Sublime loneliness Sublime loneliness

Across three evenings at the 92nd Street Y, Konstantin Krimmel and Ammiel Bushakevitz traversed all of Schubert‘s major song cycles with stark intensity.

The journey is the destination The journey is the destination

In this recital, the Polish bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny and his pianist Lech Napierala present the world premiere recording of Stanislaw Baranczak‘s Podróz Zimowa (Winter’s Journey), which weds the poet’s meticulously crafted poetry to the music of Franz Schubert.

The wedding singers The wedding singers

Caramoor imported the venerable West-Coast period orchestra Philharmonia Baroque to perform Atalanta, an obscure pastoral work by Handel.

Sweet bird Sweet bird

Anna Moffo made some of the most entrancing records ever. Their appeal is to “voice fanciers.” (I understand. We’re a despised group.) But Moffo’s best work renders us helpless. 

Lion in winter

When is a DVD recording of a performance without audience more desirable than a CD?  Perhaps when the greatest performer of Schubert’s Winterreise cycle is the singer in this DVD.  Watching Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau perform with Alfred Brendel at the piano is to experience the intensity and variety of the cycle in a more personal setting,…