iPalpiti Festival visits Orange County on way to Disney Hall

Review: iPalpiti Festival visits Soka with program of European snacks. The Orange County Register, July 20, 2015.

Mozart’s ‘Rondo all Turca’ played by Daniel Barenboim

Compare and contrast: Mozart’s ‘Rondo alla Turca’ played by Lang Lang and Glenn Gould

 

Mozart: ‘Eine kleine Nachtmusik’ (Klemperer)

Otto Klemperer conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra (in very good early stereo, btw).

Carl St.Clair and Pacific Symphony to perform free concerts in Mission Viejo and Irvine

Pacific Symphony’s Symphony in the Cities concerts announced. The Orange County Register, July 10, 2015.

Classical season opens at the Hollywood Bowl

Review: Classical season opens at the Hollywood Bowl with Lionel Bringuier and Yuja Wang. The Orange County Register, July 8, 2015.

From the archive: Marching in the Rose Parade

marchingband

BEYOND THE NEWS // USC band on the march again // Ex-member remembers his first parade well
By TIMOTHY MANGAN, The Orange County Register
Published:  1/1/2004

I remember rolling out of bed at some ungodly pre-dawn hour, made all the worse because of the New Year’s Eve party the night before.

No, I didn’t have a paper route. I was a member of the USC Trojan Marching Band, about to march in my first Tournament of Roses Parade. As a trombonist, I would even be in the front row. This would have been, well, gee whiz, 25 years ago.

We band members had given up part of our Christmas vacation to return to campus for our halftime show practices. Now, bleary-eyed, we donned our marching duds, complete with gold spats and plastic Trojan helmet, and met the idling buses near the band room. They whisked us off to a sit-down breakfast at a local eatery, compliments of some alumni committee.

Read more…

Communist Sousa: Happy 4th

Once again, we bring you the Soviet-era Czechoslovak Brass Orchestra, conducted by Rudolf Urbanec, this time performing Sousa’s “The Thunderer” right in the groove. Happy Independence Day.

Soviet-era Sousa

From my favorite Sousa recording, made in Soviet-era Czechoslovakia, the “George Washington Bicentennial” March.

Two sides of Bach

Review: Baroque Music Festival, Corona del Mar illuminates two sides of Bach. The Orange County Register, June 23, 2015.