Live Music
This is the first of a series of curated YouTube videos. As videos are featured they will be added to a playlist here. The first piece to be featured is Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. Don’t …
Alexander Scriabin was the composer who wanted to compose us all into nirvana. Sergiu Celibidache was the conductor who wanted to conduct us into enlightenment. Celibidache brought Zen Buddhism to the conductor’s podium along with …
The Divine Poem is the Esoteric Pick of the Week. Written by Alexander Scriabin, The Divine Poem is his third symphony. Scriabin was best known for his piano compositions and was one of the most …
Suddenly Labor Day Weekend is upon us. The ship is turning. Summer is slipping toward the western horizon and frivolous activities are being replaced with serious endeavors. The pastoral Major League Baseball begins to yield …
The BBC Proms is taking up the cause of Franz Schmidt in a concert on September 10 at London’s Royal Albert Hall. A performance of Schmidt’s Symphony No. 2 will be given by the Vienna …
Politics in classical music is not new. Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Shostakovich, and countless other composers were politically active and, at times, censored. Almost every mid-20th-century conductor, singer, and instrumental soloist was politicized by World War …
The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living. This is the title of a piece of art from 1991 by Damien Hirst. The work of art is a tiger shark in a …
Songs of the Sea is the Esoteric Pick of the Week. If you haven’t been spending much time at the beach, you’re missing out. El Niño is here and the water feels so good, you …
Point Loma Opera Theater continues to crank out quality concerts. The most recent success was Mozart’s Don Giovanni on Tuesday August, 18 at Pacific Beach Presbyterian and Thursday August 20th at St. Paul’s Cathedral. I …
Classical music has been one of the main culprits of “trolling” for centuries. The 19th century was full of factions which went to war in publications regarding the merits of different composers and schools of …
Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture is not an esoteric piece of music. The overture is quite popular, in and of itself. The overture is not a freestanding piece, though. It was written as incidental music for a …
Imagine Beethoven standing on top of all his musical accomplishments. He’s at the summit of Mt. Genius. He is a wizard surrounded by a swirling tornado of musical notes with storm clouds racing by in …
What if this problem of declining audiences in classical music wasn’t really about the appeal of classical music? What if there were larger forces at work here? It struck me that declining audiences are more …
“Besides the Faure, that concert was tough. I’m glad you couldn’t make it. It would have put stress on our friendship.” “Hahaha. Best critique ever. Put that in your review. After the Mainly Mozart introduction …
I smelled perfume as I walked down Draper Street toward Sherwood Auditorium. It worried me at first. When you're going to a concert, one of the last things you want is to be next to …