Music Reviews
Jan 15th 2015
Even casual fans of classical music know of Ludwig van Beethoven’s deafness. But could his hearing loss actually have been his greatest advantage as a musician?
Maybe so, says Leif Ove Andsnes, the highly acclaimed Norwegian pianist touring th
Jan 2nd 2015
The one thing the blogosphere does not need is another article about trendy, hip, ironic, facially-haired Brooklyn. In fact some recent articles now toll the death knell of the borough, saying that Brooklyn is passé; it seems that Queens is the new Brooklyn.
Dec 28th 2014
A powerful new recording of Rachmaninov’s familiar Sonata for Cello and Piano in G Minor Op. 19 (Light and Shadow, Becsta Records) manages to take this rich Russian music to new heights. It ranks comfortably alongside several impressive readings by other major cellists.
Dec 12th 2014
Marc-André Hamelin, Canadian-born and now residing in the Boston suburbs, has just completed a highly successful two-concert series in Bordeaux, playing the Beethoven piano concerto No. 4 including his own cadenza.
Dec 11th 2014
Canadian-born pianist Marc-André Hamelin kept a Bordeaux audience riveted Wednesday evening (Dec. 10) by his super-sensitive rendering of a familiar warhorse, the Beethoven piano concerto No. 4. Familiar, yes, but Bordeaux had never heard it performed quite so perfectly.
Dec 10th 2014
Canadian-born virtuoso pianist Marc-André Hamelin, looking relaxed and happy about his debut in Bordeaux this week, took time out between rehearsals at the city’s new concert hall, l’Auditorium, to talk about his past and what is coming next.
Nov 29th 2014
As any honest critic will tell you (if you can find one), writing about contemporary piano is a long and thorny process requiring multiple hearings or multiple arguments with the composer.
Nov 27th 2014
You don’t have to be Irish to fall in love with music from the Emerald Isle.
Nov 20th 2014
The fifth annual Bordeaux piano festival, l’Esprit du Piano, concludes nine days of keyboard music on Friday Nov. 21 with Henri Barda playing works by Mozart, Brahms and Chopin.
Nov 18th 2014
Conducting is essentially a phenomenon associated with Western classical music. As a rule, rock and jazz bands do not employ a conductor unless they are teaming up with a symphony orchestra.
Nov 8th 2014
The NEC Philharmonia’s world premiere performance of Leon Kirchner’s retouched version of his charming Music for Flute and Orchestra arrived at Jordan Hall Wednesday with the popular Paula Robison and her gold flute.
Nov 6th 2014
It wasn’t so long ago that many musicians feared the piano was losing its way in serious music. The repertoire had not grown significantly in the 1950s and 1960s, and technology was increasingly favored by composers on the cutting edge.
Oct 2nd 2014
Sep 30th 2014
In the hit parade of operas, Puccini’s La Bohème rates a solid third place after La Traviata and Carmen, so it was pretty much guaranteed a rousing reception as the opener of the new season in Bordeaux last week.
Sep 25th 2014
Think of your favourite piece of music. Do you get shivers when the music swells or the chorus kicks in? Or are the opening few bars enough to make you feel tingly?
Despite having no obvious survival value, listening to music can be a highly rewarding activity.
Aug 18th 2014
Pianist Mordecai Shehori’s prodigious output of CDs over the past few years must be setting some kind of record. Almost every piece of the piano repertoire he has studied throughout his long career is being preserved for posterity, now amounting to 31 CDs.
Aug 14th 2014
The past may be a foreign country, but in terms of war, they do not do things differently there; death is death at any time and in any language.
No other work in the Classical repertoire could be more topical or appropriate in commemorating the centenary of the Great War than Benjamin Brit
Jul 17th 2014
Chinese pianist Ernest So’s eclectic tastes set him apart from the current run of young Asian keyboard superstars now filling concert halls around the world. He has the technical brilliance of the best of them but more importantly he is a discerning student of the repertoire.
Jul 13th 2014
Gregg Lehrman is a composer and entrepreneur who has helped score music for a number of big TV shows and films.