First movement, Igor Markevitch conducting the Berlin Philharmonic.
Arturo Marquez: Danzon No. 2
Gustavo Dudamel conducts the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra.
50 classical pieces to hear before you die
Videos, a slide show, suggested recordings and even words …
Musical bucket list: 50 classical pieces to hear before you die. The Orange County Register, Aug. 25, 2015.
Pacific Symphony plays ‘Star Trek’
Review: Pacific Symphony plays live, and lively, ‘Star Trek.’ The Orange County Register, Aug. 23, 2015.
photo: M.A. Mullen
Gražinytė-Tyla impresses at the Bowl
Review: Gražinytė-Tyla impresses at the Bowl. The Orange County Register, Aug. 21, 2015.
Summer symphonic equation
What’s going on when orchestras play under the stars:
A classical strategy for the great outdoors. The Orange County Register, Aug. 16, 2015.
‘Bolero’ and ‘Tequila’
Review: Pacific Symphony mixes pops and classical at Irvine Meadows. The Orange County Register, Aug. 10, 2015.
Reclaiming ‘Bolero’
‘Bolero’ generates heat with machine-like precision. The Orange County Register, Aug. 7, 2015.
Hershy Kay/Gottschalk: ‘Cakewalk’ finale
Delightful Americana.
From the archive: On snobbery
First published July 14, 2002
Have you read Epstein’s “Snobbery: The American Version”? No? Well, dahling, you simply must!
A fairly typical, if exaggerated, display of snobbery there. The probing query that leaves off the author’s first name, implying that everyone (who is anyone) knows which Epstein is referred to. The mock astonishment upon finding out the interviewee’s ignorance.
Then the kicker: the recommendation that puts both parties in their place, the one superior with knowledge and up-to-dateness for having read the book, the other much lower for being in the ignorant position of having to be told what to read.
One picks up Joseph Epstein’s new book with a burning question of one’s own: Am I a snob? The short answer is, yes, you are. But rest assured, everyone is to some degree, at least in the way Epstein defines the term. “The essence of snobbery,” he writes, elaborating on Virginia Woolf’s definition, “is arranging to make yourself feel superior at the expense of other people.” By that measure, even if you’ve only looked at someone else’s potbelly and thanked God yours wasn’t as large, you’re a snob.
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