After A Long Absence, Tchaikovsky’s ‘Iolanta’ Makes Colorful Return
VIENNA – The one-act opera is being mounted at the Vienna State Opera for the first time since Gustav Mahler conducted it in the 1900-01 season. Soprano Sonya Yoncheva makes a vocally rich and nuanced role debut to head a stellar cast.
Festival’s Wide Scope Offers Classical Music Writ On Intimate Scale
SAVANNAH – The 2025 Savannah Music Festival is focused on genre-bending artists and works, and where once the Atlanta Symphony was featured annually, chamber music rules, and soloists, like pianist Michelle Cann (right), hold center stage.
Weill-Lerner ‘Love Life’ Dusted Off, Buffed Up, Made Fascinating Again
NEW YORK – Recklessly ambitious, bewilderingly epic, the 1948 Kurt Weill-Alan Jay Lerner musical has been periodically resurrected as visionary theater. This smart revival boasts two knockout leads in Kate Baldwin and Brian Stokes Mitchell.
Orchestra Is Way Over The Moon With Its New Conductor At Controls
SEATTLE – In the first program led by Xian Zhang since her appointment last fall as music director-designate, the Seattle Symphony delivered a supercharged performance of Holst's The Planets enhanced by high-definition images from NASA.
Son Of Native American ‘Shell-Shaking Culture’ Talks Roots On Podcast
PERSPECTIVE – On Gail Wein's podcast Classical Gas, Chickasaw American composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate, whose works are performed around the world, describes native influences in his music for orchestra and stage.
Schiff On His Boycott: ‘If I Were A U.S. Citizen, I Would Move To Canada’
PERSPECTIVE - "What has been lost is a sense of decency. It’s a new system of values or rather of a lack of values," said 71-year-old pianist András Schiff, explaining his cancellation of U.S. concerts two months into Donald Trump's presidency.
Shattering Convention, Two Engaging Singers Redefine Voice Recital
NEW YORK – In separate performances, American soprano Karen Slack (pictured) and Singaporean-British mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron, both Grammy winners this year, offered skillfully tailored programs over an exciting range of music.
IN THE NEWS: MCANA MEMBERS' PICKS
- ‘Jacqueline du Pré: Genius and Tragedy’: Bittersweet Strings on PBS - by John Anderson at WSJ
- Detroit Symphony Orchestra puts notoriously difficult Wynton Marsalis piece on record - by Gary Graff at The Oakland Press
- How the storied Vienna Philharmonic returned to SoCal for the first time in a decade - by Mark Swed at LATimes
- Amid discontent at classical station, WFMT employees announce intent to unionize - by Hannah Edgar at Chicago Tribune
- A Captivating new production of Pelléas et Mélisande at Opéra Bastille - by David Truslove at Opera Today
- Douglas Moore Fund for American Opera Presents Douglas Moore’s ‘Giants in the Earth Rediscovered’ – by Afton Markay at OperaWire
- Jazz composer, Terence Blanchard, talks elevating Black culture via opera, Super Bowl 2025, and African Americans’ impact on society – by David Pierce at IPM News
- After political uproar, Noseda, NSO showcase Russian drama – by Charles T. Downey at Washington Classical Review
- SF Symphony Announces 2025–2026 Season at a “Unique Transitional Moment” by Janos Gereben at SFClassicalVoice
- Can singing ease chronic pain? Welsh National Opera project thinks so - by Johanna Campbell at RouteNote
- Beethoven meets space battles in 'first manga opera' at Hong Kong Arts Festival - by Fionnuala McHugh at South China Morning Post
- The Kennedy Center Performers Who Didn’t Cancel - by Marc Novicoff at The Atlantic
- Soprano Morley’s Mozart sparks Boston Baroque program - by Jonathan Blumhofer at Boston Classical Review
- Tilson Thomas bows out of second NWS week; will still lead final local concerts in March - by Lawrence A. Johnson and Lawrence Budman at South Florida Classical Review
- American Piano Awards to debut Brittany Green's 'daffodils' during finals - by Chloe McGowan at Indianapolis Recorder
- Music inspired by Steppenwolf and Edward Gorey - by Michael Barndt at Urban Milwaukee
- The emperor's new score - by Nicholas McRoberts at Quillette
- Shape-shifting Civitas Ensemble reveals buried gem in music of "Mel" Bonis - by Nancy Malitz at
Chicago On the Aisle - This Japanese Sax Polymath Might Be a Postmodern Bach - by Walker Mimms at NYTimes
- After the Fall at Elphi – Víkingur Ólafsson, Tonhalle-Orchester and Paavo Järvi bring John Adams’s terrific new concerto to Hamburg
- by Jari Kallio at AIM - Adventures in Music - Tenor Lawrence Brownlee wows at Matinée Musicale - by Janelle Gelfand at Janelle's Notes
- 5 questions to Saad Haddad (composer) - by Sofía Rocha at I Care If You Listen
- A guide to Bach's St. John Passion - by Bill Bukowski at WETA
- Poetry from classical music; here are the 2025 Inspired By KPAC Written Word entries - by Staff at Texas Public Radio
- DVD review - Zingarelli's "Giuletta e Romeo" - Chateau de Versailless Spectacle CVS181 - by John Gilks at Opera Canada
- In Chicago, a clamor brings a dead music festival back to life - by Graham Meyer at WBEZ
- LA Opera Enters the California Mozart/Da Ponte Sweepstakes - by Richard S. Ginell at Musical America
- Jacksonville Symphony receives record $15 million donation - by Max Marbut at Jacksonville Daily Record
- A Flowing, Finely Textured Premiere at the New York Philharmonic - by David Mermelstein at WSJ
- Chen, Burton, and Abrams Reward BSO Listeners - by Goeffrey Wieting at Boston Musical Intelligencer
- Andras Schiff cancels the U.S. tour over Trump "bullying" - by Javier C. Hernández at NYTimes
Around the US
Amid Blast And Balm, String Troupe Maps Out A Walk On The Wild Side
NEW YORK – Courage and fortitude aren’t typical listening requirements spelled out in pre-performance talks, but at the Darkness Sounding festival, the LA-based Wild Up string collective led by Christopher Rountree warranted fair warning.
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
Musing On Busoni: Pianist Gets At Roots Of An Undervalued Master
DIGITAL REVIEW – Pianist Jiayan Sun’s new album Ferruccio Busoni and His Muses looks backward at the personalities who influenced him and forward at the progressive ideas that animated this singular, eclectic, and visionary composer.
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
Historically Apt Practice Spreads Across Epochs, Adding Musical Insights
PERSPECTIVE – Is there anything to be discovered from historical-instrument performances of Wagner's Ring Cycle or Mahler’s Symphony No. 9, or from music so ancient that any performance is a speculative act of co-composition? Yes, plenty.
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.
