"Trumpet recitals are among the rarest of events in the classical music realm. It's just a guess on my part, but I imagine that recitals by female trumpeters have tended to be ever so slightly rarer. Which is to say that Sunday evening's appearance by Tine Thing Helseth for the Shriver Hall Concert Series was extra cool.

"Baltimore has experienced a bounty of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, among others, in recent days.

"One of the coolest things about Bach is how all that technical and expressive beauty is as apparent in a work for solo violin as in a large-scale piece for chorus and orchestra. This point was driven home superbly by Gil Shaham during his all-Bach, all-unaccompanied recital for the Shriver Hall Concert Series Sunday evening."

"It takes rare vocal skill and interpretive insight to bring out all of this, to make an audience see such powerful imagery, to feel the emotional weight of each step and sigh of "Winterreise." Finley, a singer equally acclaimed in opera houses and recital halls, achieved those results in this concert."
Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun

Watch a Mischa and Lily Maisky Video Blog

The reviews are in from this past Sunday's performance by mezzo soprano Magdalena Kozena and pianist Yefim Bronfman. If you came, we'd love to hear what you thought!

Baltimore Sun music and theater critic Tim Smith's review of Marc-Andre Hamelin's Jan 27th concert at Shriver Hall Concert Series begins:

Today's Baltimore Sun features a preview of Marc-Andre Hamelin's debut performance at Shriver Hall Concert Series. Sun critic Tim Smith opens the article by saying

In a December 16, 2012 post Ionarts critic Jens F. Laurson covers a performance by pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin in a program almost identical to the one he'll play for Shriver Hall Concert Series on January 27, 2012. You can read the full review here and a few excerpts are pasted below: