Varied Menu From One Of Britain’s Beloved Figures
By Paul E. Robinson
DIGITAL REVIEW - Sir Andrew Davis conducts the Bergen Philharmonic in three works by Ralph Vaughan Williams: a symphony that isn't a symphony, a double-piano concerto, and songs set to texts by his second wife.
Berliners Embrace Full-Range Adams In Maximalist Box
By Richard S. Ginell
DIGITAL – Departing from custom, Berlin Philharmonic musicians have devoted their lavish in-house recording resources to music by a living composer – an irreverent American one at that: John Adams. They do a terrific job.
Sound, Sight Leap From The Concert Hall To The Web
By Paul E. Robinson
DIGITAL – Video of live concerts can be costly to produce but a more compelling experience, and more effective marketing, than audio-only. Here are seven of the best orchestra websites that offer streaming video of concerts.
Back On Record, Louisville Revives Modernist Legacy
By Richard S. Ginell
DIGITAL – The Louisville Orchestra was down for the count not too long ago, bankrupt. Now music director Teddy Abrams is dusting off the orchestra's historic calling card – with new recordings of American symphonic music.
Is There Nothing This Canadian Artist Can’t Do?
By Paul E. Robinson
DIGITAL REVIEW – Soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan has emerged from all the challenges she set for herself not only unscathed, but triumphant. Case in point: Her new DVD mixing Berg, Berio, and . . . Gershwin?
Spanning A Globe At Leisurely Pace With Hushed Tone
By Richard S. Ginell
DIGITAL REVIEW – Last spring’s Reykjavik Festival in Los Angeles was just one example of burgeoning links between the city’s new music scene and its geographically polar (pun intended) opposite, Iceland. Here comes another.
Jazz Age, Harlem Renaissance, Irish Airs Mingle On CD
By Paul E. Robinson
DIGITAL REVIEW - Brothers Demarre and Anthony McGill with pianist partner Michael McHale have launched a new Cedille recording that offers, among its profiles, a narrated trio inspired by eye-witness poetry of Langston Hughes.
Great 78 Project Polishes Gems Of An Era Before LP
By Michael Gray
DIGITAL – Some 57,000 78-rpm records are already available on Brewster Kahle's Internet Archive website. But with The Great 78 Project, Kahle targeted collectors willing to share, with a goal of digitizing 250,000 more discs.
Novák’s ‘Godiva’ Rides Lusciously On New Buffalo CD
By Paul E. Robinson
DIGITAL REVIEW – Everyone knows the story of Lady Godiva riding naked through the center of a town. But what composer would want to write music about that? Vítězslav Novák (1870-1949) did — and did an impressive job of it.
Minnesota Mahler Fifth: Transparent But All Too Cool
By Paul E. Robinson
DIGITAL REVIEW – The Minnesota Orchestra and music director Osmo Vänskä bring fine playing to the Fifth Symphony, and the BIS production is an audiophile’s delight. What’s lacking is Mahler’s sense of drama.
A Complete(r) View Of Bernstein For Solo Piano
By Richard S. Ginell
DIGITAL REVIEW – Pianist Andrew Cooperstock’s valuable collection is the first that indeed seems to be genuinely complete. His performances are, for the most part, gentler and softer in focus than most renditions.
Thompson, Barber Symphonies Paired On CD Of Classics
By Paul Robinson
DIGITAL REVIEW – Under conductor James Ross, the accomplished young musicians of the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic seem quite at home in Thompson's Second Symphony as well as Barber's First for Naxos.
Beethoven: Takács Excels In Quartets; Book Illuminates
By Paul E. Robinson
DIGITAL REVIEW – In a new boxed set, the Takács Quartet gives memorable readings of the Beethoven string quartets, and a valuable book by the group’s first violinist, Edward Dusinberre, explores the challenge of playing them.
When New Music, Criticism Flowed From Same Pens
By Richard S. Ginell
DIGITAL REVIEW – A new CD pulls together works by Virgil Thomson and four other composers who once served as music critics for the New York Herald-Tribune. It's a great idea for a concept album, and beautifully executed.
LA Street Opera: Scenes Assembled In Cars, At Stops
By Richard S. Ginell
DIGITAL REVIEW – In fall 2015, Los Angeles was the setting for Hopscotch: A Mobile Opera For 24 Cars, with riders listening to fragments en route to various destinations. Now comes the recording on a USB drive shaped like car key.
New CD Shows Off Clarinet Mastery, With Double Twist
By Paul Robinson
DIGITAL REVIEW – In a pairing of recent concertos by Osvaldo Golijov and Christian Lindberg, Swedish clarinetist Emil Jonason showcases not only his technical virtuosity, but also an exceptional flair for generating excitement.
Wagner’s Other Comedy Makes Merry DVD Debut
By Richard S. Ginell
DIGITAL REVIEW – The production of Das Liebesverbot (The Ban on Love) from Madrid's Teatro Real breezily whisks the work into present-day Palermo, where director Kasper Holten presses some pop-culture buttons.
One Prodigious CD Illuminates Music Of Adolf Busch
By Paul E. Robinson
DIGITAL REVIEW – The great violinist, quartet leader, and festival founder Adolf Busch (1891-1952) composed music of all kinds, some of it championed by son-in-law Rudolf Serkin. Jakob Fichert performs all the piano works.
Melancholy Trios, Where Piano Rules And Strings Serve
By Paul E. Robinson
DIGITAL REVIEW – Two works from Rachmaninoff's youth – played by pianist Daniil Trifonov, violinist Gidon Kremer, and cellist Giedré Dirvanauskaité – display a bravura pull to the piano and an uncertainty with strings.
