Rachmaninoff

Question: Why did the L.A. Philharmonic have packed houses Nov. 11, 12 and 14? Answer: Liadov, Rachmaninoff, Mussorgsky, Temirkanov and Wattsofsky. SID WEINSTEIN Lakewood

Yuja Wang is a wonder. Having proved a sensation as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at both Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl, the 26-year-old Chinese pianist finally made her recital debut at Disney on Sunday night. Again a sensation, she displayed degrees of speed, agility and strength that may have been in violation of gravity's laws. Nor did Wang shy from her notable high style. She wore nearly identical tube-tight dresses - black for Scriabin, bright red for Rachmaninoff - as though a Bond girl who was also Houdini and Horowitz rolled into one, in her demonstration of startling dexterity despite physical restraints.

Alexander Markovich plays loud and soft, heavy and light, but his pianism for the most part lacks color, eloquence and subtlety. At his all-Rachmaninoff recital in Leo Bing Theater at the L.A. County Museum of Art Wednesday night, the 34-year-old Russian pianist indicated the breadth of the composer's solo-keyboard works but not the emotional and artistic intricacies of its style.

Vasily Petrenko is a slender, stylish Russian conductor dashing enough for Hollywood - he could have easily have pranced on camera in “Anna Karenina.” As an unknown 30-year-old in 2006, he took over the struggling Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, not a glamorous post. Now he is a local hero who has made Merseyside into Shostakovich central. Unfortunately, Petrenko has become associated with a limited Russian repertory, something not about to stop, what with the deserved popularity of his growing Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich discographies.

Leonard Zane dismisses Stravinsky's lofty reputation as a "typically intellectual viewpoint" and argues that his music won't endure like that of Rachmaninoff, Sibelius or Vaughan Williams because it doesn't "prove itself to the soul," whatever that means (Letters, March 4). I suppose, then, that those of us who packed the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion last weekend for the Los Angeles Philharmonic's remarkable performance of "The Rite of Spring" and responded with a unanimous, immediate, deeply felt and emotionally charged extended ovation were just a bunch of soulless intellectuals.

Krauthammer's column epitomizes the mentality of the reactionary conservative right. Congress, by seeking to qualify the NEA bill, does indeed censor art because, as a sanctioned authority, it imposes its view of what is and what is not art on the populace. Krauthammer's idea for a "Himmelfarb Amendment," which would support only "old, established art," can only be seen as the most dangerous of reactions to the avant-garde. He, like the right, chooses to live in a past that is safely understood and offers no surprises or discomforts; yet he seems to forget that aesthetic opinions of Rachmaninoff, Beethoven and similar artists have been forged in part by the benefit of years of hindsight.

Although some locals are still debating the merits of last fall's Soviet Arts Festival, introducing Soviet Georgian conductor Jansoug Kakhidze to the city was one achievement beyond cavil. The white-haired maestro won kudos for conducting the festival-opening opera "Boris Godunov," and he continued his impressive show in a last-minute substitution for an indisposed Soviet colleague on one of the San Diego Symphony's festival programs.

Despite the surfeit of musical styles available in today's America, it grows harder and harder to hear a nationalist idiom played authentically on its own.

Van Cliburn is back. Not on the concert platform--from which he retired in 1975 while barely past the age of 40--despite hopeful palpitations stemming from a brief glasnost /Gorbachev-related visit to the Reagan White House. No, he's back on recordings, being accorded the sort of full coverage by RCA, on its mid-price blue label, thus far reserved for such departed giants as Artur Rubinstein and Jascha Heifetz. Is Cliburn in that class? Does he deserve it? Can one really answer such questions?

Ashley Tisdale "Guilty Pleasure" Warner Bros. 1/2 At age 24, Ashley Tisdale is the elder of the "High School Musical" tribe that includes Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens. On her second album, "Guilty Pleasure," the now-brunet wants to forge her adulthood, but what she's crafted is a glob of uninspired pop-rock that aspires to be Pink but is really something paler. The problem might lie with Tisdale's chosen path of independence; the showbiz prodigy now fancies herself a bad girl.

In March 2010, Robin Ticciati, a 26-year-old British wonder, made his debut conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic. A Simon Rattle protégé, Ticciati was at the time a newly appointed music director of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and was said, perhaps, to be the next Dudamel. Since then his career has continued to rocket, as every year he adds more prestigious orchestras and opera companies to his guest-conducting card. He is principal guest conductor of the Bamberg Symphony, one of the best in Germany.

It was not a typical Russian night at the Hollywood Bowl. The violin concerto Tuesday was not by Tchaikovsky. The Mussorgsky work was not "Pictures at an Exhibition. " Rachmaninoff did not mean the Los Angeles Philharmonic had to hire a piano soloist. Best of all, Leopold Stokowski, whose name is normally restricted to historical artifacts in the Bowl museum, popped up on the program. The French deserve the credit for this curious lack of Slavic cliché. Stéphane Denève is this week's resident conductor; French Canadian violinist Martin Chalifour, the L.A. Phil's masterful concertmaster, was Tuesday's soloist in Julius Conus' Violin Concerto, a favorite of Jascha Heifetz but a rarity these days.

Pianist Yuja Wang struck a chord at the Hollywood Bowl this month and not just with her performance of Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto. The 24-year-old Chinese soloist had necks craning, tongues wagging and flashbulbs popping when she walked on wearing an orange, thigh-grazing, body-hugging dress atop sparkly gold strappy stiletto sandals. In particular, Wang's outfit was a hot topic at the concert and continued after L.A. Times music critic Mark Swed's review appeared in print and online.

Ashley Tisdale "Guilty Pleasure" Warner Bros. 1/2 At age 24, Ashley Tisdale is the elder of the "High School Musical" tribe that includes Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens. On her second album, "Guilty Pleasure," the now-brunet wants to forge her adulthood, but what she's crafted is a glob of uninspired pop-rock that aspires to be Pink but is really something paler. The problem might lie with Tisdale's chosen path of independence; the showbiz prodigy now fancies herself a bad girl.

Los Angeles has no dearth of contests. There are the Oscars. The Emmys. Sometimes the NBA playoffs. But even in this competitive city, the current week has been notable. Two classical music tourneys -- each honoring a brilliant expatriate pianist who lived out his life in Beverly Hills -- have been overlapping. And anyone hoping to catch a future keyboard star on the rise will be torn over the weekend between UCLA and downtown, as the second Jose Iturbi International Music Competition and the third Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition and Festival draw to a close.

WHEN the Los Angeles Philharmonic first began giving concerts at the Hollywood Bowl in 1922, they were called "Symphonies Under the Stars," and Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony -- first performed in Russia 14 years earlier -- was relatively new music. The music spoke to its time, and the work's slow movement seemed to be exactly what the Bowl had in mind with that slogan. L.A. provided the warm evening and a brilliant nighttime sky.

Vasily Petrenko is a slender, stylish Russian conductor dashing enough for Hollywood - he could have easily have pranced on camera in “Anna Karenina.” As an unknown 30-year-old in 2006, he took over the struggling Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, not a glamorous post. Now he is a local hero who has made Merseyside into Shostakovich central. Unfortunately, Petrenko has become associated with a limited Russian repertory, something not about to stop, what with the deserved popularity of his growing Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich discographies.

Yuja Wang is a wonder. Having proved a sensation as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at both Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl, the 26-year-old Chinese pianist finally made her recital debut at Disney on Sunday night. Again a sensation, she displayed degrees of speed, agility and strength that may have been in violation of gravity's laws. Nor did Wang shy from her notable high style. She wore nearly identical tube-tight dresses - black for Scriabin, bright red for Rachmaninoff - as though a Bond girl who was also Houdini and Horowitz rolled into one, in her demonstration of startling dexterity despite physical restraints.

Pianist Stephen Hough has become a resource for CD aficionados because of the reams of out-of-the-way repertoire he has been setting down for the hardy Hyperion label. If you're curious about the piano concertos of Xaver Scharwenka, Emil von Sauer or Lowell Liebermann, Hough has some records for you. If you've always wanted to explore the solo piano music of Federico Mompou or York Bowen, Hough can oblige.

Pianist Andre Watts, who stepped in on short notice for an ailing Helene Grimaud, received a huge ovation after finishing Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic led by Paavo Jarvi on Thursday at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Los Angeles audiences give routine, if not obligatory, standing ovations, but this time the response was instantaneous, electrifying and accompanied by hoots, whistles and bravos that were anything but business as usual.