872 comic opera, recorded without spoken dialogue, so you can just revel in the music and the singing.

Classical Album Review: Žibuoklė Martinaitytė’s “Saudade” — Engrossing and Accessible Recent Orchestral Music

January 22, 2021
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Taken together, these four pieces showcase a composer whose handling of the orchestra is expert and whose sense of form, in these works at least, feels unerringly right.

Opera Feature: Should We Be Updating Operas So They Address Present-Day Issues?

January 22, 2021
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Philip Glass’s librettist Arthur Yorinks offers his thoughts on whether and how to update an opera as the Boston Lyric Opera releases its revamped and filmed version of The Fall of the House of Usher.

Listening During Covid, Part 4: Fascinating Vocal Adventures from Different Times and Places

January 21, 2021
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I may be in quarantine, but music can transport me back to the Middle Ages, or to the court of Catherine the Great of Russia, or, via Donizetti, to an imagined India.

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