Culture Vulture: Tanglewood Highlight Without Stars »

Every single player and singer seemed thrilled to be performing this music, absorbed in it, attentive to their masterful conductor and having a good time. It made me think how often that is not the case at symphony concerts.
By Helen Epstein
There were no star soloists or conductors around on Friday night and since the TMC [...]

Culture Vulture: Youth and Age at Tanglewood »

By Helen Epstein
This Tanglewood season, overshadowed by the absence of ailing maestros James Levine, Seiji Ozawa, and others who have canceled their appearances, has got me thinking about age and illness. There have been some compelling concerts these past two months, including Michael Tilson Thomas’s riveting Mahler renditions, but the absence of a strong director [...]

Culture Vulture: Three Russian Warhorses Strut Their Stuff »

By Helen Epstein
July 30 featured a Russian warhorse program at Tanglewood: Glinka’s “Overture to Ruslan and Ludmila”; Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, and Prokofiev’s Music from the ballet Romeo and Juliet.
These are familiar (some might say over-familiar) works for orchestra, but, of course, there’s a reason they’re still being programmed. Supremely accessible [...]

Classical Music Sampler: April 2010 »

By Caldwell Titcomb
April 1: Ursula Oppens, long a champion of contemporary music (and a 1965 honors graduate of Harvard), presents a free piano recital under the auspices of the Blodgett Distinguished Artists Series. The program includes John Corigliano’s “Winging It,” William Bolcom’s “Ballade,” Tobias Picker’s “Three Nocturnes,” the world premiere of Charles Wuorinen’s “Oros,” several [...]

Classical Music Sampler: March 2010 »

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! [...]

Classical Music Sampler: February 2010 »

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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Classical Music Sampler: January 2010 »

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 [...]

Coming Attractions in Classical Music: November 2009 »

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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Culture Vulture: BSO’ s Death-drenched Russian program »

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 [...]

Coming Attractions in Classical Music: October 2009 »

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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