Pentatone
A conspicuously inviting account of Béla Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, and a welcome surprise: Aram Khachaturian actually wrote a pretty good piano concerto.
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Semyon Bychkov supplies an extraordinarily well-played account of Mahler’s Third; Paavo Järvi’s version of Mahler’s Fifth avoids the more idiosyncratic excesses of Leonard Bernstein’s superb 1987 Vienna recording.
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Wow. Stewart Goodyear can play Prokofiev. The Czech Philharmonic and Tomás Netopil are compelling advocates, playing Dvořák with plenty of rhythmic zest and tonal warmth.
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Not all of Atlanta Symphony Orchestra conductor Nathalie Stutzmann’s ideas about Dvorak’s Ninth Symphony add up, but there is not much to argue with in Czech Philharmonic Orchestra director Semyon Bychkov’s take on Dvorak’s Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Symphonies.
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This album fills out Michael Tilson Thomas’s compositional catalogue, deepening our appreciation of it. More fundamentally, it adds meaningfully to the story of American concert music.
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The performance of John Adams’s “City Noir” is swift and characterful, though sometimes pushed perhaps a bit too hard for its own good. The rendition of Leonard Bernstein’s “Serenade” is clear but a bit too safe.
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Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, television, film, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.
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Ultimately, then, we’ve got something special here: a fresh take on some canonic works by a conductor and soloist whose bread-and-butter is this very fare.
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Quatuor Diotima evince a thorough command of György Ligeti’s style, as well as a breathtaking grasp of the demands he makes on the instruments.
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Quatuor Diotima evince a thorough command of György Ligeti’s style, as well as a breathtaking grasp of the demands he makes on the instruments.
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Arts Commentary: From the Editor’s Desk — By Popular Demand