Despite frequent warnings in the press about the decline and fall of the classical recording industry, I think we are in a real "golden age."  Technological developments have made it possible for independent labels to sprout up, providing an important outlet for stunning young talented musicians, and quite a few orchestras, chamber groups and individuals have been able to take advantage of accessible recording technology and on-line self-distribution, either on their own websites or through … <Read More>

This year we get only two Summertime Classics programs from the NY Philharmonic, each presented three times.  Due to the spring tour, the subscription season ran long, and the orchestra's July out-of-town commitment squeezed things tight, and so Summertime Classics is compressed into little more than a week.

Interestingly, having only two programs to play with, they decided to devote one to Russian music and the other (spanning 4th of July weekend) to American music.  … <Read More>

To judge by his first two seasons as music director, and the announced plans for next season, Alan Gilbert likes to end the season with a real bang, bringing a big production of a work not previously played by the New York Philharmonic that includes unusually large forces (singers, chorus), sets, costumes, staging, etc.  Last year, it was Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre.  This year, last week, it was Janacek's opera known in English as "The … <Read More>

After reading a rave review in Fanfare, I had to hear the new recital disk by Dutch baritone Henk Neven, singing songs by Carl Loewe and Robert Schumann accompanied by pianist Hans Eijsackers.  It's an import on the Onyx label.  I'm glad I took the trouble to order it, because this is one spectacular recording.

To begin with, Neven has an absolutely, positively gorgeous deep baritone voice, which he handles with sensitivity and agility to … <Read More>

Here's a combination one might not have anticipated: a program whose two centers of gravity were the Walton Violin Concerto and Maurice Ravel's orchestral arrangement of Modest Mussorgsky's suite of piano pieces, "Pictures at an Exhibition."  On top of that, an interesting bit of "framing" – the program began with Rimsky-Korsakov's arrangement of the prelude to Mussorgsky's unfinished opera, Khovanshchina, followed by the Walton, and after intermission, they began with Ravel's Pavane pour une Infante … <Read More>

This week's subscription series at the NY Philharmonic focused on central and eastern Europe in the early 20th century: Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1 (1924-25), Rachmaninoff's "Isle of the Dead" (1909), and Schoenberg's "Erwartung" (also 1909).  There was also a thematic tie in the second half, with both pieces relating to death and loss as a theme.

This program was not on my subscription series.  In recent seasons, the Philharmonic's seat-filling and audience-building efforts have included sending … <Read More>

I went last year and found the acoustics to be a major trial, but decided to go back this year with a different mind-set.  As a patron donor to the Philharmonic, I am offered a VIP pass to the reserved section up-front, so I don't have to stand on-line outside.  (An incentive to be a donor…) 

On offer this year was a topically appropriate Memorial Day concert of Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings and Ludwig … <Read More>

The May/June 2011 issue of International Piano, a fascinating British publication to which I subscribe, has an article by Jessica Duchen titled "Keys of Life" about the British musician Nick van Bloss, whose first recording, of Bach's Goldberg Variations, was recently released.  What you would not know from the packaging of the CD or the material in the booklet, and certainly would not guess from listening to the gorgeous recording, is the fantastic … <Read More>

Directly after I posted a notice about the wonderful American art song recital by Randal Turner, I received an email from Glen Roven, the composer-conductor-pianist, thanking me for the review (Turner's recital included a group of Roven's songs), and asking if I'd be interested in hearing another recital, this time by Daniel Okulitch.  I was happy to accept the offer, and found the CD in the mail straightaway…

Okulitch's recital is distinguished by having the … <Read More>

One of the delights of the current digital age for classical enthusiasts is the heightened ability for imaginative musical artists of the first rank to undertake their own recording projects and sell them on-line through their own websites or such aggregate websites as CDbaby.com.  Here are some recent items direct from the artists without the intervention of corporate bean-counters:

1.  Seda R