A line-up of concerts, performances, and recordings that, as 2017 draws to its close, I can’t, for one reason or many, shake from my memory.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 01:24PMMatthias Goerne offers proof that he is the Wagner baritone of the day. And Thierry Fischer’s understanding of Mahler deserves our admiration.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 08:24PMHighlights include an excellent Tchaikovsky symphony cycle in modern sound and one of the year’s best chamber-music albums.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:18AMReviews of performances that are energetic, immediate, muscular, and simply breathtaking.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 09:04AMA hell-for-leather approach to Schubert has its drawbacks; for all the sheen of Juan Diego Flórez's singing, he doesn’t always seem at home in the music.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:04AMFrancois-Xavier Roth's Mahler is full of energy; the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic’s account of Randall Thompson’s Symphony no. 2 is gripping.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 03:12PMChild Alice is an important addition to the recorded catalogue of major American symphonic music.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 01:24AMThe BSO's performance of the Alpine Symphony had purpose and direction.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 09:12AMLeann Osterkamp’s playing is rhythmically alive and sympathetic to Leonard Bernstein’s style; Seong-Jin Cho shows that he is an important pianist to watch.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 11:54PMThe BPYO is as responsive, confident, technically skilled, and emotionally expressive an orchestra as they come.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 09:12AMIn honor of what would have been Leonard Bernstein’s hundredth birthday, the Tanglewood Festival is pulling out all the stops.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 09:24AMThere’s a remarkable breadth and depth, both textural and musical, to this collection of songs and dances that date back to the earliest years of the Republic.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 04:04PMFar more impressive than pianist Martha Argerich's impeccable mechanical abilities are her interpretive chops. Here, she’s truly in a league of her own.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 04:24PMNothing sleepy about the playing or the interpretations in the Yo-Yo Ma and Emmanuel Ax disc; New Hampshire's Heather Gilligan is a composer to watch.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 01:36AMThis is one of the year’s standout orchestral albums and it’s a special treat to catch the ensemble live on these shores so soon after its release.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 09:33AMTwo great tenor discs have recently been released
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 06:18PMFor my taste, too much of the stage action during Friday's performance was stiff and shopworn.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 05:54PMOne of Andris Nelsons’ great gifts as an interpreter is his ability to shape and develop large-scale musical forms.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 08:42PMEbony Quartet serves up a “must-hear” album of music from between the world wars.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 12:12AMSoprano Joyce El-Khoury sings spectacularly in her new disc, Echo.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 09:42AMHindemith and Britten could hardly have asked for more committed advocates than Steinbacher, Jurowski, and the RSOB.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 09:42AMIf there’s an essential “Leonard Bernstein at 100” album, this one, so far, is it: excellent performances of relatively unknown music deserving to be heard.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 02:42AMSaturday’s performance ranked among Odyssey Opera’s finest and most artistically satisfying undertakings.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 12:33AMSome institutions’ offerings aren’t as challenging as they could be, but there’s a healthy balance between the familiar and new.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 12:54AMAn early highlight of the upcoming Leonard Bernstein centennial is Sony Classical’s 25-disc box set.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 11:33AMMichael Tilson Thomas proves he's got Alban Berg’s style in his blood; Pablo Heras-Casado's Mendelssohn symphony cycle continues to be stylish.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 05:04PMSit Fast’s performances are breathtaking for their clarity and emotional involvement; Vladimir Jurowski serves up a ho-hum, un-monumental an interpretation of a late-Romantic pillar.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 09:48PMThe Classical Collection proves that violinist Joshua Bell is only now entering his prime; the Baltic Chamber Orchestra serves up a grim and underwhelming disc.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:18AMA wonderful new performance of Mahler’s three orchestral song cycles; Daniel Reuss’s account of the oratorio Le Roi David is basically flawless.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 07:36PMViolinist Sebastian Bohren’s album is uneven; violinist Isabelle Faust and pianist Alexander Melnikov have produced a wonder.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 05:54PMThe Heath Quartet delivers a triumphant Bartók cycle; Natalie Dessay's Schubert misses the mark widely.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:06AM
