Music
From honors for Boston jazz heroes to many flavors of the “Spanish tinge”, it’s an eventful month, especially for NEC’s 40-year-old Contemporary Improvisation department and the annual John Coltrane Memorial Concert as it turns 35.
Jazz musician Don Byron is nothing if not eclectic, but his own playing is always penetrating, challenging, energizing, and his compositions vehicles for both intense exploration and tenderness.
That Symphony Hall was probably a third empty is inexplicable, but, if you missed any of these concerts, it’s truly your loss. These were among the BSO’s benchmark performances of the last decade.
If you think contemporary music is the domain of fusty academics and has no bearing on (or relationship to) the outside world, you really need to check out “Canzonas Americanas.”
Herbert Blomstedt and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig present us here with what is easily the most memorable classical box set of 2012 and, possibly, the most important addition to the Bruckner discography in a generation.
It was an absolute pleasure to finally hear the extraordinary clarinetist Anthony McGill in person, and clearly the audience felt the same, because there were several curtain calls and much cheering.
Despite the material’s limitations, the stellar SpeakEasy Stage cast and designers nail “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson”‘s irreverent, over-the-top vibe, serving up plenty of humor and high amplitude entertainment.
Nareh Arghmanyan is a personality and technique that thrives on performing Romantic music, and it was her Rachmaninov and Schumann that were most impressive on a recital that also featured the Second Bach Partita.
It’s a pity we can’t hear the Discovery Ensemble every week – it’s a group that radiates energy and models inventive programming.
Chick Corea and Gary Burton were celebrating their recent disc, “Hot House,” which they said was meant to recall the sixties, when the two were starting their careers. But the sixties were never quite like this.
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