In a world full of doom and gloom, music inevitably feels a duty to confront and question. And yet once, its primary purpose was merely to please and entertain, an often-forgotten element celebrated in these four recent releases. John Alden … » Read

SUFFOLK, U.K.—Less than a week after their triumphant Prom performance of Britten’s War Requiem , Sir Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra traveled to that same composer’s home turf to give another thrilling … » Read

Written for the Mariinsky Theater’s 1916-17 season, but canceled due to the Revolution, Prokofiev’s The Gambler could plausibly lend itself to an interpretation involving issues of social justice. Apropos of Peter Sellars’s … » Read

LONDON—This August 24 Prom at the Royal Albert Hall had several drawcards. The first was a chance to hear the BBC Symphony Orchestra (the festival’s house band) playing under principal guest conductor Dalia Stasevska. A … » Read

LONDON—The BBC Proms appear to be going gangbusters this year with most events packed to the rafters. This Royal Albert Hall appearance by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra was no exception, despite the program being a grab bag of … » Read

HOLLYWOOD—Over the last three decades, Stravinsky’s evergreen, ever-daring Rite of Spring has been played by the Los Angeles Philharmonic mainly as the prerogative of its music directors—first Esa-Pekka Salonen and then Gustavo … » Read

HIGHLAND PARK, IL—The lecture-recital needle is a tough one to thread. Go too broad, and the lecturer risks condescending to listeners. Go too narrow, and the program ends up sounding like a paper talk at a musicology conference. Pianist … » Read

Pianist Christopher O’ Riley, the longtime host of NPR’s famed From the Top , took on the Mount Everest of keyboard literature on August 18 at Brooklyn’s Bargemusic: J.S. Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier Book I, comprising the … » Read

SALZBURG—I wasn’t planning on seeing Don Giovanni , staged by Romeo Castellucci and conducted by Teodor Currentzis, but curiosity to watch a train wreck got the better of me, and I made a late hour decision to check out the first act … » Read

SALZBURG—It’s been rough going recently for operas of the Salzburg Festival’s favorite son. Martin Kušej’s production of Le nozze di Figaro last year almost seemed calculated to annoy, while the 2021 Romeo … » Read