Benjamin Britten

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Double trouble

BLO's The Turn of the S crew, Levine's Carter and Simon Boccanegra, Teatro Lirico, the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet, and more
Boston Lyric Opera's debut Opera Annex production was so good in so many ways, it's painful that one bad idea just about sank it.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | February 09, 2010

John Harbison plus 10

Picking from a packed concert schedule
Classical music in Boston is so rich, having to pick 10 special events for this winter preview is more like one-tenth of the performances I'm actually looking forward to.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | January 05, 2010

2009: The year in Classical

Beating the quease
This was a queasy year for classical music.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | January 04, 2010

The roar of the crowd

‘Opening Night at Symphony,’ Russell Sherman, the Discovery Ensemble, Boston Musica Viva, and the Bostonians
I wasn’t there, but the opening-night dissatisfaction with the Met’s new Tosca was widely reported.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | October 13, 2009

Springer vs. Nero!

Monteverdi's Poppea opens the Boston Early Music Festival, plus the Cantata Singers, the Discovery Ensemble, and Barbara Cook at the Pops
Two opera productions overlapping at the Calderwood Pavilion exploit exploitation.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | June 10, 2009

Resurrections

The BPO celebrates its 30th, and the Cantata Singers continue their Britten year
Back in pre-history (1964), a brilliant young Brit, a cellist (student of Benjamin Britten) and conductor, came to town and shook up the local classical-music scene.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 19, 2009

Contertizing

From Don Giovanni’s hell to Haydn’s Creation
Boston Lyric Opera follows up Dvorák’s moonstruck Rusalka, with Christopher Schaldebrand in the title role of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, the BSO and much more.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 20, 2009

Ring in the new

Haydn trios, Kirchner's 90th-birthday concert, Cantata Singers' Britten, Teatro Lirico's Aida
If 2009 lives up to the grace and power of some of the concerts that began it, we can look forward to a vintage year.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | January 20, 2009

Lift every voice!

Classical goodies for 2009
Opera is the big word for 2009.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | December 30, 2008

Woof!

The BSO’s Carmina burana, the Cantata Singers, the Boston Camerata, and BLO’s Tales of Hoffmann
Probably most music lovers wouldn’t head their greatest-composer list with Carl Orff, despite the popularity of his violent, garish, sumptuously tuneful Carmina burana .
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | November 13, 2008

Russian, Spanish, American . . .

Music in all accents comes to the concert halls
What everyone is looking forward to this fall is the return to the podium of Boston Symphony Orchestra music director James Levine.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | September 11, 2008

Unembarrassed riches

Dutoit and Elder at the BSO, Collage’s Berio, Boston Conservatory’s Turn of the Screw, and Kurt Weill at the Gardner and the MFA
Some weeks Boston has such musical riches, one wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | February 21, 2008

Dancing about architecture

Alex Ross’s The Rest Is Noise
If writing about music is like dancing about architecture, as the famous saying suggests, then Alex Ross is the Lord of the Dance.
By EMILY PARKHURST | December 19, 2007

Voice of authority

Thomas Quasthoff holds forth
German baritone Thomas Quasthoff has overcome adversity (his mother took Thalidomide) to become the outstanding German lieder singer of his generation.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | November 14, 2007

Super abundance

Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela; James Levine’s Berg and Mahler; Measha Brueggergosman at Jordan Hall
“Something absolutely extraordinary is happening in Venezuela,” announced Tony Woodcock.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | November 13, 2007

Cornucopia

The BSO, the Cantata Singers, the Handel and Haydn Society, and the Celebrity Series
The year 2007 didn’t begin on the highest note.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | January 23, 2007

Flirting with Beethoven

The seductive German is everywhere
It is said that Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) “got around.” Even today, the old dog arouses the interests of performers and seduces listeners.
By BEN MEIKLEJOHN | December 27, 2006

The best of times, the worst of times

A year in classical
This year Boston classical music lost some of its most beloved figures — some, like mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, at the very height of their extraordinary powers, others, like opera director Sarah Caldwell and her conductor/collaborator, Osbourne McConathy, after long and gratifying runs.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | December 20, 2006

A renewed stage

Vanessa Gilbert’s life on the boards
How appropriate that Vanessa Gilbert, the former associate artistic director of Perishable Theatre, has returned to helm the place after a storm-tossed 2005.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | November 28, 2006

Beyond the fringe

The BSO’s Beethoven, Schoenberg, Bartók, and Brahms; Intermezzo’s Britten; Zander’s Mahler
It was a good week for chamber opera: Bluebeard’s Castle from the BSO, Curlew River from Intermezzo.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | November 20, 2006

Granduer and intimacy

Frühbeck de Burgos at the BSO, the Borromeos’ Schoenberg, BMOP at Club Café
One of the most delightful moments in Mozart comes at the very end of his Symphony No. 39 in E-flat, the first of his last trio of great symphonies.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | April 18, 2006

Schizo scherzo

Haitink’s Mahler, Ligeti études, Britten’s Dream , Donizetti’s Lucia
In the best performances, Mahler’s Sixth Symphony, sometimes called his Tragic , can sound like his greatest.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | February 09, 2006