My return to the classical realm has been noted by none other than Norman Lebrecht on his Slipped Disc blog at the Arts Journal.
The post includes a photo of the formerly bearded me with Tim Page. Thanks, Norman.
Last item
From today’s Orange County Register online, and tomorrow’s print version, Page 2:
Last item
It has been our pleasure to serve you as the ruthless people columnist these past two-plus years, but as a philosopher once said, “All bad things must come to an end.”
Today is our (as in Timothy Mangan’s) last celebrity column. We will be returning to our first love, reporting on and reviewing classical music, elsewhere in these pages. Someone less cranky will take over here.
It’s not that we don’t love celebrities. You, dear reader, know that we do. Oh, the times that we’ve had.
We’d like to thank those readers (Mom) who dropped us a note saying how much you enjoyed these columns.
We’d also like to thank those readers who told us they hated the column. But we can’t.
Don’t be sad. We’ll all get over it. Then we’ll die.
Besides, we’ll always have Lindsay, the “Herbie Fully Loaded” star, who starred as Liz not Dick.
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[Champagne tonight.]
Dudamel’s Mahler’s 8th
“If it doesn’t sweep the Grammys in every eligible category, I’ll eat all the Mahler recordings in my collection.” — Sedgwick Clark, Musical America
Read the whole thing here.
Editor’s note
Despite appearances, I am not yet back full-time on the classical music beat. Some of you have been asking.
I carved out some time from the celebrity column and got a sub to write it in order to do my three most recent reviews.
But I’m still on celebs for now, and am missing a lot of stuff I’d like to cover. I have no ETA for my re-assignment back to classical, but it should happen soon-ish, and I’ll let you all know. If I haven’t drunk too much champagne to do so, that is.
L.A. Opera brings ‘I due Foscari’ to O.C.
The company performs a rare early opera by Verdi in concert form. Placido Domingo sings half of the title roles.
Click here to read my review, or pick up a copy of tomorrow’s Orange County Register.
Dudamel opens L.A. Philharmonic season with ‘The Rite of Spring’
Also on the program: the world premiere of Steven Stucky’s Symphony.
Lang Lang swashbuckles in Liszt and Beethoven
The pianist appeared with the Pacific Symphony last night.
Read my review here, or pick up a copy of tomorrow’s Orange County Register.
Fullerton Friends of Music
The good folks over at Fullerton Friends of Music have unveiled their 54th season schedule and it looks like a good one, on paper at least.
The group will present concerts by the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, El Mundo, the Linden String Quartet, the Horzowski Trio, the Bennewitz Quartet and Members of the French Philharmonic and French National Orchestra. The repertoire looks interesting, too, more interesting than a lot of other chamber music series I see.
But wait, there’s more.
Supported by subscribers and volunteers as well as several supportive grants, these concerts are FREE to the general public.
Check out the schedule here.
Pacific Symphony opens season with Strausses and Brahms
Carl St.Clair led the orchestra in its 34th season opener Thursday in music by Johann Strauss Jr., Richard Strauss and Johannes Brahms. Andre Watts was the guest soloist.
Despite a less-than-daring program, it was a pretty good night at the symphony.
Click here to read my review, or pick up a copy of tomorrow’s Orange County Register.
Update: In 1990, Andre Watts was one of the first big interviews I did for the Los Angeles Times. He was very gracious, and gave me a lot of his time. The writing ain’t so hot, but the quotes are good. Here it is.
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