Music
John Williams’s concert music may be intended to enrich and edify, but there’s always room for a little fandom, particularly on occasions like this. At 93, and after a lifetime of firsts, the composer deserves every accolade.
Newport Folk Festival will likely never deliver cameos as ground shaking as those in 2022, when stars aligned for Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon to grace separate tributes. But it doesn’t have to, given that there’s so much talent already on site.
Pianist Yulianna Avdeeva’s recording of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Preludes & Fugues is a testament to that rarest of syntheses: a total identification of a musician with her repertoire. Pianist Marc-André Hamelin and the Takács Quartet release an album that, on so many levels, is simply a joy.
Music by Amy Beach, Leonard Bernstein, Florence Price, John Harbison, and John Williams: this Boston Landmarks Orchestra concert had a little something for everyone.
The world-renowned tenor Ivo Židek leads a spirited cast, and reminds us how involving opera can be when sung by native speakers.
What business has a period orchestra got playing the music of Anton Bruckner? And why can’t conductors and orchestras just leave Gustav Holst’s “The Planets” alone?
Mother Nature provided singular and poetic assistance during Sunday’s afternoon outing at Tanglewood.
It’s difficult to say if Steve Forbert sounds youthful now or if he has long since fully grown into his always expressive and distinctive voice. Or both.
It would be hard to name another successful artist so passionately demeaned by the music press.
Arts Appreciation: Ozzy Osbourne — He Was One of Us
Ozzy also gave us all the inspiration to overcome whatever dipshit, fucked up, and idiotic things we did, because he did just that, and generated plenty of good in the process.
Read More about Arts Appreciation: Ozzy Osbourne — He Was One of Us