A journey through Madison’s classical music scene
Classically SpeakingOctober 2011
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10/31/11Youth—and Puccini—are Served by UW Opera’s “La Boheme”Friday’s sold-out house reaches for the tissues, thanks to a solid production Posted at 03:35 PM | Permalink | Comments: 0 |
10/25/11Pro Arte Quartet Makes Grand Down Payment on Centennial CelebrationTouches of nostalgia, tenderness, heroism—and incredibly vibrant playing—mark the Pro Arte Quartet’s first concert of their 100th season Posted at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments: 0 |
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10/18/11Pro Arte: Rhymes with “Go Party!”The Pro Arte Quartet centennial season kicks off at last with four days of events Posted at 01:45 PM | Permalink | Comments: 0 |
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10/10/11Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra Sets the Bar High and the L.A. Philharmonic Continues to SoarWith Yakushev at the piano, the WCO’s opener is stunning; the LA Philharmonic at Eastgate also wows Posted at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments: 0 |
10/04/11Fresco Opera’s “Big Top Opera” Eschews Safety NetsThe opera is intermittently operatic, mostly musical—and always fun Posted at 09:58 AM | Permalink | Comments: 0 |
Years before I contributed my first classical review to the Los Angeles Times in 1988, I started a class in music appreciation for adults that had one aim: to put a few cracks in the “ivory tower elitism” I found pervasive in the classical music world since my boyhood days. Whether as a critic, program annotator or band director, that goal has never changed. After all, Mozart and Beethoven and the gang wrote their music for people like you—not critics or professors!
