The familiar and much-admired Borromeo String Quartet lived up to high expectations Sunday afternoon at the Maverick, playing in ways that force one to listen carefully and giving this reviewer a deeply rewarding experience    [continued]

At Rockport on Friday, the still-young, now veteran pianist showed command of all aspects of the art, but more to come.    [continued]

The 22-year-old Van Cliburn Bronze Medalist Daniel Hsu revealed a poetic soul and great technical chops at the Gardner Sunday. His concert for the Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts comprised Schumann’s Kinderszenen, Beethoven’s op. 110, and the Liszt Sonata.    [continued]

The 207-year-old Handel and Haydn Society, in its 2,536^th performance, placed Beethoven’s 197-year-old ninth symphony before 10,000 souls. The message: We’re back and we want to share the joy.    [continued]

For its welcome return engagement to the Maverick on Sunday, the Catalyst Quartet contrasted a modern first half with a 19^th-century second half in partnership with pianist Daniel Gortler— all with appropriate style.    [continued]

The Berkshire Opera Festival’s thoroughly enjoyable run of Verdi’s Falstaff continues Tuesday August 24^th and Friday August 27^th at 7:30pm in the Mahaiwe Theater in Great Barrington. I was in comic opera heaven—and the audience, judging from its chuckles and outright laughter, joined me there.    [continued]

Though the Amernet String Quartet showed up for the Maverick Concert in Woodstock on August 22^nd informally outfitted, their attitude towards concertizing was in no way casual.    [continued]

Brahms’s Violin Concerto with the extraordinary Leonidas Kavakos as the soloist and Brahms’s Fourth Symphony under Herbert Blomstedt came across with utter mastery all around last Sunday.    [continued]

Two Russian woman—a conductor and a composer—and a French pianist joined the Boston Symphony Saturday for a thoroughly satisfying concert in the Shed.    [continued]

The Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra closed the season with three chestnuts plus a brief new piece by young African-American composer Brian Raphael Nabors at the Shed on Monday.    [continued]

The star-studded Junction Trio squeezed Conrad Tao’s reusable plastic bags to save the world and inspired awe with virtuosic Ravel in a somewhat bipolar show at the Shalin Liu on Sunday.    [continued]

Friday’s Pops Movie Night at Tanglewood under John Williams and Keith Lockhart mixed familiar music with imagery from much-loved films as well as bringing out some worthy discoveries. Romance, the dark side, and adventure were musiced with appropriate gusto as the images swept us away.    [continued]

Clarinetist Anthony McGill and the Miro Quartet gave the Rockport Music crowd nothing less than superb mastery, vision, and charisma last Saturday. Bravo!    [continued]

After an improvisatory first half medley of connected short pieces, the dreadlocked pianist Awadagin Pratt delivered a most gratifying account of the Liszt Sonata to a grateful Maverick on Sunday.    [continued]

How does the oldest summer singer training program in the country respond to a pandemic? When you’re the Seagle Festival — a 106-year-old program in scenic Schoon Lake, New York — the answer is “very cautiously” in terms of safety, and “very audaciously” in terms of programming. And so it is that, last night, the Seagle Festival opened a sold-out world premiere — and live — performance of Harmony, an opera about the groundbreaking American composer Charles Ives. Read former BMInt writer Basil Considine’s Twin Cities Arts Reader account HERE.    [continued]

A Hawaiian’s ukulele rendering of the Japanese folk song Sakura stood out as the lone highlight of Silkroad’s Global Musician Workshop Online Performance Festival streaming Friday night and beyond from the New England Conservatory of Music.    [continued]

Tchaikovsky Competition Gold Medal cellist Zlatomir Fung spread out an imaginary opera stage populated with vividly costumed divas of the 19^th century in his transcription outing at Shalin Liu last night.    [continued]

The Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra under conducting fellows Kevin Fitzgerald, Adam Hickox, and the venerable Herbert Blomstedt, delivered Mendelssohn, Mozart, and Brahms with individual skill, polish, and aplomb Monday in the Shed.    [continued]

An afternoon to gladden the heart of a Tanglewood administrator, waxed sunny and dry on the Sun’s day (a welcome change from previous weeks); the program consisted largely of Tchaikovsky (a proven audience favorite), and the soloist was Yo-Yo Ma (still more proven as an audience favorite). But in addition to these elements, which by    [continued]

Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra’s Monday, August 2^nd concert comprised William Grant Still’s Darker America, Fauré’s Pelléas et Mélisande Suite, and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 3.    [continued]

The youthful foursome arrived at Shalin Liu Performance Center Saturday with its homemade name, its recent victory in the Banff International Competition, and its status as Ensemble-in-Residence at Curtis Institute of Music. Through an expertly mentored artistry Viano tamed Dvořák and American works.    [continued]

Formed by Juilliard students in 2008, and active ever since, the wonderful Tesla Quartet finally made its Maverick Concerts yesterday, 13 years later. Management should waste no time reengaging them.    [continued]

Joshua Bell, Herbert Blomstedt and the BSO collaborated on a perfect Saturday Beethoven evening within the Koussevitzky Shed and under the Berkshire stars.      [continued]

Amen, to BLmO’s return to public view on the Esplanade Thursday evening. Their long-anticipated reemergence was delayed 24 hours by a strong, wet wind. Four more Wednesday concerts are on order if the rain gods cooperate.    [continued]

The multi-prize-winner Eric Lu has truly come into his own. Style, consistency, poise, technical command and personal vision pervaded his Friday concert at Shalin Liu.    [continued]