Tag Archives: classical music

Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen

Posted on 11th April 2017 by Robert

Everyone has their national epic. The Greeks have the Iliad and the Odyssey, the French have Le Chanson de Roland, the British get to pick among Beowulf, The Mabinogion, and the tales of the Arthur Cycle, and the Germans have … Continue reading →

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Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations

Posted on 3rd April 2017 by Robert

There is a place in the history of musical performance where that history becomes legend. This is pertinent here because we are talking about one of those legends, Glenn Gould performing J. S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations. (There are other legendary … Continue reading →

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Michael Davidson’s The Classical Piano Sonata from Haydn to Prokofiev; Vlado Perlemuter and Hèléne Jourdan-Morhange’s Ravel According to Ravel

Posted on 4th December 2016 by Robert

Music, among the forms of art, is a rather strange beast. It is ephemeral, subjective, almost completely dependent on interpretation, and, looked at logically, has no intrinsic meaning unless paired with a text (which does not keep us from responding … Continue reading →

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Golfam Khayam and Mona Matbou Riahi’s Narrante

Posted on 18th June 2016 by Gary Whitehouse

Narrante is an utterly fascinating album, and it’s like very little else that I’ve ever heard. Golfam Khayam and Mona Matbou Riahi, who perform as Naqsh Duo, are Iranian musicians making their debut on the German jazz and classical label … Continue reading →

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)

Posted on 14th June 2016 by Robert

I love Mozart. His music is one of the things I’d insist on if I were going to be stranded on a desert island. Otherwise, I’d just refuse to be stranded. Among my favorite works by Mozart is The Magic … Continue reading →

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Apocalyptica’s Apocalyptica Plays Metallica By Four Cellos and Inquisition Symphony

Posted on 16th April 2016 by Mia

How often is an album of cover tunes the most original, creative, and enjoyable CD imaginable? Well, how about when the self-styled “Four Bowmen of the Apocalypse” released Apocalyptica Plays Metallica By Four Cellos? Yes, that’s right, four classically trained … Continue reading →

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Lara St. John’s re: Bach

Posted on 31st March 2016 by Diverse Voices

Craig Clarke  wrote this review for us. Sex sells, and I suppose it was time that someone in the classical music industry figured that out. Female violinists generally get the focus of this attention, so it should have been no surprise … Continue reading →

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Talisman’s Music of Russian Princesses: From the Court of Catherine the Great

Posted on 7th March 2016 by Kelly Sedinger

When one hears the phrase “Russian Classical Music”, one thinks perhaps of the ballets of Tchaikovsky with their searing drama and heartbreaking grace. One thinks of the piano concertos of Rachmaninov, with their wondrous lyricism and blazing virtuosic demands on … Continue reading →

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Gustav Mahler: The Complete Symphonies

Posted on 22nd February 2016 by Robert

Both Tim Page and Erik Ryding, in their essays accompanying this Sony reissue of Leonard Bernstein’s landmark cycle of the complete symphonies of Gustav Mahler, give Bernstein pride of place in Mahler’s “rehabilitation” in the 1960s. While I don’t want … Continue reading →

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Arnold Steinhardt’s Violin Dreams

Posted on 22nd February 2016 by Diverse Voices

I run across a fair number of musical biographies, autobiographies, reminiscences, and the like, all the way from Berlioz as seen by his contemporaries to Ned Rorem’s somewhat scandalous diaries. The common thread, of course, is that they are about … Continue reading →

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