Music

Rock Album Review: “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” — Fiona Apple’s Perfectly Imperfect Storm

April 20, 2020
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Not only is Fetch the Bolt Cutters the most stunning of Apple’s five albums, it’s the most impressive pop record of this young pandemic year, its bottled turmoil speaking to our own pent-up nerves.

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Arts Remembrance: Saxophonist Lee Konitz

April 19, 2020
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Lee Konitz was, with Sonny Rollins, one of the last of his great generation of jazz men still swinging hard.

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Arts Commentary: Endangered Species — Independent, Small Venues

April 18, 2020
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What’s happening right now, this is a bloodbath. It is full on slaughter of small businesses. They lie in the streets gasping for breath.

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Rock CD Review: The Messy Brilliance of The Strokes

April 17, 2020
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The Strokes are finally growing up — and their maturity is a sight to behold.

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Classical CD Reviews: Wagner’s “Die Walküre,” Johann Strauss’s “Blindekuh,” and Mendelssohn’s “Die erste Walpurgisnacht”

April 16, 2020
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The two best things about Simon Rattle’s new recording of Die Walküre are, well, Rattle, himself, and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; a strongly played and majestically sung performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s unfairly neglected Die erste Walpurgisnacht.

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Classical CD Reviews: Offenbach Fantastique!, Mascagni’s “Cavalleria rusticana,”and Rossini Project vol. 2

April 15, 2020
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More proof that Offenbach’s is a remarkable body of work; a serviceable, but not particularly notable, Cavalleria rusticana; another installment in the Rossini Project, brilliantly curated, stirringly played and sung, and beautifully recorded.

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Classical CD Reviews: Thomas Adès’s Orchestral Works, Aaron Copland’s Symphony no. 3, and Leonard Bernstein’s “Songfest”

April 14, 2020
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A terrific release showcases the Boston Symphony Orchestra and composer Thomas Adès. Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony deliver a radiantly honest recording of Aaron Copland’s Symphony 3.

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Music Album Review: “Ghosts” — The Cowboy Junkies Confront Heartbreak and Sorrow

April 9, 2020
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Darkness is pervasive in this Cowboy Junkies album, but it is not all-encompassing.

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Rock Album Review: Phish — Comfortably Optimistic at Home

April 6, 2020
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Sigma Oasis is one of Phish’s better albums since the group reunited in 2009 after a five-year breakup.

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Arts Remembrance: Krzysztof Penderecki (1933-2020) and Christopher Rouse (1949-2019)

April 5, 2020
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Many of the qualities that mark Penderecki’s best work – exquisite technique, an innate feel for rhythmic athleticism, an ear for dazzling colors and theatrical gestures, an impeccable sense of musical structure, and the affinity for emotional immediacy – are also hallmarks of Rouse’s.

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