Category Archives: A Little Night Music

Paul Dresher turns 50 on January 8 and plans to celebrate in his favorite way, surrounded by other musicians on a stage. Specifically, he will join the California EAR Unit at LACMA, in the last of the museum‘s “Focus on … Continue reading →

It’s not pleasant, witnessing the gradual retreat of the classical-record industry from artistic significance to blandness and the spread of the notion that serious music won‘t hurt you if you don’t listen too hard. Retreads predominate: Romantico Domingo, The Ultimate … Continue reading →

Over two recent weeks I heard 14 works by composers of the century just ended (or just ending, if you’re one of those), spread through six programs. Herewith, a slightly out-of-breath report on these concerts, in reverse chronological order. December … Continue reading →

AndrAs Schiff began his recent Philharmonic stint with Bach‘s D-minor Concerto, seated at the keyboard of a 9-foot concert grand piano with the lid removed, conducting a properly small contingent of string players. I’ve been around long enough to remember … Continue reading →

By accident or design, the past few days‘ musical offerings added up to an impressive sweep through a varied American music — a festival in everything but name. Famous antagonists — Aaron Copland and John Cage, say — came onto … Continue reading →

Conventional wisdom about Aaron Copland is that he is America‘s best “serious” composer so far. Already, however, we’re in trouble; that term “serious” is part of the arts vocabulary rendered meaningless by contemporary realities. What, for example, is the current … Continue reading →

Bertrand Desprez Five years ago I used some of this space to exult over my discovery of the French composer Pascal Dusapin at his first appearance on disc – a pseudo-operatic gloss on the Medea legend in a Harmonia Mundi … Continue reading →

I had forgotten — if, indeed, I ever knew — the somber, deep beauties of On Wenlock Edge. Nothing of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ music, I must confess, has been a boon companion the past few years, perhaps as my expiation … Continue reading →

Only 16 years (1945–1961) separate Benjamin Britten‘s Peter Grimes from his War Requiem; they are alike in many ways but different in many more. Hearing them both on the same day, last Saturday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, underlined their … Continue reading →

There is comfort in the news that millenniums don‘t occur very often. The accumulated ”Year 2000“ observances already loom large, and there is no guarantee that the year 2001 — which some sticklers insist is the real turning point — … Continue reading →