Lee Eiseman

Boston area favorite-son composer Matthew Aucoin reached a pinnacle of recognition in November of 2021 at the Metropolitan Opera, where his opera Eurydice (book and libretto by Sarah Ruhl) vividly and artfully retold the Orpheus-plus myth from the tragedienne’s perspective. The underworld has never since been the same.

Danish modernist, guest conductor Heinrich Christensen, put together a very well-engineered and very well sung Pilgrim’s Progress last night at First Church in Cambridge. The hour-long journey departed in the realm of the austere, as the 25 normally belcanto Musica Sacra singers embraced the nasally, shape notey, homespun Americana of (William Walker’s ((1809-1875))

Odyssey Opera, in partnership with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), presents the New England premiere of Dominick Argento’s opera The Voyage of Edgar Allan Poe, on Friday, April 5, 2024, ay the Huntington Theater in Poe’s birthplace of Boston. For one-night only, the Grammy Award-winning

Though last night’s intimate Vaughan Williams vocal recital began with a duet of “a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino” (Shakespeare), the lovers and the lasses of sweet spring love soon made way for ponderers on religious and the metaphysical stuffs during Boston Art Song Society ’s visit to Somerville Music Spaces.

Are rare antique violins from Stradivari and his followers really as amazing as touted? That was the question on the audience’s mind at the Stradivari Serenade Friday night, March 29th, in Jordan Hall. It was addressed in a highly stimulating way by A Far Cry and Christopher Reuning, a Boston violin

Panelists Psyche Loui, Tod Machover, and Li Huei Tsai (Mike Mejia photo) Something was clearly afoot at Symphony Hall last night. Though not set up with tables and chairs for the Pops season, the hall nevertheless glowed magenta with gold patterns projected against the side walls of the stage. Rather than show tunes and light classics, 70 minutes of conversation about brain waves and 40 HZ drones ensued, along with mostly very quiet chamber music that had responded to paintings and imagery of nature.

Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s latest major orchestral work, ARCHORA, will receive its Boston premiere performances in BSO subscription concerts (April 18 th, 19 th, 20 th ) in which Andris Nelsons also will lead violinist Mozart’s Symphony No. 33 and, with Hilary Hahn, Brahms’s Violin Concerto. The composer is one of ten recent winners of the generous Chanel Next Prize, which every other year recognizes ten international contemporary artists who advance the new and the next.

The Ying Quartet’s return to Shalin Liu, in company with the lively double bassist-composer Xavier Foley, welcomed a full house with an inviting radiance and upbeat good humor. The Sunday afternoon concert also augured well for the month-long Rockport Chamber Music Festival from Artistic Director Barry Shiffman commencing on June 7 th. Individual concert tickets are now available HERE.

Boston Chamber Music Society Artistic Director Marcus Thompson may have sat out the Society’s concert at Jordan Hall last Sunday, but his good work went fully on display in the bright green program insert of next season’s plans. The series comprises a rewarding-looking blend of 11 concerts—all in Sanders. [Brochure HERE.] And while you are in the mood for clicking, consider reading Rebecca Marchand’s important essays on the offerings [ HERE ].

The right time for spouting about Schubert’s last piano music would have been last Sunday, when Jonathan Biss played the last in his series of three concerts at the Gardner Museum, each featuring one of Schubert’s final sonatas. But I wasn’t there to hear it, because it had been “super-sold-out” by the time I would have got a ticket.