Music
Recipe for a memorable evening at MIT’s Kresge Auditorium: two of the world’s great clarinetists, an inspiring conductor, a hard-working student band, and a major new piece of the clarinet repertoire.
This album manages to impressively realize the depth and versatility of John Adams’s music for string quartet. It also announces the arrival of a phenomenal ensemble that plays with a mix of maturity, adventure, and musical insight: this is a group to follow closely and cheer.
The members of the Collective seem to have an understanding that their job is to make music that reflects a group identity as well as their individual personalities.
The Celebrity Series of Boston offers top-notch artists and performing ensembles from around the world. With a Russian at the helm, it is no surprise that the Shostakovich Concerto would match or exceed expectations. The question was whether the Beethoven would.
[UPDATE: Yes, the Aardvark concert is happening!] Aardvark Jazz Orchestra turns 40, Mango Blue makes a one-night return, Evan Ziporyn plays Don Byron’s new clarinet concerto, drummer Brian Blade arrives with his Fellowship band, and much, much more.
Employing every trick of digital capability to astound and amaze eventually becomes little more than hocus-pocus.
The music has no soul. Alt-J isn’t “the new Radiohead.” They’re “the new Emerson, Lake, and Palmer.”
Pianist Jeremy Denk wields a large artillery of dynamics and colors and it served him well in this performance.
Playing by heart with these three incredible people is the most exhilarating thing I’ve ever done as a musician, and I look forward to many more years of doing this with the Chiara Quartet. — Gregory Beaver of the Chiara String Quartet
March is a month to hear amazing pianists – Jeremy Denk, George Li, Charlie Albright, Jeffrey Swann, Wu Han, and Lydia Artymiw – as well as inspiring choruses and unusual chamber music
Classical Music Commentary: Boston’s Lost Opportunity — How the BSO Board Chose Charles Munch over Leonard Bernstein