Hello everyone. Long time no chat. Hope you’re all safe, healthy, and in good spirits during these challenging times. I know I’ve been mostly incommunicado, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic went full-bore crazy; alas, my other non-CKDH personae have required my attention lately. That said, I’ve been working on writing more (again). I’ve started multiple … Continue reading
The music of Igor Stravinsky takes over Walt Disney Concert Hall for three different sets of programs over the next two weekends, led by one of its most ardent advocates, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and played by one of its best orchestral interpreters, the Los Angeles Philharmonic along with the Los Angeles Master Chorale and various other … Continue reading
Zubin Mehta has been named Conductor Emeritus of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Simon Woods, CEO of the orchestra, announced the news from the stage of Walt Disney Concert Hall before the second half of last night’s concert in which Mr. Mehta was beginning his second week of Brahms programs this season. Given that Mr. Mehta’s … Continue reading
The Colburn School announced earlier today that Esa-Pekka Salonen will be joining the faculty of the Colburn Conservatory. The Principal Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra of London and Conductor Laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic will lead the brand new Negaunee Conducting Program devoted to training young conductors. The program is named for the Negaunee … Continue reading
After teasing its 2018/19 season in November and postponing its originally planned announcement by an extra couple of days, the Los Angeles Philharmonic finally dropped the other shoe last week and released full details of its Centennial Season. It is, to use a word that is ubiquitous yet completely accurate and appropriate this time: awesome. … Continue reading
Expectations have been rather high for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s 2018/19 season. After all, they’ve had some rather impressive seasons leading up to it, and you’d guess that they’d make an even bigger splash for their 100th Anniversary season. The full season announcement was to have been made this morning Alas, we’ll have to wait … Continue reading
This past Tuesday, the Los Angeles Philharmonic announced details of their 2017/2018 Walt Disney Concert Hall season, the 99th Winter/Spring concert series in their history. Once again, orchestral fans in Southern California have good reason to celebrate because, once again, it’s a really, REALLY freakin’ good season. Let’s take a quick look at the most compelling elements of the … Continue reading
Here’s Part Two of my interview with Raynor Carroll, the Principal Percussionist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic who’ll retire after tonight’s concert at the Hollywood Bowl. (Part One can be found HERE). In this part, he talks about: Matthew Howard, the musician taking over his orchestra chair once he steps down The challenges of attracting young African-Americans … Continue reading
The Los Angeles Philharmonic announced this morning that Susanna Mälkki has been appointed as Principal Guest Conductor of the orchestra. The Finnish maestra’s tenure will officially begin with the 2017-18 season, with an initial contract to last three years. She will conduct three subscription weeks, Green Umbrella concerts, as well as other projects with the orchestra to … Continue reading
Earlier this week, the Los Angeles Philharmonic made public their plans for the upcoming 2016-17 season at Walt Disney Concert Hall (details available HERE). This comes on the heels of last week’s announcement of the 2016 summer season at the Hollywood Bowl (HERE are details of that). In summary: it’s a damn good-looking season. The WDCH season … Continue reading
Lionel Bringuier was sitting in a car on an LA freeway, but by the joy of his voice, you’d think he was somewhere much more glamorous or perhaps sitting on a beach. “I love Los Angeles,” he declared, his smile coming through loud and clear over the phone. “It’s always so special for me to be here.” … Continue reading
Gustavo Dudamel’s final Walt Disney Concert Hall appearance of 2014 was all about himself, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and what they could do together. The program featured three orchestral showpieces laden with built-in imagery for him to exploit. No daintiness was required. No soloists got in the way. A good time was had by all. Continue reading
We in Southern California are so spoiled. We’ve got amazing weather and a diverse geography with which to enjoy it; where else can you spend a couple of hours surfing in the morning and be snow skiing by lunchtime? We’ve got Vin Scully, two Stanley Cups in three years, and two solid college football teams 13 … Continue reading
With Esa-Pekka Salonen beginning the second week of a three-week residency with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, I thought it was worth sharing this exchange between him and writer Vesa Sirén. This interview was first published a few weeks ago, but it’s still relatively new to me, and unless you follow the Twitter feed of the Finnish-Angeleno … Continue reading
A little bit of Esa-Pekka Salonen is better than none at all. And so it turned out this past week with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The original plan was that the orchestra’s beloved Conductor Laureate was supposed to be at the Hollywood Bowl for two concerts, beginning Tuesday night when he and pianist Yefim Bronfman (long-time … Continue reading
All is Yar 