Music
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?
Michael Kiwanuka blends singer/songwriter with funk and soul, the energy of Afro-pop with the intensity of psych and prog.
The recital of this remarkably self-aware singer was a series of highly literate and musically satisfying mini-dramas.
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.
For all the teen-pop trappings, however, there is an old-fashioned sensibility to Rex Orange County’s music.
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.
Overall, Light Blue is an impressive album: its ensembles simultaneously tight and graceful, its solos expressive.
So, after three original albums (plus a re-imagining of Joni Mitchell’s Blue) that fell short of wide acclaim, perhaps it was only a matter of time for them to think big.
With this album, post-rock sextet Caspian pulls off the tricky maneuver of infusing blood and emotions into carefully assembled and deliberately delivered songs.
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