Writing about music, like the art itself, is alive and well in this country.
Blini Three orchestras held the Disney stage on successive evenings last week, diverse in program offerings and in musical language. Two of the groups were of symphony-orchestra size (100 or so); the other numbered 10. In Disney’s acoustic splendor, all three produced, when called for, prodigious varieties of wondrous sound. I didn’t hear a deathless [...]
Rhapsodic Hungarians Seldom had the Brahms First Symphony sounded more turgid, more irrelevant, than at the end of last week’s Philharmonic concert. Preceding that hapless work, visiting conductor Iván Fischer – master programmer, he – had set the air aglow at Disney Hall with the music of Brahms’ own birthright: the rhythms and harmonies of [...]
THE LEVEL FIELD Christian Zacharias’ midseason visits to the Philharmonic have a cleansing effect: the right music at the right time. His luggage is filled with 18th-century music: Mozart and Haydn and their pals, symphonies and concertos. He furloughs the orchestra’s heavy brass and the strings’ back-desk players; he stands among the musicians on floor [...]
Alan's Poppies and Sage, photographed by Paul Cabanis, Spring 2010.