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Bach. St. John Passion. Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists. John Eliot Gardiner, Deutsche Gramophone 486 1822. 2 CDs, 1 Blue Ray DVD.  Is John Eliot Gardiner’s Bach definitive or 'just' English? Fair question. For me, his take on Bach in the cantatas and masses is the standard. Watching the DVD and listening to the CD’s... Read More »

George Walker, Five Piano Sonatas, (1953 - 2003) Steven Beck, piano. Bridge Records 9554. It's a bit early in the year to pronounce a Record of the Year, and perhaps I'm making the call based partly on guilt for my ignorance: why have I not heard of this extraordinary composer? His music is a brilliant... Read More »

Sofia Gubaidulina, Three Orchestral Works. Vadim Repin, violin. Gewandhaus Orchestra, Andris Nelsons, conductor, DGG 486-1457. Andris Nelsons and ninety-one year old Russian modernist composer Sofia Gubaidulina go back a long way and they are paired here as they are frequently. She is a major voice in the contemporary music world without whom it is hard... Read More »

Per Norgaard, Paul Ruders. Works for Solo Cello. Wilhelmina Smith. Ondine ODE 1381-2 With much contemporary music composed in the high modernist idiom, we pretty much have to follow the composers to see where they go. Guidelines are hard to find. Is it an interesting place? Does the music speak to us? Can we infer... Read More »

Bach Sonatas and Partitas, Augustin Hadelich, violin. Warner Classics, 0190295048747. 2 CDs. A musician alone with his violin. No audience in sight. Or in mind. Some will consider these performances self-indulgent, a young maverick who hasn't earned the right to take this music to himself. Not me. I have enjoyed Hadelich's Ligetti (live), Adès, Sibelius,... Read More »

Complete Peter Serkin. Sony 19439713872. 30 CD's. If Serkin is one of your very favorite pianists, as he is one of  mine, then this is a treasure trove for you. Thirty CDs for under $100. Includes both solo recordings and work with TASHI. Steal of the year. \ Joseph Haydn, String Quartets, Op. 76, 4-6. Chiaroscuro... Read More »

As I get older, as I said a year or so ago when I started getting older, I find myself less inclined to talk, more inclined to drop a few notes and then just point. These are three recent recordings I feel compelled to point at. Jennifer Koh, Bach & Beyond, Part 3. Bach, Harbison,... Read More »

…all descriptions of music are quite worthless & rather unpleasant; they are apt to be hysterical & to say things the people will be ashamed of having said afterwards. V. Woolf, Diary.   Vigilate. English Polyphony in Dangerous Times. Monterverdi Choir, John Elliot Gardiner. Soli Deo Gloria SDG 720. It isn't often we get to... Read More »

…all descriptions of music are quite worthless & rather unpleasant; they are apt to be hysterical & to say things the people will be ashamed of having said afterwards. V. Woolf, Diary.   Bach Cello Suites, Alisa Weilerstein, Pentatone PTC 5186 751. I am a big first impression guy. I never leave it at that,... Read More »

Music@Menlo Live, 2019 (available at https://musicatmenlo.org/live/) Year in, year out the Music@Menlo music education program issues its Music@Menlo Live series of recordings with music performed by the program's instructors. The cast has changed since the series began in 2002, though a few of the originals are still in evidence: program directors pianist Wu Han and... Read More »

Monteverdi, L'incoronazione di Poppea. Les Ars Florissants, Willam Christie. Harmonia Mundi 8902622.24 3 CD's, 1 DVD. This new release of Monteverdi's last opera, considered by students of the composer's work to be his best, is an extraordinary musical enterprise, especially if you take into consideration Jan Lauwers' somewhat off the wall stage production provided on... Read More »

I apologize for the long time between review articles and for the briefness of these: As I pass age 80, I am becoming more modest about the worth of what I have to say and am also beginning to play the age card. Hee-Young Lim, cello; London Symphony Orchestra. French Cello Concertos of Saint-Saëns, Milhaud,... Read More »

Saariaho and Koh. Jennifer Koh, violin. Nicolas Hodges, piano. Hsin-Yun Huang, viola. Wilhelmena Smith, cello. Anssi Kaarttunen, cello, Curtis 20/21 Ensemble, Conner Gray Covington, conductor. Çedille CDR 90000183. There is some contemporary music we listen to because we just want to know what's going on. This is not the same as keeping up with fashion,... Read More »

Arvo Pärt. Mullova - Järvi. Onyx 4201. Darf ich..., Fratres, Passacaglia, Tabula rosa, I Ludus, II Silentium, Spiegel im Speigel] I have never been drawn to the extremely popular and to be fair much admired Estonian contemporary composer, Arvo Pärt. I have found his music an example of the dictum that less may be less. It... Read More »

Vivaldi, Sonatas for Cello and Basso Continuo,  Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello. Harmonia Mundi. It has been quite a while since we've had recordings of this seldom heard, truly engaging music. Christophe Coin did it well in 1989 for L'oiseau Lyre, Susan Sheppard did it fine that same year with L'école d'Orphee for CRD; and then there... Read More »

Mozart, Violin Sonatas, Nos. 5, 6, 7, 28, 35; Variations in G minor; Sonata in B flat Major, 570. Alina Ibragimova, violin. Cédric Tieberghien, piano. Hyperion CDA 68175. (2 CDS for price of one). Alina Ibragimova plays Mozart as if he is at the center of her repertoire. He suits her refined tone and willingness... Read More »

Brooklyn Rider plays Philip Glass; String Quartets Nos. 1-5. 2 CDs. Orange Mountain 0074. I didn't get the string quartets of Philip Glass at all until I began to hear them as informed by dance—all kinds of dance. The opening work on the album, Suite from Bent (1997), adapted for string quartet by the Brooklyn... Read More »

Grandissimi Gravita. Violin Sonatas by Vivaldi, Tartini, Veracini, Pisendel. Rachel Podger, violin; Brecon Baroque. Channel Classics SACD. CCSSA 39217. Snow showers!  On November 13. In Western Massachusetts! And unexpectedly this album of baroque violin sonatas sounds warm and comforting that last week seemed a bit indifferent. I've learned not to underestimate the role meteorological (and... Read More »

Johann Sebastian Bach, Cantatas for Bass. Matthias Goerne, baritone. Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. Gottfried von de Goltz. Harmonia Mundi HMM 902323. If dark power is what you want in Bach's cantatas for bass—and you surely should—then Matthias Goerne is the answer to your prayers. Eloquent darkness is not always what we get from true basses, but... Read More »