Your guide to classical music online
Munich, Gasteig; January 9, 10, & 12, 2020—The Piano Concerto of Swiss composer Dieter Ammann was supposed to have been premiered at Vienna’s Konzerthaus with the Vienna Symphony. It wasn’t ready, however, and the concert last April (reviewed for ClassicsToday) featured Bartók’s Third, instead. The actual premiere had to wait for the BBC Proms, which, […]
Organized by the Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini, Lucca Lucca, Italy; 14-16 December 2019—The impact of the Internet and digital technologies on the way the music is created, disseminated, and consumed is impossible to assess fully. Because we live in the middle of this “disruptive era,” the full impacts of the new technologies and […]
Andermatt Concert Hall, October 25, 2019 – The musical experience at the second concert of the inaugural Andermatt Music Autumn Festival was a gratifying one. That’s in part thanks to the concert hall. Wider than deep, because of the questionable requirement that it accommodate a 60-piece-plus orchestra, it is shorter than would be ideal for […]
Classical Music’s Ten Dirtiest Secrets Considering how culturally valuable and self-evidently important classical music is supposed to be, its proponents are a surprisingly defensive group. At performing arts organizations, press departments fret that the slightest negative comment about an artist might attract public notice. What little marketing that takes place with respect to recordings always […]
CHICAGO, November 21, 2019—Cedille Records founder and president James Ginsburg has been nominated for the 2020 Grammy Award for Producer of The Year, Classical, his first nomination in that category. Nominations were announced November 20 by the Recording Academy. Ginsburg’s Cedille productions released during the Grammy eligibility period, Oct. 1, 2018, to Aug. 31, 2019, […]
Friday, November 22, 2019: Carnegie Hall, New York The Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal presented a program of Mozart and Bruckner on its first U.S. tour, featuring the overture and stellar mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato in the two big arias for high voice from the former’s La Clemenza di Tito, and the latter’s “Romantic” Symphony (No. 4). […]
Vienna, November 19, 2019; State Opera—It seems not so long ago that Simon Keenlyside was a young, virile singer, boldly physical, and for all his energy perhaps a touch anodyne. His Britten performances and releases like “Tales of Opera” or his 2009 Dichterliebe tell some of that tale at both ends of the spectrum. The […]
Vienna, November 6, 2019; Konzerthaus—Vienna was in an early-music mood this November: Christophe Rousset’s Les Talens Lyrique was performing Ariodante at the State Opera; the Musikverein hosted the fast declining Concentus Musicus as well as the endearingly chaotic but often exciting Vienna Academy Orchestra; and the Konzerthaus opened its doors to Jos van Immerseel and […]
Andermatt is not the prettiest Swiss village. Certainly not the most famous or even otherwise particularly notable in a country positively littered with gorgeous little alpine towns straight out of a kitschy re-make of Heidi. It had been an important trade post along the route connecting Milan and Zurich, Italy, and much of north-western Europe. […]
Vienna, October 5, 2019; Musikverein—When Christian Thielemann stands in front of the Vienna Philharmonic, you can be sure of one thing: The orchestra does what he wants. Famous for simply ignoring or not caring about who stands in front of them or how they are conducted, the finicky Vienna Philharmonic likes and listens to the […]
