Reference Recordings

Classical Album & Streaming Reviews: “Spanish Impressions,” Boston Philharmonic Orchestra & Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra in Concert

November 22, 2023
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An admiring review of the latest disc from Hermitage Trio and praise for Boston Philharmonic and Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra concerts earlier this month at Symphony Hall.

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Classical Album Review: Manfred Honeck Conducts Tchaikovsky and Schulhoff — It’s a Doozy!

September 16, 2023
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This is a Tchaikovsky Fifth that’s thoroughly lived in.

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Classical Album Review: Pittsburgh Symphony plays Beethoven & Stucky

June 13, 2022
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We’ve got ourselves another winner in this ongoing Pittsburgh/Beethoven series. Warmly recommended.

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March Short Fuses – Materia Critica

March 3, 2022
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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: Manfred Honeck Conducts Brahms and MacMillan

November 5, 2021
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Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony have ways of digging into the music and providing new perspectives on it such that their recordings are, by and large, can’t-miss events.

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Classical Album Review: “One Movement Symphonies” — Let’s Have a Follow-Up

July 23, 2021
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This is a disc that begs for a sequel (or a whole series).

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Classical CD Reviews: François-Xavier Roth conducts Mussorgsky and Ravel, Manfred Honeck conducts Tchaikovsky and Leshnoff, and Mikolajus Čiurlionis Orchestral Works

May 26, 2020
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François-Xavier Roth and his period ensemble Les Siècles serve up freshness of playing and conviction of interpretation; Manfred Honeck is a conductor who can draw compelling, electrifying accounts of the standard canon as if on cue; the verdict’s mixed on the music of Lithuanian-born composer Mikalojus Čiurlionis.

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Opera CD Review: A Compact, Powerful New Opera from Carlisle Floyd, Composer of “Susannah”

May 24, 2020
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Prince of Players is based on a play that also yielded the movie Stage Beauty, and it’s one of the best new operas to come along in years.

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Classical CD Reviews: The Tchaikovsky Project, Schumann Symphonies nos. 2 & 4, and Holst Orchestral Works

September 14, 2019
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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.

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Classical CD Reviews: Bartók Ballets, Saint-Saëns Complete Symphonies vol. 2, and Korngold’s Symphony in F-sharp

August 20, 2019
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A can’t-miss album of Bartók Ballets, Thierry Fischer continues to do right by the symphonies of Saint-Saëns, and a spirited recording of the “last great symphony in the German Romantic tradition.”

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