Classical Pick of the Week: Get Your Bowl On and Immerse Yourself in Color

This is an old recording by Feuermann performing the Dvorak Concerto. The greatest cellist performing the greatest piece (for the cello). The Hollywood Bowl is on twitter! Check out their feed for updates on concerts, insights on the artists that will be performing at the Bowl, and free tickets! Go to the Bowl this Tuesday for the conducting debut of Placido Domingo with Yo Yo Ma. Ma will be performing the Dvorak Cello Concerto, a warhorse that is often considered to be one of the most difficult and greatest works for the cello (if the work looks familiar, Lynn Harrell also performed the work at the Bowl, not too long ago). There are only a few tickets available, get them before you miss out on this historic opportunity. The concert starts at 8.

Thursday former Artist-in-residence with the LA Phil (and frequent visitor) Jean-Yves Thibaudet will perform Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 2. The program features a variety of works from composers that you've probably heard of (Liszt, Wagner, Strauss), featuring works that you might not be familiar with (Rienzi Overture, Til Eulenspiegel, Rosenkavaliar Suite). The young conductor Valcuha also makes his bowl conducting debut at this concert.

The Norton Simon Museum presents another exciting concert/lecture this Friday, this time on Picasso and Scriabin (a famous Russian composer, who wrote primarily for the piano). Pianist Jade Simmons takes you through the 24 Preludes (Op. 11) of Scriabin by the "color" of the keys/music to take you through the various periods of Picasso's life (Blue, Green, and Rose). Scriabin is not referring to the black and white keys when referring to the color, but believed (along with Rimsky-Korsakov) that each note had a relationship to a corresponding color (what we now call synesthesia). The concert and lecture begin at 7 pm.