Frank Stern

Isaac Stern may have begun his career as "just" a virtuoso of the violin, but his legacy exists as so much more. A consummate and passionate musician if there ever was one, he was also an ambassador of classical music to the American people, the savior of Carnegie Hall, and a mentor to countless students. This two-disc set entitled The Essential Isaac Stern reveals but the tip of the iceberg of his legacy. The first disc is devoted to single movements of eight of his appearances with orchestra, in particular the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy, with whom he had a long-standing, highly successful relationship. The works selected do not entirely reflect the breadth of his repertoire. The same is true of the second disc, which focuses on his many chamber music recordings with some of the greatest musicians of the last century, including Pablo Casals, Leonard Rose, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Yo-Yo Ma to name but a few.

An accomplished violinist before becoming a full-time composer, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich is undoubtedly qualified to compose a virtuoso concerto for the instrument, and she may be forgiven for indulging in some phenomenal displays of technique. Yet what sticks in the mind after hearing her Concerto for violin and orchestra (1998) is less of the work's showiness and rather more of the music's poignance and darkness; the first two movements are slow and quite expressive, and only the finale is a vehicle for flashy exhibition.

Boys Don't Cry, the magazine distributed at pop-up locations the day this unlike-titled album was released, featured an essay in which Frank Ocean affably reflected upon his infatuation with cars. Allusions to parallels between vehicular travel and other aspects of life, such as making music, were drawn, his relief in completing the Channel Orange follow-up made apparent…