John Von Rhein – Page 36

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>

Muti: CSO leaders can do more to keep the institution as vibrant as orchestra’s musicmaking

May 13, 2019 at 2:16 p.m.

Riccardo Muti is fond of quoting the early Christian theologian and philosopher St. Augustine's famous dictum about music and musicians, "Cantare amantis est" ("Singing belongs to the one who loves")....

Haymarket Opera’s ‘Desert Island’ a rare musical delight on which to be stranded

May 13, 2019 at 2:15 p.m.

Considering how extensively the orchestral, instrumental and chamber repertory of the 18th century and earlier periods has been mined by modern performers, it's strange that the operas of Franz Joseph...

Haymarket Opera continues adventurous expansion, this time to key of Haydn

May 13, 2019 at 2:05 p.m.

When we last looked in on Haymarket Opera Company four months ago, the Chicago early music ensemble was literally on the move — presenting its first large-scale baroque opera, Francesco...

Review: Lyric Opera’s Millennium Park freebie a preview of season’s bounty

May 13, 2019 at 2:05 p.m.

When was the last time you saw a major opera singer turn a cartwheel on stage? That was one of the welcome surprises amid the parade of operatic excerpts making...

French fest opens with recital of exquisite Debussy vocal vignettes

May 13, 2019 at 2:05 p.m.

Paul Verlaine was one of the bad boys of the artistic and intellectual life of Belle Epoque Paris. His richly allusive verses revolutionized fin de siecle French poetry and made...

Augusta Read Thomas, contemporary classical catalyst

May 13, 2019 at 2:05 p.m.

A passionate sense of purpose informs everything the Grammy-winning Chicago composer Augusta Read Thomas does in music. It is central to her organizing, directing and co-curating the Ear Taxi Festival,...

The Top 10 classical music events of the fall in Chicago

May 13, 2019 at 2:05 p.m.

Some of the grandest of grand operas, and some of the smallest of the small. A lavish celebration of the vital Chicago new classical music scene. Riccardo Muti leading a...

Keeping score of autumn’s most promising classical recordings

May 13, 2019 at 2:05 p.m.

Here are some of the more noteworthy new classical recordings scheduled for release this fall, arranged by label: Cedille Tchaikovsky: Complete works for violin and orchestra (September): Jennifer Koh surveys...

Recommended Chicago-area classical concerts

May 13, 2019 at 2:05 p.m.

Featured pick: Stars of Lyric Opera at Millennium Park: The company launches the 2016-17 season with its 16th annual free concert at Pritzker Pavilion. Soloists will include stars from the...

11th Chicago Latino Music Festival celebrates the beat

May 13, 2019 at 2:05 p.m.

Critic Virgil Thomson's famous dictum about the way to write American music — "All you have to do is be an American and write any kind of music you wish"...

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