Category Archives: Music

Jahan-E-Khusrau’s The Realm of the Heart (A Festival of Amir Khusrau)

Big Earl Sellar penned this review. I’ve dwelt in the realm of Sufi music a lot lately. As these varied musical idioms surface in Western markets, I’m often struck by how little of this music has been available until fairly … Continue reading

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Bollywood Brass Band’s Rahmania

The music of AH Rahman is tremendously popular in India, where a Rahman soundtrack can add considerable box-office appeal to the Bollywood vehicle it graces. He has worked with Andrew Lloyd-Webber. Rahman’s work has also found a ready audience in … Continue reading

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Various Artists’ Lagaan: Once upon a time in India

This is not a film review, but rather a look at the soundtrack that is the music of a film. And it’s not an at all typical Bollywood film that most of us are familiar with from India. If you’re … Continue reading

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Leonard Bernstein, The Original Jacket Collection: Bernstein Conducts Bernstein

I’ve mentioned before that there are vanishingly few orchestra conductors in the twentieth century whose names have become household words. There are, if anything, even fewer composers who have achieved that degree of notoriety. Leonard Bernstein is all of the … Continue reading

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Various Artists’ The Rough Guide To Bhangra

Big Earl Sellar penned this review. Bhangra, for the few of you who don’t know, is a British musical genre, created by East Indian musicians mixing traditional Punjabi music with, well, whatever happens to be hip. There are even Bhangra … Continue reading

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Works of Igor Stravinsky

Works of Igor Stravinsky is a massive set: 22 CDs of performances of Rite of Spring, Petrouschka, L’Histoire du Soldat, Symphony in E-Flat, The Rake’s Progress and more under the direction of the composer, with additional performances by his disciple … Continue reading

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Nickelback: The Band Everybody Loves to Hate

I suspect someone is sitting there wondering “What? He’s doing a survey of a rock band? Him?!” Yeah, well, I know I haven’t done much of that here, but there are a couple of reasons for this essay. First, I … Continue reading

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John Corigliano’s The Red Violin Concerto; Sonata for Violin and Piano

John Corigliano is widely considered one of the leading American composers of his generation, which includes such luminaries as Morten Lauridsen, Terry Riley, and Ned Rorem. Commentators have characterized his style as “highly expressive,” “compelling,” and “kaleidoscopic.” In addition to … Continue reading

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Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem

Benjamin Britten is without doubt among the foremost of modern British composers, generally considered, along with Sir Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams, as one of the most important voices in English music of the twentieth century. It goes beyond … Continue reading

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Leonard Bernstein’s Mass

Lights! Camera! Kyrie! Sounds rather theatrical, doesn’t it? Some might even say disrespectful. It’s no surprise, then, that Leonard Bernstein’s Mass generated so much controversy at its premiere in 1971. Thirty-five years later, the controversy is muted. When we think … Continue reading

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