Category Archives: A Little Night Music

Photo by Josef AstorBIT BY BIT Thirty-three short pieces made up the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra’s program at Disney Hall last week: 29 orchestral bits by Rameau and Handel, and four Handel arias. I would not have spared a single one. … Continue reading →

A MANY-FINGERED THING Emanuel Ax (who likes to be called “Manny”) has been in our midst quite a lot this season, to our great pleasure and, I hope, his. At the Disney Hall first-night gala he turned up with five … Continue reading →

ESA-PEKKA IN EXCELSIS If anyone needed further confirmation of the strengths of Esa-Pekka Salonen, and his success in sharing those strengths with the musical life of this city, the events of the past week should answer any lingering questions. Those … Continue reading →

GOLD-SPUTTERED MASTERY The eloquent blurb writers at Naxos, the little record label that could, have been lighting the sky lately with pronouncements on their latest reissued treasure, the first-ever recording (or so they say) of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, newly … Continue reading →

Photo by Robert MillardMUD AND SUGAR If there must be Gounod – a point I will argue – let it be thus. The mud and sugar of his Roméo et Juliette do not entirely disappear behind the splendor of the … Continue reading →

Photo by Robert MillardTHE THEATRICAL DIMENSION Nearly a century separates the two beguilements installed at the Music Center in recent weeks: Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida of the 1870s and Luciano Berio’s Laborintus II of 1965. Nobody would mistake the style or … Continue reading →

Photo by Alice Arnold Steve Reich’s You Are (Variations), the Master Chorale’s gleaming new acquisition unveiled at Disney Hall last weekend under Grant Gershon’s proud direction, starts off on congenial ground. We are immediately thrust among old friends: the Reich … Continue reading →

Every opera company needs Carmen as the “C” to complete the “A” (Aida) and the “B” (La Bohème) of the essential repertory; this season our local forces are providing the full complement. Do not mistake that out of hand, however, … Continue reading →

BY A COINCIDENCE of trifling importance, the Los Angeles Opera’s two music directors – Kent Nagano present and James Conlon future – turn up on disc releases this month. By further coincidence, both works are musical turkeys: clumsy, noisy choral … Continue reading →

ON A RECENT SATURDAY the euphoria downtown was something you could walk on: a ninth-inning grand-slam home run at Dodger Stadium, a brand-new bundle of organ pipes down the hill at Disney Hall. With the Dodgers’ joy, and their pipe-dream-come-true … Continue reading →