A Steve Reich Recordings Survey As He Turns 80.
Steve Reich, the onetime outsider turned venerated new music master, turns 80 today – and to commemorate this milestone, here is the latest version of a discographical survey of Reich recordings that I...
View ArticleRattle and the Berlin: One More Time
“First, we’ll take Manhattan. Then we’ll take Berlin.” – Leonard Cohen (1934-2016) These words were ringing through my head the week before Thanksgiving as the Berlin Philharmonic of past and present...
View ArticleA Paris Opera 2017-18 Season to Enchant
“Laissez-vous porter”–let yourself be carried away–is the motto of the Paris Opera’s 2017-18 season, and the upcoming program provides plenty of delights to get excited about. With 21 operas, half of...
View ArticleJohn Adams On Record – Part One
My most vivid memory of John Adams was way back near the beginning of his career, in 1983 in then-Avery Fisher Hall. His Grand Pianola Music had just received its New York premiere. Something like half...
View ArticleJohn Adams on Record – Part Two
Here is Part Two of my updated, expanded, 70th birthday discographical survey of John Adams’s music, parts of which were originally published in the book The Essential Listening Companion: Classical...
View ArticleIt’s A Hit!
SANTA FE, NM: How often do you go into a concert hall or an opera house where a world premiere is happening and know that you’ve struck gold as soon as the opening notes are sounded? Not very often, in...
View ArticleThree Jazz Veterans Score on CD
For every widely-celebrated jazz musician, there may be hundreds of often equally-gifted players who never received their due whether by bad luck or by choice. In the case of the pianist Forrest...
View ArticleMonterey Jazz Festival celebrates its 60th edition
MONTEREY, Calif.: Defying the odds, even in a field as precarious as jazz, the Monterey Jazz Festival has been going strong since 1958 – and almost everyone who was anyone has appeared there. There is...
View ArticleMore on the 60th Monterey Jazz Festival
MONTEREY, Calif: The stresses of the bebop life took so many valuable lives prematurely, but Jimmy Heath survived it all. Sunday afternoon in the Pacific Jazz Café, the 90-year-old saxophonist told us...
View ArticleMuti/Chicago Play it Safe with All-Brahms at Disney Hall
The CSO remains a phenomenal instrument – they never miss – yet the most phenomenal features about these performances were the little things. The post Muti/Chicago Play it Safe with All-Brahms at...
View ArticleFanciful ‘Turandot’ Takes The Stage At Lyric Opera Of Chicago
A China-that-never-was opened on the stage of Lyric Opera of Chicago, complete with a giant eye-popping dragon, which hovered with considerable menace in Puccini’s “Turandot.” The post Fanciful...
View ArticleUnreleased Coltrane CDs Stir Up The Jazz World – Again
Everyone in jazzland seems to be weighing in on the release this week of Both Directions At Once: The Lost Album, a previously-unknown 1963 John Coltrane studio session, by the current custodians of...
View ArticleMonterey Jazz Salutes The Year Of The Woman
MONTEREY, Calif. – The 61st Monterey Jazz Festival Sep. 21-23 was billed as a salute to “The Year Of The Woman” – and they weren’t kidding. Trumpeter Ingrid Jensen and alto saxophonist Tia Fuller were...
View ArticleThe 2019 Richard Tucker Gala
Notes from a long time listener, first time attendee. In 35 years of NYC opera-going, this was my first time attending a concert that has become a highlight of the New York opera season. The post The...
View ArticlePrototype Festival 2020: Iron and Coal
The Prototype Festival of new opera offers a mid-winter adrenalin booster for New York opera lovers. The post Prototype Festival 2020: Iron and Coal first appeared on Classical Voice North America.
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