Category Archives: A Little Night Music

In Japan, an estimable guidebook informs us, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is the end-of-the-year music of choice, even ahead of “Auld Lang Syne” in public affection. “Concert performances are held everywhere,” we are told, “and many amateur singers look forward to … Continue reading →

Certain performances go beyond mere greatness; they serve to define both the music and the act of perceiving it. This is, of course, a personal matter; you cherish your list of defining events, and I cherish mine. I can never … Continue reading →

Photo by Peter Mountain First there was the promise: “Operalia,” Plácido Domingo’s contest teeming with enough spectacular young singing talent to run half a dozen opera companies. Then there was fulfillment: Aïda at long last, imperfectly sung but strongly led; … Continue reading →

Finally Aida, worth the wait if not quite worth the weight. The auspices are splendid: the 15th opening night for a company that some had predicted wouldn’t reach its second; the inaugural effort for a new artistic director, and, for … Continue reading →

By late August, most of my crack-pot enthusiasm about the Hollywood Bowl and its contents has worn pretty thin. On Tuesday of last week, for example, I took it as a reprieve that the day of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony dawned … Continue reading →

To my generation of budding musicologists, ardently perusing the heavily footnoted scholarly literature on Bach and Before, Dave Brubeck was the bridge to What Lay Beyond, the first jazz performer we could listen to and still preserve our self-respect. Himself … Continue reading →

The best operatic performance I’ve seen this year took place not in Los Angeles, Long Beach or Costa Mesa, but in Santa Barbara. There, since 1947, the Music Academy of the West has topped its summer festival with some kind … Continue reading →

Phopto by Christian Steiner There is a magical moment – one of many, actually – midway in the first movement of Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony. The orchestra has come through a furious battle punctuated by shrieks and howls, horrendous offbeat accents … Continue reading →

Anyone who attended the Glynde-bourne Festival Opera‘s 1996 production of Handel’s Theodora is probably still talking about it; the event has assumed the stature of legend. Now we all can sample its splendors; the complete performance is finally available on … Continue reading →

The concert at the Getty Center two weekends ago, the second of three events this summer tied into museum exhibits, came as close to perfection as any since . . . well, since the last time I saw Michael Eagan’s … Continue reading →