The Diaz family, including Gabriela Diaz (violin), along with her parents and two brothers, appeared on stage together in concert for the first time since 2002. Winsor Music’s played host at First Church Boston. [continued]
The Takács Quartet took a while to get going Sunday at the Concord Chamber Music Society, but gel it did. [continued]
Befitting the Ides of March, Massachusetts Peace Action’s all-Bach offering at Harvard-Epworth Methodist Church in Cambridge featured harpsichordist Kay Ueyama along with baroque violinist Dana Maiben and soprano Junko Watanabe. [continued]
Celebrity Series and the Boston Symphony Chamber Players jointly offered BSO regular Kirill Gerstein and BSO Artistic Partner Thomas Adès in a two-piano concert at Jordan Hall on Friday night, including some of the most familiar 20th-century repertory in unfamiliar guises. [continued]
Renée Fleming has had a busy week here in Boston. Besides rehearsing and appearing with the Boston Symphony in an all-Strauss extravaganza, she gave a talk at MIT talk on music and neurobiology and a masterclass at Jordan Hall. [continued]
Boston Lyric Opera production of the Britten/Duncan Rape of Lucretia. The tale is eviscerating, the art harrowing, Britten’s music fascinating and this production amazing. It is well worth braving the uncomfortable seats to see this production. Last performances Saturday and Sunday. [continued]
Boston Lyric Opera’s new production of Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia premiered this past Monday at Artists for Humanity EpiCenter, an unusual space for a rarely seen 20th-century opera. The Tyrant is overthrown because of a sexual transgression. This rings true today as for the bards of ancient Rome. [continued]
Sunday afternoon featured two high-test Brahms efforts from Newton’s New Philharmonia Orchestra. [continued]
A nine-strong contingent from the Renaissance vocal ensemble drew a full crowd to First Church in Cambridge Saturday for the group’s ninth installment of its Ockeghem@600 concert series. [continued]
At Longy last Tuesday, Sergio Pallottelli delivered compelling wood flute takes on Beethoven and Brahms violin and piano sonatas as well as a pleasing CPE Bach Sonata for Flute and Keyboard (repurposed for harp), and a charming morceaux by Gaubert. [continued]
On the basis of Saturday’s Jordan Hall benefit, Boston’s medical orchestra presents in continued good health and needs only a little managed care. [continued]
Handel’s Jephtha, in Boston Baroque’s show in Jordan Hall Friday, night left me craving catharsis. In the title role, tenor Nicholas Phan exhibited his customary careful musicianship, with the round refinement of a bowler hat, and plosive Ts crisp enough to hang it on. [continued]
Thomas Adès took to the podium at Symphony Hall to conduct the world premiere of his own BSO-commissioned piano concerto, in which Kirill Gerstein’s partnership figured significantly in the development. Works of Liszt and Tchaikovsky filled out the evening. [continued]
Two Sundays ago, the septuagenarian viola da gamba master revisited the French Baroque repertoire he popularized in the 1991 Corneau film Tous les matins du monde. [continued]
A conquering heroine in her Celebrity Series debut, Joyce Di Donato packed Jordan Hall on Friday night as part of the cross-country charm tour of her new show (and CD) “Songplay.” [continued]
Masterworks Chorale’s concert this past Sunday under conductor Kevin Leong had a festive air about it, taking full advantage of Old South Church’s Skinner Organ, chorus, brass, percussion and organ. [continued]
The Boston Symphony Chamber Players concert on Sunday afternoon was a somewhat unusual affair in that the usual orientation of programming was reversed: just one 19th=century piece (and an uncommon one at that), one 20th-century classic, and two, count ‘em, two 21st-century works, including a premiere. [continued]
Sunday afternoon, the Boston Artists Ensemble made Debussy’s sonatas marvelous and the Schumann Piano Quintet ordinary. A mystery piece, (guess the composer and win tickets) turned out to be Granados; an entry with Albeniz was “close enough” to take the prize. [continued]
About 150 people came to Emmanuel Church / Central Reform Temple in Boston just a few days before Purim to hear MIRYAM Ensemble’s East Coast premiere of an early-Classical oratorio on the Biblical Esther set to a Hebrew text. [continued]
Pianist Beatrice Rana thrilled a packed house at Longy’s intimate Pickman Hall on Wednesday for the Celebrity Series. Ever, poised and ever in the moment, Rana would surge from zero to 168 (and ppp to fff) in seconds. [continued]
The BSO rescued Dvořák’s extravagant Latin triumph of lamentation from obscurity Thursday night. Over the course of the 90-minute Stabat Mater, Andris Nelsons drew fire, sympathy and unabashedly deep feelings from the orchestra and the singers. [continued]
Celebrating the near completion of the restoration of Park Street Church’s 1960 Aeolian-Skinner, Katelyn Emerson tailored her selections to the instrument, keeping her pair of stop-pullers busy making myriad changes of combinations to show off as many different tone-colors as possible. [continued]
Boston Modern Orchestra Project celebrated modern master John Corigliano at Jordan Hall Saturday night with his guitar concerto Troubadours played by Eliot Fisk and his famous Symphony No. 2 (2000). [continued]
In Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Schwantner’s New Morning for the World, “Daybreak of Freedom,” and Holst’s The Planets, Op. 32, the orchestra at Symphony Hall on Sunday paid homage to Benjamin Zander’s storied beginnings. [continued]
Andris Nelsons led Boston Symphony Orchestra through a thoughtful tripartite program of Boulanger, Debussy, and Puccini on Thursday night. [continued]