Classical

The concert was only a few minutes old and I was already scribbling in my notebook phrases like "as if pulling out the guts of the piano itself." And I meant that admiringly.

A lot of contemporary music comes my way, and rarely do I hear a collection as appealing as this one, full of interesting ideas and curiously beautiful sounds.

A "virtuosic display of youthful joy" is how the pianist described the finale, but he also displayed a mature mastery of dynamics and flow, abetted by an orchestra that bloomed to match him.

As the solo violin laments the destruction of homes and neighborhoods, the orchestra contextualizes that lone voice into a chorus of community. Terrible circumstances can indeed inspire work of aesthetic beauty.

The virtuoso talks about her recent and upcoming albums and her premiere of Eric Whitacre's 'The Pacific Has No Memory' honoring victims of the California wildfires.

A period-instrument concert revealed Mozart and Beethoven as they were heard in their own time, including a concerto played on the fortepiano.

The contemporary resurgence of the countertenor was on full display in a glorious concert staging of Handel's greatest opera.

Mark O'Connor's compositions made the juxtaposition of styles and centuries work smoothly, and created a joyful concert experience.

In all these works, played magnificently by Jing Yang, Vigeland makes conscious and effective use of the piano's acoustical properties to create sound worlds that couldn't exist in the same way if played by orchestral instruments.

A classical-music supergroup? That's the Principal Brothers: four Black principal (first-chair) woodwind players, who joined forces for a chamber concert with music from Bach to new works written for them.