Jeremy Denk shared the Bach Goldberg Variations with a cozy gathering of patrons at Symphony Hall on Tuesday night, January 19. The upper levels of the hall were closed off as was the entire right …

In baseball terms the classical music lineup this week could be called Murderer’s Row because there are some heavy hitters in town. As mentioned in the symphony review from Saturday night’s concert, Jeremy Denk is …

Every piece of music on Saturday night was tied to the piano. The piano theme is part of the San Diego Symphony’s Upright and Grand initiative for the piano and I’m enjoying the music it …

Since we’re making a six degrees of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 playlist, I’ll start numbering the degrees here. Let’s go to degree number two. Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5 could be considered one degree since it …

Have you ever watched a symphony performance and thought the only person doing what they want to do is the conductor? The conductor is the only one who is allowed to publicly go crazy with …

“I promise you that any of the sinful things you say or do can be forgiven, no matter how terrible those things are. But if you speak against the Holy Spirit, you can never be …

For those of us who grew up in the “just say no” era, the research that is being done on psychedelics at John Hopkins is puzzling. I thought drugs were the enemy. Turns out that …

It’s time to return to Winterreise. When it comes to Schubert’s “Winter Journey,” I prefer bass-baritones to tenors for one simple reason. The type of tenor who would sing Winterreise isn’t a voice type of …

The number of prehistoric instruments that have been found around the world is astounding. There is even evidence of instruments being found in neanderthal sites. These instruments are almost all based on the pentatonic scale …

Instead of making a list of best concerts from 2015 we’re going with a few of the best moments. The best moment of 2015 was soprano Emily Magee singing Marietta’s Lied at the San Diego …

Since Christmas is done we’re going to return to our Beethoven Five playlist. We’re using Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 as a loose reference point for a curated playlist. It’s something like six degrees of Beethoven’s …

With the New Year coming I feel as though it's time to take an intellectual inventory. The inventory reveals that I’m in need of some new ideas. The one’s I have right now are solid …

We haven’t had an “esoteric pick of the week” for a while so let’s take a look at a seasonal piece. The Gloria has a long and complicated history concerning its inclusion in the Catholic …

Whose woods these are I think I know.His house is in the village, though;He will not see me stopping hereTo watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queerTo stop …

A post by Gustavo Dudamel started running around Facebook on Tuesday morning. Back in October John Williams contacted Dudamel and asked him to conduct the opening and closing credits of the upcoming Star Wars: The …

Brahms once again proved to be the go-to composer for Maestro Ling and the San Diego Symphony. I can’t think of another composer whose music has been so consistently excellent within the confines of the …

Time for the depressed Disneyland-dad at Christmas when his ex has the kids playlist — also known as "a brief contemplation on the mysteries of solitude at Christmas playlist." We’ve got Es Ist Ein Ros …

Conductor John Mauceri just wrote an excellent piece in the Huffington Post which explores some of the themes we’ve touched upon here in this column/blog. A few of those themes are sports versus classical music, …

I’m feeling like the best way to experience Handel’s Messiah is at a sing-along. My kids (ages 11 and 8) and I went to the Greater San Diego Music Coterie Chamber Orchestra and Chorus sing-along …

A gentle snow falls at dusk in a pristine Finnish forest. The long arctic night is descending near the winter solstice and a solitary figure wanders the wood, lost in the trees. And so the …

Why San Diego Opera's second act won't end in tragedy.

The first weekend in December is stacked with concerts. 'Tis the season to make a choice because many of these promising events conflict. Sunday is like a battle to the death, with no fewer than …

For Christmas we’re going to move our curated playlist over to The depressed Disneyland dad at Christmas when his ex has the kids playlist. This list is also known as a brief contemplation on the …

In the opera La Rondine by Puccini, the young Ruggero arrives in Paris for the first time and Puccini lets him sing an ode to the City of Light. The aria is difficult to find. …

Never in my life did I expect to hear a timpani concerto, let alone two, and those two in back-to-back seasons. Opening weekend of 2014 included a timpani concerto by William Kraft, and this last …

Classical music is counterculture. I threw that out there in passing regarding the Alice Cooper narrated Peter and the Wolf. Let’s look at it for a little while more. It is always important to define …

The time has come to baptize this little playlist. We’ve worked around the Germanic pantheon of composers with Beethoven, Mahler, and Bruckner but it’s time to bring the lumber and add Wagner. This scene, Lohengrin’s …

Saturday night’s San Diego Symphony concert was an okay attempt at combining music and art. It was a pretty idea but the execution of the concert was pretty stale. I assume the pre-concert lecture got …

Any worthwhile lover of classical music knows that it has always been somewhat counter-culture in one way or another. Alice Cooper has been considered counter-culture from time to time, but he has passed through into …

I understand that everyone is amped up for beer week but there’s some great music lined up this week as well. Point Loma Opera Theater is giving the San Diego premiere of Nino Rota’s The …

Sarah Chang playing Bruch and Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6: Pathetique was the moon and stars on Saturday night at Symphony Hall. There was a sunny piece of new music by Judd Greenstein, but as soon …

A Martin Scorsese film about Leonard Bernstein has been confirmed as an upcoming project. Bernstein was the high priest of classical music in the United States and one of a handful of conductors who thrived …

For the esoteric pick of the week we’re going with Gavin Bryars and his epic 1993 remastering of his 1975 composition Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet. When I first heard Jesus' Blood it was …

I haven’t taken umbrage with anything in a while. What good is a column without some umbrage? Today’s umbrage is brought to you by the term diva. Nowadays, we have three-year-olds wearing "diva in training" …

Valery Gergiev, our conductor in video number three, has been accused, in the media, of being pro-Putin and for anti-gay laws in Russia. An article of defiance showed up in The Guardian at the start …

Saint-Saëns Danse Macabre is a somewhat sterile version of the “Dance of Death”. In this version death shows up at midnight on Halloween and calls all the other dead folk together for a party. There …

We’re going to revisit the Halloween classic: Modest Mussorgsky’s Night on the Bald Mountain. For years, Mussorgsky had been considering several large scale projects based on spooky Russian folklore. He looked at creating an opera …

“There is no longer a single idea explaining everything, but an infinite number of essences giving a meaning to an infinite number of objects. The world comes to a stop, but also lights up.” — …

Günter Wand isn’t a household name in the United States, but in Britain and Germany he is one of the most admired conductors on the 20th Century. Wand came into this admiration late in life. …

We haven't had an esoteric pick of the week for a while and it just so happens that the San Diego Symphony has selected one for us. They are performing Harmonielehre by John Adams this …

In this day and age of computer-generated sounds and images, as the precious bud of virtual reality starts to blossom upon our consciousness, it’s nice to be reminded that technique often trumps technology. On Saturday …

The overture to Die Fledermaus is usually reserved for New Year's Day but the San Diego Symphony decided to use it on a new season's day. This Viennese war horse, or Lipizzan stallion, as the …

It’s time for another video installment. This is video number three. Since Beethoven’s Fifth is the starting point for the playlist, how do a Russian composer and a Russian conductor fit in? Via the orchestra, …

There’s some opera happening this weekend. San Diego City Opera is performing Queen of Carthage as part of the La Jolla Playhouse Without Walls Festival. San Diego City Opera was founded by Cory Hibbs and …

What if, instead of a military industrial complex, we had an arts industrial complex? What if we had about a dozen for-profit, hard-core, unethical, manipulative corporations that ran music programs? I mean the dirty, money-hungry, …

The transition begins with the 2015-2016 San Diego Symphony season on Friday, October 9, at 7 p.m. The transition refers to Jahja Ling’s stepping down as the music director for the symphony after the 2016-2017 …

I’ve mentioned the asinine quality of the artist bio a few times in the past but it’s time to take this thing on like bighorn sheep butting heads during the spring rut. That is to …

After the René Barbera concert I was tempted to compare the young phenom to other singers. It’s a typical response. Yet comparing one singer to another is not a fair game. Some singers might even …

How do we get to music video number zwei in our curated playlist? We started with Beethoven's Fifth and then we found out about Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic creating a Fifth virtual …

Tweet seats? The Los Angeles Philharmonic thinks that’s cute. “You’ve got tweet seats? We’ve got Beethoven in 3-D virtual reality.” That’s right. The L.A. Phil has developed a virtual reality performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. …