Category Archives: A Little Night Music

All Fours Two nights of high musical adventure at the start of the month were reason enough for gratitude: to the dauntless, imaginative programming and performance skills of the Penderecki String Quartet, and to the leadership of the County Museum, … Continue reading →

Photo by Betty FriedmanBY GEORGE The Pacific Symphony’s American Composers Festival is a class act if ever one was. The fifth running, which ended last weekend, may have been a lumpier mix than some, but it brought some interesting music … Continue reading →

BOY-OH-BOY We have yet to experience the pleasure of observing Susan Graham in action on the operatic stage, but her solo recital at the Chandler Pavilion, from first note to last, was an event of high and delightful theater. “First … Continue reading →

Blini Three orchestras held the Disney stage on successive evenings last week, diverse in program offerings and in musical language. Two of the groups were of symphony-orchestra size (100 or so); the other numbered 10. In Disney’s acoustic splendor, all … Continue reading →

Rhapsodic Hungarians Seldom had the Brahms First Symphony sounded more turgid, more irrelevant, than at the end of last week’s Philharmonic concert. Preceding that hapless work, visiting conductor Iván Fischer – master programmer, he – had set the air aglow … Continue reading →

THE LEVEL FIELD Christian Zacharias’ midseason visits to the Philharmonic have a cleansing effect: the right music at the right time. His luggage is filled with 18th-century music: Mozart and Haydn and their pals, symphonies and concertos. He furloughs the … Continue reading →

Photo by Craig SchwartzGURGLE Tan Dun flows endlessly on. The week that brought his Water Passion After St. Matthew to Disney Hall through the admirable efforts of Grant Gershon’s Master Chorale was also adorned by recent releases on Deutsche Grammophon … Continue reading →

WHOLLY MONSTROUS AND MAD Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (known to his friends as Max) lives on, at least in this country, but barely. His several symphonies, massive works that once enjoyed the attention of Simon Rattle, seem to have disappeared … Continue reading →

CONVERSATIONS Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony is so seldom played that every new hearing becomes a trove of rediscovered delights; so was it with the Philharmonic last week. The orchestra, just back from its weeklong conquest of Cologne (read the reviews if … Continue reading →

BANG BANG On comparing the body count before and after intermission at last Thursday’s concert, it was clear that the latest visit by the reigning superpianist Lang Lang, rather than the interesting orchestral offerings by the China Philharmonic Orchestra, had … Continue reading →