436 stories by "Jonathan Blumhofer"
The Heath Quartet delivers a triumphant Bartók cycle; Natalie Dessay's Schubert misses the mark widely.
The BSO's Brahms' sounds as robust and responsive as they do when they're on their best behavior at Symphony Hall.
For all the surface-y beauty of the BSO's playing, it's a dull interpretation of Anton Bruckner's Symphony no. 3.
The Emerson Quartet is as restless and curious as ever; pianist Simone Dinnerstein is featured on a treasure of a disc.
Why do such a high number of significant contemporary composers hail from Iceland?
It is one of the enduring ironies of classical music that so much of today's repertoire was written by such a small number of people. This post is the fifteenth in a multipart Arts Fuse seri…
Sea Pictures offers, frankly, everything one might want in a song cycle: sweeping melodies, evocative scoring, stirring drama and pathos.
Samuel Barber: one of the most individual and distinguished voices to emerge in Europe or America during the 20th century.
In all, Chorus pro Musica's production was witty and diverting, timely in spots and smart throughout
Rimsky-Korsakov's , Antar packs a world of chimeric colors, impellent drama, and memorable tunes into less than thirty minutes.
By opting to set Figaro as a straight comedy, Cucchi's production glossed over the opera's subversive edge.
There aren't too many ensembles around that consistently remind us how fresh, rich, diverse, and thought-provoking contemporary can be.
Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter gave a searing, intense reading of the solo part in Nostalghia (In Memory of Andrei Tarkovskij).
So, what is one to make of the BPYO's weekend effort? It was a bit bold, to be sure. But it was also stirring, heartfelt, and timely.
Mitsuko Uchida is quite possibly the finest Mozart pianist around today, at least among non-period specialists.
Sometimes new music isn't really new and old music isn't actually old; the best of it exists on some other plane entirely.
A welcome triumph for Hyperion, Bruch, and the Nash Ensemble, but the Oregon Symphony does not do right by Haydn.
On paper, at least, the upcoming season of the BSO is a bit of a letdown: cautious, unthreatening, comfortable.
For terrific viola playing and some fresh repertoire by familiar names, look no further than Antoine Tamestit's Bel Canto.
Hyperion builds a CD around a superb performance of Amy Beach's magnificent Piano Concerto.
No orchestra in this country embraces the challenges of Charles Wuorinen's hyper-intellectual style better than the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
There have been lots of recordings of Philip Glass to hit the market recently. One of the highlights is VÃkingur Ólafsson's Piano Works.
This invigorating, sometimes unpredictable, Beethoven-heavy program certainly offered its share of athleticism and energy.
Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra serve up some curious and, from time to time, rather languorous Elgar.
"We thought, why don't we hark back to earlier occasions which were equal parts socializing and entertainment?"
