A slim discography barely hints at violinist Sarah Plum’s prolific career as a ‘new music specialist’ but confirms her engagingly adventurous sensibility….
My latest CD review for Gramophone is of the recording by the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra of Lowell Liebermann’s lengthy ballet score Frankenstein:
Within just five years of its publication in 1818, Mary Shelley’s classic horror novel inspired a stage play that became a hit – the first of a seemingly endless stream of adaptations for other media that has flowed ever since. While the most popular of these are associated with the screen (going back to a 1910 short silent film from Edison Studios), Frankenstein has additionally spawned operas, musicals and this full-length ballet, premiered by the Royal Ballet in 2016….
The talented young conductor Christian Baldini conducts the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra on this newly released album — a challenging and fascinating collection of music by Lutosławski, Ligeti, Varèse, and Baldini himself. I was delighted to review it for the November issue of Gramophone:
Having proved himself an engaging Mozartian with his previous release (a collection of arias and overtures with Elizabeth Watts and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra – Linn, 7/15), Christian Baldini here displays his expertise in modernist and contemporary fare…
Heartiest congratulations to an artist I have admired for many years. James Ehnes was named Artist of the Year at Gramophone’s recent annual awards ceremony. Charlotte Gardner writes eloquently of the violinist’s extraordinary recent accomplishments in a complete Beethoven sonata set as well as his pandemic project recording the Bach and Ysaÿe solo violin works: “Ehnes’s warm, golden sound is as much a constantly changing story of articulation and timbre as ever, but sounding even more emotionally up close and personal than ever before…”
It’s deeply gratifying to see such a deserving artist receive this distinction. Here’s the playlist Gramophone has put together in conjunction with this award:
After more than three decades as a computer music pioneer, Paul Lansky made a dramatic change of tack and began composing exclusively for acoustic instruments. This release is Vol 17 in the extensive series from the Bridge label …
My review of the cellist Lavena is in the July issue of Gramophone:
An enigmatic soundscape shivers into being in Gemma Peacocke’s Amygdala for solo cello and fixed electronics. The cellist wends her way, tentatively, towards acoustic clarity, playing richly expressive double-stops as if coming up for air….
My latest review for Gramophone, in the May issue, is of organist Yuri McCoy’s debut album, Symphonic Roar:
The impetus for this debut album by Yuri McCoy was to celebrate the French Romantic organ and the gloriously rich, ‘symphonic’ sonority associated with it. But the American organist has set about doing so with a bracingly original programme of pieces…
My review of this marvelous BMOP anthology of Robert Carl’s music for Gramophone has now been posted here.
Aficionados of contemporary music will already be familiar with the name Robert Carl as a writer. He has authored extensive reviews for Fanfare and a recent, thought-provoking collection of essays on the challenges faced by 21st-century composers…
I reviewed the latest release from Imani Winds for Gramophone:
Musicians have felt an increasing urgency over the past year to become engaged with issues of social justice. Imani Winds were already there well before most, having devoted themselves to giving a platform to marginalised voices since they started out in 1997. So the moral focus of their new album, which addresses the effects of systemic racism, reflects much more than a current trend.
Here’s my review for Gramophone of Osvaldo Golijov’s remarkable new collaboration with Silkroad Ensemble, Falling Out of Time.
Though conceived and created well before the pandemic, Osvaldo Golijov’s latest collaboration with Silkroad Ensemble seems uncannily well suited to the era of corona.
Brett Goldstein is a writer for Ted Lasso and plays Roy Kent, a gruff but lovable retired footballer-turned-coach. He says, "sport is there so men can say 'I love you' without saying 'I love you.' "
Tori and Lokita is the latest gripping moral thriller from Belgian filmmakers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. The story is swift and relentless; it runs barely 90 minutes and never slows down.
Hip-hop musician Pras Michel of Fugees faces criminal trial in Washington, D.C., for allegedly conspiring to violate election law and influence American policymakers on behalf of China.
Police were called to a domestic dispute in an apartment Saturday morning. Majors was charged with assault, strangulation and harassment. A representative for Majors said he "has done nothing wrong."
Xavier López, a Mexican children's comic better known by his stage name "Chabelo," hosted the Sunday variety show En Familia con Chabelo for an astonishing 48 years from 1967 to 2015.
This week, we make our triumphant return to Tucson, and political consultant David Axelrod makes his return to our show. He helped get Obama elected, but what does Axelrod know about Axl Rose?