Music
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Opera Philadelphia's Yardbird at the Apollo
Lawrence Brownlee Superb as Charlie Parker
By: - Apr 03rd, 2016Charlie Parker ended up an unknown in Bellevue's morgue. While the opera Yardbird is set in the jazz club Birdland then on 52nd Street, affectionately named after the genius of bebop, Bird himself is in purgatory, not yet buried, writing a final symphonic work and plagued by memories of the women in his life. Tenor Lawrence Brownlee makes an indelible impression in the title role.
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ACJW Rocks National Sawdust
Carnegie Hall and Juilliard Launch Their Best
By: - Mar 31st, 2016The accessibility of contemporary music was never in question at a superb evening with the ACJW Ensemble at Nation Sawdust in Brooklyn.
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BLO Presents Massenet's Werther
Love-sick Poet Who Took His Life Quintessential Romanticism
By: - Mar 28th, 2016Based on the Goethe novel, which set off a plague of copy-cat suicides in 18th century Europe, the late Romantic opera is arguably Massenet's masterpiece - at least it still speaks to us today. Lyrical throughout, it becomes intensely dramatic in Act III and IV. The BLO cast was not ideal, but they did the best they could and had many affecting moments.
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Dolly Parton Added to Tanglewood Schedule
Country Music Artist to Perform on June 17
By: - Mar 25th, 2016Country music icon Dolly Parton makes her Tanglewood debut with a season-opening performance Friday, June 17, at 7 p.m. in the Koussevitzky Music Shed, joining the Tanglewood 2016 Popular Artist line-up. Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops Swing Orchestra will also perform in the Shed on Saturday, September 3, at 8 p.m.
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Carmen McRae
Life Is a Cabaret
By: - Mar 24th, 2016During intimate club gigs you got to hang out with legendary artists like jazz singer Carmen McRae. She was open about sharing the insights and secrets of her unique craft as a compelling cabaret artist. Even in concert halls she conveyed a feeling of reaching out to every individual in the audience.
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Jazz Diva Sarah Vaughan
Sassy to the Maxy
By: - Mar 21st, 2016During the 1930s and 1940s, when sing was king, a remarkable number of now legendary women fronted big bands. There were so many great artists. Among jazz aficionados the dialogue often focuses on Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. When Bop and small combos broke up all but a few of the big bands there was a style shift, Artists like Vaughan were repackaged into the mainstream of top forty radio. In the late years Vaughan defaulted back to jazz.
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Beautiful Madama Butterfly at MET Opera
Directed by Oscar Winner Anthony Minghella
By: - Mar 20th, 2016The Metropolitan Opera’s performance of Madama Butterfly is a timeless classic with the ultimate tragic heroine. When coupled with dramatic direction by Anthony Minghella (Oscar winner for The English Patient) and modern, other worldly staging as this production is, the audience is spellbound for the full three + hours and more than a few could not hold back tears at the heart-wrenching end.
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Paul Appleby, the Natural, at Carnegie
A Master of Language and Meaning
By: - Mar 17th, 2016Paul Appleby has rocketed to the top of the music world. This modest, charming man has a voice for the ages and communicates in many languages with an easy skill. At Zankel Hall in New York he sang about the infinite varieties of love as expressed by Schumann, Wolf, Berlioz and Villa Lobos. Matthew Aucoin's Merrill Songs were premiered. This irresistible master tenor speaks to the heart.
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Salonen Honors Messiaen at NY Phil
Tristan and Exhaulted Love Revealed in Turangalila
By: - Mar 13th, 2016Audiences were often ahead of critics in appreciating Messiaen's music. Turangalila was given a warm, tener, violent, expressive, often magical and always colorful performance at David Geffen Hall. Young people were packed in to hear the composer.
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LaMama Discovers American Music
Dvorak Pricks Up His Ears
By: - Mar 12th, 2016The ever inventive Czecholovak-American Theatre tracks Antonin Dvorak's arrival in America and shows us how he discovered unique American sounds from cottonpickers in the South to Hiawatha.
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Christian McBride Named Newport's Music Curator
To Succeed Newport Jazz Festival Founder George Wein
By: - Mar 10th, 2016For 62 remarkable years George Wein has be the head of the Newport Jazz Festival franchise. The renowned bass player Christian McBride will ease into that position as artistic director. McBride is a multiple Grammy winner. Has performed at Tanglewood on a program with Wynton Marsalis.
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Bob Dylan at Tanglewood This Summer
July 2 in The Shed with Mavis Staples
By: - Mar 07th, 2016Bob Dylan—with special guest Mavis Staples—will perform at Tanglewood’s Koussevitzky Music Shed on Saturday, July 2. This is Dylan’s third appearance at the Western Massachusetts music festival, having performed there in the 1991 season and again in 1997.
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BSO Goes to Spain with Ravel and deFalla
Charles Dutoit Conducts Sunny Music on a Cold Night
By: - Mar 06th, 2016The concert opened with charming tone-poems by Ravel and de Falla, but after intermission, with Ravel's one-act "musical comedy," "L'Heure espagnole," a Feydeau-like farce, the charm quotient went up the scale. A charming cast contributed to a charming evening.
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Billstock Festival at The Log
March Madness in Williamstown
By: - Mar 06th, 2016On Saturday night The Log was packed with Williams College students who seemed oblivious to the sixth annual Billstock Festival. Under the direction of organizer Michael Williams the event was masterful in its understated lack of promotion. We hunkered down for a fun evening including a compelling Bowie tribute by the trio, Rebel Rebel, a set of plaintive love songs by Lucy Davis, and a kick-ass rock set by the legendary Jane and Jeff.
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Russian National Orchestra at Carnegie Hall
Stefan Jackiw Captivates in Prokofiev
By: - Mar 03rd, 2016Pianists approach simple, lyrical music with a delicate touch, and the prize-winning Russian pianist, Mikhail Pletnev, now a conductor, approached his orchestra in just this spirit. Borodin’s short tone poem, In the Steppes of Central Asia, was lush and yet simple, bringing forth lovely melodies, among them ‘Stranger in Paradise,” which we know well from Kismet.
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Tanglewood Update, new popular artists added to venue
June will be rocking at Tanglewood.
By: - Mar 01st, 2016Tanglewood is appealing to all age categories with the addition of popular artists, Earth, Wind & Fire, Jackson Browne, Train and the B52's.
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Tanglewood Adds Popular Artists
Rounding Out 2016 Season
By: - Feb 29th, 2016Depending on what acts are on tour it generally takes some time for the BSO to fill in the gaps with non classical programming. Of the four acts that have been added three have previously been featured at Tanglewood. In addition to previously announced artists Berkshire audiences will be offered Earth Wind and Fire, Jackson Browne, and Train. The dance band B-52s will appear with an evening of Pops.
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Boston Symphony Shakespeare Festival
Three Concert Program Features Vocal Music, New Works
By: - Feb 17th, 2016Acknowledging the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, the BSO programmed music by some of the greats based on his works. Music director Andris Nelsons brought his lively intelligence to the enterprise, in which a new work based on Ophelia's words by the Dane Hans Abrahamsen was the stand-out hit.
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The Cleveland Orchestra Graces Carnegie Hall
Mitsuko Uchida Plays and Leads
By: - Feb 15th, 2016Mitsuko Uchida plays and conducts Mozart with the Cleveland Symphony. Will she continue in a new career as a conductor? In Munich, the Bayerische State Opera is often conducted by Oksana Lyniv. Gemma New is at the New Jersey Symphony, and Mirga Gražinyt-Tyla is the new music director of the Birmingham Symphony. Women are coming to the podium.
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Son House
Prechin the Blues
By: - Feb 12th, 2016A man of God in his twenties Delta man Son House succumbed to the Devil's music. During the Folk Revival I saw him perform at the 1969 Newport Folk Festival.
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What's New at the Metropolitan Opera
Sondra Radvanovky Crowned Queen of Opera
By: - Feb 08th, 2016It seems just yesterday that Placido Domingo marched into General Manager Peter Gelb’s office and told him that he must keep the great soprano Sondra Radvanovsky on the Metropolitan Opera roster. Gelb could not say no. And so we have this season Donizetti’s Queens with Radvanovsky singing Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda and Elizabeth.
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Orpheus at Carnegie Hall
Pianist Buniatishvili Makes Mozart an Erotic Experience
By: - Jan 31st, 2016Orpheus’ performers clearly come to an agreement before they come onto stage, leaderless. This form gives the music a chance to implode and explode in the hands of gifted individuals coming together.
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Jaap Van Zweden New Music Director of the NY Phil
An Electrifying Conductor Arrives
By: - Jan 27th, 2016On January 27, 2016, New York Philharmonic Chairman Oscar S. Schafer and President Matthew VanBesien announced that conductor Jaap van Zweden will become the Orchestra’s next Music Director, beginning in 2018–19. It will be the orchestra’s 177th season. Mr. van Zweden will serve as Music Director Designate in the 2017–18 season.
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Mark Goldenberg and Eric Skye's Artifact
New CD of Organic Music
By: - Jan 24th, 2016Artifact is one of those recordings that warrants repeated listening. Each time I listen to the CD, there is something new to marvel at, especially the organic, full and clean masterful guitar tones. Add the masterful song writing with actual melodies that stick out in each song and you have an album that stands out and sticks in one's brain.
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Stephanie Blythe: Sing America!
Carnegie Hall Hosts Amateur Singers Braving a Blizzard
By: - Jan 24th, 2016The human voice is an instrument we all carry. Fewer than five percent of people are tone deaf and some experts consider the condition correctable. We all can experience the joy of singing together. Live singing is like nothing else under the sun. Stephanie Blythe makes the case with joy and conviction at a Carnegie Hall concert.
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