[contextly_auto_sidebar id="JFTV8kkscmtLKx5Wmj1BWgosRiTRBgVg"] YOUR humble correspondent has just returned from the Ojai Music Festival, which continues to be a great place to see classical music. Here are a few highlights of this year's festival. On one major piece I break from the critical consensus and will get into that tomorrow. Music director Jeremy Denk is both a consummate … [Read more...]
Chamber Music For the People
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="yE1qQT5mZx5Qd5zgZ5bpUcatdi77vObm"] HOW can classical music survive in a changing world? How can the aging audience be renewed? One answer is coming from a Boston group called Groupmuse, which puts on free, informal chamber concerts at people's homes, then passes the hat for the musicians. So far, this hasn't generated a huge amount of income for the players, but … [Read more...]
Novelists in the New Economy, and a National-ist Goes Classical
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="hPd2FVtPIrH02PAHBYXfxFyuIQJdbTd3"] HOW are novelists doing in the post-recession, Internet-besotted world? In Britain, apparently, even purportedly successful and well-reputed writers are hanging on by their fingernails. That's the conclusion of a nuanced and well-reported piece by Robert McCrum in the Observer. The story starts by describing Rupert Thomson, an … [Read more...]
West Coast Minimalism at Ojai
ONE of the best things about spring in Southern California is the Ojai Music Festival, which turns the little valley town in Ventura county into the site of a risk-taking weekend of classical music with an emphasis on chamber music and contemporary work. Since its founding in the ‘40s, everyone from Stravinsky to Eric Dolphy (!!) has performed there. It kicks off Thursday.This year’s music … [Read more...]
Chamber Group Salastina Society
THE other evening I saw a sextet performance of Transfigured Night. To say that I have mixed feelings about its composer, Arnold Schoenberg, is about the only way I can put it: The dude wrote some lovely and powerful music, but also left the state of western classical music, especially in the academy, a smoking ruin for about two generations after his 120-stone and serial systems. He was clearly a … [Read more...]
Brilliant Chamber Music Series
SINCE I first fell hard for classical music in my mid-20s, my favorite style to see live is chamber music. Early on, I think that came from my love of seeing rock n roll and small-combo jazz in small clubs. The intimacy of a string quartet in, say, an old stone church had some of the same energy and directness.In recent years, perhaps the best venue for chamber music I've found is the Clark … [Read more...]
The Return of Steve Reich
ON Tuesday I saw a fascinating concert by Steve Reich and Bang on a Can at Disney Hall. Once considered a minimalist with few ties to the mainstream, Mark Swed wrote in his review, Reich is now one of the most important and influential composers alive.I sat down with Reich a few years ago and found him very accessible and easy going. My article starts by referring to the landmark "Music for 18 … [Read more...]
The Classical Violin and Heavy Metal
RACHEL Barton Pine walks both sides of the fence -- a classical violinist who plays a 1740s instrument but also rocks out to Black Sabbath and Guns N Roses. I get into her wide range of musical passions in the latest of my Influences column in the Los Angeles Times.The violinist, by the way, plays this Sunday at one of the most amazing places I've ever seen chamber music -- UCLA's Clark Library in … [Read more...]
Classical Underground Vs. The Philistines
IN my decade and a half writing about artists and cultural figures, i never met anyone as passionate, committed and outright insane for art as alexey steele, a soviet born painter who runs a monthly "classical underground" series in his artists loft. (here's my piece.)but at first, i thought the whole thing might be a joke -- that alexey, who comes on a little bit like borat (check this out) might … [Read more...]