Bryce Dessner’s ‘Solos’ Recording Is A Paradox: It’s About Connections
DIGITAL REVIEW – The guitarist-composer's latest project is deeply personal, a series of solo works that Dessner calls an “intimate diary.” These miniatures represent special rapport – with a musician, a city, family, all honoring collaboration.
Ambitious Album Casts Light On The Composer Inside Conductor MTT
DIGITAL REVIEW – With Michael Tilson Thomas' 80th birthday looming in December, his far-ranging compositions are finally being unleashed upon the world in a handsomely produced four-CD, five-hour set containing most of his music.
Musical Cultures Meld In Renaissance-Based CD Creatively Spiced
DIGITAL REVIEW – Although the music on Pilgrimage: Musical Journey of Kryštof Harant to Jerusalem / circa 1600 is almost 500 years old, the album’s message of cross-cultural parallels and joyous interaction is a needed balm today.
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.
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.
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.
Three Decades Later, Hamelin Revisits Depths Of The ‘Hammerklavier’
DIGITAL REVIEW – After a 1993 performance of Beethoven's notoriously difficult Piano Sonata Op. 106, Marc-André Hamelin dropped the work for nearly 30 years. Now it reappears on a CD that reflects the authority of an artist in his sixties.
Vänskä And Minnesota Wrap Mahler Cycle With Sonically Glorious Third
DIGITAL REVIEW – It took longer than intended, but Osmo Vänskä’s valedictory recording project with his former ensemble, the Minnesota Orchestra, was finally completed this year. It may be the best-sounding Mahler cycle on discs.
Recapturing The Magic In Three Eclectic Ballets By A Neglected Master
DIGITAL REVIEW – Founding conductor Gil Rose leads the Boston Modern Orchestra Project in a CD devoted to works by Chicago native John Alden Carpenter (1876-1951) that reflect influences ranging from Tin Pan Alley to "serious music."
It’s A Suite Of Brilliance As Conductor, Orchestra Co-star On Dazzling CD
DIGITAL REVIEW – American composer Elizabeth Ogonek's three-part All These Lighted Things fits neatly between famous suites by Prokofiev and Ravel in a recording by the greatly undervalued Antwerp Symphony with its conductor Elim Chan.
New Video Of ‘Rusalka’ Is Appealing Evidence Of Its Rising Popularity
DIGITAL REVIEW – There are now several plausible video versions from which to choose. Opus Arte's new version, filmed at London's Royal Opera in 2023 and starring Asmik Grigorian with Semyon Bychkov conducting, has considerable virtues.
Applying Modern Prism, CD Shifts Perspectives On Women Composers
DIGITAL REVIEW – On their album Venus Rising, percussion ensemble Trio SR9 and singer-composer Kyrie Kristmanson offer innovative arrangements that refocus centuries of music by women from Hildegard von Bingen to the present.
Rare Tchaikovsky Opera Displays Charms Before Killing The Characters
DIGITAL REVIEW – Seldom seen in the west, The Enchantress, a lengthy drama that mixes abuse of power and betrayal, is the novel subject of a DVD from Oper Frankfurt directed by Vasily Barkhatov and conducted by Valentin Uryupin.
Motets From History’s Shadows Are Diamonds In Rough Performance
DIGITAL REVIEW – In 1598, Orfeo Vecchi published the third volume of his Motets for Six Voices, stunning examples of late-Renaissance polyphony that have been recorded for the first time, albeit imperfectly, by Cappella Musicale Eusebiana.
Out Of A Covid Project, Mozart Piano Sonatas Eloquent And Complete
DIGITAL REVIEW – Post-pandemic, pianist Orli Shaham has been releasing portions of her streamed cycle on CDs. The six volumes of all 18 sonatas, coming this summer as a set, offer a comprehensive display of brilliance and honesty.
Baritenor’s CD Traces Glittering Paths That Led Opera To Wagner
DIGITAL REVIEW – In his latest recital disc, In The Shadows, the eternally curious baritenor Michael Spyres surveys some of the Bayreuth bard’s antecedents, and also recaps his own vocal journey as he embarks on the Wagnerian canon.
Even Lacking Visuals, Handel’s Vivid Music Illustrates ‘Alcina’ CD
DIGITAL REVIEW – Conductor Mark Minkowski’s period-instrument orchestra, Les Musiciens du Louvre, has recorded many Handel operas since its founding in 1982, but nothing in two decades. For Baroque opera fans, this Alcina is good news.
Freshening Up Josquin With A Scholarly Flair, Down-To-Earth Clarity
DIGITAL REVIEW – On a disc of motets and chansons, Cut Circle under Jesse Rodin achieves a deeply human sound, not rarefied or operatic, that makes Josquin’s emotional use of rhythm and dissonance feel like a friend telling you a secret.
Through Diverse Voices Over Millennia, Cantata Invokes Spirit Of Mercy
DIGITAL REVIEW – With six languages under his belt, composer Daniel Knaggs is keenly aware of every aspect of text, a sensitivity that serves him well in the world-premiere recording of his Two Streams, featuring the Houston Chamber Choir.
Schubert Song Cycles, Recycled In Lyric Glory Of Marginalized Mezzo
DIGITAL REVIEW – Mezzo-soprano Inez Matthews (1917-2004) belonged to a generation of Black singers blocked from much classical work, but she pursued a career. Her restored recordings of Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise bear attention.
