Perspectives

PERSPECTIVE – Spain isn't the first place North Americans think of when it comes to opera, but the country can furnish rich experiences in the art form. In one week, I experienced unforgettable evenings in the two leading musical centers.

BOOK REVIEW – In her observant and personal book I Knew a Man Who Knew Brahms, writer, broadcaster, and arts consultant Nancy Shear looks back six decades to her place in the royal swirl of Stokowski, Ormandy, and Rostropovich.

PERSPECTIVE - Joining Gail Wein on her podcast, violinist Colin Jacobsen, co-founder of the Brooklyn Rider string quartet and a composer, explores the foursome's new enterprise called "Citizenship Notes," honoring the nation's birth.

PERSPECTIVE – In a corner of the classical music world that features cooperation rather than competition, the Seattle Chamber Music Society and Chamber Music Northwest accented their musical smorgasbords with a bit of sharing.

PERSPECTIVE – At pianist Beatrice Rana's ninth Classiche Forme festival in Italy, the keyboard became a heartbeat rather than a spotlight, while pianist Filipe Pinto‑Ribeiro's 11th Verão Clássico & Academia balanced mastery with master classes.

PERSPECTIVE – As you get older, the departures of people who played significant roles in your work and imagination become more numerous and saddening. Certainly Schifrin's passing on June 26 affected me this way – and more than I expected.

PERSPECTIVE – Pique Dame (Queen of Spades) was Tchaikovsky’s favorite of his works, and this summer one could see it twice in the span of a week: at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Vienna State Opera, where Anna Netrebko was thrilling.

PERSPECTIVE – "His music is one of the main reasons we do what we do," says Jan Grüning, violist with the ensemble in residence at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory. Their CD release of the Op. 18 quartets launches a complete cycle.

PERSPECTIVE – Most cities in Poland have at least one orchestra, with Warsaw, Katowice, and Krakow home to three of the best. And like the country itself, they rose from the ashes of World War II and the dark days of Soviet control.

PERSPECTIVE – What distinguishes Rana’s playing is an exceptional technical mastery coupled with singular freedom of expression. One can hardly connect her poise at the piano with the power and intensity that emerge from the instrument.

SALT LAKE CITY – At the 80th national conference of the League of American Orchestras, which drew representatives of 630 ensembles, the league conferred its annual Gold Baton Award and highest honor on the veteran conductor.

FORT WORTH - Professionals at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, which just ended its 17th keyboard extravaganza, work full time to keep the multifaceted event humming as volunteers provide vital support around the city.

BREAKING NEWS – The San Francisco-based violinist and critic is the first winner of the award named for, and supported by, William Littler, a longtime writer for the Toronto Star and member of the Music Critics Association of North America.

BREAKING NEWS – David T. Little's monodrama, "a poetic and sensitive work that conveys the chaos of adult desire and the traumas of gay childhood," is the winner of the 2025 Award conferred by the Music Critics Association of North America.

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.

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.

CHICAGO – Amid highlights of a vibrant autumn season was the convergence of more than 1,700 historians, theorists, composers, and recording artists, even as Lyric Opera and Chicago Opera Theater staged two versions of the Fidelio story.

BOOK REVIEW – In his book We Are Music, the polymath John Sharpley grapples with the meaning of music, and the multicultural embrace of his process poses an invitation to examine who we are through this timeless, pervasive medium.

CHICAGO – The energy of Lahav Shani's program with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra reflected how younger conductors are forging a new sound world. Shani, a 35-year-old Israeli, is a friend of CSO music director-designate Klaus Mäkelä, 28.

PERSPECTIVE – The still-controversial composer, born 150 years ago, believed that "music should not come easily," says Donald Berman, president of the Charles Ives Society, the debut guest on Wein's Classical Gas series on our website.