Music
This gripping and engaging release from HK Gruber and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra manages to thread the needle between the various strands of Kurt Weill’s musical personality.
Allen Shawn is one of the great composers of piano music in America today, with seven piano sonatas, various suites and shorter pieces. An astounding concerto of his has been recorded by the remarkable Ursula Oppens.
This BBC Symphony Orchestra series, dedicated to Ralph Vaughan Williams’ nine symphonies, comes to a triumphant end with this disc.
Terri Lyne Carrington, on her home turf (she’s a native Bostonian and holds several positions at Berklee, including being founder and artistic director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice), augmented her six-piece band with three guests.
“My core values have not changed — I’m still me and I’m still for the average guy. People can be swindled and people can be fooled. You have to bear with them and help get them through it.”
All in all, an ear-opening introduction to an important opera composer — and to the little-known tradition of German-language (with Italian touches) Baroque opera.
The album seems to me to be about spotlighting the ensemble’s sound rather than the virtuoso displays of its leader.
Goose has seen its stock in the jam-band world soar at a pace unseen since… well, Phish.
Meyerbeer’s Robert le diable paved the way for major works by Meyerbeer himself, Halévy, Verdi, Wagner (in German), Saint-Saëns, Massenet, and others — and this splendid performance shows why.
Jazz Album Review/Commentary: “Don Quixote’s Adventures in the World of Jazz” — Is Jazz Intrinsically Quixotic?
It’s hard to think of music that is more foolishly impractical than jazz, even with its pursuit of lofty ideals.
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