Pops conductor Richard Kaufman returns to the podium this month to conduct the orchestra in a live-to-picture performance of John Williams’ score to Steven Spielberg’s “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” on Aug. 18 at the Pacific Amphitheater. Williams won the Oscar for
Miscellany
The Boston Symphony’s top flutist sues orchestra for not paying her as much as a male colleague. … More than year after sustaining a hand injury, Lang Lang returns to the concert stage. … The brilliant British composer Oliver Knussen
GSOplay at the Gothenburg Symphony
GSOplay is the Gothenburg Symphony’s online series of high definition performance videos. “We release approximately two to three videos per month and normally the performances are available for viewing up to 30 days after the release date,” the website says. Currently, the
Anton Urspruch: Symphony in E-flat (1882)
Anton Urspruch (1850-1907), a name new to me, was a German composer, pedagogue and pianist who studied with Lachner, Raff and Liszt. He was said to be one of the latter’s favorite pupils. He composed many works, but, like Franck
Emilie Mayer: Symphony No. 7 in F minor (1856)
Emilie Mayer (1812-1883) was a German composer, quite successful in her day. Among her compositions are 8 symphonies, a piano concerto, several concert overtures and much chamber music. Her most famous teacher was Carl Loewe, remembered today mostly for his
A visit to Pacific Symphony’s music library
You go in the artists’ entrance at Segerstrom Concert Hall, walk past the security guard behind the window (once you get the OK), enter the first door on the right and head down two flights of stairs. You’re in the
Meet Michael Clive, Pacific Symphony’s program annotator
By Erica Sharp “Sometimes as a joke I refer to myself as ‘your intrepid annotator,’” said Michael Clive, longtime program note writer for Pacific Symphony, in an interview last week. He had just arrived back at his Connecticut home and
Luciano Berio: Quattro versioni originali della ‘Ritirata notturna di Madrid’
The full title of this 1975 piece explains what it is: “Quattro versioni originali della ‘Ritirata notturna di Madrid’ di Luigi Boccherini, sovrapposte e transcritte per orchestra.” In English that would be: “Four Original Versions of the ‘Withdrawal by Night
William Grant Still: Symphony No. 5, ‘Western Hemisphere’
Written in 1945, Still’s Fifth is an attractive, easy to listen to and evocative American Symphony. The movements are described thusly: 1. “The vigorous, life-sustaining forces of the Hemisphere” (briskly) 2. “The natural beauties of the Hemisphere” (slower, and with
Sousa: ‘Hands Across the Sea’
As is custom, music director Carl St.Clair will once again hold a conducting clinic for children before the orchestra’s Symphony in the Cities events in Mission Viejo and Irvine this month, and then have them come to stage en masse