A Singer Sees The Light In Dark World Of Music Suppressed By Nazis
PERSPECTIVE – "I fell into a rabbit hole learning about 20th-century composers who found themselves marginalized due to the events of the Second World War,” said tenor Ian Koziara of his new recording devoted to songs once silenced.
Día De Los Muertos: Supercharged Concert Rings With Festive Life
LOS ANGELES – Día de los Muertos (Day of The Dead) is a Mexican holiday Nov. 1-2 that's catching on north of the border. The LA Phil offered a celebratory program of colorful, propulsive music led by Gustavo Dudamel.
Project To Celebrate New Music Outshines Compositions It Honors
MONTREAL – Prizes offered by the Canadian-based Azrieli Foundation are generous, the juries impressive, the performances first-rate. And the applicant pool is international. The prizewinning works at a gala choral concert were hit and miss.
Beleaguered Orchestra And New Music Director Hitch Wagon To Mahler
PASADENA, Calif. – It was a long, rocky road the Pasadena Symphony Orchestra traveled to get to its first concerts with Brett Mitchell installed as music director. Mahler's Symphony No. 1 capped the program in lavish Ambassador Auditorium.
Shedding Words, Two Ensembles Articulate Charm Of Early Music
DIGITAL REVIEW – On imaginative CDs featuring instrumental arrangements of vocal works, Lautten Compagney Berlin and Concerto Scirocco display more differences than similarities. And both of these endeavors are worth hearing.
New England Dreaming: Small City’s Dedication Has Orchestra Thriving
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Can a city of 155,000 support a professional orchestra? The Springfield Symphony, which has flourished for more than 80 years, tapped its regional roots in a winning concert led by artistic adviser Mei-Ann Chen.
Recording, Reassessing Saariaho Opera Whose Worth Is Still Unknown
DIGITAL REVIEW – The late composer was crestfallen when her second opera, Adriana Mater, got a modest reception. A new recording by the San Francisco Symphony under Esa-Pekka Salonen promises to recharge the conversation.
IN THE NEWS: MCANA MEMBERS' PICKS
- Sphinx Virtuosi and New York Philharmonic Play Black American Composers - by Gail Wein at Sequenza 21
- Hear a Chopin Waltz Unearthed After Nearly 200 Years - by Javier C. Hernández at NY Times
- Cincinnati May Festival names Grammy Award-winning soprano as 2025 director - by Janelle Gelfand at Cincinnati Business Courier
- Can a Synthetic Voice Be Taught to Sing Opera? - by Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim at NY Times
- Riccardo Muti returned to the Philadelphia Orchestra after nearly two decades for a thrilling Verdi Requiem - by Peter Dobrin at The Philadelphia Inquirer
- A Mental Tightrope: When Instrumental Musicians Have to Sing, Too - by Jeffrey Arlo Brown at NY Times
- New World Symphony Succeeds With Two Challenging Operas - by Sebastián Spring at Artburst
- Opera Album Review: An Award-Winning Recording of a Spontini Opera Championed by Maria Callas - by Ralph P. Locke at The Arts Fuse
- Unique orchestra Minnesota Sinfonia and conductor Jay Fishman say goodbye - by Michael Anthony at MinnPost
- Classical music isn't supposed to be this much fun - by Sal Pizarro at The Mercury News
- 'M. Butterfly' review - Huang Ruo's cross-cultural opera gets and enthralling UK premiere - by Clive Paget at The Guardian
- Mozart never finished his 'Requiem.' This Portland musician decided to try. - by Megan Gray at Portland Press Herald
- Hear 2.5 hours of the classical music in Haruki Murakami's novels: Liszt, Beethoven, Janáček and more - by Colin Marshall at Open Culture
- Video: John Holiday: Tiny Desk Concert - produced by Tom Huizenga at Jefferson Public Radio
- The $550 Million Question: How Does David Geffen Hall Sound? - by Javier C. Hernández at NY Times
- Unique orchestra Minnesota Sinfonia and conductor Jay Fishman say goodbye - by Michael Anthony at MinnPost
- Opera on the brink: Can new compositions return the art to its popular roots? - by Nicholas Liu at Salon
- Recording review: Going solo with Viadana - by Anne E. Johnson at Early Music America
- Chicago classical music's best-kept secret: A 'speakeasy' in a humdrum office building - by Graham Meyer at WBEZ
- Madison Symphony Orchestra summons the supernatural in 'Visions' - by Noah Fellinger at Cap Times
- Kevin Puts: The Hours - by Ralph P. Locke at The Arts Fuse
- How the golden age of rail travel transformed American classical music forever - by Brian Wise at BBC Music Magazine
- Backstage at SF Opera: From the make-up table to the prompter's box - by Lisa Hirsch at San Francisco Classical Voice
- New leaders, fresh perspectives: Priscilla Herreid and Liza Malamut - by Kyle MacMillan at Early Music America
- The Chicago Temple is turning 100. Its birthday gift to itself? Fixing its historic organ. - by Hannah Edgar at Chicago Tribune
- Harrowing and uncomfortable: “The Handmaid’s Tale” at San Francisco Opera - by Angela Allen at Oregon ArtsWatch
- Joyce Hatto: Fantasia for Piano - by Mark Singer for The New Yorker
- A Philip Glass concerto turns an ear toward the timpani - by Michael Andor Brodeur at Washington Post
- Music in the mountains at the Sun Valley Music Festival - by James Bash at Oregon Arts Watch
Around the US
Conductor Eun Sun Kim, Emerging Wagner Star, Leads Dazzling ‘Tristan’
SAN FRANCISCO –The San Francisco Opera's music director, just signed to an extension through 2031, shaped a knockout performance in her first go at Tristan und Isolde with Simon O'Neill and Anja Kampe in the ill-fortuned lovers.
A MESSAGE FROM OUR PRESIDENT
Welcome to Classical Voice North America, the online journal of the Music Critics Association of North America. CVNA was launched in 2013 to provide an outlet for music criticism at a time when the market for traditional print journalism was shrinking. Over the past decade this trend has continued. Yet concert societies and opera companies remain vibrant and enthusiasm for what they do is undiminished. The need for informed commentary is as pressing as ever.
The mission of CVNA is to meet this need with expert coverage by members and occasional guest contributors. If you are a writer with experience in classical music, please consider joining the association. If you are a reader with thoughts to share, please write us at info@mcana.org. We believe in criticism!
AROUND CANADA
INTERNATIONAL
DISC AND STREAM
Robeson Compendium: Like Trailblazing Artist, CD Set Is Monumental
DIGITAL REVIEW – A package of 14 CDs plus a 158-page coffee table book includes every recording from 1925-'58 by Paul Robeson, a towering figure who also had a major stage and film career and was a prominent labor and civil rights activist.
PARLANDO: VIVIEN SCHWEITZER'S PODCASTS
The composer, pianist and climate activist Gabriela Lena Frank talks about the environmental damage caused by the music industry, how her significant hearing loss has impacted her career, and more.
ISSUES IN THE ARTS
After Opening Plaudits, Even Best New Operas Face An Unsure Future
PERSPECTIVE – Awards are great, says one recipient of the annual prize for best opera from the Music Critics Association of North America, but more performances are the goal. A follow-up revealed some winners surging, others stalled.
MCANA HOSTED BLOGS
Prototype Festival 2020: Iron and Coal
The Prototype Festival of new opera offers a mid-winter adrenalin booster for New York opera lovers.
