Matteo Liberatore uses unconventional tools and methods to pluck a variety of jolts and scratches, arpeggio sequences, and melodic and chordal motifs from that most common of instruments, the acoustic guitar.
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Music Review: Lisa Hilton – ‘Escapism’
There is a poetic lyricism in Hilton's arrangements that pairs jazz with classic symphonies.
Read More »Interview: Emerson String Quartet on Teaming with Piano Virtuoso Evgeny Kissin for 2018 Concert Tour
With this special chamber music venture that pairs Carnegie Hall’s darling with a formal string ensemble for the first time, Kissin continues to expand his creative spectrum, broadening his offerings even further, past Jewish poetry recitals and his latest foray into writing and composing.
Read More »Concert Review: Neave Trio – ‘From America to the Moon’ (NYC Jan 5, 2018)
A highly pictorial survey of American music for piano trio by Leonard Bernstein, Russell Steinberg, and Robert Paterson
Read More »Music DVD Review: ‘Sting: Live at the Olympia Paris’
'Sting: Live at the Olympia Paris' is an outstanding 102-minute main performance with bonuses totaling 137 minutes, making it a premiere music concert experience!
Read More »Theater Review (NYC Broadway): ‘Farinelli and the King’ with Mark Rylance
Well played all around, this Shakespeare's Globe production is blessed with the preternaturally naturalistic Rylance, whose severely manic-depressive and sometimes delusional King Philippe V of Spain is both brilliantly imagined and pulsatingly real.
Read More »Concert Review: ‘Early Music of the Maghreb’ – Traditional Music of Northern Africa (NYC, 12 Dec 2017)
The phrase "Early Music" usually refers to early European music, while the term "Afro Roots" generally means music from sub-Saharan Africa. Salon/Sanctuary Concerts teamed with Afro Roots Tuesdays to challenge both those assumptions with a concert of tradition-rooted music from northern Africa.
Read More »Concert-Theater Review (NYC): ‘8980: Book of Travelers’ Composed and Performed by Gabriel Kahane
The singer-songwriter's deep trove of compositional talent and exquisite voice make his art songs ring with the excitement of the new even as they recall the glory days of lieder.
Read More »From Russia to America: Pianist, Composer, and Transcriber Vyacheslav Gryaznov Delights in Musical Storytelling
While the pianist's impression is by no means comprehensive due to the short time he has spent here, the notion that the Russian pedagogical culture could be producing lazy students while the United States’ could be producing lazy teachers may not be so far-fetched.
Read More »Concert Review: Gerard Schwarz Conducts the Juilliard Orchestra with Violist Jordan Bak (NYC, Oct 26 2017)
Jordan Bak, a marvelous young violist, helped remind us that 20th-century American composers kept audiences in mind even as they created original, boundary-breaking concert music.
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