Deutsche Grammophon

Classical Album Review: Daniel Barenboim conducts Schumann

January 28, 2023
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Even if this isn’t the most interpretively satisfying of Daniel Barenboim’s traversals through this repertoire, it is a deeply revealing one that draws on a lifetime of experience with this music.

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Classical Album Review: Jakub Hrůša Conducts Works by Hans Rott, Mahler, and Bruckner

November 28, 2022
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Bold and colorful by turns, this disc offers an ideal introduction to Hans Rott, a composer who has slowly surfaced from the dark corners of history.

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Classical Album Review: Conductor Andris Nelsons’s Over-Sweetened “Strauss”

August 12, 2022
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This is a release that showcases many of Andris Nelsons’ strengths, including his strong sensitivity for instrumental colors, blends, and balances. At the same time, it also demonstrates the conductor’s hit-or-miss nature with the core repertoire.

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Classical Album Review: Florence Price’s Symphonies nos. 1 & 3

November 14, 2021
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Florence Price’s voice and the richness and complexity of an almost-entirely neglected body of symphonic music by Black American composers can be heard in this excellent recording.

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October Short Fuses – Materia Critica

October 7, 2021
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Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.

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Classical Album Review: The British Project

October 5, 2021
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This is an all-English album whose strongest moments are mighty and who’s most intriguing piece is a revelation.

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Classical Album Review: Andris Nelsons Conducts Shostakovich

September 2, 2021
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Interpretively, this installment in the BSO’s cycle of Dmitri Shostakovich’s fifteen symphonies is occasionally (and a bit surprisingly) spotty.

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Classical CD Review: Daniel Hope and Alexey Botvinov Play Alfred Schnittke

April 1, 2021
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Fiddler Daniel Hope’s new all-Schnittke disc with pianist Alexey Botvinov brings with it a level of authority that demands respect.

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Classical Album Review: Hilary Hahn’s “Paris” — A Thrilling Ride

March 19, 2021
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Violinist Hilary Hahn’s blend of musical curiosity, expressive savvy, and technical excellence doesn’t often appear in one person.

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Classical CD Reviews: Russia’s Silver Age, “Amici e Rivali,” and Jonathan Leshnoff’s Symphony no. 3

December 14, 2020
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Daniil Trifonov’s Silver Age pays bracing tribute to fin-de-siecle and post-Revolutionary Russian music; Jonathan Leshnoff’s Third Symphony is smartly-written and affecting. What happens when tenors Lawrence Brownlee and Michael Spyres team up for an album of duets and ensembles from various Rossini operas? Fireworks.

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