Early Music News & Reviews

The New York Baroque Dance Co. and its co-founder, Catherine Turocy, celebrate a half-century of bringing historical dance to stages across America and Europe. They've set the high standard for Baroque dance performed in the U.S.

In music, we typically absorb emerging high-tech when it's useful to us, from MIDI to digital editing. Artificial intelligence presents an unparalleled challenge and unlocks potential that strains the imagination. What's clear is that the best output from a modern A.I. tool occurs when you already have subject matter expertise.

Since our current early-music revival began in the mid-20th century, countertenors and mezzo-sopranos or contraltos have waged an undeclared war over which vocal type best replicates the great castrati voices of the 18th century. We look at several enduring recordings that spotlight this putative dispute.

Is historical performance practice facing a 'correction' — a downscaling that reflects a more accurate valuation of its current worth — or, instead, are we heading toward a paradigm shift, where a familiar old model proves to be inadequate and is overturned by a new, workable, and perhaps revolutionary replacement?