Category Archives: A Little Night Music

At the season’s final classical concert at the Hollywood Bowl last month, Yo-Yo Ma was the marvelous soloist in John Tavener’s 48-minute The Protecting Veil, with Jeffrey Kahane and his Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; at the end, the crowd of … Continue reading →

Andre Previn’s score is bland and derivative; Philip Littell’s libretto reduces the play to a skeleton; Colin Graham’s staging is busy and hectic. Still, a fair portion of the blame for the failure of the San Francisco Opera’s A Streetcar … Continue reading →

Two French operas back to back: mon dieu! Does this spell the end of the Puccini hegemony at the L.A. Opera? Not quite, I fear; despite a substantial sop to kick off the company’s 13th season – and the ominous … Continue reading →

America was still savoring the triumph of the first moon landing, that summer of 1969, when the terrible thing happened at Chappaquiddick and the air darkened perceptibly. Soon after, the garish glory of Woodstock confirmed the fall of the curtain, … Continue reading →

Against the taunts of the nonbelievers, I cling to the premise that a night at the Hollywood Bowl, even for the Tuesday/Thursday “serious” programs, can be a joyous, even uplifting, event. Some nights this summer, however, I’ve had to cling … Continue reading →

Somebody had the good idea to initiate a series of Sunday-morning chamber concerts at the idyllic John Anson Ford Amphitheater. It’s the right time of the day, and of the week, to let our ears be wooed by the subtle … Continue reading →

The ethics of full disclosure oblige me to reveal up front that I wrote the program notes for one of the concerts reviewed in this space. The fee I received, every penny, went for a root canal. If that doesn’t … Continue reading →

In a world overpopulated by fiddling moppets – dimpled teen and subteen virtuosos who wow the crowds with Bruch and Wieniawski concertos for a couple of years and then disappear into the woodwork – 51-year-old Gidon Kremer stands as honored … Continue reading →

Here’s a new name for you: Emil Frantisek Burian, Czech composer (1904-59), imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp but survived, journalist, socialist activist and experimental stage director. A recording on ECM of Burian’s Fourth Quartet, composed in 1947, marks his … Continue reading →

It’s entirely possible that Gustav Mahler did not compose his Second Symphony with the Hollywood Bowl in mind; yet the two artifacts, the grandiose hullabaloo of a symphony from 1894 and the performance space imposed upon some impressive Cahuenga Pass … Continue reading →