Music Reviews

The young Italian pianist Mauro Bertoli, now based in Ottawa, Canada, displays considerable hubris in leading off his recent solo CD with three well-known Scarlatti sonatas. If he felt he had something to say that Horowitz and Pogorelich hadn’t already said, he was right. These Scarlattis call upon his proficient technique and Italian finesse to bring out their excitement and subtleties. Bertoli is very much up to the task. The CD (Mauro...

Some people think that after you die, you get the chance to review your entire life. But Philip Glass’s opera, “Galileo Galilei,” shows that you can do this while you’re still alive. Starting with Galileo in his last years, this opera travels backwards until it reaches Galileo as a young boy who is watching one of his father’s operas. This style of history in reverse works incredibly well in the hands of the talented director Kevin Newbury,...

"The East Coast Chamber Orchestra made an emphatic statement in its Portland debut on March 27th at Kaul Auditorium in a concert sponsored by Chamber Music Northwest. The ensemble, now in its tenth year, played works by Elgar, Beethoven, Stravinsky, Geminiani, and Portland-native Kenji Bunch with impeccable precision and verve........ Their gorgeous quality of playing made it easy to luxuriate in the lush harmonies, the agile and unified...

The Kronos Quartet (violinists David Harrington and John Sherba, violist Hank Dutt, and cellist Jeffrey Zeigler) has a storied career, legions of fans, buckets of awards, and recordings galore, but its concert at Kaul Auditorium on Wednesday evening (March 25) was, frankly, underwhelming.

Opera diva Renée Fleming swept into Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on Tuesday evening (March 13) and swept the audience off its feet on her way out. Sponsored by the Oregon Symphony, Flemming’s appearance was her debut with the orchestra, and, based on the overwhelmingly enthusiastic reception she received, she will probably return sometime in the near future.  The concert also marked the debut of guest conductor Sabastian Lang-Lessing, who...

It’s a testament to the power of art when an opera that is 238 years old still rings fresh with a unique combination of beauty and emotion. That was the case on Saturday evening (February 25th) at McCaw Hall when Seattle Opera presented “Orphée et Eurydice,” an opera that Christoph Willibald Gluck wrote in 1774 when Louis XVI began his reign and the United States was just a concept on a napkin. Led by William Burden in the demanding role of...