By Caldwell Titcomb
March 2: The Contemporary Music Ensemble in residence at Boston University, Alea III, under the direction of Theodore Antoniou, offers a free concert in celebration of the late eminent composer/teacher/conductor Lukas Foss (1922–2009). Works by Foss to be performed are “Echoi,” “For Toru,” “Elegy for Anne Frank,” “For Aaron,” “The Prairie,” and “Behold! [...]

By Caldwell Titcomb
Feb. 3, 5, 6: The Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) stages Benjamin Britten’s “Turn of the Screw,” based on Henry James’ tense ghost story. Conducted by Andrew Bisantz. The singers and production staff are all making their BLO debuts. The Castle at Boston Park Plaza & Towers, 130 Columbus Avenue, Boston. 7:30 p.m.
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By Caldwell Titcomb
Jan. 6,7,8,9,12: The Boston Symphony is led by Ton Koopman (b. 1944), Dutch keyboardist, conductor, and specialist in early music, knighted in 2003 in the Netherlands. With a bow to Haydn, the bicentennial of whose death occurred in 2009, there are two works: Symphony No. 98 in B-flat Major (1792), and Cello Concerto [...]

By Caldwell Titcomb
Nov 1: Dinosaur Annex celebrates the 80th birthday of composer Yehudi Wyner with two of his works, plus music by David Liptak, Stefan Hakenberg & others. Wyner will himself perform. Goethe-Institut Boston, 170 Beacon Street, Boston, at 7:30 p.m. (Talk with composers at 6:30 p.m.)
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By Helen Epstein
Oct-8-13 Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich
Symphony Hall
Boston, MA
Vasily Petrenko, conductor
Audiences as well as composers project their emotions and fantasies onto every piece of art with which they engage, but I think this is particularly true of instrumental music, whose non-verbal, non-visual yet powerfully emotional expressiveness is as open to multiple interpretation as a [...]

By Caldwell Titcomb
Oct 4: Celebrated mezzo-soprano Frederika von Stade gives her farewell Boston performance to inaugurate the Celebrity Series’ new season. Also sharing the spotlight will be the famed soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. Symphony Hall, 3:00 p.m.
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by Helen Epstein
I’m looking forward to what looks to be the best fall foliage season in years in the Berkshires.
American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell at the Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA through October 12. A very popular summer exhibit has been held over. It covers Rockwell’s entire 65-year career, interpreted and contextualized [...]