Gringos in Baja
Adventurers, seekers, do-gooders, speculators, linguists
Various Authors 3:12 p.m., June 24
Classical Music
Reviews and previews of classical music performances and players. For a list of upcoming classical performances, visit our events section.
Prokoviev-ing
Platonic forms and divine muses make an appearance at Mainly Mozart
We now have a peak experience to add to the list for Mainly Mozart, but it came from Prokofiev and Beethoven. The Mainly Mozart Festival is taking a chronological journey through Mozart’s life over the ...
If you can use The Force, then use it
Mainly Mozart's second concert
Two concerts into the Mainly Mozart Festival and all is well. The second concert on Thursday, June 15, was a mixed bag for moi. This was the third time I’ve been to a Mainly Mozart ...
Strauss raised wife jokes to the level of art
How would the "I'm with her" crowd react to Strauss's Intermezzo?
What is an intermezzo? There are several famous musical intermezzi such as those found in Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci but there is also an entire opera entitled Intermezzo by Richard Strauss. What gives? In the ...
The Tao of Mozart
Conrad Tao brings the ancient nature of the cosmos to the Mainly Mozart Festival
Taoism, with its principles of effortless action, naturalness, humility, simplicity, spontaneity, compassion, and frugality, was a perfect fit for the evening. Which evening? The opening evening of The 2017 Mainly Mozart Festival on Saturday, June ...
An excuse to talk about Wonder Woman
The mainstream picks up the redemptive feminine conversation
Perhaps I’m overstating my case but I feel as though the recent success of the Wonder Woman movie has been prophesied here in this humble column. For not a few years I’ve been adding my ...
Scategories with Wolfgang
Scatology has a long and honorable tradition
Scatology is currently a most distasteful subject but that was not always the case. There are examples of scatalogical humor dating back to Aristophanes’s The Birds in the ancient Greek theatre. This type of humor ...
Emotional finale for Maestro Ling
Sibelius was great at makeup sex
Saturday, May 27 was the second of three final concerts at the San Diego Symphony. These concerts conclude the Jacobs Masterworks Series and Maestro Jahja Ling’s tenure as music director of the orchestra. The concert ...
The Mainly Mozart is coming
I take my annual ride from borough to borough
Round about this time of year I begin to feel like a musical Paul Revere. Instead of riding from town to town shouting, “The redcoats are coming! The redcoats are coming!” I begin posting from ...
San Diego Symphony on Saturday night — the best concert ever
Yes. I’m going to go with that.
Well, I guess the May 20th concert by the San Diego Symphony was the best one I’ve heard them perform. Yes. I’m going to go with that. Charles Dutoit conducted the living fire out of ...
One-sided conversation at San Diego Symphony
Schumann’s themes tend to stick in the ear
Every concert is a conversation between the performers and the audience regarding a particular composer. This conversation isn’t quite fair, because the audience always has the last word. The audience’s response is the final verdict ...
I see your agenda
Concepts versus emotions in the arts and advertising
I recalled that graphic art and commercial art or logo design attempts to create a visual representation of an idea or a concept. This is why commercial art or corporate sculptures most often feel as ...
Time to take out the Eurotrash
A German part-time orchestra is attempting to improve US/Mexico border relations.
There is a practice in classical music which I find to be somewhat disingenuous. That practice is overtly politicized concertizing. As I've written in the past, almost every great opera has a political edge but ...
Ok, Gustav, I feel you
Some great singing and a map of consciousness from the San Diego Symphony
Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 has always been a riddle to my ears. The maniacal quality of the woodwinds in the first movement has barred my way to this music in the past. Imagine our old ...
Thug life — Mahler's 3rd @SanDiegoSymph
I want classical music to be accessible, but I also want people to suck less
Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 3 is going down at the San Diego Symphony starting Friday, May 5th, 8:00 p.m, plus performances Saturday night (8:00) and Sunday afternoon (2:00). This is a biggie. How does one ...
PONY rides a new vision for live classical music
Movies, lights, but where is the social media presence?
Well, well, well. It looks as though an orchestra is making a serious effort to fling itself into the not so new century. The Philharmonia Orchestra of New York — which calls itself PONY — ...
