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CD Review: BLUES DIALOGUES: MUSIC BY BLACK COMPOSERS (Rachel Barton Pine, violin)
AN ALLURING, STYLISH ASSORTMENT OF WORKS DRENCHED IN THE TIMELESS STYLE OF THE BLUES I was lucky enough to see violinist Rachel Barton Pine in Los Angeles twice last year with both the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Pasadena Symphony, performing Mozart and Vivaldi. Adroit, sophisticated, vigorous, sensitive and profound only begin to scratch the surface…
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DVD Review: KILLING EVE: SEASON ONE (BBC)
THIS SERIES IS A KILLER This spy thriller/crazy-woman drama is full of sly wit and generous amounts of spooky drama in which a spy-catcher (Sandra Oh) has to find a pretty, psychotic damsel (Jodie Comer) before she wipes out most of Europe with her gleeful killing spree. In addition to some extraordinary writing, directing, and…
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CD Review: BEETHOVEN VIOLIN SONATAS NOS. 6, 7 & 8 (Andrew Wan and Charles Richard-Hamelin)
BEETHOVEN’S VIOLIN SONATAS, OP. 30: SONATA THING WRONG HERE Beethoven composed his Sonatas for Violin and Piano, Op. 30 in 1801-02, completing most of the work between March and May of 1802. Dedicated to Czar Alexander I of Russia, the three sonatas — A major, C minor and G major — were developed during a…
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CD Review: WHO’S YOUR BAGHDADDY? OR HOW I STARTED THE IRAQ WAR (Original Cast Recording)
THEY BAGH’D THIS ONE The Iraq War lasted seven years (2003 – 2011) and cost $1.06 trillion, adding more than more than $1 trillion to the U.S. debt. I thought this was going to be a heavy-handed listen, but it’s a hoot to listen to the Original Cast Album about the war’s genesis. Seen Off-Broadway in 2015,…
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Album Review: DISSONANCE (Diderot String Quartet)
NOTHING TO DIS HERE For utterly superb technique and ensemble intricacy and expression, look no further than Diderot (DEE-der-oht) String Quartet’s new release of Mozart’s String Quartet No. 19 in C Major, K. 465, commonly known as Dissonance (1785). Consistently remarkable is the perfect blend of gravitas and lyricism — seriousness without being erudite or…
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CD Review: HILARY HAHN PLAYS BACH
BACH TO BRILLIANCE It’s now practically lore that violinist Hilary Hahn decided that her debut album would not only be solos, but partitas and a sonata by Bach, works that have been held as the zenith of violin composition and the most intangible of objectives for a newcomer recitalist. It was a move that raised…
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CD Preview: THE BOY WHO DANCED ON AIR (Original Cast Recording)
THE BOY WHO DANCED ON AIR, AN AFFECTING CHAMBER MUSICAL The Boy Who Danced on Air,  a musical love story set in rural Afghanistan that was seen Off-Broadway last spring,  will receive an original cast recording from Broadway Records. This musical about  bacha bazi — “the ancient tradition where wealthy men buy boys from poorer families, train them…
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CD Review: THE BEAST IN THE JUNGLE by John Kander (Original Score Recording)
NO BEAST, NO JUNGLE, NO SONGS, JUST GREAT MUSIC The Beast in the Jungle, based on the Henry James novella of the same name, is an Off-Broadway dance-play that got fairly mixed reviews, but not because of this fascinating score from 91-year-old John Kander, who shows no signs of slowing down since the death of…
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Film Review: MAN IN AN ORANGE SUIT (PBS)
COMING OUT OVER 60 YEARS Finally LGBTQ films are taking a hold on the world’s psyche and quality work is being appreciated and rewarded with increased viewership. One of these fine dramas is 2017’s Man in an Orange Shirt, a far too-literary title for an engrossing two tales of gay romance set sixty years apart….
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DVD Review: A FRENCH VILLAGE/UN VILLAGE FRANÇAIS (Season 6 on MHz Releasing)
MORE HOPE FOR A FRENCH VILLAGE This extraordinary series continues its exploration of what the average French village went through during the German occupation (1940-45). In the six-episode Season Six, we watch the victors of the War putting on trial some of those who collaborated with the Nazis, in clear and non-hysterical scenes. One of…
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CD Review: UKRAINIAN RHAPSODY (Anna & Dmitri Shelest on Sorel Classics)
WAXING RHAPSODIC Firmly ensconced in the Romantic period, Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko — as with his Czech contemporary Dvořák — wrote many of his pieces based on folk music of his homeland. As did Bartók later in Hungary, he went out into the field, listened to what the people were singing and fashioned an individual musical…
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CD Review: JOHN WILLIAMS: A LIFE IN MUSIC (London Symphony Orchestra)
CLASSIC THEMES REVISITED In a childhood home largely devoid of classical music, it was Walt Disney’s Fantasia and film composer extraordinaire John Williams that got me hooked, as they say, on the classics. It was over forty years ago that Williams recorded Star Wars with the London Symphony Orchestra, which of course made me gnaw…
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CD Review: BACK TO MY ROOTS (Kate Rockwell)
SCHOOL OF ROCKWELL So when was the last time you put on an album and found yourself regretting that it was over too fast? …found yourself in love with every track? …found it immediately accessible, entertaining, funny, smart, and professional? …found a CD that will please millennials, their parents AND their grandparents? Well, Kate Rockwell…
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CD Review: A LEAP IN THE DARK — LIVE AT FEINSTEIN’S/54 BELOW (Arielle Jacobs)
AN ACT IN THE DARK For her debut at 54 Below in NYC – a nearly solo cabaret which was recorded for release on Broadway Records – the triple-threat Arielle Jacobs opened by letting us know that this will be the story of how she got “to here” (to Feinstein’s/54 Below, I guess). Some of…
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CD Review: MY FAIR LADY (2018 Broadway Cast)
BETTER THAN FAIR As musical revivals went from a few nostalgic productions in the 1970s to the ubiquity of resurrections we see today — both from the Golden Age (Porter, Rodgers and Hammerstein) and later (Lloyd Weber, Sondheim) — it wasn’t enough to just present them as written. Guys and Dolls (1992, with Nathan Lane), How to…
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CD Review: TAKE ME TO THE WORLD (Sutton Foster)
TAKING US TO HER WORLD I’m a huge fan of Sutton Foster: Her work is stunning on Original Cast Albums like Violet, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Anything Goes (which I think is far superior to the Patti LuPone version). So it’s a shame that her latest CD is such a mixed effort; there’s an “A”…
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CD Review: SING HAPPY (Audra McDonald and the New York Philharmonic)
GET HAPPY I had the privilege of seeing Audra McDonald’s Tony-winning performances in Carousel, Master Class, and Ragtime, but it was her turn as Clara in Passion at Chicago’s Ravinia Festival that proved McDonald is, as Stephen Sondheim maintains, “one of the glories of the American theater.” Not only is she a refined singer with a golden soprano voice of purity and…
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CD Review: FRANZ KROMMER SYMPHONIES 4, 5 & 7 (Orchestra della Svizzera italiana – Howard Griffiths)
CAPTIVATING KROMMER Quick: Who was Franz Krommer? Don’t worry, many don’t know. A contemporary of Mozart by birthdate, this classical composer (b.1759, d.1831) was one of the most successful Czech composers in Vienna. “Franz Krommer” was born Frantisek Kramár, and at times his Bohemian and Germanized name were combined into Krommer-Kramár. Scholars assert that this…
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CD Review: 2018 TONY AWARD SEASON (Various Artists on Broadway Records)
TONY’S TASTY TASTER For quite a few years now, the Grammy Foundation has released a CD with the top Grammy nominated recordings in pop, R&B and Country categories. But it’s a strange brew — a mixed bag of genres that doesn’t satisfy as a listening experience. Now for the second year, the American Theatre Wing…
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CD Review: THE PRINCE OF BROADWAY (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
CELEBRATING BROADWAY ROYALTY When I tell you that the Original Broadway Cast Recording of the revue covering Harold Prince’s oeuvre mostly works, it’s an enormous compliment. For here you have seven decades of the most voluminous career in the American Musical Theater crammed into one evening’s entertainment. Taking into account that Prince has produced or…
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