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LLOYD SCHWARTZ

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Isn’t it rich?

Sondheim and Follies , the BSO’s French evening, and Boston Baroque’s Xerxes
The biggest musical celebrity in town last week was Broadway great Stephen Sondheim, who filled Northeastern University’s Blackman Hall “in conversation” with his long-time associate, producer/composer Sean Patrick Flahaven.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | November 03, 2008

Magic bullets

Maurizio Pollini returns to the BSO; Opera Boston’s Der Freischütz
Last week’s Boston Symphony Orchestra program looked odd on paper, but the concert was a knockout.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | October 24, 2008

Old and new

Leon Fleisher at 80, Harry Christophers with the Handel and Haydn Society, André Previn and James Levine at the BSO
There was hardly a concert I was more eager to hear than the Celebrity Series of Boston’s celebration of pianist Leon Fleisher’s 80th birthday.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | October 16, 2008

Opening pitch

James Levine’s gala and Brahms, Russell Sherman’s Liszt, the Bostonians’ Kurt Weill
The most moving moment of this year’s Boston Symphony Orchestra opening gala came before the concert started — the standing ovation for James Levine, who looked rested and recuperated after his kidney surgery this summer, an operation that forced him to cancel most of his Tanglewood season.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | October 01, 2008

It’s about time . . .

The Ditson Festival of Contemporary Music starts in Boston
It’s been 17 years since Boston’s last local festival of contemporary music, the New Music Harvest organized by composer Charles Fussell: 19 programs (several free), a celebration of composer Ned Rorem, an opera production performed by BU students, and the participation of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | September 25, 2008

Russian, Spanish, American . . .

Music in all accents comes to the concert halls
What everyone is looking forward to this fall is the return to the podium of Boston Symphony Orchestra music director James Levine.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | September 11, 2008

Letter from London

The foggy joys of Europe’s most international city
How could you not fall in love with this city?

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | September 05, 2008

Night music

The Pops aces Sondheim
Classic musicals make substantial enterprises —this is now the best thing the Pops does.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | July 01, 2008

Grand finales

The Cantata Singers’ Weill retrospective, Mark Morris leading Dido , Chorus pro Musica’s Carmen
Jeffrey Rink has just ended his 18th and final season as music director of Chorus pro Musica. He’ll be missed.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | June 03, 2008

Maestro!

Interview: Mark Morris picks up the baton
Next week, the Celebrity Series of Boston brings back Mark Morris’s dance setting of Henry Purcell’s 17th-century English opera Dido and Aeneas .

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | May 19, 2008

Epic undertaking

Berlioz’s Les Troyens at the BSO; Opera Boston attempts Verdi’s Ernani
The act four sequence of quintet, septet, and love duet is non-stop musical orgasm.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | May 12, 2008

On (and off) track

Boston Lyric Opera’s Seraglio , BU’s Barbiere di Siviglia , Andy Vores’s No Exit , the BPO’s Bartók and Brahms
It’s an expensive, elegant set, a lovingly detailed theatrical reproduction of railway cars on the Orient Express, the famous train connecting Paris and Istanbul.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | April 29, 2008

Orpheus in the afterworld

Harbison and Mahler at the BSO, and the return of Dubravka Tomsic
Tomsic’s last Boston recital was four years ago. We can’t afford to be without her this long.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | April 22, 2008

All over again

Brahms from Levine and Kissin, Emmanuel’s Bach B-minor Mass, the Cantata Singers’ Kurt Weill cabaret
The Boston Symphony Orchestra program for last week’s four concerts was a familiar one.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | January 28, 2010

Passion-less

Bernard Haitink and the BSO; Dominique Labelle with the Handel and Haydn Society
If the St. John Passion is Bach’s equivalent of lesser Shakespeare, the St. Matthew Passion is Bach’s King Lear.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | April 02, 2008

Is there a pianist in the house?

A last-minute Emperor at the BSO, Gatti and Ohlsson, BLO’s Elisir, and Brahms meets Weill with the Cantata Singers
Moved and excited by pianist Leon Fleisher in Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the Boston Symphony, I wanted to hear it again.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 18, 2008

Great gifts

Julian Kuerti leads the BSO and Leon Fleisher, Stockhausen’s Mantra at Harvard, Emmanuel’s St. John Passion
Knussen’s interludes, barely seven minutes, are a complex but attractive mix of the seductively creepy and the intricately lively.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 12, 2008

Singers’ delight

Spring Arts Preview: Opera and vocal works lead the season
The season may be starting to wind down, but there remain some events music lovers have been waiting for all year.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 10, 2008

The marriage of Heaven and Hell

Levine’s Schubert and Bolcom, Boston Baroque’s King Arthur, Jan Curtis
It’s been a joy to see James Levine back on the Symphony Hall podium, with his admirable combination of vitality and sensitivity.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 07, 2008

A Violetta to die for

Teatro Lirico I at the Majestic Theatre, March 2, 2008
Ukrainian soprano Marina Viskvorkina gave an extraordinary performance as the consumptive courtesan Violetta Valéry.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 04, 2008

Conquering heroes

Winterreise from Thomas Quasthoff and James Levine, the Cecilia’s Handel, Levine’s return, Brendel’s farewell
One sign of Boston’s rich classical-music scene is that there are often hard choices to make when two outstanding events are scheduled at the same time.

By: LLOYD SCHWARTZ | February 29, 2008

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