Magnus Lindberg

The Walt Disney Concert Hall stage didn't look so hot for Tuesday night's Green Umbrella concert. Rather than the trademark umbrellas being gracefully suspended from the ceiling, they were placed in clumps, like lean-tos, on either side of a stage and so saturated with green light that they appeared covered with AstroTurf. Then again, the Los Angeles Philharmonic may simply be packing early for its upcoming tour and wanted to have those umbrellas handy. This was a showcase concert of the orchestra's New Music Group, and it will be repeated in London the week after next.

At the premiere of John Adams' "Naive and Sentimental Music" in 1999, it was clear to many in the cheering audience at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion that the Los Angeles Philharmonic had commissioned a masterpiece and that Esa-Pekka Salonen and the orchestra had done it justice. Adams' most ambitious symphonic work to date, this 45-minute score begged to be heard again and again.

Last month, New York's public radio station WNYC hosted what it billed as a Los Angeles-versus-New York conductor "smackdown." On one side, a controversial British music critic went to bat for Gustavo Dudamel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic's effervescent 28-year-old music director. On the other, the producer of the New York Philharmonic's radio broadcasts defended her orchestra's measured, conscientious 42-year-old music director, Alan Gilbert. Norman Lebrecht praised Dudamel for driving orchestras into a kind of ferocity, in contrast with the "dull" Gilbert.

Like Los Angeles Philharmonic music director Gustavo Dudamel, 26-year-old Robin Ticciati possesses an impressive résumé, boyish looks, powerful supporters and even curly dark hair. Still, for the London-based conductor who makes his L.A. Phil debut Thursday night at Walt Disney Concert Hall, any expectation of him as the "British Dudamel" is a little fanciful. "The comparison is really touching," says Ticciati, the principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and, beginning next season, the principal guest conductor of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra in Bavaria, Germany.

NEW YORK - Last month, Gustavo Dudamel ended his third season as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic with a splash - a venturesome staged performance of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" in a great space (Walt Disney Concert Hall) and the world premiere of John Adams' Passion opera, "The Gospel According to the Other Mary. " Friday night, it was the New York Philharmonic's turn. Alan Gilbert ended his third season as music director with a venturesome staged excerpt from "Don Giovanni" (the first-act party scene)

TELEVISION Rivera Hits Back, Blasting His Critics Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera has lashed out at the Baltimore Sun for a story criticizing him for maintaining that he observed a "friendly fire" incident in Afghanistan--when he was actually 100 miles away--and was so "choked up" he recited the Lord's Prayer. Rivera says he made an "honest mistake," confusing the Dec. 5 battle, in which three American soldiers were killed, with another "friendly fire" incident at which he was present.

When Internet radio finally catches on, when we can easily tune into high-quality broadcasts from anywhere in the world, Americans will have cause to be astonished. A number of the great national radio networks in Europe and Asia support major symphony orchestras (as NBC and CBS did in our own dim past). In addition, they support symphonic music as a living art form, persistently programming and commissioning important new work for broadcast.