Review
The Who – arguably the third cog in British rock royalty behind the Beatles and the Rolling Stones – delivered more than a nostalgic run through the hits at Fenway Park on Friday.
As a River is a sensuously and smoothly written book, a heartfelt meditation on what divides us from each other and from love.
With The Purists, Dan McCabe has written a comic drama that not only has a lot to say, but does it with an enormous amount of playful vim and vigor.
Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic do justice to a lot of Tchaikovsky’s orchestral music, while John Eliot Gardiner and the London Symphony play Robert Schumann’s famously-dense orchestrations with clarity. But Michael Stern’s account of The Planets completely lacks mystery.
Linda Ronstadt was every young female singer’s aspirational goddess: if you could nail “You’re No Good” or “Blue Bayou” in the car or the shower, you had practiced a lot.
Julia Wolfe’s Fire in my mouth is one of 2019’s most memorable recordings; Donnacha Dennehy’s The Hunger, a meditation on the Irish potato famine of the mid-19th-century, leaves an indelible impression; Derek Bermel’s Migrations is a grand celebration of one of America’s great living composer at the top of his game.
Fontaines D.C. are gonna be big, or at least as big as a real rock band can be these days. And they’re making it all look effortless.
On the same week that heavy prog-rockers Tool scored the No. 1 album in the country, it was great to see Jack White let down his wavy black hair, smile a bunch, and kick out the jams with his buddies.
Carolyn Michel’s Rose is the sociable stranger on the bus who tempts you to miss your stop so you can hear her out to the end.
Any traditional notions of what does, or does not, constitute a book are challenged here — you will find yourself searching for a definition that fits.
Cultural Commentary: Death by Incorporation — Why Do Bean-Counters Run Arts Boards?