Montreal Symphony

Tchaikovsky programs at the Hollywood Bowl are a tradition as old as outdoor concerts in Cahuenga Pass themselves. But the Tchaikovsky Spectacular--a mixed agenda of the composer's works ending with the "1812" Overture combined with a fireworks show--was only invented in 1969. Since then, and with ever-increasing pyrotechnical creativity, it has thrived.

Kent Nagano's tenure at the Montreal Symphony Orchestra appears uncertain following reports that the American conductor will depart the orchestra when his current contract as music director expires in 2016. But the orchestra's management has vigorously denied the reports. A report this month from Montreal's La Presse stated that Nagano's contract with the orchestra won't be renewed beyond 2016. The report, written by Claude Gingras, cites sources saying that Zarin Mehta is helping the orchestra find Nagano's successor.

On Monday night, things went better for the Montreal Symphony, playing its second Music Center concert just 24 hours after making its debut in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The accomplishments of the orchestra, which seemed so virtuosic in Hollywood Bowl appearances this year and in 1987, have been called into question with these two downtown concerts (the ensemble was also scheduled to play Tuesday night in Orange County).

Kent Nagano, who now commutes between the Montreal Symphony and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Germany, has been a rare visitor to Southern California since ending his tenure as Los Angeles Opera music director three years ago. But Saturday night he appeared at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica with a handful of Montreal Symphony players, two Inuit throat singers and a bassoon-playing bear. First the orchestra's second associate concertmaster, Marianne Dugal, gave a labored solo performance of the Chaconne from Bach's D-Minor Violin Partita.

Every so often, things go right at Hollywood Bowl--that is, as right as they can be under basically unfavorable conditions. Thursday night was one such occasion. The atmosphere was about as clear and dry as it ever is, the sound system was operating with a minimum of distortion and the performance of the Montreal Symphony conducted by Charles Dutoit could be appreciated at its full value.

Confirming speculation published last week, the Montreal Symphony on Tuesday named Los Angeles Opera music director Kent Nagano its new music director starting in 2006. For the next two seasons, the 52-year-old conductor will serve as music advisor to the orchestra, developing its programming and leading at least four concerts each season. "It's very exciting news," Nagano said Tuesday by telephone from Montreal.

Will Los Angeles Opera music director Kent Nagano add the Montreal Symphony to his list of duties? The Canadian press thinks so. But Nagano and orchestra officials are keeping mum. Citing a story that appeared earlier in Montreal's French daily Le Devoir, the Montreal Gazette said Friday that Nagano so wowed musicians and audiences when he led the orchestra in January 2003 that he's become the prime candidate to take over the post left empty when Charles Dutoit left almost two years ago.

Outside the parish Church of St. Eustache, still pockmarked by cannon shot from a French-Canadian rebellion in 1837, police slow traffic to a crawl and point to signs reading, "Silence please. Recording in progress." The twin-steepled Catholic church, lying northwest of the city across the Milles Iles River, is the unorthodox but spectacularly successful recording studio of the Montreal Symphony. Nineteen recordings made in St.

Kent Nagano, who now commutes between the Montreal Symphony and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Germany, has been a rare visitor to Southern California since ending his tenure as Los Angeles Opera music director three years ago. But Saturday night he appeared at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica with a handful of Montreal Symphony players, two Inuit throat singers and a bassoon-playing bear. First the orchestra's second associate concertmaster, Marianne Dugal, gave a labored solo performance of the Chaconne from Bach's D-Minor Violin Partita.

Confirming speculation published last week, the Montreal Symphony on Tuesday named Los Angeles Opera music director Kent Nagano its new music director starting in 2006. For the next two seasons, the 52-year-old conductor will serve as music advisor to the orchestra, developing its programming and leading at least four concerts each season. "It's very exciting news," Nagano said Tuesday by telephone from Montreal.

Will Los Angeles Opera music director Kent Nagano add the Montreal Symphony to his list of duties? The Canadian press thinks so. But Nagano and orchestra officials are keeping mum. Citing a story that appeared earlier in Montreal's French daily Le Devoir, the Montreal Gazette said Friday that Nagano so wowed musicians and audiences when he led the orchestra in January 2003 that he's become the prime candidate to take over the post left empty when Charles Dutoit left almost two years ago.

It was raining steadily when my train pulled into Montreal. Gray clouds pressed down on evergreen forests and flattened the hills, including the noble rise that gives the city its name: Mont Royal, the Royal Mountain. A porter carried my suitcase through the teeming station to an elevator marked "Hotel." In seconds I stepped out into the vast, elegant lobby of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, which towers above the tracks.

Lois Arthur's Feb. 3 letter regarding the "compromises" and lack of "coffee and cookies" at the Orange County Performing Arts Center made interesting reading. Mrs. Arthur stated she has "suffered midweek scheduling" at the Center. But in reviewing the 1989/1990 Orange County Philharmonic Society Great Orchestra Series schedule, 75% of the concerts are on weekends. Also, one third of the International Artists and Virtuoso series concerts are scheduled for weekends. At the Music Center, the Los Angeles Philharmonic has scheduled only 72% of its concerts for weekends.

On Monday night, things went better for the Montreal Symphony, playing its second Music Center concert just 24 hours after making its debut in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The accomplishments of the orchestra, which seemed so virtuosic in Hollywood Bowl appearances this year and in 1987, have been called into question with these two downtown concerts (the ensemble was also scheduled to play Tuesday night in Orange County).

Lois Arthur's Feb. 3 letter regarding the "compromises" and lack of "coffee and cookies" at the Orange County Performing Arts Center made interesting reading. Mrs. Arthur stated she has "suffered midweek scheduling" at the Center. But in reviewing the 1989/1990 Orange County Philharmonic Society Great Orchestra Series schedule, 75% of the concerts are on weekends. Also, one third of the International Artists and Virtuoso series concerts are scheduled for weekends. At the Music Center, the Los Angeles Philharmonic has scheduled only 72% of its concerts for weekends.

As this columnist frequently has occasion to lament, the quantity of recordings of a composer's music does not necessarily reflect or translate into frequency of live performance. Take the case of Bartok, all of whose major works have multiple listings in the current Schwann CD catalogue while in concert he is regularly represented only by his readily accessible, Romantically tinged Concerto for Orchestra and, for a very different audience, his less compromising string quartets.

The timing of your call for an extension to the Long Beach Freeway on the day after the collapse of the Nimitz Freeway is interesting. If Caltrans has $500 million for that extension, it would be better to spend it making existing freeways safer. Had that been done, lives could have been saved on the Nimitz Freeway. TED HILTON Pacific Beach

Pellucid and powerful readings of works by Mozart, Beethoven and Shostakovich made up the third program by the visiting Montreal Symphony on Thursday night at Hollywood Bowl. Southern California is fortunate this week. Music director Charles Dutoit elicits an unusually transparent sound from his orchestra, and that proved the case again on Thursday--the mid-point of the Montrealers' local sojourn.