Sonata

Hyundai's mainstream family sedan, the Sonata, has been redesigned for the 2009 model year. Changes include revised exterior styling, a new interior, and available four-cylinder and V-6 engines that both gain more power and are also more fuel-efficient. Competitors include popular models like the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry. Though the exterior styling changes may not be immediately noticeable, the new Sonata receives a num ber of updates. The front end of the car is new and features a new grille design, new headlights, and a new bumper.

Croatian pianist Martina Filjak assembled a daunting program for her recital at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Sunday afternoon: Mozart's Sonata No. 13, Liszt's Ballade No. 2, Schumann's "Faschingsschwank aus Wien," and Prokofiev's Sonata No. 2. The pieces were technically demanding, especially the Liszt and the Prokofiev. But the greater challenge was to embrace the four composers' very different sensibilities. Filjak didn't entirely succeed in that, though she grew in strength as the afternoon went on. As she showed last November, when she played Brahms's First Piano Concerto with...

Every art form has masterpieces whose allure is inseparable from their rarity or remoteness, like Mayan relics deep in the jungle. The Chichen Itza of pianistic high modernism is the 1950-52 Sonata of Jean Barraqué, performed by pianist Yoko Hagino as the centerpiece and raison d’être of the third concert of Boston Conservatory’s New Music Festival. In his early 20s, Barraqué — a denizen of postwar Paris’ fiercely experimental avant-garde — tackled the task of translating the large-scale drama of the Classical sonata into atonal serialism in grand, steely...

Sometimes a sonata for cello and piano is a cello showpiece with the piano comping discreetly in the background. Sometimes it's a partnership between cello and piano. But then sometimes it's what happens when Beethoven, who wrote his first two cello sonatas as a young whippersnapper of 25, sets out to impress everyone as a performer as well as a composer. The thing is, he was a pianist, not a cellist. So these two pieces are more like piano sonatas with cello support. Yet Sunday afternoon in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's new Calderwood Hall concert space, Wendy Warner more...

The music world is marking the bicentennial of the birth of Franz Liszt — composer, virtuoso, and all-around diabolical genius. The latest event in the ongoing celebration came on Wednesday, when Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin brought an all-Liszt recital to a packed Symphony Hall. Liszt’s music — and, to a lesser extent, Kissin’s playing — share a reputation for technical wizardry that sometimes skirts intellectual depth. Wednesday’s recital, though, focused largely on the composer’s more serious works, opening with the placid “Ricordanza,’’ the ninth of his...

The physical connection between pianist and piano takes varied forms. Some pianists press deep into the keyboard for an organ-like sonority; some seem to pull the vibrations of the strings into their hands. But in Lise de la Salle's excellent Celebrity Series concert on Saturday - the French pianist's Boston recital debut - the focus of energy was the point of contact between finger and key. The effect was both vintage, foregrounding a clavichord-like primacy of touch, and modern, clarity as an illusion of objectivity.

The audience that greeted Chinese pianist Yundi Li at his sold-out recital on Saturday was enthusiastic. Not just to hear the concert, it seemed, but to be part of the phenomenon. Flashbulbs went off during the applause between works, as if he were David Ortiz batting at Fenway. But perhaps the better analogy would be to Wily Mo Pena, the Sox' recently acquired outfielder. Like Pena, the 23-year-old Li is immensely talented but a work in progress. On the evidence of Saturday's concert, though, his potential seems limitless.

For some composers, the cello is a high-maintenance mistress. Francis Poulenc sketched his cello sonata in 1940, but took another eight years to finish it; Frederic Chopin struggled with his G minor cello sonata, telling his sister "I write a little and cross out a lot. " But they persevere; as Prokofiev admitted to Mstislav Rostropovich, "I am fascinated by your crazy instrument. " On Sunday, cellist Steven Isserlis and pianist Jeremy Denk included Chopin, Poulenc - and, indirectly, Rostropovich - in a well-curated exhibition of the instrument's allure.

Croatian pianist Martina Filjak assembled a daunting program for her recital at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Sunday afternoon: Mozart's Sonata No. 13, Liszt's Ballade No. 2, Schumann's "Faschingsschwank aus Wien," and Prokofiev's Sonata No. 2. The pieces were technically demanding, especially the Liszt and the Prokofiev. But the greater challenge was to embrace the four composers' very different sensibilities. Filjak didn't entirely succeed in that, though she grew in strength as the afternoon went on. As she showed last November, when she...

CAMBRIDGE - Saturday's superb Boston Early Music Festival concert by English violinist John Holloway, Dutch cellist Jaap ter Linden, and Danish harpsichordist Lars Ulrik Mortensen highlighted two early 18th-century specialties: the instrumental solo sonata (with its keyboard-and-cello continuo accompaniment) and the virtuoso violinist-composer. Centering the program was its stylistic reference point, Arcangelo Corelli. In Corelli's E-minor Op. 5 No. 8 Sonata - performed in a composer-sanctioned keyboardless configuration - ter Linden's round, earthy timbral...

Bach's Suites for Unaccompanied Cello aside, the chamber repertoire for cello is not brimming with household names. It's no surprise that Yo-Yo Ma has been in crossover mode for years now. Or that for his Celebrity Series recital at Jordan Hall Friday evening with pianist Paolo Giacometti, Dutch cellist Pieter Wispelwey raided the violin-and-piano repertoire for the better part of the duo's engaging, high-strung performance. Wispelwey treats his instrument like a business partner, showing much respect but little obvious affection.

The physical connection between pianist and piano takes varied forms. Some pianists press deep into the keyboard for an organ-like sonority; some seem to pull the vibrations of the strings into their hands. But in Lise de la Salle's excellent Celebrity Series concert on Saturday - the French pianist's Boston recital debut - the focus of energy was the point of contact between finger and key. The effect was both vintage, foregrounding a clavichord-like primacy of touch, and modern, clarity as an illusion of objectivity.

RUSSELL SHERMAN , piano At: Jordan Hall, Sunday At age 81, pianist Russell Sherman increasingly reminds me of Young Mr. Grace. The octogenarian from the British sitcom "Are You Being Served?" may look frail, but he's always one step ahead. He knows what he wants, and he usually gets it. Sunday evening at Jordan Hall, in a free recital of Beethoven and Liszt, Sherman knew what he wanted. More than that, he knew what we wanted, and he gave it to us. The program offered Beethoven's "Pathétique" and "Waldstein" sonatas before intermission and Liszt's...

TOKYO - Toyota Motor Corp., to make its earnings target this year, needs the new Camry to wrest back market share from Hyundai Motor Co.'s Sonata sedan. The Camry, the best-selling car in the United States, has lost ground to the Sonata, with Seoul-based Hyundai raising its US output and surpassing the Camry in May for the first time. "Sonata became a very honorable contender in the market," said Yoshimi Inaba, Toyota's North American chairman, in an interview this week. "We do have good respect for the model, and the sales figures show it's increasing quite a...

DAVID FINCKEL , cello, and WU HAN , piano Presented by Rockport Chamber Music Festival At: Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockport, Sunday ROCKPORT — “What a spectacular setting you have here!’’ pianist Wu Han said from the stage of the Shalin Liu Performance Center, a venue that delights on every visit, not least for the spectacular view of Cape Ann visible through the large window at the back of the hall. Han gestured toward cellist David Finckel and joked that if she hadn’t had to pay...

QUICKSILVER Robert Mealy and Julie Andrijeski, directors Boston Early Music Festival At: Emmanuel Church, Wednesday night The Baroque violinist Robert Mealy has been a fixture at the Boston Early Music Festival in recent years, participating often as a leader of the festival’s orchestra. On Wednesday he brought one of his groups, Quicksilver, which he directs with violinist Julie Andrijeski, to Emmanuel Church for a late-night performance. Starting at 11:30 p.m. and ending well after midnight, the program struck just the right balance required for...

The 22-year-old Chinese pianist Lang Lang is already known for his stunning technique. There seems to be nothing his fingers can't do at the keyboard, no composer he can't muscle to the ground. He plays, as Daniel Barenboim once said of him, like he has 11 fingers. And when he's playing music that needs 11 fingers, Lang is at his mercurial best, as he showed Wednesday night in his Symphony Hall debut. In two Rachmaninoff preludes, he seized the music by the throat and threw it off with not only strength but great musicality.

RUSSELL SHERMAN , piano At: Jordan Hall, Sunday At age 81, pianist Russell Sherman increasingly reminds me of Young Mr. Grace. The octogenarian from the British sitcom "Are You Being Served?" may look frail, but he's always one step ahead. He knows what he wants, and he usually gets it. Sunday evening at Jordan Hall, in a free recital of Beethoven and Liszt, Sherman knew what he wanted. More than that, he knew what we wanted, and he gave it to us. The program offered Beethoven's "Pathétique" and "Waldstein" sonatas before intermission and Liszt's...

The music world is marking the bicentennial of the birth of Franz Liszt — composer, virtuoso, and all-around diabolical genius. The latest event in the ongoing celebration came on Wednesday, when Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin brought an all-Liszt recital to a packed Symphony Hall. Liszt’s music — and, to a lesser extent, Kissin’s playing — share a reputation for technical wizardry that sometimes skirts intellectual depth. Wednesday’s recital, though, focused largely on the composer’s more serious works, opening with the placid “Ricordanza,’’ the ninth of his...