Classical Program 6
Gregory Vajda, conducting

Bartók - Miraculous Mandarin, complete version, first OSO performance

Intermission

Debussy - Prelude to Afternoon of a Faun
Chopin - Piano Concerto No. 2, Ingrid Fliter, pianist
Dukas - Sorcerer’s Apprentice

T.S. Eliot thought that April was the cruelest month, but for me it’s January, with February a close runner-up. It’s because December is full of marginally fulfilling holiday stuff, followed by frantic running around for the holidays themselves, then a bit of blissful oblivion, followed by a panic that the season starts up again in five days, with really difficult programs, and I haven’t touched my viola since that last Nutcracker. Then it’s a sprint to the end of March, when the spring break arrives. [Read more →]

Carrie Dennis, the phenomenal violist who has (by the anything but grizzled age of 30!) already been Assistant principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Principal violist of the Berlin Philharmonic, and was just named as Principal violist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic has a couple videos up on youtube. See and hear her for yourself - viola ain’t second fiddle no more! [Read more →]

Carrie Dennis, currently one of the principal violists of the Berlin Philharmonic (you might have seen her on the front desk for Monday’s broadcast of the BPO’s Mahler 9 with Simon Rattle), has been hired as the new principal viola of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. [Read more →]