Caroline Rodgers' Favourite Art Song / La mélodie préférée de Caroline Rodgers
La Scena Musicale is celebrating the Art Song in 2015-16 with the worldwide survey, What is your favourite art song? Submit your vote at www.nextgreatartsong.com. La Scena Musicale's co-Editor-in-Chief...
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Cette semaine à Montréal (28 mars à 3 avril) / This Week in Montreal (March...
Musiciens de la Relève à Pro MusicaLe jeune violoniste Kerson Leong a déjà ébloui le monde de la musique. Il a remporté le premier prix junior du Concours Menuhin d’Oslo et le Tremplin au Québec. Il a...
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Lebrecht Weekly - Ludmila Berlinskaya: Pasternak And Scriabin (Melodiya)
4/5 starsYou knew that the author of Doctor Zhivago was a composer, right? You didn’t. Well sit back; this might take a while. One of the most iconic portraits of the mystical Russian musician...
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Lebrecht Weekly - NDR Symphony Orchestra/Krzysztof Urbanski (Alpha)
4/5 starsMost composer reputations subside in the generation after their death. It’s as if posterity calls time out while deciding its final judgement. Witold Lutoslawski is a notable exception to this...
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James Levine to Retire as Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera
by Wah Keung ChanMetropolitan Opera Music Director James Levine leading the MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in a concert on Sunday, May 19, 2013. Photo: Marty Sohl/Metropolitan OperaBreaking news:...
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U.S. Premiere in Austin (Tx): “Compassion” Shows the Way Towards Peace and...
Singer/songwriter "Lior"(left) and Australian composer Nigel Westlake (right)Verdi: Nabucco OvertureSchubert: Symphony No. 8 in B minor “Unfinished”Nigel Westlake/Lior Attar: Compassion (U.S....
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Lebrecht Weekly - Argerich and Barenboim: Live from Buenos Aires (DG)
5/5 starsThe question is, what took them so long? Martha Argerich and Daniel Barenboim, born a year apart in Buenos Aires to Jewish mothers of Russian extraction, have left it until their mid-seventies...
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Polyphonic Extravagance Wows Audiences at the Gesù
Audience members circulate among the singers. Photo R. K. BasdeoMusica Orbium, under the direction of Patrick Wedd, treated audiences to some stunning vocal performances at two performances of their...
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Lebrecht Weekly - Deutsche Grammophon: The Mono Era, 1948-57 (51-CD Box Set)
3/5 starsSlower even than one-horse EMI, Deutsche Grammophon was the last label of consequence to adopt stereo recording in the late 1950s. Its circumspection is, in retrospect, comprehensible. In...
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Lebrecht Weekly - Mahler: 3rd symphony (DSO Live)
2/5 starsWhat can New York expect of its next music director? Jaap van Zweeden’s recordings can be counted on your fingers and most are – like this release with the Dallas Symphony – live concerts....
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Cette semaine à Montréal (2 à 8 mai) / This Week in Montreal (May 2–8)
English followsFin de Saison : La Chapelle HistoriqueLe dernier concert de la série Beethoven : Les sonates pour piano et violon avec le violoniste Olivier Thouin et le pianiste François Zeitouni aura...
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Lebrecht Weekly - Beethoven: Symphonies 4 and 5 (Sony)
Rating: 4/5 starsIn May 2015, visibly frail, the august Nikolaus Harnoncourt stood before his Concentus Musicus Wien and directed two Beethoven symphonies in a reading that followed closely what the...
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Tchaikovsky Competition winners face off -- and get along
by Arthur KaptainisLukas Geniušas and Lucas Debargue, photo Vladimir KevorkovTwo 2015 Tchaikovsky Competition laureates for the price of one: This was the upscale bargain offered by the Show One...
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Lebrecht Weekly - Joseph Haydn: Violin concertos (Panclassics)
4/5 starsIt must be a seasonal thing. When fresh mushrooms simmer and asparagus gently steams, it starts raining …Haydn. Sure enough, four Haydn releases have landed this month. Decca has a positively...
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Petrenko, Thibaudet : du charme et du caractère
Vasily Petrenko, photo Mark McNultypar Jeanne HourezS’il y avait un concert à ne pas manquer cette semaine, c’était celui que nous a offert la Maison symphonique mercredi. Fort de son choix éclectique,...
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Cette semaine à Montréal (9 à 15 mai) / This Week in Montreal (May 9–15)
English followsFin de saison : La Chapelle HistoriqueLa Chapelle termine sa saison printanière avec les pianistes Kyoko Hashimoto et Ilya Poletaev qui interpréteront des œuvres de Brahms, Debussy,...
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Cette semaine à Montréal (16 à 22 mai) / This Week in Montreal (May 16–22)
English followsSMCQ – Derniers concerts de la série John ReaDans une mise en scène de Denis Marleau, Walter Boudreau et Plaisirs du clavecin interprètent Le petit livre des Ravalet, atypique opéra...
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Review: Chants Libres - The Trials of Patricia Isasa
Rebecca Woodmass, coloratura soprano (young Patricia). Photo: Mathieu DupuisLast night’s world premiere of Kristin Norderval’s The Trials of Patricia Isasa at the Monument-National was a resounding...
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Lebrecht Weekly - Ralph Vaughan Williams: Symphonies 2 and 8 (Onyx)
4/5 starsUnless you live in England – and, in most of the country, even if you do – you will have few opportunities to hear live performances of the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, the dominant...
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Review: Les Feluettes by Opéra de Montréal and Pacific Opera Victoria
Jean-Michel Richer (Comte Vallier de Tilly) et Etienne Dupuis (Simon Doucet)Photo, Yves RenaudSaturday night’s world premiere of Les Feluetteswas an accomplishment long in the making. A co-commission...
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Cette semaine à Montréal (23 à 29 mai) / This Week in Montreal (May 23–29)
English FollowsEtienne Dupuis (Simon Doucet) Photo: Yves RenaudLe War Requiem de Britten à la Maison SymphoniqueKent Nagano et l’OSM, accompagnés du chœur de l’OSM, présentent le War Requiem de...
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Lebrecht Weekly - Anonymous: Six concertos (CPO)
3/5 starsThe best fun I’ve had all week is trying to identify the composers of six 18th century concertos that have turned up in the vaults of the Saxon State University library in Dresden. Five of the...
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Lebrecht Weekly - Feldman, Crumb: Piano pieces (Hyperion)
5/5 starsEvery few months I take my ears out for a cleaning. This is not as easy as it sounds. Finding music that is original, unfamiliar, astringent, elevating and altogether uncomplacent restricts...
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Lebrecht Weekly - Cameron Carpenter: All you need is Bach (Sony)
2/5 starsBefore we go any further, let me declare once and for all that I am done with three stars. Everywhere else, critics award three stars as a kind of neutral, no-harm-done mark for something they...
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This blog is now retired. You can find all of the posts as well as new La Scena Musicale online content, news, and back issues at mySCENA.org.
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