Spotlights Archives
The Mutable Beauty of Bach…
Bach’s B minor Mass is a masterpiece that by rights shouldn’t… more »
How to Write for Violin in th…
At 14, when my ears were fresh and my soul pliable, I attended a string q… more »
The Joyous Rage of Joyce DiDo…
Baroque opera is a primeval emotional landscape populated by terrifying c… more »
Gabriel Kahane: Hipster Wistf…
It’s a wonderful thing to be talented, versatile, 30-ish, well conn… more »
2012 in Review: The New Class…
This summer, I went to a bar in my neighborhood to see a show aimed at th… more »
The Mystery of Johannes Ockeg…
It’s astonishing how little we know, or can intuit, about the most … more »
So Percussion and the Rise of…
Of all the long-oppressed minorities who can finally enjoy a measure of f… more »
Gustavo Dudamel: Electric Sup…
The most electric young conductor on the orchestral scene today is less a… more »
The Endlessly Shape-Shifting …
The Emerson Quartet has spent decades as a nimble monument. For nearly 30… more »
The Terrifying Intimacy of Di…
Here’s how I remember my early encounters with Dietrich Fischer-Die… more »
The Story of Mozart’s P…
In December 1786, when Mozart finished this symphony, it was his first in… more »
Breaking into The Book with S…
Given the situation in 1930s Austria, it seems inevitable that it would p… more »
The Improbable History of Car…
Seventy-five years ago, on June 8, 1937, the world first heard one of the… more »
On This Date: Shostakovich Be…
When Dmitri Shostakovich began his Fifth Symphony on April 18, 1937, his … more »
Jeremy Denk: Connoisseur of C…
Like many self-afflicting perfectionists, the pianist Jeremy Denk probabl… more »
L’Arpeggiata: The Beaut…
Suddenly, all the world’s a playlist. Styles mix, traditions intert… more »
The Giant, Life-Affirming Tal…
On a recording, Thomas Quasthoff sounds like a happy fluke of nature. As … more »
In Defense of Lang Lang
If Lang Lang were only a pianist, he might not be the greatest one alive.… more »
New This Week: Kathleen Edwar…
Hello! Welcome! It starts with a trickle, but always ends in a deluge: th… more »
The Emotional Eloquence Of Lo…
Because she died early and her celebrity came late, and because she alway… more »
Mstislav Rostropovich: The La…
In 1943, Mstislav Rostropovich, already a famously incandescent young cel… more »
András Schiff…
The pianist András Schiff appears at first blush to be the … more »
Label Profile: New Amsterdam …
Label Profile: New Amsterdam Records Ask the founders of New Amsterdam re… more »
Sonorous and Sensuous: Spanis…
A century ago, if you wanted to locate the pulsating center of Spanish cl… more »







