A Donizetti opera — and probably a good one — will finally have its premiere, 180 years late. … The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra has named a new music director. … And so has the San Diego Symphony. … What’s
Pacific Symphony: March concerts
Here’s your quick roundup of Pacific Symphony events in the month of March, mobile-friendly and with links to tickets. There will be a total of 12 presentations. Chief among them will be concerts previewing the orchestra’s first tour of China
Audio: Klemperer conducts the Overture to ‘Cosi fan tutte’
Since you liked the last one so much, we thought we’d share another. Here’s Otto Klemperer conducting the New Philharmonia Orchestra in Mozart’s Overture to “Cosi fan tutte.” This was recorded in 1971, late in Klemperer’s life. The ensemble is
Interview: Carl St.Clair remembers Leonard Bernstein (Part 2)
While Bernstein invariably called St.Clair “Cowboy,” St.Clair called Bernstein “Mr. B.” This was St.Clair’s own coinage (taken up by others) and a response to Bernstein’s mock protest one day, his hands around St.Clair’s neck and exclaiming, “Stop calling me Mr.
Interview: Carl St.Clair remembers Leonard Bernstein (Part 1)
By TIMOTHY MANGAN Carl St.Clair was sitting at a table outside a popular cafe in downtown Laguna Beach when we met with him the other day. He had musical scores spread out on the table in front of him, and
Director’s note for ‘The Magic Flute’
“The Magic Flute” is Mozart’s final opera and one of his last compositions. It premiered in Vienna in September 1791 and Mozart died a mere two months later. Despite being sick, hungry, broke and altogether miserable, Mozart’s music is some
Audio: Klemperer conducts the Overture to ‘The Magic Flute’
Here’s one of my favorite recordings of Mozart’s Overture to “The Magic Flute,” with the Philharmonia conducted by Otto Klemperer. It’s stately but never heavy, and finely detailed. https://ia801709.us.archive.org/23/items/MagicFluteOvertureklemperer/1-01Mozart_DieZauberflteK620-Overture.mp3 Carl St.Clair and Pacific Symphony give three semi-staged performances of “The
The daily routine of a master musician
Every artist should develop some sort of daily routine to further his or her art. Here, below, is the daily routine of the Swedish conductor/composer/trombonist Christian Lindberg. Regimented and extreme but effective, no doubt. And he seems a happy chap.
Symphonic progressivism, 1896
I came across the program above quite by chance the other day, during another search (I don’t even remember what I was looking for). It’s rather astounding. In our own time, symphony orchestras have come to be seen as conservative
Janacek: Sinfonietta
Trumpets, lots of trumpets. I like how the cameraman slowly reveals them. Rafael Kubelik conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in the first two movements of Janacek’s wondrous Sinfonietta.