David Lang’s collected stories is off to an heroic start

By Rebecca Lentjes, 23 April 2014

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“the spoken human voice can be just as expressive and musical an instrument as the six-string harp”

Reviewed at Carnegie Hall: Zankel, New York City on 22 April 2014

Bagby, Scenes from Beowulf

Partch, The Wayward

Benjamin Bagby, Narrator, Historical harp

Harry Partch Institute Ensemble

Eroica: Riccardo Minasi and the WASO

Sandra Bowdler, 11th April

Guest conductor Riccardo Minasi leads the West Australian Symphony Orchestra with a program of old favourites, with outstanding contribution from trumpeter Jenna Smith

***11

A superb Salzburg sojourn: Philadelphia Orchestra plays Mozart

Cameron Kelsall, 11th April

Guest conductor Harry Bicket brings a sense of urgency to Mozart's Requiem and pulse-quickening energy to Symphony no. 40.

****1

Nelson Goerner shines with the CBSO and Rachmaninov's Rhapsody

Robert Gainer, 9th April

The CBSO present the work of three European émigré composers of the 1930s and 40s, who reimagined their musical influences with contrasting approaches and results.

****1

Andris Nelsons and the BSO arrive in New York, with baggage in tow

Cameron Kelsall, 9th April

In his first New York appearance since the termination of his contract as BSO Music Director, Nelsons courts public sympathy and makes some thrilling music.

***11

Chicago Symphony Orchestra music on death: whimper then bang

Graham Meyer, 9th April

Jakub Hrůša leads the CSO in pedestrian Janáček and Rachmaninov, but Strauss's Four Last Songs and Wagner's Tristan excerpts send audiences home deeply touched.

***11

Lintu, Kavakos and the SSO make the case for Shostakovich

Chang Tou Liang, 9th April

Has Shostakovich become the new Rachmaninov in Singapore? The SSO and Hannu Lintu show that he can be as popular as Rachmaninov.

*****

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Rebecca Lentjes

Rebecca graduated from New York University in 2012, where she studied Music and Romance Languages. She now works as an assistant editor at RILM (Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale) and as manager of contemporary music collective ensemble mise-en.