John Von Rhein – Page 31

Nick Cave has been singing about mortality for decades, and he's really good at it. Whether the narratives are biblical or pulpy, the victims innocents or death row convicts, the circumstances comprehensible or cruelly random, Cave's songs are on intimate terms with the infinite ways a life can be extinguished. And yet, "Skeleton Tree", his latest album with his estimable band, the Bad Seeds, is a relatively concise song cycle shadowed by death that feels different than all the rest. <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/kot/sc-music-nick-cave-skeleton-tree-ent-0916-20160916-column.html" target="_blank">Read the full review.</a>

Abrams scores strong Civic Orchestra debut with Copland’s 3rd Symphony

May 13, 2019 at 2:07 p.m.

Aaron Copland's Third Symphony stands as the archetypal American musical expression of the late 1940s, when such grand-gestured orchestral works reflected the nationalistic pride and optimism of a country that...

Maestro Charles Munch’s greatness with Boston Symphony, others endures in box set

May 13, 2019 at 2:07 p.m.

The 13-year tenure of Charles Munch as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (1949-62) was a watershed in the annals of orchestral performance. The great Alsatian conductor made that...

Lucas Vergara, playing a young director, leads two dogs costumed as lions Dec. 8, 2016, in a dress rehearsal for Lyric Opera of Chicago's production of "The Magic Flute."

Superb cast, playing, overcome staging oddities in Lyric’s new ‘Magic Flute’

June 8, 2018 at 4:53 p.m.

Not to worry, the kids are all right — they are just putting on a Mozart show in their backyard. That's the improbable dramatic premise behind the new production of...

Review: Mezzo Joyce DiDonato flips recital script with arias of war and peace

May 13, 2019 at 2:07 p.m.

In the stylized world of baroque opera and oratorio, emotional extremes were all the rage, with characters typically fighting battles of good and evil that inevitably led to happy endings...

Neeme Jarvi brings quiet authority to Sibelius-Prokofiev program with CSO

May 13, 2019 at 2:19 p.m.

For all the attention the Chicago Symphony Orchestra gives young conductors on their way up, it can hardly afford to neglect the elder statesmen of the baton, particularly those who...

Recommended Chicago-area classical concerts

June 8, 2018 at 7:19 p.m.

Lyric Opera — Mozart's "The Magic Flute": Three decades after the premiere of its last production of Mozart's joyous singspiel, Lyric presents a new "Zauberflote." Neil Armfield is the director,...

Joyce DiDonato has the balm for a troubled present: Centuries-old music

May 13, 2019 at 2:07 p.m.

The popular American opera and concert diva Joyce DiDonato can write her own ticket just about anywhere she pleases. Opera composers create starring roles for her, new productions fall in...

Review: A Handel program with the CSO makes it feel a lot like Christmas

May 13, 2019 at 2:07 p.m.

You can feel the approach of the holidays from the large wreaths that festoon the organ bays above the stage of Orchestra Hall at the weekend subscription concerts by the...

From Bach to Bryars, the best classical albums of 2016

May 31, 2019 at 3:58 a.m.

Here are 10 albums from 2016 that I have returned to again and again, with renewed pleasure each time. May they bring you comparable listening enjoyment this holiday season. Beethoven:...

A grown-up Christopher Robin returns to the Hundred Acre Wood and his best friend Winnie the Pooh.
<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/sc-mov-christopher-robin-rev-0802-story.html" target="_blank">Read the review.</a>

Recommended Chicago-area classical concerts

May 13, 2019 at 2:18 p.m.

Contempo: The University of Chicago's contemporary music collective opens its 52nd season with a performance by the New York-based Talea Ensemble under director-speaker Rick Burkhardt. The program holds works by...

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