Happily Never After? ‘Turandot’ Ending Enigmatic
By Paul E. Robinson
DIGITAL REVIEW – In the Luciano Berio version, as Turandot and Calaf leave together, minus the triumphal outburst, the audience is left to wonder whether such flawed human beings could ever find contentment.
Juilliard Quartet’s Perdurable Mann For All Seasons
By Paul E. Robinson
DIGITAL REVIEW – Robert Mann had it all. Endurance. Discipline. Love of music. He led the Juilliard String Quartet for 51 years and some 6,000 performances. At 96, the violinist looks back on a life that seems almost impossible.
‘Song-Cycle’ Opera Cuts To Core Of Human Trafficking
By Richard S. Ginell
DIGITAL REVIEW – Cuatro Corridos, now on CD, is a disturbing 2013 monodrama starring Susan Narucki about sexual trafficking on the California/Mexico border with music by four composers, two Mexican and two American.
Power Of Music Transmutes Cruelty To Hope
By Paul E. Robinson
DIGITAL REVIEW – Conspirare artistic director Craig Hella Johnson’s Considering Matthew Shepard is a masterpiece, the essence of which will still speak to us, especially at times of loss and suffering, for years to come.
Novel Keyboards In ‘Goldberg’ Feats Accent Variation
By Arthur Kaptainis
DIGITAL REVIEW – Angela Hewitt has recorded Bach's Goldberg Variations using her own Fazioli piano, and Mahan Esfahani has employed a Huw Saunders harpsichord based on a Thuringian model of c. 1710, tuned with sharp keys in mind.
Turn Up Volume: ‘Einstein’ Revisited On Blu-ray, DVD
By Richard S. Ginell
DIGITAL REVIEW – A video release of Philip Glass’ Einstein on the Beach, with direction and design by Robert Wilson, looks as tradition-shattering and exhilarating as the opera must have been some 40 years ago when it was new.
Bruckner 3 Twice With Care, Insight From Nézet-Séguin
By Paul E. Robinson
DIGITAL REVIEW – A sensational live recording of Bruckner's Symphony No. 3 with Staatskapelle Dresden, led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin in 2008, makes for a fascinating comparison with his Orchestre Métropolitain CD of the work.
Adams On Rimsky, ‘Scheherazade.2,’ Debuts On New CD
By Richard Ginell
DIGITAL REVIEW – The star of the Arabian Nights is the raison d'être for a massive 2015 violin concerto that composer John Adams calls Scheherazade.2. Leila Josefowicz possesses and devours it on a new recording.
Live And On CDs, Flock of ‘Messiahs’ To Feed The Fans
By David Shengold
Rewarding performances in Philadelphia conducted by Natalie Stutzmann and in New York under Kent Tritle offered a high contrast in styles, while conductor Andrew Davis' new CD proved a throwback to the grandiose Messiahs of old.
Young Russians Ace Etudes Of Liszt And Rachmaninoff
By Paul E. Robinson
DIGITAL REVIEW – Two prize winners in leading piano competitions show brilliant technique and poetry in Franz Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes. A third surmounts Sergei Rachmaninoff’s cinematic Études-tableaux.
For Guitar, A New Golden Age Of Craft And Pluck
By Ken Keaton
DIGITAL REVIEW – Recently released CDs reveal a plethora of gifted young classical guitarists, some of them barely into their twenties, and a harvest of important new works (and new techniques) for the instrument.
Joy To The World On One Thin Disc: Vintage Beethoven
By Richard S. Ginell
DIGITAL REVIEW – Karajan's second Beethoven cycle, recorded in 1961 and 1962, sold nearly a million LP box sets. Now the DG label is offering the nine symphonies on a single Blu-ray audio disc at a stocking-stuffer price.
Neglected Russian Operas Spotlighted In Spate Of DVDs
By Paul E. Robinson
DIGITAL REVIEW – Russian videos of Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Glinka operas add greatly to our appreciation of a neglected repertoire, and in some cases imaginative direction adds an appeal that transcends national origins.
Michael Daugherty Finds Eclectic Wit In American Icons
By Paul E. Robinson
DIGITAL REVIEW – Who wouldn't want to hear what a composer does with this trio of subjects – fabled yarns of Ernest Hemingway, the rural American Gothic portrait by Grant Wood, and the epic film Citizen Kane of Orson Welles?
Jochum CD Bounty Accents Bruckner In First Release
By Paul E. Robinson
DIGITAL REVIEW - Deutsche Grammophon is celebrating German conductor Eugen Jochum by releasing his complete recordings for the label. Volume 1, comprising 42 compact discs, bulges with great orchestral performances.
Starry Cast Joins Nézet-Séguin In Fast-Paced ‘Figaro’
By Richard S. Ginell
DIGITAL REVIEW – In the latest in a series of Mozart opera releases from DG, Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads a dashing Marriage of Figaro that features Rolando Villazón, Anne Sofie von Otter, Thomas Hampson and Luca Pisaroni.
Weilerstein Gains Cello’s Top Rung With Shostakovich
By Paul E. Robinson
DIGITAL REVIEW – A bona fide world-class soloist, with this fine new recording of the two cello concertos, 34-year-old Alisa Weilerstein can fairly claim to be the most outstanding cellist to emerge in America since Yo-Yo Ma.
‘Wuthering Heights’ On CD Points Up The Opera’s Flaws
By Paul E. Robinson
DIGITAL REVIEW – The Florentine Opera recording of a 1958 opera after Emily Brontë reveals lovely moments but Carlisle Floyd's music is surprisingly mild when it comes to conveying the lovers' self-destructive passion.
Dausgaard Makes Fervent Case For Mahler-Cooke 10th
By Richard S. Ginell
DIGITAL REVIEW – Thomas Dausgaard, conducting the Seattle Symphony, has turned in a live recording of the Deryck Cooke performing version of Mahler's entire Symphony No. 10 that makes most of the others seem timid.
