Gil-Rose
The emphasis of Monadnock’s coming concerts is, quite happily, American music by composers with strong ties to New England. It’s hard to imagine a more appropriate place to hear such fare or a better group of musicians to play it.
Read MoreWhile 1962’s Symphony owes a clear debt to Stravinsky and Britten (especially its last movement), it sounds like nobody but Irving Fine. This is a score that orchestras ought to be lining up to play.
Read MoreGil Rose and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) have been on something of a recording tear of late.
Read MoreFor their debut on Sunday, Odyssey Opera and conductor Gil Rose could hardly have picked a more spectacular, unfamiliar epic than they did.
Read MoreMusical quibbles aside, the performances on both albums from Boston Modern Music Project’s in-house label, BMOP/sound, are top-notch.
Read MoreIf you think contemporary music is the domain of fusty academics and has no bearing on (or relationship to) the outside world, you really need to check out “Canzonas Americanas.”
Read MoreUltimately, there’s a “look at my technique” quality to composer Lewis Spratlan’s writing in this piece that doesn’t match the musical content and that seems to be striving to be all things to all listeners.
Read MoreThough there were differences in quality between the compositions in the BMOP concert, all of the pieces fulfilled the primary requirement of a concerto: they showed off the capabilities of the solo instrument in question, often memorably so.
Read MoreMany musicians know Paul Hindemith (1895–1963) as a somewhat dry composer who wrote a few operas as well as sonatas for every instrument and some half dozen for viola (he played both violin and viola extremely well). But real Hindemith has a cutting lyrical gift, much of it is on display in his kinky opera…
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