Miscellany

In the New York Times, Alex Ross defends opera, including expensive “Ring” cycles, against charges of elitism. … In the Financial Times, Martin Bernheimer is less than impressed with the opening installment of said “Ring” at the Met. … President Obama digs classical music (first item). … Gustavo Dudamel and the Vienna Philharmonic spend a day in bluegrass country. … Founding conductor of the California Symphony fired by the board, but the plot thickens. …

Above, the Annoying Orange has at Lady Gaga (i.e. Lady Pasta). Note the expression on his face when he appears in the diva’s video within the video. More than 8 million people have seen this on YouTube.

classical music, music videos

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October 2, 2010

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‘Il Postino’ becomes an opera

Review: Placido Domingo plays Pablo Neruda in the world premiere production of Daniel Catan’s ‘Il Postino’ at Los Angeles Opera. The Orange County Register, September 30, 2010. Click here to read my review.

photo: robert millard

classical music, reviews

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September 30, 2010

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Quote of the day

The characteristic of the hour is that the commonplace mind, knowing itself to be commonplace, has the assurance to proclaim the rights of the commonplace and impose them wherever it will. As they say in the United States: “to be different is to be indecent.” The mass crushes beneath it everything that is different, everything that is excellent, individual, qualified and select. Anybody who is not like everybody, who does not think like everybody, runs the risk of being eliminated. And it is clear, of course, that this “everybody” is not “everybody.” “Everybody” was normally the complex unity of the mass and the divergent, specialized minorities. Nowadays, “everybody” is the mass alone. Here we have the formidable fact of our times, described without any concealment of the brutality of its features.

–from “The Revolt of the Masses” by Jose Ortega y Gasset

classical music

September 28, 2010

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Great moments in film music: ‘The Sting’

It’s the night before the big sting. You don’t really need to know anything else, and it’s complicated anyway. Scott Joplin’s “Solace” is introduced on the soundtrack, lending the perfectly wistful mood. It carries the scene from 26 seconds into this clip until 4 minutes and 18 seconds. Notice how little dialogue there is.

The rest of the clip is good too, but there’s no music.

Jon Kimura Parker played this piece the other night as an encore to Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1.

classical music, music videos

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September 27, 2010

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Pacific Symphony opens 32nd season

Review: Carl St.Clair conducts the orchestra in works by Weber and Brahms. They are joined by Jon Kimura Parker for Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1. The Orange County Register, September 24, 2010. Click here to read my review.

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September 25, 2010

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Top concert picks: New season finally here

The classical music season in Southern California officially opens tonight and it will be a relief to be indoors. It felt like the summer would never end.

Here are my  top concert and opera picks for the week ahead.

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September 23, 2010

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‘Il Postino’ becomes an opera

I chat with tenor Charles Castronovo, a Cal State Fullerton alum, and composer Daniel Catán about the new opera “Il Postino,” premiering at Los Angeles Opera this week. Click here to read interview. The Orange County Register, September 21, 2010.

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September 21, 2010

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Fall arts preview, classical music division top ten

Here’s what you’ve all been waiting for: my fall arts preview, classical music division. The link will send you to a short article (a “topper” in journalese) with a slide show. Click through the slide show, and read the captions for information on my picks. Every slide you view and read is a “hit” for Tim Mangan and the cause of classical music. Go ahead, watch the slide show twice, and send the link to your friends, neighbors, enemies and congressmen. Click here, or above.

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September 20, 2010

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10 Giulini recordings

Here’s a list of ten recommended Giulini recordings that some of you asked for. In no particular order. All are available on Amazon.com. Click on the thumbnails for larger views of the covers. Giulini lovers: Please weigh in with some of your own suggestions in the comments section.

1. Bruckner: Symphony No. 2. Makes a (deservedly?) neglected work sound like a masterpiece. Vienna Symphony. Testament.

2. Carlo Maria Giulini: Artist Profile. Includes sizzling accounts of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2 and Britten’s “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra” with the Philharmonia Orchestra. EMI Classics.

3. Carlo Maria Giulini: The Chicago Recordings. Includes roof-raising accounts of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 and the orchestral music to Berlioz’s “Romeo and Juliet” with the Chicago Symphony.  EMI Classics.

4. Giulini in America. All of his purely symphonic recordings with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, including Beethoven’s Symphonies 3, 5 and 6 (the “Eroica” is among the best ever recorded), a stellar Schumann Third and Ravel’s “Mother Goose,” a specialty. Deutsche Grammophon.

5. Mahler: Symphony No. 9. Intense. Chicago Symphony. Deutsche Grammophon.

Read more…

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September 18, 2010

18 Comments

Morning thought

I picked up my morning newspaper today, the print edition, natch, and just below my People column, on A2, not in the arts and entertainment section, is a rather large advertisement for the symphony orchestra that I cover regularly in my other life, as a music critic.

Does the orchestra figure that Mangan’s readers are going to follow him to A2 and the new celebrity beat? And are those readers so numerous that it would be worth the orchestra’s while? Or would the orchestra have purchased that space anyway, People column or not, Mangan or not?

These are questions I can’t answer. But maybe, just maybe, I should ask for a raise.

classical music

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September 17, 2010

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