Chamber Music

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Rockport rules

A new beginning for the music festival
Pianist David Deveau, celebrating his 15th year as director of the Rockport Chamber Music Festival (now Rockport Music) and the opening of the elegant, $20 million Shalin Liu Performance Center on Main Street, said that the sound in the new hall, at the rehearsal he'd heard that afternoon of the original chamber version of Wagner's Siegfried Idyll , had moved him to tears.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | June 15, 2010

Summer treats

Whether classical, jazz, pop, or folk, 'tis the season to get out and enjoy the music
From Andean to zydeco, pick your flavor and there's a summer music festival ready to serve it up.
By CLEA SIMON | June 18, 2010

Person and persona

For John Shade, it’s all in the text
Folksie newcomer John Shade says that his songs are focused on identity and anonymity, but there’s also what sounds like an unraveling personal economy lurking beneath: characters steal purses, check classifieds, go it alone with “no safety net,” and generally feel like bums.
By MATT PARISH | May 04, 2010

Portraits of artists

Opus at New Rep; From Orchids to Octopi at Central Square
Yikes! Is this really what it’s like behind the scenes with, say, the Emerson String Quartet?
By CAROLYN CLAY | April 06, 2010

What's new

BMOP, and the Christian Wolff festival
The timely highlight of Gil Rose’s latest BMOP (Boston Modern Orchestra Project) concert, “Strings Attached,” was a new/old piece (2004, revised 2009) for two string orchestras by Scott Wheeler now called Crazy Weather — the new title taken from a John Ashbery poem that begins, “It’s this crazy weather we’ve been having.”
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 23, 2010

Bach beat

Lions and lambs
Composers John Harbison and Peter Lieberson are big presences this spring.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 08, 2010

Clogs | The Creatures In The Garden Of Lady Walton

Brassland (2010)
Fusion experimenters Clogs take a modern approach to folk-flavored chamber music.
By MICHAEL PATRICK BRADY | March 03, 2010

Interview: Max Raabe

Killer cabaret: bringing Berlin to Boston
"It was so crazy in the '20s, in the Weimar Republic. Everything was so open-minded and wide, and that is why I love that period so much."
By JEFFREY GANTZ | March 02, 2010

Heaven!

The BSO and Boston Baroque at their best
Martin Pearlman's edition of Monteverdi's Vespro della Beate Vergine, with inserted antiphons to suggest an actual service, remains a masterpiece of historical research and inspired guesswork.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | February 25, 2010

From deli to concert hall

Crossing, and expanding, boundaries with Brooklyn Rider
If you're a young (or youngish) music fan looking to become a little bit more engaged with classical music, there is truly no better time than right now, particularly if you'll find yourself in Portland this weekend.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | February 24, 2010

Let's rock

The BSO, the Cantata Singers, Discovery Ensemble, and BCMS
WGBH radio has ended its 58-year tradition of live Friday-afternoon BSO broadcasts, and it doesn't seem that public outcry is going to change that.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | January 25, 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

Wanting more

The Borromeo and Emerson String Quartets, Dohnányi with the BSO, and Yiddish operetta at Harvard
After its triumphant traversal of the complete Béla Bartók string quartets at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Borromeo Quartet was back for a free 20th- and 21st-century program at Jordan Hall, leading off with an accomplished recent piece by the 24-year-old Egyptian composer Mohammed Fairuz, Lamentation and Satire.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | December 16, 2009

Almost

BLO's Carmen, the BSO's Beethoven, Emmanuel Music's Haydn and Schoenberg
The Boston Lyric Opera comes maddeningly close to having a good Carmen . (The production continues at the Shubert Theatre through November 17.) Keith Lockhart leads a superb orchestra and chorus and a cast of plausible singers/actors in a compelling if not spine-tingling performance.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | November 12, 2009

Blessings: mixed and otherwise

Boston Baroque’s Amadigi; Opera Boston’s Tancredi; the BSO’s Beethoven; the Borromeo’s Bartók; Brahms from BCMS and BSOCP
By odd coincidence, in recent weeks we’ve had performances of two important operatic rarities, landmark early works a century apart: 30-year-old Handel’s Amadigi (1715) and 20-year-old Rossini’s Tancredi (1813, his 10th opera!).
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | October 28, 2009

Classical inheritance

Two fixtures hand over the reins to a younger generation
A teacher told me years ago that someday "you young people will inherit classical music. Then you can do with it what you want." And so I've been waiting.
By EMILY PARKHURST | September 30, 2009

Leon Kirchner, 1919–2009

In Memoriam
Craggy, tender, passionate, witty, rough-edged, lyrical, uncompromising, Leon Kirchner's music, so like the man himself, made an indelible impression. Even in his recent appearance at a 90th-birthday tribute concert at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the old fire and wit, the frankness and the refusal to sentimentalize, were there.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | September 23, 2009

The Big Hurt: Strung Out

Vitamin Records classes up the joint — kinda
A friend of mine is getting married soon, and she's been looking around for some classy wedding music.
By DAVID THORPE | July 29, 2009

String vacation

Soundtrack for summer in Maine
With the Portland Symphony's elimination of its popular, but debt-inducing, Independence Pops concert series, Portlanders will have to travel a little farther to satisfy their classical-music appetites this summer. But it will be well worth the mileage.
By EMILY PARKHURST | July 08, 2009

Trail of tunes

Music al fresco at summer fests
The best summer music festivals take something from the season: the smell of the surf, the sight of the mountains, fireworks, lawn seating — or, at least, fried dough.
By CLEA SIMON | June 09, 2009

A pair of classical gems

String quartets pair up
Sunday afternoon, two string quartets — the Borromeo and the Portland — will meet and join forces for a rare performance of a pair of classical gems, Johannes Brahms's String Sextet in G Major, Op. 36 and Felix Mendelssohn's Octet in E flat Major, Op. 20 .
By EMILY PARKHURST | April 15, 2009

Mad love

John Harbison's Winter's Tale, Dvorák's Rusalka, Hans Graf with the BSO, Mark Morris's music
The destructive power of jealousy makes a good subject for opera.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 24, 2009

Note shapes

Mark Morris at the Majestic
When the Celebrity Series announced that the Mark Morris Dance Group would do three older pieces for its annual Boston appearance, we got a chance to revisit works we haven't seen in a while.
By MARCIA B. SIEGEL | March 24, 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

Like a fine wine

Pianist Laura Kargul joins the Portland String Quartet for a birthday party.
To celebrate the group's 40th anniversary, the Portland String Quartet will have a good time playing some favorites, but also will push themselves with some of the most difficult works they perform. They'll have help from renowned pianist Laura Kargul, who will join in for one of the three program selections.
By EMILY PARKHURST | February 04, 2009

Lift every voice!

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

Phenomenal!

Elliott Carter turns 100
Living for a century is still a milestone; for a great and still-productive artist to do so is virtually unheard of.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | December 19, 2008

Beyond tradition

Two concerts seek fresh ears for 'classical' music
On December 6 the University of Southern Maine Composers' Showcase will offer selections from new composers for eclectic ensembles, and on December 8 the Decompression Chamber Music Ensemble will offer an interactive concert pairing Robert Schumann with Philip Glass.
By EMILY PARKHURST | December 03, 2008

Expressions of war

Don't miss the Takács Quartet at UNH
One of the best string quartets in the world will be within a D-string's distance from Portland, come Monday night.
By EMILY PARKHURST | November 12, 2008