Andante

If Thursday's concert by Christof Perick and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra at Ambassador Auditorium (where it will be repeated tonight) provided a glimpse into the future--rather than being a "special" dished up for recording purposes--then we are blessed indeed. A golden age of the performance of Joseph Haydn's shamefully underappreciated symphonies may be in the offing. Perick and his charges inspired such musings with their readings of an obscure marvel, the Symphony No.

Andante.com -- a website devoted to classical music that combined a news service with a record label with streaming music from symphony orchestras -- shut down this week after its French owner decided it was unable to sustain the site's costs. The news is either another sign of the demise of classical music, an indicator that the Web and the symphony are an awkward fit, or neither of the above.

The Long Beach Symphony last programmed Charles Ives' Second Symphony in 1984, five years before JoAnn Falletta became music director. Saturday night, the orchestra offered an overdue reprise of this appealing work. Falletta had rehearsed the band, but a death in her immediate family prevented her from leading the performance at Terrace Theater. Instead, Assistant Conductor Eugene Castillo conducted.

Music is one of those arenas in which the truth is often stranger than fiction. Take the case of conductor Felix Mottl, a notorious ladies' man who, in 1911, collapsed from a heart attack while he was conducting "Tristan und Isolde." On stage, singing the part of Isolde, was the soprano Zdenka Fassbender, with whom Mottl had been carrying on an illicit affair for some time. The fateful coronary came early in the first act, at precisely the moment when Isolde sings "Tod geweihtes Haupt!

In their third visit to Los Angeles within 16 months, duo-pianists Katia and Marielle Labeque, played their signature piece, Michel Camilo's "Caribe," a work written for them by the Dominican composer and jazz pianist, to close their latest appearance. But that was the only work being repeated from those earlier visits. At the outdoor Greek Theatre in Griffith Park, on a cool but not uncomfortable Wednesday evening, the French musicians gave a program half Mozart and half jazz.

Gerald Arpino's "Secret Places." Ah. It conjures up warm memories of idealism and innocence in the 1960s, of romantic encounters and quasi-kitschy sentiment, of gently erotic poetry and lyrical athleticism, of serene Mozartean Nachtmusik and "Elvira Madigan". . . . Los Angeles first saw and loved the duet at the Ahmanson 16 years ago. Inexplicably, "Secret Places" disappeared from sight--and from the repertory--a year or two later. Now it is back, in all its irresistibly drippy glory.

Andante.com -- a website devoted to classical music that combined a news service with a record label with streaming music from symphony orchestras -- shut down this week after its French owner decided it was unable to sustain the site's costs. The news is either another sign of the demise of classical music, an indicator that the Web and the symphony are an awkward fit, or neither of the above.

Music is one of those arenas in which the truth is often stranger than fiction. Take the case of conductor Felix Mottl, a notorious ladies' man who, in 1911, collapsed from a heart attack while he was conducting "Tristan und Isolde." On stage, singing the part of Isolde, was the soprano Zdenka Fassbender, with whom Mottl had been carrying on an illicit affair for some time. The fateful coronary came early in the first act, at precisely the moment when Isolde sings "Tod geweihtes Haupt!

Flutist James Galway and conductor Nicholas McGegan are made for each other. Both are ebullient musicians, communicative and warm. They are also natural showoffs but in different ways. The compact McGegan bounces and hops on the podium, molding phrases with his hands. No baton gets between him and the orchestra.

The Long Beach Symphony last programmed Charles Ives' Second Symphony in 1984, five years before JoAnn Falletta became music director. Saturday night, the orchestra offered an overdue reprise of this appealing work. Falletta had rehearsed the band, but a death in her immediate family prevented her from leading the performance at Terrace Theater. Instead, Assistant Conductor Eugene Castillo conducted.

In their third visit to Los Angeles within 16 months, duo-pianists Katia and Marielle Labeque, played their signature piece, Michel Camilo's "Caribe," a work written for them by the Dominican composer and jazz pianist, to close their latest appearance. But that was the only work being repeated from those earlier visits. At the outdoor Greek Theatre in Griffith Park, on a cool but not uncomfortable Wednesday evening, the French musicians gave a program half Mozart and half jazz.

If Thursday's concert by Christof Perick and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra at Ambassador Auditorium (where it will be repeated tonight) provided a glimpse into the future--rather than being a "special" dished up for recording purposes--then we are blessed indeed. A golden age of the performance of Joseph Haydn's shamefully underappreciated symphonies may be in the offing. Perick and his charges inspired such musings with their readings of an obscure marvel, the Symphony No.

Gerald Arpino's "Secret Places." Ah. It conjures up warm memories of idealism and innocence in the 1960s, of romantic encounters and quasi-kitschy sentiment, of gently erotic poetry and lyrical athleticism, of serene Mozartean Nachtmusik and "Elvira Madigan". . . . Los Angeles first saw and loved the duet at the Ahmanson 16 years ago. Inexplicably, "Secret Places" disappeared from sight--and from the repertory--a year or two later. Now it is back, in all its irresistibly drippy glory.

While "Il Trovatore" raged before the crowd in Segerstrom Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center on Sunday afternoon, a smaller group of concert-goers filed into adjacent Founders Hall to partake of more modest fare. The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Winds were offering a "celebration of the Czech spirit," said bassoonist John Steinmetz, in the form of Classical and Romantic music for wind band by three native composers: Rudolf Novacek, Franz Krommer and Antonin Dvorak.

Music director Ami Porat led the Mozart Camerata in an energetic and rewarding program dominated by a captivating performance of Mendelssohn's D-minor Violin Concerto Saturday night at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. Concertmaster Clayton Haslop downplayed the Classical roots of this early work (written when the composer was 13) by de-emphasizing its elegance and simplicity in favor of its dramatic content.