Category Archives: A Little Night Music

Leonard Bernstein, the story goes, once described Olivier Messiaen as ”God‘s cocktail pianist.“ Cute and to the point, I guess, but I wonder how many of His bar patrons would hang out, ordering refills, with Messiaen at the keyboard walloping … Continue reading →

The Philharmonic’s Stravinsky Festival is at its midpoint as I write. That the performances have been splendid is, of course, a given; something in Esa-Pekka Salonen’s own lively curiosity, his way of reacting to musical adventure of high audacity, the … Continue reading →

In 48 B.C. or thereabouts, some kind of hanky-panky may or may not have occurred between Julius Caesar, conqueror of Egypt, and Cleopatra, claimant to that country‘s throne. Caesar was 52 at the time; Cleopatra was 20. Several centuries later, … Continue reading →

When Marino Formenti gave his first piano recital at LACMA’s Bing Theater last April, there were something like 50 people scattered through the 600-seat hall — the usual turnout, in other words, for a new-music program at the Museum. Two … Continue reading →

On a rainy night last week I fell in love with Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. Really, I mean, in love. I heard the first drumbeats as if they came from my own throbbing temples; the opening music for winds was smooth, … Continue reading →

Threaded like a litany though the recent writing about John Adams — of which there has been considerable, local and national — is the proclamation of him as the most “accessible” of contemporary composers. Surely the term has the ring … Continue reading →

Reviving Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King was the latest of XTET‘s many good deeds. Perhaps this hardy band of local freelance players, founded in 1986, should have been renamed “IXTET Plus Conductor and Stage DirectorDesigner” for … Continue reading →

A week that offers both The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni is twice blessed; this happened last week not in Vienna or London, but right here. There were noticeable dissimilarities between the L.A. Opera’s Figaro at the Music Center … Continue reading →

The Philharmonic’s final con-cert of the old year began with Lou Harrison‘s Suite for Violin, Piano and Small Orchestra, magic made audible. James DePreist conducted, replacing the indisposed Franz Welser-Most; Robert McDuffie and Christopher Taylor were the soloists. The 10-member … Continue reading →

The year ended with fitting resonance. At Westwood’s St. Paul the Apostle Church, Dana Marsh was back for a last time to lead his boys, men, soloists and Michael Eagan‘s Musica Angelica in one more superb Messiah before embarking for … Continue reading →