Music
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Gonzo Chronicles: Promo Man Roger Lifeset
How Alice Cooper Trashed My Cambridge Apartment
By: - Mar 14th, 2014On a balmy January night some 300 to 400 rockers crashed, trashed and smashed my basement Harvard Square apartment during an "Intimate VIP" party following an Alice Cooper concert. It was instigated by Warner Brothers promo man and ubermensch, Roger Lifeset. As part one in the ongoing Gonzo Chronicles we discuss the utter madness of the Boston rock scene.
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Natalie Dessay Sings French at Jordan Hall
Opera Diva Featured Elegant Songs of Love
By: - Mar 13th, 2014Natalie Dessay has been one of the most electrifying singer/actresses on the opera stage for nearly 30 years. Now, she is focusing her career on pop songs and the classic song literature. Dessay assembled a primarily French program with enough German songs to give the evening some weight.
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An Incandescent Salome at BSO
Andris Nelsons Knows His Way Around Opera
By: - Mar 11th, 2014A top-tier cast tears the top off Symphony Hall in Richard Strauss's decadent take on the dysfunctional family with a religious prophet thrown in for good measure. The orchestra is enormous: 32 violins, a dozen violas, ten cellos, eight double basses and it seemed like every woodwind and brass player in the greater Boston area. And that doesn’t even account for the harps, tambourine, xylophone, harmonium, gong, kettledrum, timpani, castanet, triangle, glockenspiel and celesta. Andris Nelsons, the BSO director designate, kept them all in control.
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First Petrof Pianojazz Festival in Prague
At Famous Jazz Dock, February 24-27, 2014
By: - Mar 07th, 2014A new, young contributor to BFA, photographer and writer Ioana Taut, grew up in Romania. Her field of passion is Jazz ! Here she's reporting in word and image about a recent festival in Prague, where she's currently residing. Jazz is alive and well in Eastern European countries!
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BSO Announces 2014- 2015 Season
Welcomes Andris Nelsons
By: - Mar 06th, 2014The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 2014-15 season shines a welcoming spotlight on Andris Nelsons as he makes hihighly anticipated debut as BSO Music Director, leading performances that feature an eclectic offering of music and an impressive lineup of guest artists, and presenting programs that illuminate touchstone moments in his life as a musician, from his youngest days as a child in Riga, to his present-day stature as one of the world’s most sought-after conductors. When Mr. Nelsons takes on the title of BSO Music Director in September 2014, at age 35, he will be the youngest conductor to hold that title with the orchestra in over 100 years. The fifteenth music director since the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s founding in 1881, Mr. Nelsons is also the first Latvian-born conductor to assume the post.
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Critical Analysis of Andris Nelsons's BSO Season
Programming to Reveal the Arc of the Maestro's Musical Journay
By: - Mar 06th, 2014The new music director of the Boston Symphony announced the 2014-15 season and the air was crackling with excitement. In addition to the full schedule we offer a sidebar for what this portends for the orchestra immediately and in the future. Our critic, Susan Hall, had lunch with him well before the appointment. Be still dear heart.
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Jussi Reijonen at Regattabar March 5
Jazz Artist Joined by Special Guests
By: - Mar 04th, 2014Guitarist/oudist/composer Jussi Reijonen showcases music from his acclaimed CD Jussi Reijonen: un at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 5 at Regattabar, 1 Bennett Street, Cambridge. He is joined by an international array of players: Swedish acoustic bassist Bruno RÃ¥berg and Palestinian percussionist Tareq Rantisi - each of whom is featured on un - along with Spanish pianist Juan Pérez RodrÃguez and Palestinian cellist Naseem Alatrash as special guests.
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Festival International de Jazz de Montréal
35th Annual Festival June 26 to July 6
By: - Mar 04th, 2014This summer marks the 35th annual Festival International de Jazz de Montréal. There are many highlights with international artists slated to perform. It's worth planning for for the trip north to hear Diana Ross, Keith Jarrett, Bobby McFerrin, Ginger Baker, Rufus Wainwright and the music of Frank Zappa.
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Student Opera Offers Deep Satisfactions
Boston's Opera Stars of Tomorrow
By: - Mar 01st, 2014In Boston, the two music conservatories and the Boston University Opera Institute offer a mix of warhorses and rarities with young singers variously ready for the next step. Often student performances are frustratingly uneven with various degrees of accomplishment on display, but sometimes they come together with well-balanced casts, offering the experience of professional opera at a quarter the price.
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Rusalka Re-Imagined in Chicago
Ana Maria Martinez Captivates as Rusalka
By: - Mar 01st, 2014In the front row of the Civic Opera House, Renée Fleming sat watching an enchanting water nymph take on the role which has been Fleming's signature for decades. The audience fell for Ana Maria Martinez from her first notes and throughout the challenging first Act. What would Fleming make of the performance?
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Michael Fabiano Wins Beverly Sills Award
The Young Tenor Captured Our Attention Immediately
By: - Feb 21st, 2014The Sills Award honoring and supporting up and coming opera singers is one of the most prestigious. This year the Award was given o Michael Fabiano, a wonderfully gifted young singer.
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Barber of Seville at Lyric Opera of Chicago
Rob Ashford Makes a 198-Year -Old Opera Fresh
By: - Feb 19th, 2014Anthony Freud, the non pareil general manager of opera, brought Rob Ashford to the Lyric to mount his first opera. The Tony and Emmy award winning choreographer and director does a brilliant job by honoring the form of Beaumarchais and Rossini.
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Amanda Forsythe Keeps The Garland Fresh
Boston Baroque Presents Rameau's Rarity.
By: - Feb 18th, 2014Jean-Philippe Rameau's one-act opera "La Guirlande" might seem to be a frivolous pastoral, but he brings it to life with rich and subtly detailed music. The afternoon belonged to Amanda Forsythe. She is as fine an actress as singer, imbuing everything with the force of life. Where other singers make you aware of the effort expended to hit high notes (or low), Forsythe makes it all sound easy. She moves without break through the vocal registers that loom as roadblocks to other singers.
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Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall
With Guest Conductor Bernard Haitink in a Ravel Program
By: - Feb 17th, 2014In celebration of his 85th birthday Bernard Haitink has arranged several New York concerts as a guest conductor. We covered his Carnegie Hall appearance in an all Ravel program leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra and its Tanglewood Chorus.
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2014 Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival
Saturday, June 28 and Sunday, June 29
By: - Feb 09th, 2014The 37th annual Freihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival, one of the most celebrated and longest running jazz events in the world, will be held on Saturday, June 28 and Sunday, June 29 at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. This year's festival headliners include Earth, Wind & Fire, Trombone Shorty, Terence Blanchard, Dave Holland Prism, Patti Austin, Jon Batiste & Stay Human, Eddie Palmieri Salsa Orchestra, Quinn Sullivan, Dr. Lonnie Smith, and Newport Jazz Festival®: Now 60, among others.
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Aliens Arrive at Symphony Hall in Chicago
City on High Alert, but Children Entranced
By: - Feb 09th, 2014Aliens from Planet X landed in Chicago on the stage of Symphony Hall at approximately 11 am on Saturday, February 8th. Quickly word spread that a Martian cylinder had landed in Chicago. Orson Welles broadcast an earlier Martian arrival. While the city’s panicked citizens fled town through fat puffs of snowflakes falling over Michigan Drive, many young people embraced the two ETs on stage, who were unable to speak an earthly language, but gestured in a language of signs.
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Chicago Symphony Orchestra Under Riccardo Muti
Musical Messages Delivered with Passionate Panache
By: - Feb 07th, 2014This evening introduced spaghetti-Western composer Ennio Morricone. Often nominated for an Academy Award, he finally won one for lifetime achievement. Clint Eastwood translated his acceptance speech live. Before Muti began to conduct Morricone’s tribute to 9/11, Maestro Muti pointed out that this music has a message. The piece begins with a poem by the South African Richard Moore Rive. Ora Jones beautifully articulated the rainbow of our world, where words are neither white nor black. “Where the rainbow ends, there’s going to be a place…where we can sing together, a sad song. “
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NEC Presents A Hard Rain's Gonnah Fall
February 18 at Boston's Jordan Hall
By: - Feb 04th, 2014Join New England Conservatory's Eden MacAdam-Somer and Contemporary Improvisation department students and faculty in a concert featuring original works and recompositions that offer a kaleidoscopic perspective on protest music and social change throughout history. The concert takes place on Tuesday, February 18 at 8 p.m. in NEC's Jordan Hall, 290 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA. It is free and open to the public.
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Remembering Folk Legend Pete Seeger
We're All Brothers And We're Only Passing Through
By: - Feb 02nd, 2014I have few if any idols in my pantheon, but if there is anyone that I admired enough to put there, Pete Seeger might well be the one.
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Ear Say: Closing Out 2013
This, Too Long Left Unsaid
By: - Feb 02nd, 20142013 got a bit complicated at its end and I find myself struggling to catch up with writing of those events, sorting out the ones on which I want to comment and deciding which deserve sharing.
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Wilco Returns to Mass MoCA in 2015
Will Skip This Summer
By: - Jan 24th, 2014The Solid Sound Festival of Wilco has been a shot in the arm for the Northern Berkshire County tourism and hospitality industry. They will return to North Adams in 2015 but not this summer. This will be fourth festival organized by the band for Mass MoCA.
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Tanglewood Tickets on Sale January 26
The Best Seats Go Fast
By: - Jan 24th, 2014Tickets to the 2014 Tanglewood season, priced from $10 to $121, go on sale, Sunday, January 26, at www.tanglewood.org, through SymphonyCharge at 888-266-1200, and at the Symphony Hall Box Office (301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA). The 2014 Tanglewood season, June 27-August 30, features more than 100 performances, including concerts by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, and Tanglewood Music Center (the BSO’s prestigious summer music academy); chamber music, recital, and concert opera presentations in Ozawa Hall; and a series of Popular Artist concerts.
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Sondheim's A Little Night Music
I Could Have Waltzed All Afternoon at Emmanuel Music
By: - Jan 22nd, 2014Emmanuel Music's semi-staged performance of Stephen Sondheim's "A Little Night Music" demonstrated to me that the Broadway musical has its merits. I had expected that whatever the quality of the performance I would be writing a review mourning Emmanuel Music’s decline from pursuing high seriousness in music to reveling in kitsch. How could I have been so wrong for so long?
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Newport Jazz Festival 2014
Schedule for August 1 through 3
By: - Jan 22nd, 2014The Newport Jazz Festival is the most renowned of its kind. This is the lineup for the festival at Forth Adams State Park in Newport Rhode Island. Be there or be square.
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New England Conservatory Free Jazz Concert
Jordan Hall January 27
By: - Jan 20th, 2014Join NEC's celebrated jazz and contemporary improvisation faculty in concert on Monday, January 27 at NEC's Jordan Hall, 290 Huntington Avenue, Boston. Performing are world renowned artists including Anthony Coleman, Jerry Leake, Jorrit Dijkstra, Ben Schwendener with Marc Friedman and Kenwood Dennard, Tim Ray, Ralph Alessi, Amir Milstein with Henrique Eisenmann and Jason Davis and more
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