Lloyd Schwartz
Lloyd Schwartz is the classical music critic for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross.
In addition to his role on Fresh Air, Schwartz is the Senior Editor of Classical Music for the web-journal New York Arts and Contributing Arts Critic for WBUR's the ARTery. He is the author of four volumes of poems: These People; Goodnight, Gracie; Cairo Traffic; and Little Kisses (University of Chicago Press, 2017). A selection of his Fresh Air reviews appears in the volume Music In—and On—the Air. He is the co-editor of the Library of the America's Elizabeth Bishop: Poems, Prose, and Letters and the editor of the centennial edition of Elizabeth Bishop's Prose, published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux in 2011.
In 1994, Schwartz was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for criticism. He is the Frederick S. Troy Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Boston and teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing.
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In honor of Levine's 40th anniversary conducting the Metropolitan Opera, the Met has released two box sets of his live performances. Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz says the new releases prove what a vital figure Levine has been.
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From the late 1950s up until her last stage appearance in 1990, Australian soprano Dame Joan Sutherland was one of the world's most admired and celebrated opera stars. She died Sunday at age 83. Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz looks back at the life and work of the singer known as "La Stupenda."
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Soprano Benita Valente has retired from singing, though at 75, she's still remarkably active behind the scenes as an educator, organizer and fundraiser. She may not be the world's most famous singer, but a selection of her recordings leads off a new series on Bridge Records called Great Singers of the 20th Century. Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz agrees with the title.
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He's been at the forefront of contemporary music and conducting for more than half a century. Marking his 85th birthday this spring, a number of new Boulez CDs and DVDs have been released. Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews three of the latest.
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Bach's cantatas contain some of his greatest music, but their individual sections are seldom performed out of context, least of all by celebrities. Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz says Hilary Hahn's new CD, Bach: Violin & Voice, provides a welcome exception to this rule.
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The Bauhaus was one of the most important and exciting social and artistic movements of post-World-War-I Germany. Founded by architect Walter Gropius, the movement lasted 14 years until the Nazis finally forced it to shut down. An astonishing exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art gives a thorough view of the precise but imaginative products of Bauhaus.
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An exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts is both an art history lesson and a celebration of the most sumptuous works of Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese.
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For the golden anniversary of the original cast album of Gypsy, Sony is reissuing the classic recording, which features Ethel Merman. Music critic Lloyd Schwartz sees how well it holds up.
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American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato released a dazzling CD of Handel arias — Furore, a collection of set-pieces from operas and oratorios in which Handel's characters experience flights of passion.
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Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews the first full recording of Allegro, the 1947 Rodgers & Hammerstein musical.