Musings on ballet, classical music, the violin, and life
Concerts, recordings, reviews, musings, you name it. I’m a lifelong classical music fan.
It’s October, and the urge for theatrical, spooky music always arises for me right about this time. Cue a visit to the blog I wrote years back, “Ten Spooky Classical Faves for Halloween.” Each year, it seems, I have a different relationship with the music and its composers. This year, I’m taking a … Read more
Ask someone who’s seen the 1940 animated film, Fantasia, which piece they best remember, and the majority will respond with, “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” or “the one with Mickey Mouse.” (Runners up might include Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue,” Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz of the Flowers,” or Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain,” but that’s a blog for another time.) … Read more
I’ve never attended the symphony before with the sense that I might not stay for the program’s second half, but that was my thinking when I entered San Francisco Symphony’s Davies Hall on a recent Sunday afternoon. The first of the program’s two semi-staged works was Ravel’s Ma Mère l’Oye (“Mother Goose”) featuring dancers from … Read more
You know the phenomenon: you hear some beautiful yet unfamiliar classical music being played on the radio, but you don’t have access to the details like its title or its composer. It stops you in your tracks because it’s so beautiful and fresh, and you mentally scroll through possibilities. Mozart? I had, after all, overheard … Read more
When I heard the news last week that Esa-Pekka Salonen, music director of the San Francisco Symphony, had announced he would step down as music director of the San Francisco Symphony next year, I was so distraught by the news, I’ll admit it: I wept. I love classical music and Esa-Pekka that much. He was only … Read more