Music
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Edinburgh International Festival
August 8 to 31 with 50 Concerts
By: - Aug 07th, 2014Scotland is boldly centre stage with The James Plays, an epic trilogy of history plays for Scotland from writer Rona Munro, which marks the first co-production between the National Theatre of Great Britain, the National Theatre of Scotland and the Edinburgh International Festival. This rich and turbulent period of history is played by a superb cast which includes Blythe Duff, Sofie Gråbøl, Gordon Kennedy, Mark Rowley and the three kings James McArdle, Andrew Rothney and Jamie Sives.
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Tanglewood on Parade, August 5th
Join in the Festivities.
By: - Aug 04th, 2014Fireworks, a day of entertainment with magicians, music and tours awaits guests on August 4th, 2014, Tanglewood on Parade day.
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Two Operas for Cambridge, NY August 13 to 24
Gianni Schicchi and Marriage of Figaro at Hubbard Hall
By: - Aug 04th, 2014Hubbard Hall Opera Theater presents Puccini's Gianni Schicchi and Mozart's Marriage of Figaro with orchestra August 13 through 24. “We are so excited to be able to offer this kind of cultural opportunity to the people who live in this area,†says artistic director, Alix Jones. “The talent is really something you would come across in a metropolitan city, and you get it here, at a most unassuming location, at a fraction of the price!â€
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James Conlon Conducts Salome at Ravinia
Patricia Racette Triumphs as the Virgin Vixen
By: - Aug 03rd, 2014James Conlon, who conducted the Chicago Symphony in the evening’s performance, persuaded the great soprano Patricia Racette to undertake this taxing and for her novel role. Conlon is seldom wrong, and certainly his conviction here was borne out in Racette’s coquettish and yet passionate performance.
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Matthias Goerne at Ravinia
The Sound Delivers the Message
By: - Aug 01st, 2014Often called the heir of Dietrich Fischer Dieskau, Goerne's baritone is perhaps even richer, more nuanced and ranging than his teacher's. Goerne not only calls you to attention, but soon he is under your skin: probing, thrilling, moving. He stepped into the Wozzeck role earlier this year at the Metropolitan Opera and will perform accompanied by William Kentridge's animation at Lincoln Center in November.
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Composer Profile: Spotlight on Johannes Brahms
Tanglewood Concert on August 8
By: - Jul 31st, 2014On Wednesday, August 6, at 8:00 p.m. in Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, the visiting orchestra Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (German Chamber Symphony of Bremen), conducted by Paavo Järvi, will present an all-Brahms concert, consisting of the “Academic Festival Overtureâ€, the Piano Concerto No. 1, with Lars Vogt the soloist and the Second Symphony.
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18th Jazz Festival of Garana, Romania – July 10-13, 2014
Part Two: Interview with Kimmo Pohjonen, Finland
By: - Jul 29th, 201418 years and going strong! The outdoor Jazz Festival in Romania attracted again a large crowd of jazz enthusiasts and many bands from several countries in Europe and the USA. The small village of Garana puts on every summer a Music and Jazz Celebration. More than 5000 came to participate! Here now the second interview of a highly anticipated musician....
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18th Jazz Festival of Garana, Romania – July 10-13, 2014
Part One: Interview with Joey DeFrancesco
By: - Jul 28th, 2014Europe's largest, perhaps only outdoor Jazz Festival in Garana, Romania, drew again a large crowd and major Jazz Players from around the world. The Jazz Fest in the Carpathian Mountains began in 1997 and has been on the scene yearly; a great effort by all participants. Here the first of three interviews documenting 2014 .
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Reality Strikes
Denver Considers Demoliahing their Symphony's Concert Hall
By: - Jul 28th, 2014All around the country symphony orchestras are struggling. Denver can only half fill Boettcher Hall, the first in the round venue to be built. The city argues that an outdoor ampitheatre would cost less than renovating Boettcher and attract its growing population of Hispanics and young people. Do symphony's need a home? Would they be better off as itinerants, performing in spaces suitable to programming? Every symphony board member and executive has to ask these questions.
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The Bartered Bride Boston Midsummer Opera
Rare Performance of Czech Opera
By: - Jul 27th, 2014A smart production featuring talented young singers proves a delight for art-starved local summer audiences. Spoiler alert: the young woman who would be bartered ends up with the man she loves.
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The Joshua Bell Fan Club
Packed the House at Tanglewood
By: - Jul 24th, 2014Amazingly Joshua Bell has performed at Tanglewood for 26 consecutive seasons. The charisma for Lenox audiences compares to the annual appearances of James Taylor. There are many reasons for his immense popularity all based on the fluid music evoked from his violin. On this occasion he collaborated with new BSO music director the young and equally exciting Andris Nelsons. It made for a thrilling combination.
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Composer Profile: Spotlight on Gustav Mahler
Performed at Tanglewood on July 26
By: - Jul 19th, 2014This is not a program note, but my “take†on Mahler’s music in toto and what I feel it represents extramusically – the backstory behind the composer’s aesthetic, if you will. The Symphony No. 2 is, to my way of thinking, the most iconic of all Mahler’s works, since everything he subsequently composed stems from this landmark hybrid of symphony, solo song and choral work.
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Jason Alexander at Tanglewood Yada Yada Yada
No more George Costanza
By: - Jul 18th, 2014Jason Alexander mesmerized the packed house at Tanglewood. His performance consisted of humor, dance and song. He had the crowd on their feet, watching his every move.
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Johnny Winter at 70
White Hot Blues
By: - Jul 17th, 2014Signed to a record breaking advance of $600,000 Columbia released the debut album" Johnny Winter" in 1969. Born an albino he was hyped as the whitest blues player. He produced several Grammy winners for Muddy Waters and a few for his own blues albums but his career faltered when he refused to record guitar rock albums. He ended out of the running 63rd on Rolling Stone's list of 100 greatest guitarists.
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Conductors; The Pharoahs of Music
Changing of the Guard for Orchestras
By: - Jul 14th, 2014James Levine’s travails because of persistent illnesses several years ago, became a liability for the Metropolitan Opera and Boston Symphony, despite his great musical gifts. By contrast, the Los Angeles Philharmonic had good fortune in nabbing the talented young superstar Gustavo Dudamel in 2008. Levine, now confined to a wheelchair, has begun the long road back to conducting at the Met, but it’s unlikely, at 72, that he’ll regain his former energy and commanding presence in opera and symphony concerts.
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Fireworks with Andris Nelsons at Tanglewood
Present and Future Orchestras Shine on Stage
By: - Jul 13th, 2014Fireworks started at Tanglewood immediately after the intermission of the gala performance welcoming music director designate Andris Nelsons. In the second half of the program, the Boston Symphony performed with the conductor and the match seemed perfect, in part because the Rachmaninoff and Ravel suited the Maestro and his instrumentalists. On stage fireworks exploded. The Maestro left nothing on the podium as he exited to fireworks falling out of the night Berkshire sky.
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Youthful Andris Nelsons Debuts at Tanglewood
A Varied Antonín Dvo?ák Program Entranced on a Summer Night
By: - Jul 12th, 2014Speaking with Nelsons after the Saturday morning rehearsal, he seemed eager to dig in to making music live in Lenox and Boston as he takes on the task of making classic symphonic music relevant to today’s audience. This is particularly difficult in the US where children are not as exposed to the classical form as they are in Europe.
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Sondheim's A Little Night Music at Colonial
Enchanting Production from Berkshire Theatre Group
By: - Jul 09th, 2014Not surprisingly the richly dark and complez A Little Night Music by the always challenging and insightful Stephen Sondheim is performed by opera companies. Berkshire Theatre Group is commended for having mounted a production with an amazing cast and superb orchestra. This otherwise fabulous musical, however, has been undermined by cutting corners on a second rate set. That hardly matters, however, with chills up the spine when Maureen O'Flynn sings the riveting and iconic "Send in the Clowns."
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The Cosmology of Classical Concerts
Music Light Years Beyond the Comfort Zone
By: - Jul 07th, 2014You can be an avid concertgoer and never once hear a string quartet or a symphony by such as Arnold Bax, Walter Piston, Roger Sessions, Vincent Persichetti, Vittorio Rieti, Peter Mennin or Ernst Toch; the piano sonatas of Dussek, Clementi or Griffes; the piano concertos of Hummel, Field, Tippett, Malipiero, Palmgren, Busoni or Lutoslawski.
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Renée Fleming Launches BSO’s Tanglewood Season
Stars in Williamstown Play Opening July 16
By: - Jul 06th, 2014It’s been an inclement week in the Berkshires but last night was just glorious for the launch of the BSO’s Tanglewood season featuring the ever magnificent soprano “The People’s Diva†Renée Fleming. From July 16 through 26 she will make her dramatic debut at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Living On Love. As she told us last night she is enjoying her extended time in the Berkshires. But it's a working holiday.
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Judy Collins for the 4th of July
At the Green Music Center, California
By: - Jul 05th, 2014If you closed your eyes for the drive up to the Green Music Center in Rohnert Park, California, and then opened them when you arrived at Weill Hall, you might think you were at Tanglewood. This hall is modeled after Ozawa Hall in Lenox. Judy Collins, regal and still going strong at 75, packed the Sonoma Music Center.
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Chicago' s Response to Sustaining Lyric Opera
Anthony Freud Reports a Splendid Season
By: - Jul 01st, 2014News from the Lyric Opera of Chicago stands out in stark contrast to the unfolding drama at the Metropolitan Opera. The Lyric is in black for the 2013/14 season with ticket sales increasing by 8%. Some 25% of tickets were sold to first-time opera buyers. What does it take to keep opera a live? Surely Anthony Freud is one answer. Snother is lighter programming like My Fair Lady for which 71,074 tikets were sold. It is a record for the company.
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Beck Rocks Mass MoCA
Opening Set by Sean Lennon
By: - Jun 25th, 2014On a sultry summer evening Beck charmed some 5,000 fans crammed into Joe Thompson Field on the campus of Mass MoCA. While Wilco's Solid Sound weekend festival is taking a break this season, on a Tuesday night in June, Beck put up Wilco numbers. It strongly indicates that MoCA is in the rock concert business as a viable alternative to Tanglewood with far more imaginative programming.
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The Rise and Fall of WBCN
Carter Alan’s Book on Radio Free Boston
By: - Jun 17th, 2014Between 1968 and its demise in 2009 Boston's rock station WBCN was the epicenter of an alternative lifestyle. Its DJ's interviewed and broadcast live concerts and studio sessions with virtually every major band of the era. It was a strong advocate of local band breaking many including J Geils, The Cars, Aerosmith, Boston and British stars from Bowie and The Who to Ireland's U2. Carter Alan's superbly researched book covers it all from A to Z.
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Odyssey Opera Inaugurates June Opera Festival
Three Italian Rarities, Including Verdi's First Comdy
By: - Jun 16th, 2014Odyssey Opera is devoted to taking its audience on a journey "through the lesser known reaches of the opera world." On paper, it was an enticing idea. I could hardly wait. And in execution, it turned out to be a promising start of what one hopes is a long-lived local company.
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