Music
Skylark continues to impress me with its distinctly beautiful sound, its dazzling control over dynamics and intonation, and its unusually compelling programming.
There can be little doubt that the urgency of the opera’s message about equality is as relevant as ever.
The two new Arbors discs are intended to bring Lerner and Loewe back into the jazz mainstream. We will see what happens. But what wonderful music these two groups have produced!
These are songs that have forged a life of their own across eras.
The Bad Plus are telling stories, but the trio doesn’t seem to want to follow wherever they might lead, which narrows their music’s emotional range.
One of the strengths of Laszlo Gardony’s playing is his confident insistence on what he is doing, his impressive self-assurance.
Ginastera’s innovative style often draws comparisons to Bartók and Stravinsky for the artful ways in which he integrated folk music and dance forms from his native country into a striking, modernist musical language.
For Sergio Mendes, the captivating anniversary show was a chance to look back on the early years of bossa nova and its birthplace.
Marc Minkowski’s recording of Jacques Offenbach’s La Périchole pays the composer a handsome tribute in his birthday year; violinist Baiba Skride’s new all-Bartók disc is one of the year’s best.
The Seattle Symphony does right by Langgaard but not Strauss; Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Beethoven is micromanaged to death; Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester offers an ideal off-the-beaten-path Offenbach disc.
Theater Commentary: Live Theater—An Incomparable Art Form