Moissey Vainberg’s opera powerfully evokes the brutality of Hitler’s extermination camps and the moral ambiguity of postwar Germany.
Capriccio
Classical CD Review: A Ballet of Human Sacrifice — Set in Ancient Mexico or Post–World War I Germany?
Egon Wellesz’s Weimar era critique of the cruelty of nations that are victorious in war still rings hauntingly true.
Classical Album Review: Commedia dell’arte Clowns in a World of Heartbreak
Dohnányi and Schnitzler’s “pantomime” The Veil of Pierrette receives its first, and resplendent, recording.
Classical CD Reviews: Luciano Berio’s Coro, Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass,” and Shostakovich’s “Babi Yar”
The relative infrequency of big Berio releases makes new recordings of his major works into significant, contemporary music events; Dennis Russell Davies’ new recording of Bernstein’s Mass is done in by lax vocals and a paucity of emotional consistency; Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra supply a great Shostakovich Thirteenth Symphony.
Opera Album Review: The Most Neglected Master of Opera? Carl Maria von Weber, Early and Late
New recordings of Peter Schmoll and His Neighbors and of Euryanthe pose an embarrassing question: why is the opera repertory so narrow?
Opera Album Review: Oscar Wilde in the Opera House, Part 1 — Zemlinsky’s Intense Setting of “A Florentine Tragedy”
Salome is not the only strong opera based on an Oscar Wilde play. This one-acter by Zemlinsky deserves a place in the repertoire today.
Classical CD Reviews: Florence Price’s Symphonies nos. 1 & 4, George Antheil’s Symphonies nos. 3 & 6, and 20th-century Russian Orchestral Music
Fine recordings of symphonies by neglected American composers Florence Price and George Antheil; and a curious album from Cornelius Meister and the ORF Radio-Sinfonieorchester Wien.
Classical CD Reviews: Sir Neville Marriner — The London Recordings, Richard Strauss, Ein Heldenleben, James MacMillan String Quartets
A winning reminder of Sir Neville Marriner’s impressive stylistic range as a conductor, a fine recording of a much-loved and -played Richard Strauss tone poem, and a striking, powerful presentation of the string quartets of James MacMillan.