Music
Lettuce is pushing funk forward, drawing on what has come before (Tower Of Power) and making some distinctive changes.
Boston Baroque served up a lithe and vital performance of the Messiah that felt rich, personal, and gloriously lived in.
Our classical music critics supply their favorites, albums and concerts, from over the past year.
Wednesday’s show proved that The Dream Syndicate more than honors both its past and present with passion and precision.
Though none of the works exhibit the stylistic flashiness of Fernande Decruck’s better-known contemporaries, they all suggest a musician of singular—and sometimes idiosyncratic—vision.
The Arvo Pärt compositions here showcase a composer of remarkable stylistic coherence—but never dramatic complacency or creative stasis.
Two good reads: Boston harmonica player Jerry Portnoy’s memoir is an unflinching look at life as a sideman musician; the other is a history that shows how, without the Black stars he heard in Memphis, there would have been no Elvis or rock ‘n roll as we know it.
It turns out that singer Jessica Vosk’s personality is just as big and colorful as her voice. Add to that her zigzagging brand of comic spontaneity, and you had an evening filled with joyous holiday spirit.
Converge bassist Nate Newton joked that, if it were left to him, he would have called this event “The Night of Seven Savage Weirdos”. Though when everything finally came together, even more weirdos were added to the mix.
Locke’s List for 2025: Notable Operatic Recordings and a Few Non-Operatic Ones
First recordings of major works and splendid recordings of some others, from Handel to Raff and from Boston’s Musicians of the Old Post Road to the astonishing operatic soprano Aleksandra Kurzak.
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