Author Archives: Alan Rich

To Any Lengths Gustav Mahler has some goddamn chutzpah. Envious of my general good feelings at the evening’s start, he rams a solo trumpet into my ear to kick off his Fifth Symphony. “These are my neuroses, my Weltkvetch,” he … Continue reading →

I Love Wolfgang A recent New York Times Science section had a QA about music and emotion. “Why is it,” asked Q, “that particularly beautiful music gives me goose bumps or even makes me cry?” “It’s because,” answered A, “of … Continue reading →

Infinite Variety Even if he weren’t one of the finest performers on his chosen instrument anywhere in today’s musical world, Yo-Yo Ma would stand apart. Fame rests upon his shoulders as a benevolent aura. His recent appearance at the Hollywood … Continue reading →

Waist Not, Want Not I may have the measurements slightly off here, but it seems to me that Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto and the Hollywood Bowl are artworks of about the same size, and were actually made for one another. … Continue reading →

Photo by Jim ArndtFinished Symphonies Aaron Copland’s Third Symphony, on at the Hollywood Bowl last week, was the most significant out-of-the-way music in this summer’s Bowl programming. It dates from a time when the notion of the Great American Symphony … Continue reading →

Donkey’s Ears Every year around this time I start keeping a yellow pad close at hand, to jot down all the reasons why classical music at the Hollywood Bowl is a totally unworkable proposition. The list is long and sad; … Continue reading →

Ringlets They knew how to do things then. Opening night, 1938, at the Hollywood Bowl consisted of nothing less than Wagner’s Die Walküre, four hours plus, with Valkyries on horseback careening down the verdant nearby hills. The legendary Maria Jeritza … Continue reading →

Dorrance Stalvey, who single-handedly planned, directed and managed the Monday Evening Concerts at L.A. County Museum of Art since 1971, died Sunday at 75, after a yearlong illness, while the following words were being written. His passing, while not unexpected, … Continue reading →

Britten as Written Considering that Henry James wrote The Turn of the Screw for Collier’s Weekly, a popular fiction magazine in 1898 as it was until its demise some 60 years later, his ghost story has borne the weight of … Continue reading →

WORDS BECOME MUSIC The sound of Frances-Marie Uitti’s cello resonates in the bloodstream. She would have it so; she has devoted considerable time and effort to enhancing the seductive throb of her instrument – developing a cello with six strings, … Continue reading →