Music
By Helen Epstein July 30 featured a Russian warhorse program at Tanglewood: Glinka’s “Overture to Ruslan and Ludmila”; Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, and Prokofiev’s Music from the ballet Romeo and Juliet. These are familiar (some might say over-familiar) works for orchestra, but, of course, there’s a reason they’re still being programmed.…
Read MoreBy Caldwell Titcomb August 3: The Old West Organ Society presents the award-winning, young organist Jacob Street in a program including works by Buxtehude, J. S. Bach, and Mendelssohn. He will also play music by Jean Langlais (1907-91) and Gaston Litaize (1909-91). At Old West Church, 131 Cambridge Street, Boston, MA, 8 p.m.
Read MoreBy Helen Epstein The Tanglewood Music Center (TMC) is an incubator for many of the musicians we’ll be hearing in the future, and its conducting seminar is one of the most visible and prestigious in the world. Conducting fellows lead concerts in Ozawa Hall that are a showcase not only for their contemporaries but for…
Read MoreReviewed By Caldwell Titcomb A large audience braved a rainy evening to attend the July 23 concert in Jordan Hall presented by the New England Conservatory Festival Youth Orchestra. (NECYFO’s YouTube Channel) The project was founded in 2000 by New England Conservatory (NEC) faculty member Aaron Kula, who remains its conductor in addition to holding…
Read MoreBy Helen Epstein It isn’t often that you get to hear the same conductor, same composer, and two different orchestras but that unusual experience was offered at Tanglewood as Michael Tilson Thomas (filling in for James Levine) conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) in Mahler’s Second Symphony last week and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra…
Read MoreBy Susan Miron Two things of overwhelming beauty—an ocean view and an extraordinary pianist’s recital—nearly generated sensory overload on Sunday in Rockport, Massachusetts’s highly touted new concert hall. Presented by the excellent Rockport Chamber Music Series, now in their fifteenth season under the Artistic Director pianist David Deveau, the late afternoon Sunday concert included music…
Read MoreJuly Music/Musica en Julio/Musica em Julho By Thomas Samph With the temperatures peaking into the 90s in New England, here is some pop music that’s meant to be enjoyed in the heat. These acts (with the exception of one) all have their roots in warmer places: Latin music infused with funk and jazz, Spanish electronic…
Read MoreBy J. R. Carroll Not going away doesn’t mean you have to stay at home; there’s plenty of live jazz within easy reach. The summer jazz festival season goes into high gear this month (watch for a Midsummer Festival Update in mid-July), but even if you’re stuck with another “staycation” this year, local and regional…
Read MoreSophie Tucker: The Last of the Red Hot Mamas, By Richard Hopkins, Jack Fournier, and Kathy Halenda. Directed by Kate Warner. Musical Direction by Todd C. Gordon. Staged by New Repertory Theatre at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in the Charles Mosesian Theater, Watertown, MA, through July 11. Reviewed by Alyssa Machado Vaudeville star…
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Arts Commentary: Rich in Creativity — But Nothing Else