a virtual journal and blog of the classical music scene in Boston
Robert Levin, editor; Bettina A. Norton, executive editor; Lee Eiseman, publisher
Reviews
February 6, 2012
Les Bostonades’ Stylistic Comparisons
by Elizabeth Oka
The program by Les Bostonades last Friday night at the First Church in Boston alternated Bach trio sonatas and Telemann quartets in an effort to highlight the distinctive approaches of each composer. The somewhat curiously titled program, “Alpha and Omega,” gently asserted Telemann’s significance by placing him squarely in opposition to the Baroque master himself. [continued]
Li: Deft, Technically Brilliant Musicianship
by Susan Miron
The 16-year old prodigy George Li has already done it all — run off with the best prizes (since he was six), honors, appearances, and has been the subject of repeated audience and reviewer adulation. The concert on February 5 at the Isabella Stewart Museum Sunday Concert Series was one of the best piano recitals I have ever had the pleasure of hearing. [continued]
Pierrot Still Feral After All These Years
by David Dominique
A manic, overripe portrait of emotional extremes — wonder, whimsy, ecstasy, and terror, Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire represents one of the defining outpourings of Expressionism and early Modernism in music. On February 2, in Calderwood Hall, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum presented Pierrot Lunaire at 100, an absorbing, superbly executed celebration of this masterpiece, still feral after all these years. [continued]
Chameleon Explores North Europe
by Vance R. Koven
Chameleon Arts Ensemble pointed its compass north for its February 4 performance at the Goethe-Institut that focused on northern European composers and pieces ostensibly influenced by the spirit of these northern places. The concept underlying the program is not a bad one, although we still look askance at the use of themes for programs, a marketer’s construct from the 1980s. [continued]
Europa Galante’s Brilliant Virtuosic Playing
by Virginia Newes
Spirited, virtuosic playing by Europa Galante made for a brilliant concert at Sanders Theatre, yesterday afternoon, as part of the Boston Early Music Festival series. Led by violinist Fabio Biondi, the group of mostly Italian players reinforced by a basso continuo group of double bass viol, theorbo, and harpsichord, played with stylish verve and perfectly coordinated ensemble. [continued]
More Comfort, Better Space for Boston Cello Quartet
by Cashman Kerr Prince
The Needham Concert Society presented the Boston Cello Quartet yesterday in the First Baptist Church, Needham, an ideal venue for the group. Although the same program I reviewed last summer at Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood, (“Smörgåsbord of Celli Pyrotechnics,” July 30). I am happy to report that I stand by my earlier review, except to add that the group is more comfortable with the pieces. [continued]
February 4, 2012
BoCo’s Conspicuous Success with Ravel Operas
by Mark DeVoto
Ravel, not as widely known for his operas as for his other music, admired Debussy totally, but had no such operatic ambitions himself. Nevertheless, his two short operas are genuine and durable masterpieces of their special kind. The Boston Conservatory has courageously mounted a double bill of these works, with conspicuous success, and with additional performances tonight and tomorrow. [continued]
Schubert Best in Wispelwey Transcription Program
by Cashman Kerr Prince
Celebrity Series of Boston presented the Aaron Richmond Recital with cellist Pieter Wispelwey and pianist Paolo Giacometti in Jordan Hall last night. The program of romantic and modern transcriptions for cello and piano highlighted Wispelwey’s formidable technical skills and Giacometti’s nuanced, precise piano playing. Although Wispelwey was undoubtedly the main attraction, I hope to hear Giacometti sometime soon in solo recital. [continued]
Dutoit, BSO, and Debussy: Perfect Triad
by David Patterson
Debussy’s La Mer, Charles Dutoit, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra formed a perfect triad at Thursday evening’s Symphony Hall concert. Dutilleux’s Tout un monde lointain had young cellist Gautier Capuçon brooding against an orchestral backdrop of modern manifestations. Richard Strauss’s orchestral suite Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme opened the program in reserved as well as unreserved displays of the ridiculous and sublime. [continued]
February 2, 2012
Coriolanus Does Period Haydn Quartets
by Zoe Kemmerling
The sizeable audience at the Cambridge Society for Early Music’s January 30th offering proved an all-Haydn string quartet program on period instruments is about as good as it gets for an evening’s worth of chamber music. It was a pleasure to hear these works performed by the Coriolanus Quartet for their debut concert with such sincerity, investment, attention to detail, spirit, and variety. [continued]
February 1, 2012
Heloise and Abelard, Twixt Triumph, Dissipation
by Donna La Rue
A sung, orchestrated work based on a tale like that of Peter Abelard and Heloise d’Argenteuil at Harvard’s Memorial Church on January 29 had venerable precedent in the dramatic works of its agonists’ own time. Edward E. Jones conducted members of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the Harvard University Choir in a new work, composed by John Austin with a libretto by Christine Froula. [continued]
January 31, 2012
Complementary “Strange Bedfellows”
by Ben Houge
In a program entitled “Strange Bedfellows: Unexpected Concertos” last Friday, January 27, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, under the reliable baton of Gil Rose, presented a very well-attended program of mostly bleeding-edge concerti for unconventional instruments, remarkable not only for the intriguing premise but for the fact that the pieces complemented each other so well within what might have easily proven a mere affectation of programming. [continued]
NEC’s Worthy Tribute to Debussy, Massenet
by Cashman Kerr Prince
The 22nd New England Conservatory annual celebration of composers’ anniversaries on January 29, organized by pianist and faculty member Tatyana Dudochkin, focused on Claude Debussy and Jules Massenet. The marathon concert, hosted by Ron Della Chiesa, lasted almost three hours and highlighted NEC Preparatory School faculty, NEC Youth Symphony, and distinguished guest artists. [continued]
Anonymous 4 Give Voice to Calderwood Hall
by David Schulenberg
Anonymous 4, the vocal quartet specializing in Medieval European music, performed at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s new Calderwood Concert Hall on Sunday. Their program, called “Anthology 25,” comprised one item from each of their 23 CDs, plus two recent compositions, one of them a new work by David Lang. [continued]
Tragicomedia Unsurpassed in Handel Cantatas
by Sudeep Agarwala
Performances like Saturday’s remind us why Boston is a special place musically. The ensemble Tragicomedia — Stephen Stubbs and BEMF co-director Paul O’Dette, Erin Headley, and Kristian Bezuidenhout, in performance with soprano Shannon Mercer and bass-baritone Douglas Williams, presented an evening of early cantatas by Handel and his contemporaries on Saturday, January 28. [continued]
January 30, 2012
Callithumpians’ Spontaneity in the Details
by Peter Van Zandt Lane
Callithumpian Consort’s performance in Jordan Hall on January 25th featured an interesting mix of improvised and non-improvised performance. The composers represented on the program, Debussy, Nicholas Vines, Zorn, Murail, and Ikue Mori, represented a refreshingly wide array of styles and aesthetics. [continued]
January 29, 2012
de la Salle’s Interpretations Questionable
by David Patterson
Lise de la Salle’s Boston recital debut last night at Jordan Hall began with a genius at the keyboard expounding on Ravel’s Miroirs. Surprisingly and disappointingly, the same passion and personality that she brought to the Ravel she also brought, and relentlessly so, to a selection of Debussy’s preludes. Obviously, far too much power prevailed throughout the evening. [continued]
Dearth of Superlatives for Exsultemus
by Andrew Sammut
Before stereo speakers or multi-channel boards, composers mixed acoustic voices and produced music through divided vocal and instrumental choirs. The spatial and textural variety of these cori spezzati was the focus of Exsultemus’s similarly named program last night, when the historically informed choir was joined by a sextet of instrumentalists at University Lutheran Church in Cambridge. [continued]
January 28, 2012
BSO Rediscovers a Masterwork
by John Ehrlich
Last night the BSO presented but one work – the 10-movement Lobgesang, or “Song of Praise” op. 52 by Felix Mendelssohn. A more enriching experience at Symphony Hall would be hard to imagine. Two performances remain: one tonight, and one on Tuesday, January 31st. You should go. [continued]
Roby Lakatos Ensemble More than “Schmaltz”
by Cashman Kerr Prince
On Friday night, thanks to Celebrity Series of Boston, Sanders Theatre resounded with the Hungarian Gypsy music masters, the Roby Lakatos Ensemble. Musical selections ranged from traditional to popular to classical to musical and film soundtrack. The musicians reveled in their technical mastery of rapid passages and burnished lyricism. [continued]
January 27, 2012
Helios’s Elegant Expression in Charpentier
by Janine Wanée
For Zoe Weiss and Dylan Sauerwald, revising and writing continuo for a working edition of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s David et Jonathas was a labor of love, and last night at the First Congregational Church in Cambridge, a lucky audience got to enjoy the fruits of those efforts. [continued]
Zaïde’s Ineradicable Impression at NEC
by David Patterson
From their very first notes sounded in unison, Quatuor Zaïde gripped a smallish yet discerning audience, thrusting it into that resonant and perfect space of New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall with miraculous coups via Mozart, Beethoven and Wolf — all with ineffable élan thoroughly meshed with astonishing poise. [continued]
Roving with Music and Art
by Susan Miron
Thursday night’s concert at the Community Music Center of Boston was part of event #2 of “The Year of Roving,” produced by New Gallery Concert Series’s director and gifted pianist Sarah Bob. Its offbeat theme was “DOODLE,” and the artwork by Tessa Day, was quite amazing to anyone whose children have ever tinkered with a Magna Doodle. Brava to Tessa Day!!! [continued]
January 25, 2012
Common Tones: Two Takes on Eternity
by Ben Houge
The program for the Cantata Singers’ “Astonished Breath” on January 21 at First Church in Cambridge, filled the sanctuary with an enthusiastic audience who had braved the first serious snowfall of the season to experience the Concerto for Choir of iconoclastic Russian composer Alfred Schnittke and the Berliner Messe by Estonian Arvo Pärt. [continued]
January 24, 2012
BSO Chamber Players Let Down Hair in Brahms
by Lee Eiseman
The BSO Chamber Players are always certain to make music on a very high level. Their execution is never less that super-refined. This year their programming is geographically themed, and on Sunday in Jordan Hall, we were serenaded in Austro-German style by works of Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms — not much of a geographic stretch! [continued]