Author Archives: Alan Rich

Henry Brant is on my conscience. Nimble, animated, instantly lovable in his sunglasses and engineer’s cap, this 91-year-old sprite talks about his music, and talks and talks. He is, let’s face it, cute, and the crowd eats him up; it … Continue reading →

There is no ballet in Verdi’s Il Trovatore as composed in 1853; one was added, to accord with the demands of Parisian taste, for Le Trouvère in 1857, its music an anonymous hodgepodge of garish re-orchestrations of parts of the … Continue reading →

Spain’s music is the art of the soloist, and Jordi Savall’s old instruments sing it well. He brought some of this music to the Getty Center two weekends ago with his ensemble, Hespérion “I, and it was a fine occasion. … Continue reading →

The Goldbergs on a 9-foot concert grand at Disney; Hildegard von Bingen among the Presbyterians in Pasadena: What price authenticity now? Actually, the term is a land mine, and has always been. I have lived through three kinds of Goldberg … Continue reading →

Photo by Betty Freeman “Cherish the hybrids,” Lou Harrison used to say, and say again, as a kind of mantra. “They’re all we’ve got.” Two big works, 33 years apart in the infinite variety of his legacy, were on hand … Continue reading →

In three concerts over eight days, the excellent Penderecki String Quartet – visitors from Canada despite their chosen namesake – re-created the life span of one of the past century’s giants: Béla Bartók, through his six quartets. Though he never … Continue reading →

Photo by Friedrun Reinhold If I tell you that my favorite disc of recent months contains over an hour’s worth of three-minute bursts of the same kind of music, seven centuries old and built on principles in no way related … Continue reading →

On Tuesday of last week, and again on Friday, Alfred Brendel – current patron saint of thinking piano aficionados – played music by the usual dead Viennese (Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert) in the usual concert garb (white tie, tails) to the … Continue reading →

Matthias Goerne, who has spent some quality time with us at Disney Hall over the past two weeks, is a transfixing musical presence. As dramatic baritones go, he is at 37 barely dry behind the ears, but he has already … Continue reading →

Photo by Diane Alancraig Two events on last week’s crowded calendar, with music created eons apart, came agreeably close to whatever it is that people can define as “perfection.” One was Gloria Cheng’s piano concert in Santa Monica on Saturday, … Continue reading →