Review

Classical CD Reviews: Paul Lewis Plays Weber and Schubert, Steven Isserlis and Olli Mustonen Serve Shostakovich

February 19, 2019
Posted in , , ,

Two highly recommended recordings by well-known artists performing some rather off-the-beaten-path repertoire.

Read More

Classical Concert Review: The Boston Philharmonic Orchestra Plays Beethoven

February 19, 2019
Posted in , , ,

Bread-and-butter of the orchestral repertoire though this music may be, there was no complacency to be heard in the orchestra’s playing of it.

Read More

Book Review: “Gatsby’s Child” — America’s Old Money, In Decay

February 18, 2019
Posted in , ,

Everything about Schumacher’s story indicates that clichés about the ’50s are so powerful because things really were that way: repressive, poisonous, full of unspoken secrets and blustering ignorance.

Read More

Jazz CD Review: Wadada Leo Smith’s “Rosa Parks: Pure Love” — Making History Present

February 18, 2019
Posted in , , ,

Rosa Parks: Pure Love is a serious, substantial, and long work, alternately harsh and calming, one that I am sure should be seen as well as heard.

Read More

Film Review: 1932’s “Million Dollar Legs” — Iconoclastic Euphoria

February 17, 2019
Posted in , ,

Does the movie have anything to say about our zeitgeist? Well, the very entertaining cabinet-meeting sequence shows that chamber to be a place of male posturing, humiliation, sado-masochism, duplicity, and, finally, abject sycophancy.

Read More

Opera Review: Beyond the “Barber of Seville” — New Recordings of Two First-Rate Forgotten Operas by Rossini

February 17, 2019
Posted in , , , ,

Beethoven reportedly told Rossini to stick to writing comic operas. But new recordings of two of Rossini’s major serious operas bring great pleasure to the listener—and let us hear some splendid young singers.

Read More

Jazz Concert Review: Mnozil Brass — Music-as-Vaudeville

February 16, 2019
Posted in , ,

The seven-man musical wrecking squad from Austria called Mnozil Brass has created a combination circus band, village band, marching band, and vaudeville orchestra.

Read More

Rock Concert Review: After Forty Years, Joe Jackson is Still “The Man”

February 16, 2019
Posted in , , ,

The show cemented Joe Jackson’s reputation as an inscrutable and enigmatic songwriter, a talented musician and social outsider who speaks for Everyman.

Read More

Film Review: 2019 Oscar-nominated Best Documentary Shorts — Wrestling With Death

February 15, 2019
Posted in , ,

It is safe to predict that the winner in this category will be one of the entries that squares off against mortality.

Read More

Rock CD Review: Tedeschi Trucks Band Provides “Signs” of the Time

February 14, 2019
Posted in , , ,

This studio outing emphasizes superb ensemble playing; the result in a beguiling album in which just about every note shines.

Read More

Recent Posts