Justin Dello Joio – Oceans Apart (Bridge Records) Composer Justin Dello Joio enjoys a top flight slate of performers on Oceans Apart, his latest recording for Bridge. The title work is a piano concerto, performed live here by the Boston Symphony, conducted by Alan Gilbert, with Garrick Ohlsson as soloist. A short bit of applause is left on the tail end of the recording, otherwise one would never be the wiser. The quality of the rendition and recording are excellent. Dello Joio conceived of Oceans Apart when watching surfers being challenged by massive waves. The concerto translates this
Read moreRuss Lossing and King Vulture Alternate Side Parking Music Aqua Piazza Records Russ Lossing, piano, keyboards; Adam Kolker, soprano and tenor saxophone, bass clarinet; Matt Pavolka, bass; Dayeon Seok, drums Photo: Marie Bissétt Pianist Russ Lossing has been a fixture on the New York jazz scene for over thirty-five years. His latest recording, Alternate Side Parking Music on Aqua Piazza, employs a new quartet, called King Vulture, in a set of vibrant compositions. Lossing has worked with saxophonist Adam Kolker and bassist Matt Pavolka for years. It is the addition of the abundantly talented drummer Dayeon Seok that brings
Read more“I remember first reading Robert Fanning’s poetry in 2014; it was as if he was able to give voice to feelings and experiences in a way that made them feel like my own. His words reveal a world of profound beauty that transcends the page.” – David Biedenbender Shell and Wing – YouTube David Biedenbender All We Are Given We Cannot Hold Blue Griffin CD Lindsay Kesselman, soprano; Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Kevin Noe, Artistic Director; Garth Newel Piano Quartet with Mingzhe Wang, clarinet; Haven Trio. If a composer is able to find a poet who
Read moreMozart Recital Su Yeon Kim Steinway & Sons CD During her studies, pianist Su Yeon Kim has kept Mozart close. She studied for a decade at Mozarteum University, won first prize at the Concours international de Montréal in 2021 and second place in the International Mozart Competition in Salzburg. Kim has lived for some time in Salzburg. In 2023, she will also reconnect with her hometown Seoul as Artist-in-Residence of Kumho Art Hall. For her Steinway & Sons Mozart Recital, Kim plays two sonatas and a number of smaller pieces, some obscure and seldom performed. Even in these
Read moreLaura Strickling 40@40 Laura Strickling, soprano, Daniel Schlosberg, piano Bright Shiny Things Soprano Laura Strickling was nominated for a Grammy in 2022 for her last CD, Confessions, and has followed this up with forty art song commissions to celebrate her fortieth birthday: the 40@40 project. The eponymous recording features the first twenty of the commissions, with a second volume to follow. 40@40 is already gaining considerable, well-deserved notice. Upon its release, it landed on the top of the Traditional Classical category on the Billboard Charts. Art song doesn’t often garner such a distinction, and Strickling’s advocacy for
Read moreEvery Living Creature Choral music by Kenneth Leighton Rebecca Lea, Nina Bennet, soprano; Ciara Hendrick, mezzo-soprano; Nick Pritchard, tenor Finchley Children’s Music Group, Grace Rossiter, music director Londinium, Andrew Griffiths, director SOMM Records Kenneth Leighton (1929-88) was a distinguished composer and academic. He taught at various places, including Oxford where he had studied as an undergraduate, spending the bulk of his academic career at the University of Edinburgh. He wrote in many genres, but it is his music for choirs that is most prized. His choral music is rigorous in construction with vibrant rhythms and skilful formal designs; tonal,
Read moreFestival of Contemporary Music Chamber Music Sunday, July 30, 2023 LENOX – There were a number of firsts on the July 30th chamber music concert. I have never seen the stage at Ozawa Hall require several minutes of vacuuming up bits of wood, but Malin Bång’s Arching, for amplified cello, amplified tools, and electronics, created considerable, if entertaining, mayhem. Another first: hearing “The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round,” paired in fugal counterpoint with the Brahms lullaby. The find for me at FCM was Tebogo Monnakgotla, a Swedish composer who curated Sunday’s concert. The aforementioned nursery
Read moreBoston Symphony Orchestra, Anna Rakitina, conductor Joshua Bell, violin Eliza Bagg, Martha Cluver, and Sonja Dutoit Tengblad, vocalists July 30, 2023 LENOX – The Boston Symphony’s offerings on the weekend of the annual Festival of Contemporary Music dovetailed with its curation, lifting up female composers and, on Sunday, a conductor. Leading the orchestra on Saturday, July 30th was Anna Rakitina, who has served as the ensemble’s Assistant Conductor until this Summer. She is a rising star and led the orchestra with assuredness, providing detailed interpretations of all of the scores on the program. The orchestra, for their part, were
Read moreBoston Symphony Orchestra, Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor Avery Amereau, mezzo-soprano July 29, 2023 LENOX – This year’s Festival of Contemporary Music at Tanglewood spotlighted female composers. Four created self-curated concerts, and others were featured on BSO concerts. Agata Zubel’s In the Shade of an Unshed Tear, originally composed for the Seattle Symphony, was on the program Saturday night in the Shed. Before its performance, conductor Dima Slobodeniouk talked briefly with Zubel onstage. Prominent among their remarks were the stipulations of the original commission. Seattle was pairing Zubel’s piece with works by Beethoven and wanted her to compose for a classical-sized
Read moreOrlando Consort Machaut: The Fount of Grace Hyperion Records Matthew Venner, countertenor; Mark Dobell and Angus Smith, tenors; Donald Greig, baritone Guilliame de Machaut (1300-1377) was a supremely talented poet and composer. He was an innovator, creating the first polyphonic Mass and developing polyphony in chansons as well. After Machaut, there is little evidence of composers in the Medieval era who set their own words to music. Works devoted to courtly love make up the majority of his output. Fount of Grace adds several topics to that of love poems: devotional and historial components loom larger than on other
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