The Hollywood Bowl Season is Here!!

The Los Angeles Phil has moved to the Hollywood Bowl for the summer for exciting music.  Their kick off was the July 4th concerts with fireworks and Smokey Robinson.  We joined friends for a picnic and then strolled up to the Bowl to enjoy the music and action.

The Phil started off the evening with patriotic music.  After the break, they were the background music for Smokey Robinson and his band.  Smokey entertained us with some of his old hits that he wrote such as "My Girl."  Some were made famous by The Temptations and others, but we all knew the words and sang along. Smokey is 75 but is very fit and showed off his limber moves on the stage in his bright green satin suit.

Then the Phil took over for "Starts and Stripes Forever" and other music coordinated with fireworks.  This is a great L.A. tradition that we greatly enjoyed.

The LA Phil classical summer season begins tonight.  I went to the rehearsal this morning and enjoyed The Polovisian Dances from Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin, 1833-1887.  This included the music from the musical, "Kismet" which we know as "Take my Hand, I'm a Stranger in Paradise."  

We heard parts of "La mer," by Claude Debussy, 1862-1918.  The feature was the Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor by Sergei Prokofiev, 1891-1953.  Twenty-eight-year-old pianist Yuja Wang, short skirt and all, attacked the concerto and wowed the rehearsal audience.

I missed the "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel, 1875-1937 because I was late.  I heard is was a 10,