Concert and opera reviews from Southern California.
Patricia Kopatchinskaja was the soloist for the Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1. Her idiosyncratic, barefooted, neurotic manner of playing is by now familiar to her followers (and detractors).
Read MoreClaire Huangci was the pianist for Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini. Her virtuoso playing showed tremendous youthful enthusiasm and energy, at the same time engaging in subtle dialog with the orchestra.
Read MoreThe Pacific Symphony in Costa Mesa presented a concert staging of Verdi’s popular Rigoletto. The direction, by the Met’s staff director Kathleen Smith Belcher, is effective and generally faithful to the composer’s own staging instructions.
Read MoreThe superlative playing of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was evident from the first bars of Beethoven’s Seventh. The strings sounded full, warm and rich with the double-basses providing a firm foundation.
Read MoreSeated face-to-face across two pianos placed side by side, the two sisters showed an extraordinary and satisfying rapport, in their dialogs and their ability to finish each other’s sentences instinctively.
Read MoreThe 38-year-old pianist, hailing from Ukraine by way of Italy, is an estimable artist possessing a forceful, sparkling right hand and a supremely lyrical left hand…
Read MoreMarco Barricelli could not erase the memory of F. Murray Abraham; nonetheless, he managed to inject some semblance of humanity into the Hollywood caricature of Salieri’s character.
Read MoreAmerican tenor Carl Tanner gave the finest singing of the evening as the tragic moor Otello. His “Esultate!” in Act 1 pealed through the thick stormy orchestra with a majestic ringing tone.
Read MoreThe concert began with a speech by John Forsyte, President of the Pacific Symphony, and the orchestra playing "Prayer for Ukraine"
Read MoreOne cannot say enough good things about Ms. Kern’s playing, in which clarity of line is in no way clouded by passionate expression and outbursts.
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