Music
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The Cleveland Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall
Welser-Möst Conducts Messiaen and Dvorák
By: - Jul 16th, 2015Welser-Möst hid behind Tristan and Iseult in Vienna and Salome at Carnegie, two terrific opera productions he conducted. The continuity of the performance he draws from the elegant Cleveland Orchestra, weaving together an unusual whole, swoops the listener into the entire work without a breath, but with infinite attention to dynamic detail. It is a remarkable and uplifting experience to hear orchestral works as Welser-Möst designs them. Orchestra members are willing and more than up to the exciting task.
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Yarn/Wire at the Lincoln Center Festival
World Premieres by Murail, Misato Mochizuki, Raphaël Cendo
By: - Jul 15th, 2015When is sound music? When is noise music? These are questions asked by Yarn/Wire, a quartet of two pianists and two percussionists. We are reminded first and foremost that the piano is a percussion instrument. The excitement begins with this idea and floats out...forever.
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Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra
Wynton Marsalis Returns to Tanglewood
By: - Jul 15th, 2015On August 20, 2012 Wynton Marsalis shared an appearance at Tanglewood with bass player Christian McBride. Last night he returned to Ozawa Hall with Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. This superb group of New York based musicians presented a program of traditional big band music from the 1930s and 1940s in the first half and works by members of the orchestra, including Marsalis, in the second.
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'Home on the Range' (Tanglewood)
Sing Along with Bryn Terfel
By: - Jul 10th, 2015Heavyweight bass-baritone Bryn Terfel wows the audience at Ozawa Hall
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Miles
Keith or Chick
By: - Jul 04th, 2015Miles on tour after Bitches Brew saw him at Harvard Stadium then later in the week Lennie's on the Turnpike. That night the band included Jack DeJohnette, drums, Michael Henderson, bass, Gary Bartz, horns, Fender pianos Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea. John McLaughlin sat in on guitar. Back stage Miles asked me to help him make a difficult decision.
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Tanglewood/ BSO Opening Night
All-American Program
By: - Jul 04th, 2015For the BSO's opening night at Tanglewood guest conductor Jacques Lacombe led the orchestra through a diverse program of Americana that celebrated the Independence Day theme of freedom. Particularly essential was the give and take, call and answer between the traditions and cross pollination of jazz and classical music. A highlight was John Douglas Thompson speaking the words of Abraham Lincoln in a tribute composed by Aaron Copland.
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Les Troyens by San Francisco Opera
Stunning Performances by Antonacci, Graham and Hymel
By: - Jul 02nd, 2015The Trojan horse's head is 23 feet tall, the stage is packed with 18 principal singers, a chorus, dancers galore. Berlioz is perfumed with madness and desire. It is grand opera at its best in San Francisco: Les Troyens.
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Two Women at the San Francisco Opera
Anna Caterina Antonacci, a Singing Sophia Loren in Marco Tutino's Opera
By: - Jul 01st, 2015San Francisco Opera commissioned this work by an Italian composer Marco Tutino and puts on a terrific production. The set brilliantly reveals small human activities as an insert in the larger world picture. Often two dramas are taking place against the background of war. The beautiful score of Marco Tutino suits the story and provides ample opportunities to display the talents of the principals.
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Wilco and Real Estate Open Solid Sound Festival
Mass MoCA Be There or Be Square
By: - Jun 25th, 2015Wilco and thirty other bands invade Mass MoCA this weekend
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Tanglewood This Week
Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga, Huey Lewis, Mark Morris and More
By: - Jun 24th, 2015For under $100 you can purchase lawn tickets and see four popular artists at Tanglewood.
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Petrenko to Berlin Philharmonic
Boston Breathes a Sigh of Relief
By: - Jun 22nd, 2015Andris Nelsons' name has whirled in the air around Berlin. He succeeded Sir Simon Rattle at Birmingham and it is Rattle who is stepping down in Berlin. Nelsons was a natural choice. The orchestra made its announcement today: Kirill Petrenko is their man. Recently he has triumphed at the Munich Opera where we heard his wonderful Lulu.
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Sheryl Crow Rocks Tanglewood
If It Makes You Happy
By: - Jun 22nd, 2015The Tanglewood 2015 season opened with Sheryl Crow backed by Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops.
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Season Finale: Schubert and Beethoven Trios
Year-End Wrap up at the Rosen Salon
By: - Jun 21st, 2015Music salons at Joseph and Christina Rosen's are a treat. Over the course of a season, you can hear up and coming pianists, singers, and contemporary composers. The warhorses of music sound fresh and inviting. Only one of the pleasures of an evening is hearing Joe Rosen perform on the clarinet.
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Monteverdi Trilogy Heads to the Berkshires
Early Music Festival Travels to Great Barrington
By: - Jun 18th, 2015Every two years the Boston Early Music Festival schedules a week of concerts and operas that make Boston the world capital of early music. This year's focus was on Claudio Monteverdi, the first great opera composer. All three of his surviving operas were given stylish productions and featured some of the best singers of early music in the world. Taken from Greek myth and ancient Roman history, the stories resonate with the lives we live today.
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Gilbert Conducts Joan of Arc at the Stake
Marion Cotilliard Simply Magnificent as Joan
By: - Jun 13th, 2015The North American continent does not have military heroines. A 17th century Mexican nun, Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez de Santillana, was censored for her apostatic writings, but never picked up a sword. Without queens and saints, we have struggled into modern times. For comfort when France was challenged, as it often has been in history, the country looks to its patron saint, Joan of Arc, who helped end the Hundred Years War before she was burned at the stake. The New York Philharmonic reminded us of her trials in the ineffably moving composition of Paul Claudel and Arthur Honegger.
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Joan of Arc, Patron Saint of France by Marion Cotilliard
Honegger, Claudel and Alan Gilbert Join Forces
By: - Jun 09th, 2015On June 10, 2015, Alan Gilbert will present Honegger's most famous composition, Joan or Arc at the stake. Modestly, Honegger said he only followed the inspiration of his librettist Paul Claudel. Their collaboration was inspired. Gilbert discussed the dramatic oratorio with Come de Bellescize, the stage director, and Pierre Vallet, who assisted Seiji Ozawa with his production of the oratorio.
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The Monteverdi Trilogy at Boston Early Music Festival
Biennial festival puts on more concerts than you could possibly attend.
By: - Jun 02nd, 2015Since its founding in 1981, the Boston Early Music Festival has become one of the leading cultural organizations in Boston, a city not lacking in them. Its biennial festival draws performing groups and audiences from all over the globe. Its focus is on a historically informed Baroque opera - this year it is doing three! All three of Monteverdi's surviving operas in one week. What bliss.
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Carnegie is Busting Out All Over
The Iconic Hall Has Brought Music to Every Corner of New York
By: - Jun 01st, 2015Throughout the five boroughs of New York, Carnegie Hall has presented live music to audiences of every age nd every hue. Community colleges, town halls, libraries and churches have opened their doors to music makers. Catching up at the seaason's end we heard Julia Bullock and Renate Rohling at St. Michael's Church in Manhattan and the Whistling Wolvves in the extraorinarily inviting Weill Music Room in Carnegie's new wing.
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Bizet's Carmen in Sunset Park Brooklyn
Indominatable Regina Opera Scores Again
By: - May 23rd, 2015With four hundred seats cushioned in plush red velvet to match the red velvet curtain donning a stage almost as tall as the Metropolitan opera's, the Regina Opera Company plays to a packed house full of the much-to-be envied millenials, their children, their parents. Everyone enjoyed great opera.
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The Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall
Wizard Nézet-Séguin Conducts
By: - May 15th, 2015Music as diverse as Nico Muhly, Beethoven and Rachmaninoff all sprang up from the Philadelphia Orchestra in rich dynamic and tonal swoops as the conductor, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, drew forth resplendent sounds and shapes. From the beating of a woodblock to a celestial harp, Nézet-Séguin dances as he conducts and his body movements, which are smooth rather than exaggerated, convey to both the musicians and the audience the breath of the phrasing.
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Keith Lockhart Celebrates 20 Years with Pops
With Bernadette Peters at Tanglewood July 5
By: - May 15th, 2015After one of the worst winters on record yet again Spring means six glorious weeks of the Boston Pops. We participated in the gala opening night launch of Keith Lockhart's 20th season. His guest was Broadway star Bernadette Peters. It provided a preview of their appearance together at Tanglewood on July 5.
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Gerald Finley: Master and Devil
Teaching the Art of Generosity
By: - May 12th, 2015Gerald Finley is showing young singers a moment, steering them, helping them build their unique gifts as he conducts a Master Class at Juilliard. He emphasizes intimacy as the connection between the singer in full, his personality and spirit released out to the world in song. Finley took time off from his thrilling performance as Nick Shadow in The Rake's Progress at the Met.
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The Road of Promise by the Collegiate Chorale
Ted Sperling Conducts a Kurt Weill Blockbuster
By: - May 07th, 2015Kurt Weill had had theatrical success with Three Penny Opera and Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny when he was approached by Max Reinhardt to compose music for a pageant highlighting the plight of Jewish people in Germany and throughout the world. The Collegiate Chorale presented an oratorio based on the pageant.
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Duncan Rock Rocks BLO's
Libertine Gets his Come-upance in Mozart Classic
By: - May 04th, 2015The Boston Lyric Opera's production was stylish and emphasized the opera's comedy over its more serious elements. It featured young singers, the hunky Duncan Rock as the Don and a fiery Jennifer Johnson Cano as Donna Elvira.
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Mozart's Magic Flute Set in a Masonic Symbol
Night and Sunlight Battle at the Manhattan School of Music
By: - May 02nd, 2015The symbol of the Free Masons frames the set of the Manhattan School of Music production. A circular insert reveals the interior dramas of the opera: the imprisonment of Pamina, journeys through the forest, the home of the Queen of the Night. An effective transition from sun to moon locates us in the various worlds of the opera.
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