Archive
The complete Open Letters Monthly Archive.
Vitezslava Kapralova was a pioneering conductor as well as a developing composer, but she died when she was only 25 years old. A disc of her piano music suggests just how much was lost when she passed away.
Read MoreRenée Fleming is ending her stage career. Let's hope this album, which plays to all her weaknesses, isn't the end of her recording career.
Read MoreLeonard Bernstein's symphonies have long been neglected in favor of his popular work, but Marin Alsop breathes new life into them by surpassing the composer himself.
Read MoreFormerly unknown, Mieczylaw Weinberg stature as a composer is growing--deservedly so, as these chamber symphonies attest.
Read MoreDespite how they're often played, Shostakovich's piano concertos weren't intended for virtuoso performers. Boris Giltburg tries an originalist approach.
Read MoreThe release of a long-forgotten opera proves, finally, that Pietro Mascagni was not a one hit wonder.
Read MoreWhat would Natalie Dessay find in a collection of American songs that others have not found before?
Read MoreAmid the seasonal rock fall of weird-shaped box sets and unopenable recorded turkeys, one project stands out as indispensable in both musical and moral dimensions.
Read MoreMost critics pick their album of the year from the ones they reviewed over the past 52 weeks. I’ve decided to choose from the ones I haven’t, the ones that for one reason or other failed to make the weekly cut
Read MoreAdolph von Henselt was a follower of fashion, not a leader of trends, but as Daniel Grimwoods latest release shows, he is nonetheless very much worth a listen.
Read MoreIf you thought of encores as sweetmeats, Andras Schiff's album of encores given during a Beethoven cycle will redefine the genre.
Read MoreSol Gabetta authors a splendidly distinctive interpretation of Elgar's famous cello concerto, and pairs it with an underappreciated work in the genre by Martinu.
Read MoreThe people Shostakovich played with were the elite of Russian music. A treasure trove of archive finds reveals the music they made together.
Read MoreTwo composers in despair composed these works for voice and piano, which contain some of the darkest moments known to music. How do they sound with a full orchestra?
Read MoreAway from the imprisonment of a concert hall, György Kurtág's string quartets create an ambience akin to Gregorian chant: it's the perfect chillout music.
Read MoreThe benchmarks for Tchaikovsky's sixth symphony are mono in both uses of the term, aural and chromatic. How does a modern release hold up?
Read MoreAfter playing all his life for Columbia Masterworks, Murray Perahia has released his first recording for Deutsche Grammophon, a luminous recording of Bach's French Suites.
Read MoreIt is so rare to hear the Gurre Lieder live that most of us are acquainted with it only on record. A new concert recording of this liminal composition aims to join the pantheon.
Read MoreIt is now seven years since the South African soprano Pretty Yende burst on our ears as winner of the 2009 Hans Gabor competition in Vienna. That omission has now, finally, been repaired.
Read MoreA bizarre "crossover" album combines pop songs, fragments of Andrew Copland, Gershwin, and a dual performance by Lang Lang and Herbie Hancock. So how New York is this album?
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