The Boston Musical Intelligencer

Many people today lament the decline of musical culture and understanding. In a small way, we aim to change that with our online virtual journal and blog. If you've ever searched the Boston Globe or the now-defunct Boston Phoenix calendars for concert recommendations or reviews, you likely share our concerns. While the coverage in these publications is commendable, it simply doesn't cover enough ground. Due to constraints like staffing and available space, less than 10 percent of concerts in the area receive reviews, and fewer than half are even listed. The Boston Musical Intelligencer seeks to address this gap by providing a comprehensive list of every classical music concert happening in greater Boston (within Route 128) during the regular season. In the summer, we broaden our focus to include venues across New England. We also strive to review as many concerts as possible, particularly those that our editors feel have been overlooked by traditional media. Our reviewers include some of Boston's top musicians, composers, music scholars, and knowledgeable listeners. All reviews and articles undergo professional editing before they are published. We also encourage reader engagement through our moderated comment section, which allows for open discussion.

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A Busy Boston-Area Weekend for Adolphus Hailstork

3 weeks 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.
Plenteously Endowed With Purpose

3 weeks 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.
Du Bois Delivers the Goods

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.
Honoring Two Gabriels

1 month ago | classical-scene.com | Lee Eiseman

Over the last couple of decades, Chair of the New England Conservatory piano department Bruce Brubaker has organized multi-day tributes to the piano works of several composers. Some highlights include 2008 Messiaen, 2009 Haydn (every piano sonata), 2010 Chopin, 2011 Liszt, 2012 John Cage, 2015 Scriabin (every piano work), 2020 Beethoven (every piano work), and 2024 Ives.
Cowan Leads Magical Mystery Tour

1 month 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.
Zander and the BPYO: Knockout Mahler 6

1 month ago | classical-scene.com | Jeffrey Gantz

Few conductors can have led Gustav Mahler’s Sixth Symphony as often as Benjamin Zander has over the past 45 years.
Steadfast Glissando’s Affirming Flame

1 month ago | classical-scene.com | Anne Davenport

After a day of bewildering international stress, what could be more comforting than meeting up with old friends and fellow music lovers in the sanctuary of First Church Boston for a homage to Beethoven and Ravel?
Yarn/Wire Rang Out on Cutting Edge

1 month ago | classical-scene.com | Owen Johnson

At its Calderwood Hall debut, Yarn/Wire wowed the audience with precision playing and sensitive musicianship. Over three ensemble-commissioned works, including a world premiere of a song cycle based on the writings of Isabella Stewart Gardener, Yarn/Wire maintains its position on the cutting edge of new music.
Zander, Booth, BPO Excel in Strauss and Mahler

2 months ago | classical-scene.com | Jeffrey Gantz

Back in 2015, during one of the worst Boston winters in decades, Benjamin Zander and the Boston Philharmonic warmed us all up with a mid-February program of Johann Strauss’s Frühlingsstimmen (“Voices of Spring”), Richard Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder (“Four Last Songs”), and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. Sunday at Symphony Hall, Zander and the BPO, with English soprano Claire Booth, reprised that program, minus the Strauss waltz.
Dover (String) Quartet Rewards Celebrity Series Subscribers

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.