Category Archives: A Little Night Music

Photo by Friedrun Reinhold If I tell you that my favorite disc of recent months contains over an hour’s worth of three-minute bursts of the same kind of music, seven centuries old and built on principles in no way related … Continue reading →

On Tuesday of last week, and again on Friday, Alfred Brendel – current patron saint of thinking piano aficionados – played music by the usual dead Viennese (Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert) in the usual concert garb (white tie, tails) to the … Continue reading →

Matthias Goerne, who has spent some quality time with us at Disney Hall over the past two weeks, is a transfixing musical presence. As dramatic baritones go, he is at 37 barely dry behind the ears, but he has already … Continue reading →

Photo by Diane Alancraig Two events on last week’s crowded calendar, with music created eons apart, came agreeably close to whatever it is that people can define as “perfection.” One was Gloria Cheng’s piano concert in Santa Monica on Saturday, … Continue reading →

Photo by Heny Fair In its several years’ existence, the Pacific Symphony’s American Composers Festival has staked out a broad and interesting territory, while expanding the very scope of its title: Aaron Copland at the movies, Antonin Dvorák in New … Continue reading →

Photo by Dewey Neild With a name like Steven Stucky, he has to be good, and so he is. Since his arrival at the Philharmonic in 1988, his official titles have included composer in residence, new-music adviser and, at present, … Continue reading →

(Photo by Betty Freeman) In the music of Osvaldo Golijov I hear a robust proclamation of joy in the creative act. It is a mere dozen years since he first flashed across the horizon with his Yiddishbuk – which, by … Continue reading →

Photo by Robert Millard Of the two composers named Strauss – unrelated, so far as anyone knows – who commanded the attention at downtown emporia in recent weeks, it was Richard who generated the louder noise and Johann Jr. who … Continue reading →

There was a time in China, Chen Yi remembers, when playing Paganini on your violin – or Mozart or Beethoven – could land you in a labor prison, with your instrument confiscated or burned. “I was about 13,” she says, … Continue reading →

In Orange County last November, a production of Madama Butterfly opened on a stageful of bustle: a consular office in old Nagasaki with secretaries at typewriters, young Japanese clerks pushing papers around, girls singing “Quanti fiori!” with nary a flower … Continue reading →