-
5 days ago | 
classical-scene.com | Lee Eiseman
A Far Cry violist Caitlin Lynch curated “Eclipse” as a response to how works can drop into the shadows of neglect during certain periods, only to emerge from undeserved eclipses when planets realign or a when a clever curator points the light back on them. Last night’s Jordan Hall concert invited us to ponder how long three revivals, ranging from poetically intense to divinely silly, and one brilliant new work (sharing the concert title), could earn or regain places on the concert stage.
-
1 week ago | 
classical-scene.com | Lee Eiseman
Under Benjamin Zander’s lapel-grabbing leadership, the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra has, for 13 years, been operating on such an exalted plane, that a critic can safely leave his stopwatch and research scriblings at home and allow himself to absorb the vivid, energetic, sonorous, heartfelt work of deeply committed young players in one of the world’s greatest temples of art.
-
1 month ago | 
classical-scene.com | Lee Eiseman
Those who want superior performances of classical music to accompany their Easter services rather than praise bands of bongos and guitars have some reliable choices in the Boston area, with offerings from the Church of the Advent, Beacon Hill; All Saints, Ashmont; St. Paul’s Church, Harvard Square; Church of the Redeemer, Chestnut Hill; and Emmanuel Church, Boston coming to mind.
-
1 month ago | 
classical-scene.com | Lee Eiseman
Ferenc Molnár’s 1909 play Liliom unflinchingly recounts how a dangerous if irresistible man can be redeemed by faith and love. Rogers’s and Hammerstein’s immortal, though far less gritty musical version Carousel comes back to the Colonial Theater on the 80th anniversary of its initial run there.
-
1 month ago | 
classical-scene.com | Lee Eiseman
Next weekend, April 3-5, BSO subscribers will be hearing guest conductor Dima Slobodeniouk lead Adolphus Hailstork’s Lachrymosa: 1919, Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements, and the Elgar Violin Concerto with violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann. We had a pleasant conversation with Hailstork, a composer well represented at the BSO and Pops. Next weekend should be busy and exciting for you.
-
1 month ago | 
classical-scene.com | Lee Eiseman
The Handel and Haydn Society’s masterfully played, vividly sung, and artfully conducted traversal of Beethoven’s Mass in C Major, came to Friday night’s enthusiastic Symphony Hall crowd freighted with meaning and plenteously endowed with purpose. And yet, for this listener, it disappointingly broke from the mood of sparkling jollity the lively forces had earlier found for the Spring section of Haydn’s The Seasons.
-
1 month ago | 
classical-scene.com | Lee Eiseman
On the basis of what I heard last night, the Du Bois Orchestra has, in ten short years, fulfilled its mission to become Cambridge’s premier professional orchestra. The approximately 75 paid players with a few auditioned-volunteers filled our ears with bold, well-burnished, and utterly dependable sonorities within the resonant confines of First Church, Cambridge for a program that both excited and consoled.
-
2 months ago | 
classical-scene.com | Lee Eiseman
Touring organist extraordinaire and genial tour guide Ken Cowan led a grateful Groton Hill crowd of organ-concert newbies and cognoscenti through five quite different instruments spanning centuries and continents via the Hauptwerk Organ of 15 Organs. Through the voices of 40 speakers blasting and whispering with 49,600 watts, the brilliantly engineered compendium of the sampled sounds opened our ears to historic and decidedly varied instruments in Holland, England, France, and Buffalo.
-
2 months ago | 
classical-scene.com | Lee Eiseman
Ever since I introduced the Dover (String) Quartet to a (private) Boston audience in 2015, I have been following the exemplary foursome’s welcome rise, and have witnessed its local performances in 2018, 2021, and 2022 with great pleasure.
-
Feb 10, 2025 | 
classical-scene.com | Lee Eiseman
MIT’s much-anticipated Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building officially opens its doors to the public in a gala free-for-all* Sonic Jubilance running from 1:00 to 7:30 pm on February 15th. Meanwhile we got to preview the new facility Saturday in the context of pianist Mi-Eun Kim’s spectacular Saturday afternoon faculty recital (reviewed HERE). The BSO Chamber players will celebrate the space on March 2nd as part of a collaborative Artfinity Gala.
