Music review: Harth-Bedoya conducts the L.A. Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl

As frequent Los Angeles Philharmonic guest conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya pointed out, Tuesday night’s Hollywood Bowl concert had a unifying theme. Every piece on the program was written by a French composer, and every piece was affected by the “Spanish tinge” – as Jelly Roll Morton put it – to some degree. Sometimes you had to listen hard to find Spain in the sound, but it was there. It was the kind of classical program that symphonic pops conductor and once-perennial Bowl visitor Erich Ku

Basement Songs: “Clair de lune”

Take a moment to sit back, relax, and listen to the following piece of music. It’s “Clair de lune,” written by French composer, Claude Debussy, performed by pianist John O’Conor on his CD, Piano Classics: Popular Works for Solo Piano . Debussy originally composed this delicate work in 1889 for his orchestral suite, Suite bergamasque . My classical music knowledge is limited. I was exposed to the great masters through Cleveland Orchestra concerts as a child or hearing classical music whil

Boulez Wins Kyoto Prize

David Goldman for The New York TimesPierre Boulez conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in March.The French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez will be among the winners of the Kyoto Prize, awarded annually by the Inamori Foundation in Japan to recognize “contributions to the scientific, cultural and spiritual betterment of mankind,” the foundation said in a news release. Mr. Boulez, 84, will be the prize’s laureate in its arts and philosophy category. (Awards are also given