WEEKEND REVIEWS : Music : Kawakubo, Glendale Symphony
BY TIMOTHY MANGAN
MAY 6, 1991 12 AM PT
It takes time for a conductor to develop a rapport with an orchestra. If the Glendale Symphony’s concert Saturday night at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion is fair evidence, then Lalo Schifrin, now two years into his music directorship, needs more of it.
In an old-fashioned program more typical of 1890s London than 1990s Los Angeles, Schifrin led his orchestra in undistinguished, often messy run-throughs.
So it remained for 11-year-old violinist Tamaki Kawakubo to steal the spotlight. In her performance of Edouard Lalo’s “Symphonie Espagnole,” she exhibited enthusiasm and an almost nonchalant technique. Kawakubo is no automaton. Though her musical expression is still imitative, the gusto of her delivery imparts a style that is refreshingly unprecocious.
Schifrin closed with a ‘Wagner Spectacular” that included a contrapuntally quagmired “Die Meistersinger” Prelude, a disheveled “Tannhauser” Overture and a fast, ill-balanced Ride of the Valkyries, played twice. He opened with what is thankfully a rarity these days, the “Bacchanale” from Saint-Saens’ “Samson et Delila.”
May 6, 1991
Ozu and Schumann
This pairing of a sequence from a silent film directed by Yasujiro Ozu with the music of Robert Schumann is magical.
Review: New chamber group debuts at the Barclay
New Chamber Group Debuts at the Barclay. Voice of OC, June 28, 2021.
Schumann on ‘Frasier’
The following once transpired on network television.
Things are going real bad for Dr. Frasier Crane. His high-school reunion is coming up and he’s unemployed, unmarried and without a date. To alleviate the first circumstance, he goes to a job interview but blows it big time.
Enter Frasier’s dad and brother Niles into Frasier’s apartment.
He is nowhere to be seen. Daphne, the English house servant, approaches.
Daphne: Am I glad you’re home.
Dad: What’s wrong?
Daphne: It’s Dr. Crane. Ever since he came back from his job interview he’s seemed awfully depressed. In fact, he’s as bad as I’ve ever seen him.
Niles (concerned): Oh, I guess it didn’t go well?
Daphne: Oh, I gather not. He mumbled something about it being worse than the Dresden premiere of Schumann’s Second Symphony.
Niles (now frantic): And you left him alone?!
Review: Pacific Symphony launches series of pandemic concerts online
Review: Pacific Symphony Launches Series of Pandemic Concerts Online. Voice of OC, Feb. 27, 2021
Some local music events in 2021
The arts and culture writers at Voice of OC look ahead to the coming year. I contributed the music events.
What’s Coming in Local Arts and Culture in 2021. Voice of OC, Jan. 1, 2021.
Jeremy Denk gives live streamed recital at Irvine Barclay Theatre
Review: Jeremy Denk Hits the Right Notes in Streamed Performance. Voice of OC, Nov. 23, 2020.
Philharmonic Society cobbles together a COVID season
Philharmonic Society Cobbles Together a COVID Season, Looks Forward to Live Events in January. Voice of OC, Nov. 11, 2020.
Review: Pacific Chorale releases video of Bobby McFerrin’s ‘Psalm 23’
Review: Pacific Chorale Dips Its Toe Back into Performing with a Soothing Psalm for COVID Times. Voice of OC, Sept. 29, 2020.
The Teletubbies meet Stravinsky
Brilliant.
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