What the jacket optimistically calls “Christopher Marthaler’s landmark production” of Tristan has been widely reviled—but are the objections really so serious? Yes, the set, dismal to...
Here’s a bit of a mystery. According to Grove , Charles Mouton (1626–after 1699) was a pupil of the celebrated lutenist Denis Gaultier. He was employed...
There are probably few collectors who remember—if they ever knew—that Sir Thomas Beecham spent about two years as music director of the Seattle Symphony. It was...
This is not just another Beethoven concerto cycle on period instruments; the difference lies in its modeling of the performing forces on documented early Viennese performances...
One of the great joys of initial acquaintance with the standard classical-music repertoire is the thrill of that first personal encounter with one masterpiece after another....
Everything we can get as documentation of the life and work of Iannis Xenakis is welcome. This compact documentary (Greek, 2008, mostly in French and Greek,...
One of the pleasing things about this disc of Purcell’s small-scale chamber music is the occasional variety of instrumentation. The Ground in Gamut , for instance,...
The unforgivable sin in operetta performance is a lack of beauty, grace, and charm—in which case the present set justly deserves consignment to perdition. Composed of...
Although relatively little known, and with correspondingly few recordings of his music available, Henry Du Mont (1610–84) was a figure of pivotal importance in the music...
Carol Robinson is an American musician, originally from South Dakota and California, who has lived in Paris for several decades. (I will now do the usual...
