Category Archives: A Little Night Music

Is there anything about the composer John Adams that still needs writing down? The critics have surely had their say: Mark Swed in the Los Angeles Times, Alex Ross in the eloquent epigram to his important book (The Rest Is … Continue reading →

The bad news from Paris, earlier this year, was fair warning; The Fly, which had first taken flight at the Chtelet Opera, is one big turkey. At the press conference in Mrs. Chandler’s Pavilion, a week or so ago, there … Continue reading →

“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 →

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 →

The Last Romantic Helmut Lachenmann cuts a solitary figure in today’s musical world. At a time when much of the talk centers on accessibility, on a generation of composer-heroes – Adams, Adès, Reich, Saariaho, Salonen, just for starters – who … Continue reading →

Before There Was Ambien The air was full of memories at the season finale of the “Piano Spheres” concerts last week; the music was too. Ursula Oppens was the pianist – “Oyssla,” as Morty Feldman always called her in his … Continue reading →

Don’t Feed the Animals More of the same: The new guy has come and gone after his two-week Philharmonic guest shot, leaving behind echoes of adoration and tumults of anticipation – next Disney gig: November 24 – and memories of … Continue reading →

Genius, Age 27 He’s real, he’s ours: Gustavo Dudamel. You could almost say they were made for each other, even to a similarity of hairdo – Hector Berlioz, who astounded musical society with his Symphonie Fantastique at the age of … Continue reading →

Not So StinkyEduard Hanslick, a.k.a. Beckmesser, cast one of his notorious thunderbolts in the direction of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in 1881 when the ink on its mss. was barely dry, and generations of us hot-pen scriveners have feasted on his … Continue reading →

Good Old Sir Harry Composer Harrison Birtwistle Two of the world’s most endearing originals showed up at the most recent Monday Evening Concert – their music did, at least. One was Ralph Shapey, long gone but long remembered by us … Continue reading →