Salonen’s return misfires


A year and a half after abdicating his throne, Esa-Pekka Salonen returned this weekend to the Los Angeles Philharmonic with the title of conductor laureate, the orchestra’s first.

He was greeted warmly by the large but less than capacity audience Saturday night in Disney Hall and immediately displayed his wonted charm, taking microphone in hand and providing cogent and droll opening remarks. It was good to have him back.

The magic pretty much stopped there. Blame the program. In hindsight, it seemed a miscalculation by a conductor (justly) celebrated for his programming. It happens.

On one level, the program was too modest. Salonen began with the U.S. premiere of his pal Magnus Lindberg’s “Graffiti,” a formidable chunk of busy blather that necessarily focused a listener’s attention on the music itself rather than the man conducting it. The second half featured a concert performance of Bartók’s only opera, “Bluebeard’s Castle,” which again, though supplying the maestro with some moments in the limelight, left him a secondary character in the proceedings for much of the time.

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November 21, 2010

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Esa-Pekka Salonen returns to Los Angeles

The composer/conductor is back at the L.A. Philharmonic this week and next, for the first time as conductor laureate. In the video above, he discusses Bartok’s “Bluebeard’s Castle” with the orchestra in rehearsal. He performs the opera this weekend.

David Mermelstein talks to the composer Magnus Lindberg, whose “Graffiti” Salonen also conducts this weekend. (Click on the word “talks” to read the article.)

And Reed Johnson interviews Salonen.

I plan to attend tonight’s concert and hope to have a review for you tomorrow.

related posts:

where on earth is gustavo dudamel?

esa-pekka salonen’s favorite drink

classical music, music videos

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November 20, 2010

2 Comments

William Bolcom’s ‘Prometheus’ unveiled

Review: The Pacific Symphony, Carl St.Clair, pianist Jeffrey Biegel and the Pacific Chorale give the premiere of the new work modeled on Beethoven’s “Choral Fantasy.” The Orange County Register, November 19, 2010. Click here to read my review.

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November 19, 2010

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Betty Zukov, choir director, makes the news

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat, a newspaper owned by the New York Times, has published a story about my mother, Betty Zukov, the wellspring of music in yours truly. She is the founder and director of the Healdsburg Chorus in Northern California, and an official “Living Treasure of Sonoma County.” Healdsburg is a charming little hamlet in the middle of some of the most beautiful wine country in the world and one of the state’s early villages. It is mentioned in Kevin Starr’s history of California.

The Chorus is a regular topic in our weekly phone conversations on Sunday nights. They’re also a very fine ensemble, which I’ve had the pleasure of hearing in rehearsal and concert. Click here to read the article and see my mom.

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November 18, 2010

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3-year-old conducts Beethoven’s Fifth

There are quite a few of these types of videos making the rounds. This is one of the better ones, I think. The kid knows the music, that’s for sure. And I’ve never seen a conductor pick his nose before.

Hat tip to Joan.

classical music, music videos

November 12, 2010

5 Comments

Mutter-Bashmet-Harrell Trio exhume early Beethoven

Review: The all-star ensemble visits Costa Mesa with a program of neglected repertoire written by the composer in his 20s. Click here to read my review. There’s a nice little slide show too.

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November 11, 2010

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Great moments in film music: ‘Being There’

I see that they’ve taken down all the videos on my old blog, so I think from time to time I’ll bring back some of my favorites here.

This one comes from Hal Ashby’s 1979 film “Being There,” based on a novel by Jerzy Kosinski. Chance the Gardener (Peter Sellers) is a simpleton who has spent his entire life in a Washington D.C. house in the service of an old man. The old man dies and Chance has to leave, emerging into the real world for the first time. His knowledge of it comes entirely from watching television (thus his use of the remote control in this excerpt). The perfect music for the occasion is a once famous funked-up version of “Also Sprach Zarathustra” (the theme from “2001″), which manages to express both the dawning of a new day for Chance, and the gritty urban world of that dawn. Keep watching: near the end comes what is, for me at least, an indelible melding of image and music, as Chance, in a long shot, walks up the middle of a busy street.

classical music, music videos

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November 6, 2010

5 Comments

Vinyl offer

Do you yearn for the good old days when you could read the liner notes on your recordings without a magnifying glass? Do you long to gaze at life-size portraits of the performers therein? Do you struggle to open cellophane-wrapped jewel boxes with a knife, putting your life, and those of your children, in danger? Do you abhor the clean, precise sound of digital recordings scanned with the cold and calculated accuracy of laser beams?

Well, frustrated listeners, you’re in luck!

The San Francisco Symphony is releasing a special limited edition 22-LP (that’s vinyl, my friends) box set of its Mahler symphonic cycle with Michael Tilson Thomas for the unbelievably low price of $749 including shipping. Each LP is pressed in 180g audiophile virgin vinyl and comes with its own luxuriously designed jacket. This set can be yours for just two easy payments of $75 (pre-order) and $674.

But wait, there’s more!

The first 250 customers will receive  specially autographed editions signed by music director Michael Tilson Thomas. In addition, all purchasers of this limited edition set — numbered 1 through 1,000 — will get  a bonus 45 rpm recording of Susan Graham singing Mahler songs accompanied on the piano by Tilson Thomas at no extra cost.

Don’t wait, click now!

(Your pre-order of $75 secures your copy. Release date expected in April, 2011. California residents are charged 9.5 percent sales tax when second payment is processed. If, in the event, pre-orders fail to reach 600 by Dec. 31, 2010, your $75 pre-order will be refunded in full. Offer not available in Delaware.)

Still can’t get enough vinyl?

Preservation Hall Recordings is releasing a special limited edition 78 rpm recording featuring Tom Waits and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Proceeds will benefit the Preservation Hall Junior Jazz & Heritage Brass. The first 100 records at the $200 level of donation will be accompanied by a custom designed 78 rpm record player. The remaining 404 78s come at the special low price of $50 and you’ll have to figure out how to play them on your own. Good luck!

(Available Nov. 19 at Preservation Hall and Nov. 20 for online purchase. No C.O.D’s please.)

Disclaimer: We love vinyl. Offer available in Delaware.

classical music

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November 5, 2010

4 Comments

Kremer and the Kremerites

I happen to enjoy concerts where the music being performed is unfamiliar to me, where my ears are asked to assess the quality of the pieces themselves and not only the performances of them, where I might hear something new that I like rather than another rehashing of a bona fide masterpiece that I already know I like. But that’s just me.

The unfamiliar names on the Segerstrom Concert Hall program last night – scary-looking monikers such as Raminta Šernšnyte, Steven Kovacs Tickmayer, Arvo Pärt and Lera Auerbach, which, if you looked closely enough, belonged to persons still among the living – were enough to keep Orange County away in droves. There was plenty of elbow room. That despite the celebrated performers onstage – Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra. But then name recognition doesn’t get you very far in classical music these days.

Perhaps this type of concert, featuring new music prominently, will never be box office gold, but it seems to me that Kremer and his ensemble are the opposite of an elitist operation. They seek to connect with audiences, to expand the repertoire into non-classical regions, to meet listeners at least half way, and sometimes even more. Yes, they want to move you and even challenge you occasionally, but they also want to entertain you. They care if you listen.

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November 2, 2010

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Gidon Kremer for $20

The Philharmonic Society of Orange County is offering $20 rush tickets for the performance by Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica Monday eve at Segerstrom Concert Hall. These rush tickets are open to everyone and all (you need not be a student or senior). All you have to do to get them is show up at the concert hall ticket office on Monday (starting at 6:30 p.m.) with $20 cash in hand. Yes, the offer is cash only.

Concert starts at 8 p.m. Kremer and krew perform music by Serksnyte, Schubert, Part, Tickmayer, Auerbach and Beethoven.

More info at 949-553-2422 or www.philharmonicsociety.org

The preceding has been a public service announcement.

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October 31, 2010

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