Pianist James D’Leon tells BMInt readers: When pianists prepare a recital, they usually begin by selecting repertoire. This summer, Duo Fuerza—James D’Leon and Alwen Yeung—began by selecting an instrument.
Our invitation to open the Fredericks Historical Collection concert season on August 30th [details for entire Ashburnham series HERE], asked us to reverse the usual artistic process. Rather than asking which piano would best serve our program, we first explored the remarkable collection and selected a 19th-century instrument whose unique voice would shape our musical decisions. Only then did we consider how repertoire, interpretation, and performance might emerge from the character of the piano itself. [continued]
On Wednesday at 7:00 on the Boston Esplanade, we partner with the Esplanade Association in a concert marking the 25th anniversary of both organizations. Together with the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, they steward this remarkable stretch of public parkland. Since the beginning, the Boston Landmarks Orchestra has presented nature-inspired programs that our founder, Charles Ansbacher, called Green Concerts. Beautiful places and great music enrich one another, and Boston is blessed with both. [continued]
Throughout the musical world, Randall Thompson is known for his choral masterpiece, Alleluia, composed for the very first Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood in 1940. Intended for the whole community to sing together during opening ceremonies, it is still performed every year at Tanglewood’s first session.
Thompson was born in New York City in 1899 but spent much of his career in Boston, where he died in 1984. Throughout his life, he balanced composition with teaching. Harvard University, Wellesley College, and the Curtis Institute of Music all benefited from his extraordinary gifts as a teacher and mentor. Prior to coming to Harvard, Thompson headed the music department of the University of Virginia, serving from 1941–1945. [continued]
The Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival enters its 47th season this summer with a characteristically ambitious three‑week schedule, reaffirming its identity as one of New England’s most thoughtfully curated chamber series. What distinguishes the festival—beyond its longevity—is its commitment to mobility: rather than anchoring itself in a single hall, it brings music to communities across the Cape, from Wellfleet and Chatham to Falmouth, Cotuit, and Hyannis. Get the details HERE. [continued]
The Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts returns to New England Conservatory for its sixth annual summer concert series, running from August 6th through August 22nd at Williams Hall and culminating in a grand finale at Jordan Hall. During a season when many of Boston’s classical stages fall quiet, the Foundation once again offers audiences over two weeks of performances by internationally acclaimed artists, distinguished faculty, rising young musicians, and exciting chamber ensembles. See the full roster HERE.
Since its founding in 1989, the Foundation has championed Asian musicians while fostering cultural dialogue through music, while presenting more than 160 concerts at venues including Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall, Sanders Theater, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and Carnegie Hall. Alongside many of today’s leading performers, the Foundation has also nurtured generations of emerging artists through its long-running music festival, making its summer concert series one of Boston’s most distinctive musical events. [continued]
NOTE: Due to weather, Boston Landmarks Orchestra will move the Wednesday, July 29th Hatch Shell concert indoors to Emmanuel Church at 15 Newbury Street, Boston. The concert begins at 7:00pm with a prelude concert at 6:30pm by Four Strings Academy. Doors will open at 6:00 pm. Seating will not be reserved.
Classical music is a dialogue across generations and cultures. Composers hear the music of the past and respond in their own voices. American artists, in particular, have inherited an astonishing range of musical traditions—Viennese operetta, Irish fiddle tunes, Southern blues, Yiddish theater, Caribbean dance, and the European avant-garde. [continued]
The Boston Camerata Music Director Emeritus Joel Cohen died Sunday in Haverhill. A charismatic leader, he directed the Camerata from 1963 to 2008.
His talents as a musician, conductor, composer and musicologist, along with his unique programming style, brought the Camerata renown in the United States, as well as in Europe and Asia. Throughout his career he promoted the performance of earlier styles and historically informed performance practices. As a lutenist, he accompanied numerous artists, ranging from Hugues Cuénod, Christiane Jacottet to Anne Azéma, his long time partner and collaborator. He appeared as a guest conductor at La Monnaie in Brussels, at Tanglewood, in Aix-en-Provence as well as at numerous international Festivals.
Joel’s immense talent brought Medieval and Renaissance music to a wide, non-specialist audience. He created fresh, energetic approaches to the performance of Medieval French, Provençal, and Iberian monody, with particular attention to the relationship between text and music. His forays into Baroque repertoire have been more episodic, but attracted widespread comment and attention, especially the first early-instruments recording of Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas” (Harmonia Mundi, 1980), “Jewish Baroque Music” (Harmonia Mundi, 1978) and a well-received recording of Jean Gilles’ “Requiem” (Erato, 1990), among others. From 1986 forward, many of his new Eurocentric projects dealt with music of the Middle Ages and narratives, including a medieval retelling of the “Tristan and Iseult” legend (Erato, Grand Prix du Disque, 1987), “Le Roman de Fauvel” (1990), and “Le Voir-Dit” (2011). [continued]
There are as many sides to American music as there are to the American people—our great, varied, many-sided democracy… We’ve taken it all in… and learned it from one another, borrowed it, stolen it, cooked it all up in a melting pot. Leonard Bernstein, What is American Music? CBS Television, February 1958
This year, the Boston Landmarks Orchestra celebrates its 25th anniversary by reaffirming our mission: performing great orchestral music for all Bostonians, free of charge. We celebrate the symphonic canon alongside music that reflects the “many-sidedness” of American culture, to use Bernstein’s term. And we make it a priority to collaborate with artists who are making vital contributions to Boston’s musical life. [continued]
The composer who is frightened of losing his audience through contact with a mass audience is no longer aware of the meaning of art. Aaron Copland
The most important word in our lexicon is access. In planning programs, we always ask how we can bring people from every walk of life closer to symphonic music. Familiar repertoire is part of the answer, but so is performing music beyond the traditional canon that non-classical audiences might more readily connect with. Our goal is to capture the imagination, regardless of musical background. We recognize that most first-time concertgoers don’t know what to expect, but that they catch on quickly if they can latch onto something familiar.
This season marks three important milestones. The Boston Landmarks Orchestra turns twenty-five this year, an occasion we observe by reaffirming our mission: providing great orchestral music for all Bostonians. It is also the 25th anniversary of the Esplanade Association—our partners in the season finale—whose year-round stewardship shapes everything that happens at the Hatch Shell. Finally, we celebrate America’s 250th with programs that explore different answers to the question, “What is American music?” [continued]
For 30 years, Morningside Music Bridge (MMB) has been changing the lives of exceptional young musicians from around the world. The internationally renowned summer program, whose alumni include superstar pianist Yuja Wang in a Jordan Hall recital on July 12th, is celebrating its milestone anniversary while continuing its mission of making world-class musical training accessible to talented students, regardless of their financial circumstances.
Founded in Calgary, Canada, in 1997, MMB has welcomed more than 1,000 outstanding violinists, violists, cellists, pianists, and, more recently, young composers and creative artists between the ages of 12 and 18 years old. Today, the program has found a permanent home in Boston through its partnership with the New England Conservatory, where it continues to nurture the next generation of musical leaders. [continued]
On Monday, July 6th, film star and Winchester native Anthony Carrigan returned to his hometown to spend time with local music and theater students at the Winchester Cooperative Theatre for Children. Carrigan is known for his breakout role as the relentlessly positive Chechen mobster Noho Hank in 32 episodes of the HBO Series Barry (2018-2023, info HERE), who he described as a “favorite… a serious dude who is a ray of sunshine, like a cartoon scorpion.” [continued]
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Augusta Read Thomas doesn’t just dance as she composes. She sings, plays, and tries to literally touch the harmonies and rhythms that go into each new piece. For her, the creative act provides a way to embody the moment, experience sound in body and spirit, and embrace the world.
That sense of commitment engenders feelings of spontaneity in her music. The rhythms dart about, changing directions on a dime while keeping listeners engaged throughout the process. True, hearing her music feels kinetic and visceral. And Boston audiences will have the chance to immerse themselves in her sound world with an all-Thomas portrait concert presented by Longy Conservatory’s Divergent Studio on Saturday night [details of the concert and free tickets HERE]. [continued]
“Defending the Music: Michael Steinberg at the Boston Globe 1964-1976.” Edited by Susan Feder, Jacob Jahiel, and Marc Mandel. 609 pp., illustrations, index. Oxford University Press, 2026. Available HERE.
Michael Steinberg, expert and generous writer on music, died 17 years ago, but his written legacy, four published volumes and more, is still cherished by those who can find it. He would be 98 years old this year; born in Poland, he escaped with the Kindertransport to England and eventually to St. Louis, trained at Princeton University, and spent a major portion of his career in and around Boston. [continued]
Aston Magna Festival concerts will be returning to Brandeis University this summer. After a two-year hiatus, during which we performed at the elegant Allen Center in Newton, I am happy to return to what feels like home: Slosberg Auditorium on the Brandeis campus. The acoustics and sightlines are superb, the hall is air-conditioned, and there is ample parking nearby. Each of our programs is also repeated at Saint James Place in Great Barrington, the original home of Aston Magna. That venue is also an acoustical gem since its having been refashioned as a performance center.
Our season’s theme is “A Grand Tour,” with music that span the 17th and 18th centuries, from Monteverdi, through Marais and Rameau, to Bach and Telemann, with excursions to South America and Asia!
I am particularly happy that Dominique Labelle will be returning, joining us on our first program, a French extravaganza, featuring cantatas by Rameau and Clerambault, as well as instrumental works by Marin Marais, Elizabeth Jacquet de la Guerre and Jean-Marie Leclair. Michael Sponseller and gambist Laura Jeppesen as well as Labelle will join me. [continued]
From May 28-31, Cambridge will host the 13th Boston International Piano Competition at the Longy School of Music, 27 Garden Street. From morning until evening, 42 extraordinary pianists — 21 men and 21 women from all over the world—will compete. The pianists will be playing on the newly redesigned Bösendorfer 280VC (Vienna Concert) grand piano, the flagship of the series, provided by Falcetti Pianos, who recently opened a beautiful new showroom and recital hall in Newton Lower Falls. Only a limited number of the extraordinary 280VC have made their way to the United States, and the competition is fortunate to have one available next week. Bösendorfer pianos are famous for a darker, warmer, more “singing” sound. The re-engineered 280VC features a two-part molded Austrian maple rim structure designed to provide superior stability, greater sustain, projection and tonal depth. [continued]
While listening to Louisville Public Media Classical during Kentucky Derby season I encountered an unexpected broadcast of the piece Horse Racing by Chinese composer Huang Haihuai. Chinese organist Mengfei Xu (whom some readers may have witnessed at her Trinity Church recital a few months ago) had arranged the ehru composition, which vividly depicts the excitement and energy of horseback riding, for her own performance on organ. Her presentation immediately caught my attention for the ingenuity of the transcription itself, but also for the broader artistic questions it suggested. [continued]
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CLOSING WORDS(September5): Our Compilation of Relevant Articles across 278 pages, 146,127 words including 1000-plus comments from more than 75,00 visitors between March 6th and September 1st, BMInt, has documented the controversy. Click HERE for a PDF compilation.[continued]
The other day I saw a review in the Times of Jan Lisecki’s new recording of Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 9, K. 271, and no. 22, K. 482, both in E-flat major, his only two piano concerti in that key, which was cited as a “noble” tonality, whether by someone else or by Mozart himself I don’t remember. Both of these pieces are big works, K. 271 by virtue of its startling entrance of the piano in the second measure, and by its boiling Presto finale, and K. 482 by its full-orchestra maturity (including clarinets and trumpets), coming soon after the mighty C Major, K. 467; and one notes that each of these two masterpieces has a particularly expressive slow movement in C minor, and each has an interrupted finale, the interruption consisting of a minuet in A-flat major. If E-flat major emerges as a “noble” tonality in these works, then one thinks of looking forward to further E-flat nobility in the 39th Symphony, K. 543, and The Magic Flute, K. 620, where the nobility is associated with Freemasonry, three flats, and a thrice-repeated chord in the overture and in Act II. [continued]
The upcoming concerts of the Handel and Haydn Society on May 15th (Old South Church, Copley Square) and May 16th (Sanders Theater, Cambridge) are going to feature three of Johann Sebastian Bach’s most magnificent early compositions in performances with soprano Robin Johannsen, countertenor Christopher Lowrey, tenor Guy Cutting, bass baritone Dingle Yandell, and the H+H Orchestra under conductor Jonathan Cohen, conductor. Tickets HERE.
The Actus tragicus [click HERE my published summary and HERE for a reference recording], a funeral composition written in 1707/08, and his cantata Christ lag in Todes Banden, written in 1707 for his audition in the city of Mühlhausen [listen to the late Robert Honeysucker sing the heartrending bass aria “Hier ist das rechte Osterlamm” with Emmanuel Music HERE]. The two pieces show Bach’s early prowess as a composer, a young man in his early 20s. Even the sixth Brandenburg Concerto, which is also on the program, very much reflects Bach’s style from his pre-Leipzig period. [continued]
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The orchestra-loving public shuddered four years ago on learning that Michael Tilson Thomas had a deadly brain cancer, one of the fulminating type that is invariably fatal. It finally claimed him on April 22nd. But he lived with it for a long time and most of that time, until the final months, he maintained his remarkable vigor with his own unique style, one of the most original American-born conductors of the past 60 years. He had begun as a California pianist, a grandson of Boris Thomashefsky of Yiddish theater, a protégé of Stravinsky and Craft, and a lively promoter of new music. [continued]
The Boston Symphony Orchestra very recently released a statement to the public. Defending the decision to end its relationship with Andris Nelsons, the BSO cited financial concerns, including a recent accounting deficit of $6.6 million. Because ticket sales and restricted endowments cannot cover rising inflation-adjusted costs, the author argues the BSO lacks the necessary donor-driven vision and transparency required to sustain a world-class orchestra in a competitive market. This essay serves as a brief primer on BSO finances. I draw entirely on the BSO’s IRS filings, which are a matter of public record.
In 1973, I met with the late William C. “Bill” Moyer, who was the BSO’s Personnel Manager. I was nineteen years old, spending a summer at Tanglewood, and wanted to see whether orchestra management was a viable career option for me.
Moyer recounted the BSO’s origin story. For 37 years, BSO founder Henry Lee Higginson personally underwrote the BSO deficit. At the end of each fiscal year, Higginson added up revenues and expenses and wrote a personal check for any shortage. The largest deficit he covered was $52,000, which is about $2 million in today’s dollars.
Those days are long gone, Moyer said. The BSO could no longer rely on donors to cover the annual operating deficit. Citing William Baumol’s book on performing arts economics, he asserted that government funding would be absolutely essential for the survival of organizations like the BSO. [continued]
With the beginning of the allergy season, as President Trump continues to demonize offshore power generation and to undermine the Clean Air Act, I thought less about foul breath and more about musical breathing. I could not help repeatedly cherishing the end of the ultimate Psalm 150: kol ha-n’shama t’haleyl Yah, halleluyah. “Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Alleluia.” I have several times stressed the tonic-dominant relationship as the oxygen of harmony, fully analogous to breathing, but I can hardly be the only one to make the comparison. And as some schoolboy once aptly miswrote: “When you breathe, you inspire. When you do not breathe, you expire.”
A well-loved but rather tepid Anglican hymn begins in two 9/4 phrases: “Breathe on me, breath of God, / Fill me with life anew.” Among the Psalms are several headed “For the chief musician,” and composers have regularly taken the cue from Psalm 150’s final line, as in Bach’s motet, Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 225, with its concluding chorus: [continued]
New York, 9 April, 2026:- Andris Nelsons led the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a thunderously applauded performance Thursday night at New York’s Carnegie Hall. It was the first of a two-night stand there by the BSO. It marked the last of Nelsons’s appearances with the orchestra this season until they join forces again in July at Tanglewood. [continued]
This Saturday at Symphony Hall, Benjamin Zander will be leading the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly, Chorus pro Musica, the Radcliffe Choral Society, and the choristers of Saint Paul’s Choir School in Gustav Mahler’s epic Symphony No. 3. Next season, 2026–2027, will be the final one for Zander, the Boston Philharmonic, and the Boston Youth Philharmonic Orchestra [Read full press release HERE]. The offerings announced so far include the Beethoven Ninth and Mahler Ninth from the BPO and the Mahler Second, the “Resurrection,” from the BPYO. But Saturday will see the last ever performance of the Mahler Third from these forces. Here are a few things you might not know about the symphony.
The Third is Mahler’s longest symphony, and the longest symphony in the repertoire. Most interpretations run between 90 and 100 minutes. The last time the BPO played the Third, in 2022, Zander took about 102 minutes. Lorin Maazel’s 1985 recording with the Vienna Philharmonic runs just over 110 minutes. [continued]
Next year’s season schedule [click HERE] already elicits my customary assembly of cheers and gripes; and as usual it has been compiled with an odd mixture of admirable imagination and dubious taste. The schedule that was hurriedly supplied (a scant two house before the embargo deadline) yesterday is apparently not complete but more graciously organized into a readable pattern than in previous years, and accordingly I will try to be more accommodating in my comments. [continued]
