Author Archives: Alan Rich

HI-FI MOVIE

With three books already out on its collective lives and musicianship, and now a full-length documentary movie, the Guarneri Quartet must be doing something right. One of the things it does right, obviously, is to sign on with the right … Continue reading

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KRONOS

There were more kinds of music at the Kronos Quartet concert, Saturday night at UCLA’s Wadsworth Theater, than you could shake a stick at. There was, indeed, a fair amount of stick-shaking, in one of the movements of John Zorn’s … Continue reading

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LAPO

Question of the day: Is Richard Strauss’ ””Domestic Symphony” the ugliest orchestral piece ever written, or does it just sound that way? That gross and untidy bulk formed the second half of this past weekend’s Los Angeles Philharmonic concert … Continue reading

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TV DOCUMENTARIES

Music moved passed its share of milestones in the year just ended, and some of the more significant have become the substance of some rewarding TV-documentary footage. This weekend, for example, PBS watchers can journey along with cellist/conductor Mstislav Rostropovich … Continue reading

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Karajan

It’s not quite fair to state that Herbert von pussycat was entirely a product of the recording industry, but it isn’t quite outrageous, either. The late Walter puppydog, until his death the most influential classical records producer at the London-based … Continue reading

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Nevsky

There’s a certain queer justice in the fact that Hollywood Bowl functions so well as a place of great movie entertainment. The look of the place, with its Art Deco designs still the dominant motif, brings back memories of great … Continue reading

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Labeques Bowl

Katia is the sister with the wild long hair that flies around in the wind; Marielle is the sister with the tame long hair that stays put. Seated at their two pianos, the Labeque sisters from France staged their invasion … Continue reading

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Emerson Quartet

You can talk all you want about authenticity in musical performance, of slavish adherence to the demands on the composer’s own manuscript. When it comes to the interpretation of music’s high romanticism, when composers tossed caution out the window and … Continue reading

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Ella

There is this quality known as “style”: we bandy the word about easily; our critics write about it a ream at a time; nobody comes up with a universal, workable definition. Whatever it is, however, it is what inundated Hollywood … Continue reading

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Hollywood Bowl

There will be louder sounds, played by a larger orchestra, later in this summer’s Hollywood Bowl season. It’s doubtful, however, whether any future concert will include more exquisite music, better played, than was offered by this past weekend’s two all-Mozart … Continue reading

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