The question of what is valid in art music may never be properly answered, neither the question of when to leave a composer’s unfinished or revised...

The most frustrating thing about this ear-opening release is its complete lack of liner notes. All the following information about the Orange County High School of...

The old, and probably no longer tenable, chamber-ensemble paradigm was epitomized by the Beaux Arts Trio. Its members held individual teaching positions, but when it was...

Cecilia Bartoli is one of those rare artists who, like Eleanor Steber, Janet Baker, and a very few others, is a Renaissance woman for her time,...

In November of 1773, festivities were being organized at Versailles for the coming wedding of the Comte d’Artois—the future Charles X—to Marie Thérèse de Savoy. Papillon...

“In one of the great Towns of Flanders, where he (Handel) has asked Permission to Play, the Organist attended him, not knowing who he was; and...

The question of what is valid in art music may never be properly answered, neither the question of when to leave a composer’s unfinished or revised...

Of Bach’s three great sets of keyboard suites/partitas—the two composition classifications were synonymous during the Baroque period—the English suites are believed to be the earliest. Recent...

This book is not about the conductor character from the Seinfeld television show, who insisted everyone call him “Maestro,” though it is written in an entertaining...

There are probably almost as many books about tenors as there are about sopranos, though, like those latter, they tend to hew closely to the biographical....

Years ago, the great tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon spoke to me candidly and unexpectedly about drug use among jazz musicians. He explained to me the strain...

True to this group’s name, the material on their second CD fits better in a category sometimes described as lounge music than it fits into jazz....

The most frustrating thing about this ear-opening release is its complete lack of liner notes. All the following information about the Orange County High School of...

Every now and then, I come across a disc that leaves me scratching my head and asking “Why?” This is just such a disc. The music...

Only Aasha was available for viewing purposes. Dating from 1957, Aasha stars Kishore Kumar, Om Prakash, and Vyjayanthimala and was directed by C. Ramachandra. It is...

All three films were available for review in the present instance. This is a nicely varied disc of soundtracks that works very well as a stand-alone...

This generally acclaimed Royal Ballet production of Swan Lake follows on the heels of the somewhat disappointing Blu-ray Mariinsky performance starring Ulyana Lopatkina (Odette/Odile) and conducted...

The Firebird and Le sacre du printemps have been staples of the orchestral repertoire for so long that it is difficult to imagine how revolutionary they...

Willem Pijper (1894-1947) was Holland’s most influential composer between the First and Second World Wars. Wildly avant-garde for his era—in a most conservative musical society—he and...

The curiously named Wes10 (pronounced “wes-ten”) Brass is a 10-member ensemble based in Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia area, but makes its recording debut with an English program...

With the notable exception of Alexei Lubimov, the pianists featured on these six discs from the 2008 Ruhr Piano Festival in Germany are as yet little...

Part of this album’s title is “Bach and his Forerunners.” While no one would argue that Couperin, Gabrieli, Frescobaldi, and Froberger were not all antecedent to...

This is an interesting collection of Russian musical nationalists, showcasing the breadth and quality of Pushkin’s verses (with one ringer to a text by Anton Delvig)....

With “Pearl Fishers Duet,” Australia’s Decca Eloquence label copies the title of the often-reissued RCA recording of duets for tenor and baritone from 1951 with Jussi...

Harry Christophers has recorded for six labels in the last 28 years. At least one of those labels is defunct, many of those recordings now being...

The booklet accompanying this release is so thick that it requires a double jewel case to accommodate it and the single CD it documents. So extensive...

There are no recognizable composers to be listed, unless we count three cantigas of Alfonso el Sabio, all sung at length if not complete. The program...

Both discs were recorded last year in time for the observance of the quincentenary of the coronation of Henry VIII. The Carus disc spans the reigns...

Here is an approximation of what a typical evening of “music conversations” or entertainments might have sounded like in a princely palace of Naples around 1700....

These six discs, packaged individually, are the beginnings of a 24-CD set scheduled to be released over the next few years. The goal is to represent...