a virtual journal and essential blog of the classical music scene in greater Boston
Lee Eiseman, publisher; Robert Levin, advisor; David Moran, assisting editor; Bettina A. Norton, emerita editor
- Richard Riley on New Year’s Eve with Boston Baroque
- Dennis Milford on Dazzling ART: Natasha, Pierre, and the 1812 Comet
- Ed Burke on Critics Remember 2015
- Alan Levitan on Bartokathon Take Two: ¡YOWZA!
- Dennis Milford on Bartokathon Take Two: ¡YOWZA!
- David Moran on Tallis Tells of a Birth
- Peter Kronheimer on A Seasonal Mix Blows In From That Other BSO
- Sergey Schepkin on Illuminations of Messiaen from Emerging Pianist
- Bettina A Norton on Tallis Tells of a Birth
- Geoffrey Wieting on Ponderousness Banished by Boston Baroque
Reviews
January 4, 2016
Pearlman, Abreu, and Martinson Flourish
by Geoffrey Wieting
Free champagne and chocolates at the intermission no doubt raised our spirits, but Boston Baroque’s pyrotechnics in The Four Seasons brought us our greatest artistic pleasures. [continued]
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January 1, 2016
New Year’s Eve with Boston Baroque
by David Patterson
Nobody needed Times Square, as Boston Baroque ushered in 2016 with roasting 18th-century chestnuts at Sanders—complete with sopranissimo. [continued]
1 Comment »
December 31, 2015
Dazzling ART: Natasha, Pierre, and the 1812 Comet
by Garry McLinn
Tolstoy has been dramatized in outstanding fashion at ART over the last month; the musical will continue through Sunday before this comet of a show orbits off to Broadway. [continued]
1 Comment »
December 29, 2015
Schütz Christmas Story Staged in Cambridge
by Steven Ledbetter
Appearing together in First Church in Cambridge, Musica Nuova, the Weckmann Project, and Long & Away staged the Schütz Christmas Story on the day after Christmas. [continued]
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December 23, 2015
Singing, Listening, Imagining Across Cultures
by Tom Schnauber
The Boston Camerata’s “A Mediterranean Christmas” brought a movingly relevant uplift to the sanctuary of the First Church Congregational Cambridge on Monday. [continued]
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Bartokathon Take Two: ¡YOWZA!
by Vance R. Koven
Herein a second BMInt thinker opines on Borromeo’s Six Bartok quartets at the Gardner last Sunday. [continued]
2 Comments »
December 22, 2015
Borromeo Bartokathon: Exhilaration or Overkill?
by Fred Bouchard
The foursome’s intimate, bristly marathon brought energetic precision to all six of Bartok’s string quartets at the Gardner on Sunday. [continued]
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December 21, 2015
A Newfangled Schubertiade
by Nate Shaffer
“Old Friend” sandwiched songs and instrumental works among orchestrated arrangements of Schubert lieder before A Far Cry’s enlargement of Schubert’s String Quartet in G Major, D. 887 somewhat heavily occupied the second half at Jordan Hall on Friday. [continued]
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December 20, 2015
Serious Seasonal Helpings from H + H
by Sudeep Agarwala
The wide range of technique and storytelling we found Thursday in Handel + Haydn’s selection of three Bach cantatas and a funeral motet made “Bach Christmas” particularly enticing. [continued]
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December 17, 2015
Illuminations of Messiaen from Emerging Pianist
by David Patterson
Pianist Daniel Parker’s way with birdcalls and just about everything else hooked me at Killian Hall on Wednesday. [continued]
1 Comment »
December 15, 2015
A Seasonal Mix Blows In From That Other BSO
by Vance R. Koven
The Brookline Symphony Orchestra performed first-rate and varied repertoire for the orchestra’s holiday-season program on Saturday at All Saints Church Brookline with solidity and finesse that belied its community-ensemble status. [continued]
1 Comment »
Longest Nights’ Journey Into Day
by Kate Stringer
Oriana Consort wove Advent themes of light and darkness in The Longest Nights; their yuletide concert given this past Saturday evening at First Lutheran Church in Boston brought clarity and obfuscation in equal measure. [continued]
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December 14, 2015
Ponderousness Banished by Boston Baroque
by Geoffrey Wieting
Chorus, orchestra, and soloists reached international levels of color, emotional commitment, and virtuosity in Boston Baroque’s Messiah at Jordan Hall on Friday. [continued]
4 Comments »
Tallis Tells of a Birth
by Virginia Newes
To celebrate the advent of Christmas, Peter Phillips and the Tallis Scholars juxtaposed late-20th-century compositions by Arvo Pärt with music from mid-16th-century England at St. Paul’s, Cambridge on Saturday. [continued]
3 Comments »
December 12, 2015
Rumbarocco Grooves with Baroque
by Garry McLinn
Rumbarocco’s Latin-Baroque Fusion rhythms got the First Lutheran Church Boston audience in the mood to dance last night. [continued]
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December 10, 2015
LSO Seized By Spirit of Paganini
by Kate Stringer
The Longwood Symphony Orchestra under Ronald Feldman delivered a well-mixed program including In Mo Yang’s performance of Paganini’s First Violin Concerto to a Saturday night crowd at Jordan Hall. [continued]
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Jay Gatsby Struts to Harbison’s Tune
by Sarah Schaffer
Semperoper’s new production plumbs and energizes Harbison’s Gatsby with high production values in one of the world’s greatest opera houses. [continued]
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December 9, 2015
Penelope Partners Morrison with ISGM
by Laura Stanfield Prichard
The Gardner kicked off its innovative series of new vocal works curated by avant-garde impresario Beth Morrison last Thursday with a packed house for Sarah Kirkland Snider’s moody, evocative song cycle. [continued]
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December 8, 2015
Thirty Years On, Quartet Still Nails It
by Brian Schuth
Haydn, Dvorak, and Andres came through brightly from the Takács Quartet at Jordan Hall last Friday. [continued]
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Schubert and Wyner Played with Mozart on First
by Mark DeVoto
“First Monday” at Jordan Hall refreshed in every way with its fine assembly of current faculty, alumni, and old friends. [continued]
2 Comments »
Traditions Adapted in Collegium’s Messiah
by Kate Stringer
The Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum rang in the University’s holiday season with a distinguished, richly contextualized Messiah on Friday evening at Sanders. [continued]
1 Comment »
December 6, 2015
Chameleon Reveals Bach the Colorist
by Leon Golub
It turns out that the six Brandenburgs are full of chameleonic hues modulating within realms, at least as painted by the Chameleon Arts Ensemble last weekend at First Church. [continued]
2 Comments »
Rough Places Made JP
by James C.S. Liu
“Written for the night of Christmas” was the appellation for A Far Cry’s Saturday concert at Saint John’s Church. [continued]
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December 4, 2015
Ducal Presence Felt at First Church
by David Patterson
Ellipsis Trio pulled off the “Archduke” in miraculous fashion at First Church Cambridge last night, though proving unequal to the echoes in other works. [continued]
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December 2, 2015
Takasugi’s Freaky, Meaningful Sideshow
by David Patterson
Steven Kazuo Takasugi’s entertainment based on the dark sideshows of Coney Island’s amusement park produced a rapt affect in the Radcliffe Gymnasium through the ministrations of the Talea Ensemble recently. [continued]
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