Author Archives: Alan Rich

Anna Ruzena Sprotte

TO LAWEEKLY FROM ALAN RICH HOLLYWOOD BOWL FOR BEST OF L.A. 1999 HED: THE DOINGS AT DAISY DELL           They called it Daisy Dell back then, and if anyone wanted to compile a “best of L.A.” compendium around, say, 1907, … Continue reading

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Hell and Farewell

The Scuttling of KCSN (?)  Rumors now abound from high in that the University  has decided to sell KCSN the excellent little  station for which the University holds the broadcast license – perhaps by as early as July 1st.. As … Continue reading

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Paul

MATTERS ORGANIC Paul Jacobs was in town on Friday; great lunch at Engine 28. He is bound and determined to convert me into the ranks of organ-music devotees, but then the conversation turns to items such as the Saint-Saëns Organ … Continue reading

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Chutzpah Under the Sycamores: Ojai Music Festival

“How was Ojai?” you will ask, and the answer – as in every one of the past 61 years – remains the same: “Same old, same old – and wonderful.” The report usually starts with weather: drizzle some years; this … Continue reading

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La Rondine at L.A. Opera

MAGDA DOES JOAN: “La Rondine” is with us again,  Puccini’s elegant snore, with Marta Domingo’s tinkerings in place to confuse what is already inadequate in the dramatic resolution and with Michael Scott’s Coney Island Merry-Go-Round of an Act-Two stage set … Continue reading

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More on Ojai

THE LATEST FROM OJAI: I’m writing this a few hours after one of the best Ojai Festival concerts ever, the best kind of program for that special place. It began with high-class noise: Steve Reich’s “Clapping Music,” his early (1972) … Continue reading

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Ojai Festival Day 1

Ojai again. After 62 years, nothing surprises. Thirty-five years ago a Carnegie Hall audience rose up in revolt at the minimalist nothingness of Steve Reich’s “Four Organs”;  Last night there were whoops and cheers of joy and celebrations. Reich is … Continue reading

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soiveheard#6

WHERE SOMETIMES IS HEARD A DISCOURAGING WORD: The trials of KCSN, the plucky, valuable station attached but somewhat dangling at Cal State Northridge, continue. This letter was recently sent to all listeners complaining that the station had abandoned its fund-raising … Continue reading

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soiveheard #5

BEST OF ALL…I seriously doubt if any place on earth could provide a more intellectually stimulating and , ultimately satisfying musical  week  than the one we’ve just had here in Los Angeles and its environs. It began out on the … Continue reading

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A Street Musician's Symphonic Movement

Back in September 1964, Jascha Heifetz, the formidable fiddler, was attempting an ill-advised comeback recital at Carnegie Hall. The crowd out front was enormous, and it naturally included many people with long faces hoping for a turned-back ticket to this … Continue reading

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