In May 2010, a few months after Mathieu Dufour decided to return to his old chair in Chicago, the Los Angeles Philharmonic held auditions for a new Principal Flute to replace him. They ended up offering the position to David Buck, then principal with the Oregon Symphony, without requiring any kind of trial period. Fast … Continue reading
No official announcement from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, but it looks like their recent Second Horn audition was won by Gregory Roosa. Mr. Roosa is currently horn player with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He joined that orchestra in 2003 after having held similar positions with the Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra and the Colorado Symphony. … Continue reading
For their season finale, the Los Angeles Philharmonic ordered up a world premiere of a major new work from John Adams, their Creative Chair and one of the most prominent American composers currently living. Once again, the orchestra was thinking big and taking risks. You’ve gotta appreciate their moxy. Audentes fortuna juvat — “Fortune favors the … Continue reading
I’m killing time before this evening’s Los Angeles Philharmonic concert by drinking an old fashioned — a really good one, BTW, care of the bartender at the Omni Hotel near Walt Disney Concert Hall. Anyways, I started thinking about tonight’s world premiere of The Gospel According to the Other Mary, a modern bit of social … Continue reading
The Los Angeles Philharmonic recently held auditions to find a new Principal Cello to replace Peter Stumpf, whose name still appears on their roster as being “On Leave” but who hasn’t been with the orchestra all season. The required repertoire list for the audition included some excerpts that would be expected (Haydn Concerto, Don Quixote, La … Continue reading
Following up regarding my last post about Friday night’s Los Angeles Philharmonic concert, here’s one extra little tidbit about Mozart’s Posthorn Serenade and the orchestra: As stated in both printed and online version of the program notes, the first performance was March 26, 1942, with George Szell conducting. Until this season, the most recent performance … Continue reading
It wasn’t supposed to be an all-Mozart program. What was originally announced as a Tchaikovsky/Sibelius program morphed a couple of times over the course of this season before landing on its final form. One of the subscribers wasn’t happy about all the repeated changes and made her opinion known during the “Casual Friday” post-concert Q&A. With … Continue reading
As if there hasn’t been enough big, crazy musical news out of New York this week, the announcement came earlier today that Glenn Dicterow, Concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic since 1980, will join the faculty of the USC Thornton School of Music in Fall of 2013 and then step down from his NY Phil … Continue reading
It was not your average Sunday afternoon at Walt Disney Disney Concert Hall. Gustavo Dudamel was still on the podium for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s unofficial Mozart Month, but that was pretty much where “business as usual” ended. The LA Phil had decided that their first-ever complete performances of Don Giovanni would be full-blown productions, … Continue reading
I’ve been looking forward to attending the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s fully-staged Don Giovanni for a number of reasons: First of all, well, because it’s Don Giovanni and who doesn’t want to see and hear that under pretty much any circumstance? The appearance of Mariusz Kwiecien in the title role. It’s been a very good season for … Continue reading
Care of the folks at Composers Datebook at American Public Media: On today’s date in 1969, Leonard Bernstein conducted his last concert as the Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. Bernstein had been named the orchestra’s Music Director in November of 1957, and was the first American-born and trained conductor to hold the position. … Continue reading
Brian Lauritzen — radio personality extraordinaire, under-appreciated cellist, and friend of All is Yar — is known primarily for his smooth, easy-going voice on Classical KUSC (that’d be 91.5FM for all of you who still listen to terrestrial radio in Southern California), as well as podcasts for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Opera, … Continue reading
There was a time not too long ago that had you mentioned that a fair-haired, mop top, wunderkind conductor was standing on the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s podium, your image would have been of an Englishman rather than a Venezuelan. Simon Rattle (not yet knighted) was Principal Guest Conductor from 1981 to 1994, though as the … Continue reading
I had been really looking forward to these concerts. It was supposed to feature two masterful Spaniards in a night featuring a good chunk of Spanish music. Unfortunately, that went by the wayside as Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, conductor and friend of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, cancelled for health reasons. Pepe Romero, the distinguished guitarist (not … Continue reading
Long before Madonna was the most famous American in self-imposed exile in the UK, another noteworthy American-turned-Brit wrote some unkind words about April (or at least that’s what the Thunder said). Whatever. Don’t believe the hype — April is a kick-ass month, and this one in particular is full of all kinds of stuff … Continue reading
All is Yar 