Music
An exciting month, and that isn’t hyperbole. A couple of North American premieres: a futuristic opera from MIT’s Tod Machover and poet Robert Pinsky and a drama tweaking The New Testament from Howard Brenton. Toss in iconic director Peter Brook staging Beckett, F. Murray Abraham as Shylock, and Car Talk:The Musical and you are talking about taking out the smelling salts
Read MoreI’ve been going to BSO Open Rehearsal for some 50 years at Tanglewood and can’t remember ever having as alienating an experience as I and over one thousand other attendees had Wednesday night at Symphony Hall.
Read MoreThe Masterworks Chorale doesn’t get the critical attention or large audiences it rightly deserves. Friday’s concert may not have been as well-attended as it should have been, but those in the audience realized they were having a rare and extraordinary listening experience.
Read MoreThe venerable Cantata Singers and Ensemble obviously knows how to throw an epic party. The group is limbering up for its 50th anniversary celebration by taking on J. S. Bach’s monumental Mass in B Mass in B Minor, BWV 232.
Read MoreIt’s the 200th birthday of Franz Liszt, and there are concerts, conferences, and projects devoted to the pianist/composer going on all over the world this year. Lisztomania at New England Conservatory is one of a number of parties in the Boston area. The Boston Conservatory is also puttin’ on the Liszt. By Bill Marx In…
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The second half of February offers warm-ups for Mardi Gras, an evening of musical tributes by the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, and more guitarists than you can shake a pick at.
Read MoreIn 2002, Iron & Wine debuted with The Creek Drank the Cradle, a brilliant Simon & Garfunkel-meets-Bob Dylan synthesis that caused many to proclaim a folk revival. Since this success, however, I&W’s singer-songwriter Samuel Beam has steadily drifted from his organic folk roots. Kiss Each Other Clean by Iron & Wine. Warner Brothers. By Michela…
Read MoreAlthough its interior says 21st century, the Shalin Liu Performance Center has a homespun, American 19th-century facade that made me think of Mark Twain and the provincial opera houses of the California Gold Rush. Care was taken to reference the original Haskins Building that once housed a clothing store called Madras and the local yacht…
Read MoreWith Returnal, Daniel Lopatin proves that noise can be beautiful and original. The album is a piece of (Neo?) New Age psychedelia, taking cues from the electronic experiments of the Berlin School. Returnal by Oneohtrix Point Never. Editions Mego By David Cooper In Returnal, Oneohtrix Point Never (OPN), aka Daniel Lopatin, advances the stagnant noise…
Read MoreUPDATE: Either/Orchestra’s 25th anniversary concert comes to New York—an unforgettable confluence of talent revisiting more than two decades of memorable compositions and arrangements.
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