Classical Music

Review: Yannick Nézet-Séguin Leads The Philadelphia Orchestra in ‘Energetic’ Music

Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s latest program with The Philadelphia Orchestra was an intelligently thought-out adventure. The central work was Alternative Energy by Mason Bates, in its East Coast premiere,...

Review: ‘The Four Seasons of Vivaldi and Piazzolla’ at The National Chamber Ensemble

Before a sold-out house Saturday, March 25, 2017, at the Rosslyn Spectrum Theatre, the National Chamber Ensemble wowed the audience with its creative revival of Antonio Vivaldi’s famous Four Seasons,...

Review: ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’ at The Catholic University of America

Who would have thought that an evening of love, ambition, betrayal, violence, and death could be so enjoyable? That is precisely what last night’s production of Lucia di Lammermoor at The Catholic...

Review: ‘Viva la Zarzuela! The Music of Spain’ at Concert Operetta Theater

Concert Operetta Theater was founded in 2008 to revive and preserve the type of musical theater that’s more lighthearted and accessible than opera, but a bit grander than Broadway. These tuneful...

Review: The Philadelphia Orchestra Performs Seeger, Berg & Beethoven with Guest Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas

Contrast was stark in the concert which Michael Tilson Thomas led with The Philadelphia Orchestra. The first half displayed two radically dissonant pieces from the 1930s — Ruth Crawford Seeger’s...

Review: Beethoven’s ‘Leonore’ at Washington Concert Opera

Washington Concert Opera (WCO) concluded its 30th anniversary season with a rare performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Leonore on stage at the George Washington University Lisner Auditorium...

Review: The Philadelphia Orchestra Performs Brahms’ Eleven Chorale Preludes, Bach’s Cantata No. 150, and Brahms’ Symphony No. 4

The Philadelphia Orchestra set of concerts during the last weekend of February was one of the most imaginatively conceived in recent memory. The program consisted of selections from Brahms’ Eleven...

Review: ‘Dead Man Walking’ at Washington National Opera

It is certainly a “Dark Night of the Soul” (St. John of the Cross) for Sister Helen Prejean in the contemporary opera Dead Man Walking. A meditative, spiritually resonant study of our common humanity...

Review: LiveConnections Presents Harlem Quartet + Arturo Stable

Once again, LiveConnections Presents (“LCP”) curator Mary Wheelock Javian’s musical matchmaking has produced a lively evening of musical discovery. This time it was the pairing of the Harlem Quartet...

Review: The Philadelphia Orchestra Performs Mozart and Brahms

During the 44 years when Eugene Ormandy was music director of The Philadelphia Orchestra (1936 to 1980), he led almost every concert. There was scant need for guest conductors. Now the symphonic world...

Review: ‘Vive la France: The Magic of Saint-Saens’ at The National Chamber Ensemble

Love was in the air as The National Chamber Ensemble presented their Valentine’s Day performance called Vive la France: The Magic of Saint-Saens. The concert was described as: Celebrate Valentine’s...

NSO: An Evening with Joshua Bell at The Kennedy Center

It has been said that Joshua Bell may be the greatest violinist active today. After listening to him play, as well as conduct, at The Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall with the National Symphony Orchestra...

Preview: Bach’s St. John Passion with Ted Sperling and MasterVoices at Carnegie Hall

From Tevye the Milkman’s Anatevka of 1905 to the St. Nicholas Lutheran Church in Leipzig in 1724, Broadway conductor Ted Sperling is making quite a transition in settings this week. But it’s all...

Review: ‘Mason Bates’ KC Jukebox: Ravishment’ at The Kennedy Center

Virginia’s own Mason Bates is the current composer-in-residence at the Kennedy Center and now playing the second season of his collaborative KC Jukebox series. The series presents out-of-the-box...

Review: Washington Performing Arts Presents The Philadelphia Orchestra / Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Conductor

It is easy to understand why The Philadelphia Orchestra has tapped Yannick Nézet-Séguin to be their music director and conductor of such a prestigious institution. Yannick exudes charisma and delivers...

Review: Soprano Ailyn Pérez at The Barns at Wolf Trap

There’s no business like show business, but does that include opera? If in a few years people finally agree that opera is genuinely another form of musical theater, it may be because of the current...

Review and Article: The Dover Quartet at the Kennedy Center Family Theater

Lord knows there are a lot of young string quartets out there trying to make an impact on both classical music and the cultural scene generally. They even have their own competitions to try to sort...

Review: Pianist Lise de la Salle at the Phillips Collection

Picking through bombastic music to extract the musical message and leave a lingering impression of something other than bombast is a skill to be cherished among pianists on the international stage....

Review: National Symphony Orchestra: Stravinsky’s ‘The Firebird’ and Ravel’s ‘Left Hand’ Concerto

With a program packed with masterpieces from Russian and French composers, Sir Mark Elder conducted the National Symphony Orchestra. Sir Mark Elder opened the night sharing some words on the program...

Review: ‘Happy Holidays’ With the National Chamber Ensemble

The National Chamber Ensemble’s joyful annual Happy Holidays concert was the perfect way to spread the wonderful sounds of Christmas and Chanukah. There were performances from talented musicians of...

Review: The Choral Arts Society of Washington’s ‘A Choral Arts Christmas’ at The Kennedy Center

I love choral music. I love the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. I’ve been looking forward to this performance. Everything musical was wonderful during the evening. Even as the doors opened, a small brass...

Review: Handel’s ‘Messiah’ by NSO at The Kennedy Center

Messiah is perhaps the best known of the German-born but London-settled composer George Frideric Handel. Profoundly religious, the three-part Oratorio moves from the prophecy of Christ to his death...

The Philadelphia Chorus’ ‘The Voice of Peace’

German philosopher Theodor W. Adorno (1903-1969), in his 1949 essay, “Cultural Criticism and Society,” claimed, “To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric” (transl. by Samuel and Shierry Weber)....

Review: The Washington Chorus’ ‘A Candlelight Christmas’ at The Kennedy Center

Once the energized crowd was seated and ready, Guest Conductor Andrew Clark, (Director of coral activities at Harvard), had us all stand up for some vocal warm ups. Moans, laughter and hearty Ho, Ho,...

Review: ‘Masterpieces of Russian Vocal Music: Enchanted Evening of Vocal & Piano Duets’ at Russian Chamber Art Society

If there is one thing that those of us in the DC metropolitan area can be sure of when it comes to classical music, it is that finding great examples of it on virtually any night of the week will not...

Review: ‘The Nutcracker’ at Metropolitan Ballet Theatre

Metropolitan Ballet Theatre’s 28th annual production of The Nutcracker is a veritable feast for the senses. With a gorgeous array of costumes, a set that will evoke contented sighs from any Downton...

Review: ‘SYBARITE5 and Jakub Ciupinski’ at LiveConnection at World Cafe

LiveConnection Presents’ evening of Sybarite5 + Jakub Ciupinski treated its World Cafe audience to two exciting young exemplars of new music. Sybarite5 is a string quintet that is rapidly gaining...

Review: ‘The Rape of Lucretia’ by the Maryland Opera Studio at The Clarice

There’s a saying that says, “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia most definitely fulfills that second requirement. Based on the myth...

Review: The Choral Arts Society of Washington Presents ‘Berlioz: Requiem, Op. 5’ at The Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall

It was a chilly night, fitting for a change of pace, when the Choral Arts Society of Washington performed Hector Berlioz: Requiem, Op. 5 Grande Messe des Morts to a buoyant crowd at The Kennedy Center...

Review: The Washington Chorus Presents Philip Glass’ Symphony No. 5

On Sunday, November 13, 2016, the pulsating, transcendent and visionary music of the modern musical giant of minimalist music, Philip Glass —came to vivid life in a unique and powerful concert event....

Review: BSO at Strathmore: Mahler Symphony No. 6

Some critics go to music performances as a modern day Shakespearean Brutus: They come to bury the performance, not praise it. And, bury it they do with raised pinky, off-putting, arcane phraseology...

Review: Prokofiev’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ with the National Symphony Orchestra at The Kennedy Center

Something of a high-stakes atmosphere pervades this week’s concerts by the National Symphony Orchestra. It’s performing an all-Russian program, always a touchstone harking back to the reign of Soviet...

Review: Concerto for Violin, Rock Band & String Orchestra: Composed by R.E.M.’s Mike Mills for Robert McDuffie Featuring Fifth House Ensemble at Strathmore

When I saw Mike Mills of R.E.M. was coming to town, I knew I had to see him because I grew up on his music. R.E.M.’s music was a huge part of my life. Mills and Robert McDuffie didn’t disappoint by...

Review: ‘Mozart’s Requiem’ with The Annapolis Chorale and Annapolis Chamber Orchestra at St. Anne’s Church

The Annapolis Chorale and Annapolis Chamber Orchestra’s performance of Mozart’s Requiem, presented by Live Arts Maryland, was a well-performed clever combination of old and new pieces. Before...

Review: The National Chamber Ensemble’s ‘A Night In Vienna’

The National Chamber Ensemble opened it’s 10th season last Saturday at the Rosslyn Spectrum Theatre. The concert called, A Night In Vienna was a collaboration with the Austrian Cultural Forum. The...

Review: The Romantics III: ‘Schumann & Heine’ at The In series at Source

Close your eyes for just a moment. Imagine that you are comfortably seated in an elegant, yet commodious room, filled with people who have come to share—no, not the latest election scuttlebutt; but...

Review: ‘The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat’ at UrbanArias

Oliver Sacks’ non-fiction book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, consists of a series of neurological case studies. Each study examines one of Sacks’ patients, each of whom is suffering from...

Review: National Symphony Orchestra: ‘Shakespeare at the Symphony: From Tchaikovsky to Elgar’

It may be a little known, but hardly surprising, fact that the works of William Shakespeare have inspired more music than any other work of literature perhaps except for the Bible. The Bard’s most...

Review: ‘Turandot’ at Opera Philadelphia in Philadelphia, PA.

Danger and darkness lurk around every corner of Opera Philadelphia’s stunning new production of Turandot, a co-production with Minnesota Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Utah Opera, and...

Review: National Philharmonic: Beethoven’s ‘Symphony No. 7’ with Brian Ganz at The Music Center at Strathmore

The National Philharmonic kicked off its 2016-2017 Fall/Winter season with three of Beethoven’s most celebrated works, featuring a special appearance by pianist Brian Ganz performing Piano Concerto...

Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ With the National Symphony Orchestra with Pianist Yuja Wang, Conducted by Lionel Bringuier at Wolf Trap

It was a stifling hot, totally sticky humid July evening in the DC area. Cooling breezes under the glowing wooden open structure that is Wolf Trap’s Filene Center at first were few and far between...

Review: Musicians of National Orchestral Institute Perform Two Dances and a Titan

The lobby is packed. The line for ticket pick-up is a few dozen deep. The lobby is filled with plush lounge furniture and lit with low-hanging, contemporary chandeliers. While this could be a scene...

Review: ‘H.M.S. Pinafore’ at Victorian Lyric Opera Company

Conundrums seem to be Gilbert and Sullivan’s specialty. Their most famous works, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado, explore the comic antics that ensue when seemingly simple people are thrown...

Review: Pianist Veronika Böhmová at the Czech Embassy in the Embassy Series

The Czech Republic is a small country with a big impact on music. It’s a good thing they don’t just churn out mere virtuosos, of whom the world has plenty. Instead the best of the lot harness...

Midyear CD Review: Evocative Oboe, Witty Haydn, and a New Take on Duke Ellington

Serendipity counts in music as in anything else. A year and a half ago I recommended two outstanding debut albums by artists with local connections. Soprano Danielle Talamantes, a Northern Virginia...

Review: Washington Performing Arts Presents Itzhak Perlman and Emanuel Ax

You can feel the excitement in a room when witnessing the performance of an icon. With over 100 years of combined experience bringing classical music’s greatest pieces to life, Itzhak Perlman on...

Review: ‘All About Dvořák’ at National Chamber Ensemble by Ross Heath

Czech out the National Chamber Ensemble The wonderful National Chamber Ensemble closed its ninth season tonight with a Mother’s Day concert spotlighting the music of the renowned Czech composer,...

Review: ‘Tender Tears and Love and Life: Songs by Anton Rubinstein, Anton Arensky, Alexander Glazunov, and Mark Minkov’ at the Russian Chamber Art Society

In a concert that rang the rafters and tugged at the heartstrings, the Russian Chamber Art Society bade a thrilling farewell to its longtime home at the Austrian embassy, which, after hosting more...

Review: Classical Guitarist Mark Edwards at Columbia Festival of the Arts

The Columbia Festival of the Arts under Executive Director Todd Olson, presented a Mark Edwards, Classical Spanish Guitar at the historical Oliver’s Carriage House on Sunday, April 17, 2016. Mark...

Review: Pianist Bruce Levingston Presents ‘Creating An American Citizen’ at Georgetown University

Bruce Levingston, Pianist – True Southern Gentleman and Cosmopolitan Musician On Wednesday, April 6, 2016, a captive audience was treated to a performance by acclaimed pianist Bruce Levingston, in...