The Hollywood Bowl is often a place for conductors and soloists to make their Los Angeles Philharmonic debuts. It’s a bit of trial by fire — if you can make a strong impression under the duress of limited rehearsal time and less-than-ideal performing conditions, then you might get invited for a gig downtown for the … Continue reading
Wednesday’s Los Angeles Opera press conference centered around celebrating Plácido Domingo. Board members and politicians were on hand to offer their praises, stories, and tokens of appreciation to the organization’s General Director and probably the world’s most famous living opera singer. The reason for this latest round of adulation? Three things: Continue reading
Classical music, like life in general, abounds in so-called guilty pleasures. You know, the kind of stuff that you may not admit to friends that you like, but in the privacy of your own iPod earbuds, you relish with abandon. Warsaw Concerto is one for me. Carmina Burana is another one. Not a whole lot … Continue reading
The final concert of Southwest Chamber Music’s 2012 summer season at The Huntington proved to be a popular ending to what has been a popular series. Attendance on the Logia was overflowing to the point where an extra row of seating was hastily added right as the concert was about to begin. As with the … Continue reading
Back in May of this year, I had the good fortune to be able to attend the world premiere performance of John Adams’ new oratorio, The Gospel According to the Other Mary. In addition to posting a review of that concert, I posted some pre-concert musings on the new work’s title and the identity of the … Continue reading
There’s lots going in this weekend. Pick something you like and go check it out. World premiere production of The Face The world premiere staged performance of Donald Crockett’s new chamber orchestra, The Face, is tonight at 8pm at the Aratani/Japan America Theater in the Little Tokyo neighborhood of downtown Los Angeles. Subsequent performances will be … Continue reading
You hear of a night of Haydn conducted by the ever-sunny Nicholas McGegan, and you probably think, “That’s nice.” You notice that the Haydn Trumpet Concerto will be the centerpiece of the evening and you might say, “Hmmm, haven’t heard that performed in a while.” You realize that Alison Balsom is the trumpet soloist, … Continue reading
Anna Prohaska, recently appearing as Zerlina in the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s production of Don Giovanni, is seen here at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Salzburg Festival singing some different Mozart: Exsultate, Jubilate (K. 165) What makes the performance more impressive is that she was only given a few hours notice that she’d be performing … Continue reading
Just to show that good things can actually happen to good people, music critic Timothy Mangan will once again be the classical music critic of The Orange County Register. According to his blog, Classical Life, Tim’s new/old job was definitely — if not yet publicly — confirmed by the newspaper’s new regime. No word … Continue reading
Inspired by the centennial of Pasadena-native, Julia Child, Southwest Chamber Music has been focusing on French music for their Summer Festival 2012 at The Huntington. Healthy portions of Debussy and Ravel are offered up in each concert. This past weekend’s programs, the third in the series, paired those two quintessential French composers with works from Vietnam. It … Continue reading
Tchaikovsky concerts at the Hollywood Bowl are common occurrences. Thursday night’s Los Angeles Philharmonic concert was pretty typical, with a program featuring a pair of frequently heard warhorses: the Piano Concerto No. 1 and the Symphony No. 4. Then again, in some ways, this wasn’t all that typical. There were no fireworks, no 1812 Overture, … Continue reading
Different people have different habits, especially when it comes to how you like to consume information. Some of you like to watch Olympic coverage in real time online or read about the results on ESPN or Twitter immediately after gold medals are handed out, while others prefer to sit through NBC’s tape-delayed faux-suspense-laden Olympic coverage … Continue reading
I have more than a few things to say about last Tuesday’s Los Angeles Philharmonic concert at the Hollywood Bowl, as usual. But let’s get one thing out of the way, shall we? Yefim Bronfman is a bad-ass. Ok, perhaps this is old news, but even if that’s the case, it’s worth repeating. So many … Continue reading
When it comes to standard musical fare at the Hollywood Bowl, it’s tough to come up with two composers more iconic than George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein. Besides having their music performed pretty much every summer in the Cahuenga Pass, the two Americans have other close ties to the Bowl: The 1937 memorial concert commemorating … Continue reading
This past Tuesday, the Tokyo String Quartet played what first violin Martin Beaver said would almost certainly be their last concert at the Ravinia Festival. In all likelihood, it will also be their final appearance anywhere in the Chicago area. With Kazuhide Isomura (founding viola) and Kikuei Ikeda (longtime second violin) deciding to retire, the … Continue reading
All is Yar 