Category Archives: A Little Night Music

Photo by Dan PorgesShake Ernest Fleischmann summoned me to lunch a few weeks ago, to share the following concern: Under no circumstances, stated Ernest in his familiar brook-no-opposition tones, was I to miss the forthcoming Hollywood Bowl engagement of the … Continue reading →

Marni Nixon is probably best known as the voice of Audrey Hepburn’s Eliza Doolittle in the film version of My Fair Lady. She continues her own stage career as well – most recently in a nationwide tour as Frau Schneider … Continue reading →

More or Less Offenbach at the L.A. Opera in the hands of Garry Marshall . . . need I go on? Doom descends even before a note is sounded, when a smarmy character, gotten up to impersonate composer Jacques Offenbach … Continue reading →

Photo by Betty FreemanBoy Wonderful At 35, Thomas Adès continues to surprise, delight, mystify and elude me. If I had my way, everyone on the planet would own the new EMI recording of his recent Piano Quintet, as the indisputable … Continue reading →

To Any Lengths Gustav Mahler has some goddamn chutzpah. Envious of my general good feelings at the evening’s start, he rams a solo trumpet into my ear to kick off his Fifth Symphony. “These are my neuroses, my Weltkvetch,” he … Continue reading →

I Love Wolfgang A recent New York Times Science section had a QA about music and emotion. “Why is it,” asked Q, “that particularly beautiful music gives me goose bumps or even makes me cry?” “It’s because,” answered A, “of … Continue reading →

Infinite Variety Even if he weren’t one of the finest performers on his chosen instrument anywhere in today’s musical world, Yo-Yo Ma would stand apart. Fame rests upon his shoulders as a benevolent aura. His recent appearance at the Hollywood … Continue reading →

Waist Not, Want Not I may have the measurements slightly off here, but it seems to me that Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto and the Hollywood Bowl are artworks of about the same size, and were actually made for one another. … Continue reading →

Photo by Jim ArndtFinished Symphonies Aaron Copland’s Third Symphony, on at the Hollywood Bowl last week, was the most significant out-of-the-way music in this summer’s Bowl programming. It dates from a time when the notion of the Great American Symphony … Continue reading →

Donkey’s Ears Every year around this time I start keeping a yellow pad close at hand, to jot down all the reasons why classical music at the Hollywood Bowl is a totally unworkable proposition. The list is long and sad; … Continue reading →