L.A. Debut: Calling the Woodwinds

Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 from Berstein Century (w/ NY Philharmonic)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MP3: I. Moderato

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MP3: II. Allegretto

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MP3: III. Largo

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MP3: IV. Allegro Non Troppo

Fresh from what was hailed as “back-to-back triumphs of a truly historic nature” in San Fran, pianist Martha Argerich didn’t miss a beat. In San Fran, her prelude was Gyorgi Ligeti’s ultra-haunting Requiem…in L.A.’s Disney Hall, that whizzing exercise in Belle Epoque decadence – Ravel’s La Valse - lubed us up for some Martha-Lovin’.

For that, thank Yannick Nézet-Séguin.  This 34-year-old conductor’s Los Angeles debut destines him for conquering.(Boston had him first. Cleveland’s getting him next, and I’m fixing to catch him when he debuts at the Met.) If he stays sharp, he’ll prove the Kurt Masur or Charles Dutoit of our era.

Read the rest…

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MP3: Shostakovich – Symphony No. 5 – Iv. Allegro Non Troppo by Bernstein & the NY Phil

In 2008, the Brit music mag Gramaphone ranked the top-world orchestras with the help of critics and musicians. We could, of course, head to Amsterdam, Berlin, or Vienna to capture the best of the best, but our home turf is rich. Here’s my take on performances that will bring the 2008-2009 season to a wondrous, raucous close.

1. Chicago Symphony Orchestra (pictured right)

We read excellent things about the CSO’s brass, which is, at times Baltimore’s Achilles’ heel.  In Chicago, immerse yourself in contemporary classical. See the noble father-and-sometime-bully, Pierre Boulez conduct a unique “American” homage: the work of Stravinsky who expatriated to Cali, Edgard Varèse, French transplant to New York, and Elliot Carter — the true American centenarian — born on Dec. 11, 1908.  Celebrations and new compositions are being mounted everywhere.

This Carter-champion, Boulez, himself is 83, so witness this living master while the getting is still good: Feb. 26th – Mar. 3rd.

Read the rest…