Composers can’t always be trusted to objectively assess their own works. However, William Walton’s appraisal of his Cello Concerto holds up: “It is to my mind the best of my three concertos,” he wrote ...

At least two things become readily apparent during an Evgeny Kissin recital. First, the man’s musicianship is immense. His playing is not limited by issues of period, style, or genre. Second, he ...

Beware of ideas, Joseph Stalin once warned: they are more powerful than guns. “We would not let our enemies have guns,” he went on. “Why should we let them have ideas?” That statement might make a ...

There’s nothing like an anniversary to encourage an orchestra’s programming. Take Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Intent on marking the occasion of Dmitri Shostakovich’s death fifty ...

There are few great works upon which fame has shone more unwillingly than Edward Elgar’s Violin Concerto in B minor—at least so far as the Boston Symphony Orchestra is concerned. True, this ...

Who says old dogs can’t learn new tricks? The Boston Symphony Orchestra—now in its 144 th season—trotted out a fresh one with conductor Dima Slobodeniouk on Thursday night: eschewing the usual ...

Sometimes good things come in threes. Other times, they happen in fours. Take the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s concert at Symphony Hall on Thursday night. There were, on the one hand, a trio of debuts: ...

More of the latter quality would have benefited Alban Gerhardt’s take on Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme, which followed intermission. Back on a BSO subscription program for the first time ...

On paper, the lineup for pianists Víkingur Ólafsson and Yuja Wang’s duo recital on Friday at Symphony Hall didn’t make much sense. John Cage and Conlon Nancarrow, for instance, don’t normally share ...

There was something fitting about the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra offering Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 on Sunday at Symphony Hall. It wasn’t just because the sleigh bells at the start of its ...

“Age is an issue of mind over matter,” Mark Twain reportedly said. “If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” Whether or not Herbert Blomstedt shares Twain’s philosophy, the 97-year-old maestro’s stage ...

Whoever planned the first month of concerts at Symphony Hall this year deserves a pat on the back: rarely, if ever, do four consecutive weeks of programs, and from different artists, hold together so ...