Out West Arts: Performance at the end of the world

Congratulations to the many Los Angeles-connected winners at tonight’s Grammy awards. Sure it may not be the gold standard for classical music, but it's still nice to see LA Opera’s production of Weill’s The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny with Anthony Dean Griffey, Audra McDonald and Patti LuPone under the direction of James Conlon receive the award for Best Classical Album (it’s a DVD, but go figure) and Best Opera Recording. Certainly not my favorite moment at LA Opera in recent years, but it's still nice to see their effort recognized. (I'd have voted for the Metropolitan Opera's filmed HD broadcast of Eugene Onegin with Hvorostovsky and Fleming under Gergiev if it were up to me.)

On the more properly deserving side of things, Esa-Pekka Salonen leading the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Hilary Hahn won in the Best Instrumental Performance with Orchestra category for her bang-up recording of the Sibelius and Schoenberg violin concertos. Without orchestra, Gloria Cheng took home the Best Instrumental Performance award for works by Salonen, Stucky and Lutoslawski.

Labels: grammy