Classical music

In 1971, critics hailed soprano Patricia Brooks' recital debut as groundbreaking. A new CD release provides a rare document of a performer who demonstrated a rare mix of talents.

Beverly Sills, the Brooklyn-born opera star with the charming smile and the clean, silvery coloratura, died Monday at the age of 78. Fresh Air's classical music critic pays tribute.

She was a home-grown phenomenon, an operatic soprano trained entirely in the U.S. in an era when most singers developed their craft in Europe, and she made a notable second career after her retirement as a formidable arts administrator and advocate. Fresh Air spoke with her in 1985.

Prolific jazz pianist and composer Uri Caine has a new recording: Uri Caine Ensemble Plays Mozart.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews What Exit, the major label debut by violinist Mark Feldman. After touring with Loretta Lynn in the 1980s, Feldman moved to New York, where he got involved with jazz, open improvisation and contemporary classical music.

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews three new releases of live recordings by the late mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson: John Harbison's North and South; Peter Liberson's Neruda Songs; and Rilke Songs.

It might come as a surprise that such superstar conductors as Claudio Abbado, Simon Rattle, and Daniel Barenboim think that most important thing going on in the world of classical music is not taking place in one of the European capitals but in Venezuela.

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a new DVD collection of conductor Arturo Toscanini's live NBC symphony telecasts between 1948 and 1952.

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz has an appreciation of mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, who died Monday at her home in Santa Fe at the age of 52 after a long illness.

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz shares his thoughts on the 250th anniversary of his favorite composer's birth: Mozart. Mozart was born on Jan. 27, 1756. (Music in the segment is from Mozart's opera Cosi Fan Tutte, taken from the DVD of the Peter Sellars production, conducted by Craig Smith on the Universal label.)