Not that there was anything informal about the finely polished and expressive singing of Mr. Quasthoff and the soprano Sylvia Schwartz, the mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink and the tenor Michael Schade.
The music making was polished and expressive throughout the intermissionless program, divided into sections: "The Deeds and Nature of Diana," "The Sacred King and His Tanist" and "Diana the Lover".
(Kozinn) ★ Quatuor Mosaïques (Wednesday) Long one of the most distinguished, polished and expressive period-instrument string quartets — and quartets, period, for that matter — Quatuor Mosaïques opens a two-concert visit to the 92nd Street Y with a program that includes Haydn's "Sunrise," Mendelssohn's Quartet in A minor (Op. 13) and Schubert's "Rosamunde".
Two technically polished and superbly expressive pianists, Jeanne Golan and Marc Peloquin, shared the bill.
In Portuguese port country, meanwhile, Waitrose has a tempting 20%-off Easter offer on the spicy, rich, fruits-of-the-forest Duro Reserva made by Quinta da Rosa, while Wine & Soul Manoella, Douro 2015 (£15.95, Tanners) is a gloriously rich but expressive, polished blend with the depth of flavour derived from the remarkably old (120-year-old) vines.
That he gave the work an expressive, carefully polished reading was no surprise.
As buncheong evolved, it became not more but less polished and more vigorously expressive.
The distinctive timbres of the two women blended beautifully in the duos, with the difficult ensemble numbers expressive and polished throughout.
In the Brahms string sextet, the group was joined by the cellist Colin Carr and the violist Paul Neubauer for a beautifully shaped, polished reading, distinguished by its expressive phrasing and the glowing tone of individual performers.
Both have rich, polished voices and were sufficiently expressive that Mr. Quasthoff's comments were essentially matters of fine-tuning and goading them to think more carefully about how particular passages might be most eloquently presented.
