Author Archives: Alan Rich

John Crosby chose well.An opera coach and conductor, Yale-educated, making his way in New York circles in the early 1950s but suffering under the pace and the bad air of East Coast urban life, Crosby decided that sinuses and sanity … Continue reading →

There’s a lot to be said for symphony concerts controlled by a firm hand at the podium. Once in a while, there’s something to be said as well for concerts in which the audience takes command. Something like that happened … Continue reading →

At intermission at the Hollywood Bowl on Sunday night, the season’s final concert by the Philharmonic Institute Orchestra, Philharmonic managing director Ernest Fleischmann came on stage. He had never, he told 8,725 listeners, come before an audience to ask for … Continue reading →

In a recent published statement a local air-traffic official claimed that the unusual amount of intrusion by planes and helicopters over the Hollywood Bowl was due to an exceptional amount of overcast this summer and the consequent rerouting of landing … Continue reading →

Onstage and out front, Stravinsky, Beethoven and Simon Rattle filled the Hollywood Bowl quite handsomely on Tuesday night. If the Beethoven Ninth can draw one of the season’s largest crowds (17,073, just 900 short of capacity), there’s hope for civilization … Continue reading →

In music-making, more may be merrier, but more is often mellower as well. That theory was nicely put to the test at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday night, when the presence of two orchestras — 200 musicians — sounded at … Continue reading →

As far as one can determine, given the peculiar acoustical and aeronautical atmosphere at the Hollywood Bowl, Michael Morgan is a new arrival very much worth your attention. Morgan, who conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic on Tuesday night in a … Continue reading →

At 10:50 on Sunday the final joyous strains of Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” filled the cool night air at the Hollywood Bowl. Billed variously as a “Mozart Akademie” and a “Mozart Mini-Marathon,” the concert had begun 4 hours and … Continue reading →

Yuri Temirkanov, who conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday night — the fourth of his five appearances here — remains one of the most interesting of contemporary conductors. Perhaps “interesting” conducting wasn’t exactly what Tuesday … Continue reading →

Even when silent, the Getty Museum stands as continuing assurance that civilization abides. Add music, and the proof becomes indisputable.This summer’s Saturday-night series at the Getty (long since sold out) is, unsurprisingly, devoted to Mozart, whose music is the perfect … Continue reading →