The four weekends of concerts by the Los Angeles Philharmonic this past January were noteworthy for three reasons: the diversity of programming, the quality of playing, and that the first three conductors — Bramwell Tovey, Zubin Mehta, and Lionel Bringuier — once held titled positions with the orchestra while the fourth, Gustavo Dudamel, is the LA Phil’s current … Continue reading
The London Symphony, 111-year old bastion of UK musical institutions famed for its virtuosity and flexibility, is an orchestra in transition. The peripatetic Valery Gergiev remains its official Principal Conductor through the end of this year, but the LSO created a big splash earlier this month when it announced that Simon Rattle will become its Music … Continue reading
If you had to pick nine symphonies — no more, no less — by different composers to include as part of a proverbial desert island survival kit, what would they be? I asked myself this question just for grins over the recent Christmas & New Year’s break. Nine has been a magical number of sorts for … 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
Continuing my efforts to clear my mental backlog of things I’ve wanted to write about during the past two weeks but couldn’t, below are my (slightly abridged) thoughts on three Los Angeles Philharmonic concerts from last week, specifically: Gustavo Dudamel’s multimedia concert featuring Ravel and Knussen The first Green Umbrella concert of the year, with … Continue reading
I visited Texas a few months ago, driving from city to city as I made my way across the state. On the leg from Dallas to Houston, I found myself chasing one of those Texas-sized storms, the kind of which we just don’t get in California: lightning bolts flashing back and forth across the sky … Continue reading
All is Yar 