Jon Sobel

2 weeks ago | blogcritics.org | Jon Sobel

Since taking the gold medal at the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Haochen Zhang has become an admired and sought-after soloist and chamber musician. His recordings include concertos by Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky, Liszt’s Transcendental Études, and all five Beethoven piano concertos. His latest album, Haochen Zhang plays Beethoven & Liszt, out now on the BIS label, focuses on those last two composers, both of whom have played major roles in Zhang’s life and career.

3 weeks ago | blogcritics.org | Jon Sobel

This exquisite new album unveils seldom-heard music associated with the court of Charles XI of Sweden, who reigned from 1675 to 1697. The superb mezzo-soprano Lucile Richardot collaborates with four other equally skilled singers and the musicians of Ensemble Correspondances, directed by organist Sébastian Daucé, on Northern Light, evocatively subtitled “Echoes from 17th-Century Scandinavia.”Why “Echoes”? Probably because this isn’t actually music by Scandinavian composers.

3 weeks ago | blogcritics.org | Jon Sobel

Regardless of what’s going on politically, we Westerners tend to think of the arts as a realm of total free speech. A composer, for example, can be an iconoclast to her heart’s content – breaking molds, challenging norms, experimenting wildly. If no one likes the result, the failure derives from artistic merit or popular opinion, not state control. Dmitri Shostakovich’s career is an exemplar of the reverse. It alternately bloomed and wilted with the judgments of Stalin and the Soviet state.

4 weeks ago | blogcritics.org | Jon Sobel

Antagonistic – that’s the word to describe Madjnun, the one-movement concerto for recorder by Samir Odeh-Tamimi. The piece opens a new four-work album of assertively contemporary music featuring recorder player Jeremias Schwarzer, who is accompanied by a different ensemble in each piece. Although, no, “accompanied” isn’t quite the word for Madjnun. The often percussive orchestra seems to challenge and threaten the soloist incessantly.

4 weeks ago | blogcritics.org | Jon Sobel

When performing with established artists of the highest caliber, it’s no surprise that young musicians at the outset of their careers will try their hardest to do their very best. Still, while students at the Curtis Institute of Music are among the best of their generation, one could forgive them for not quite measuring up to their elders.