The importance of Leonard Bernstein will be discussed again and again this year, the centennial of his birth. The multitalented musician can be a little hard to pin down, though, because he did so many things so well (and not
Student tickets for $10
Did you know that if you are a student you can attend most Pacific Symphony concerts for less than the price of a movie? These are not Rush tickets. You’ll have them before you arrive. Join the orchestra’s Student Rewards
Video: Xenakis, with audience
Would you buy a ticket to this? The piece is “Terretektorh” for 88 musicians (1966) by the Greek avant-garde composer Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001). The orchestra is supposed to “scatter” itself among the public during a performance, as you see is
Playlist: Some British symphonic music
It was gratifying last week to see the audience’s response to Pacific Symphony’s first performances of Elgar’s Symphony No. 1 (and how well the orchestra played it, under the baton of guest conductor Michael Francis). We don’t get much British
Video: Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2
https://youtu.be/Il95HXvCdH4 Alexander Romanovsky will perform this piece with Pacific Symphony on Feb. 1-4. Meanwhile, you can get it in your ears by listening to Yuja Wang play it with the Berlin Philharmonic, Paavo Jarvi conducting. It’s considered one of the
Video: Elgar conducts Elgar
As Michael Francis conducts Pacific Symphony in its first performances of Elgar’s Symphony No. 1 this weekend, I thought it would be a good time to share this historical film of Elgar himself conducting the “Pomp and Circumstance” March No.
Video: Monteux conducts ‘Le sacre du printemps’
I was listening to this recording again the other night for the first time in a while and was struck by not only how good the performance was but also by how it must be quite close to how this
Pacific Overtures: January
The first newsletter of the new year has arrived … Pacific Overtures. January, 2018.
January vlog update
Here’s my colleague’s January update on Pacific Symphony’s concerts, in video form.
Miscellany
(Curated classical music news and views from around the internet.) Looking for ways to spend that Amazon gift card? The New York Times has an excellent list of the 25 best classical recordings of 2017. … NPR has a list