Stinker

Lisa Hirsch points out this review in the Sacramento Press and rightly calls it a “travesty.”

You have to read it to believe it.

The correction at the end will give you some idea of how completely out of his element the writer was:

“Editor’s Note: The second and fifteenth paragraphs of this article have been amended.  Please note that the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra is not affiliated with Western Health Advantage.  Western Health Advantage only sponsored this particular event. ”

But there are plenty of blunders to go around. I feel sorry for the writer — whether he sought to review the concert or was assigned; he had no business being there.

Read it here

Gardiner-variety Beethoven

I chatted this week with conductor John Eliot Gardiner about his upcoming Beethoven concerts (“Missa Solemnis,” the Ninth) here in O.C.

Click here to read the interview, or pick up a copy of tomorrow’s Orange County Register.

Salonen and the Philharmonia: Five Bs

In today’s Orange County Register online, I review last night’s performance by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Click here to read my review, or pick up a copy of tomorrow’s newspaper.

photo: Benjamin Ealovega

Beethoven guarantee

Want to hear the second (or third) best performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony you’ve ever heard for free?

Here’s how.

1. Buy a ticket to the Philharmonic Society’s presentation of John Eliot Gardiner, the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Monteverdi Choir and soloists performing the work on Nov. 20 in Segerstrom Concert Hall.

2. Afterwards, take your ticket to the Philharmonic Society box office and say, “Well, Gardiner was good, but he’s no Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt” or some such, and the Philharmonic Society will fork over your dough.

That’s right. The Philharmonic Society is offering a money back guarantee to the concert.

“If this is not the best performance of Beethoven’s Ninth you’ve ever heard, you can have your money back,” the Society’s president, Dean Corey, says in a news release. “You have my word on it.”

OK, so, it’s a marketing ploy, but rather a clever one, I think, and one that the Society isn’t likely to lose their shirts on.

Ute Lemper sings with Pacific Symphony

In today’s Orange County Register online, I review Ute Lemper and the Pacific Symphony in a performance of music by Kurt Weill and George Gershwin, and songs made famous by Edith Piaf. It was a disaster, though I tried to be kind.

Click here to read my review, or pick up a copy of tomorrow’s newspaper.

Warsaw wonders

In today’s Orange County Register online, I review last night’s concert given by Antoni Wit and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra (yes, they played some Lutoslawski). The latest winner of Warsaw’s Chopin Competition also performed.

Click here to read my review, or pick up a copy of tomorrow’s newspaper.

Orange County singer wins Met Opera’s Western regionals

O.C. baritone wins Met Opera’s regional contest, The Orange County Register, Nov. 7, 2012.

Click on the link above, or pick up a copy of Friday’s newspaper.

Photo: Courtesy of Chapman University

For Elliott Carter

Elliott Carter (1908-2012) passed away today at 3 p.m. in New York City, according to a news release from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music. He was 103 years old, and still composing to the end.

Lutoslawski in O.C.!

The Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, which visits the Soka Performing Arts Center in Aliso Viejo on Wednesday, has finally announced its full program and a change.

The big news (for me, at least) is that conductor Antoni Wit and ensemble will perform music by the great Witold Lutoslawski. If I’m not mistaken, this is the first time I will have heard a piece by Lutoslawski performed by a professional ensemble here in deepest, darkest Orange County.

OK, so the Warsawites will only be playing the safe and sane “Little Suite,” based on folk music, but it’s a start. (I don’t know the piece and will be doing my due diligence before the concert, but I know it’s a work that won’t ruffle feathers.)

Wit and the orchestra also changed their finale from Brahms’ Second to Dvorak’s Eighth, a substitution I’m all for.

In between, we’ll get a gander at Chopin Competition winner Yulianna Avdeeva in the composer’s F-minor concerto.

It could have been sleepy but wasn’t

In today’s Orange County Register online, I review the piano trio of David Finckel, Philip Setzer and Wu Han performing music by Brahms and Dvorak.

Click here to read my review, or pick up a copy of tomorrow’s newspaper.