Mark Swed

LOS ANGELES - When Esa-Pekka Salonen announced recently that he would step down as music director of the San Francisco Symphony next year, he did not say it was to spend more time with his family. He told the truth.

Music, light and scent attempt to play together at the San Francisco Symphony’s performance of Scriabin’s “Prometheus,” with Esa-Pekka Salonen as conductor and Jean-Yves Thibaudet as piano soloist in Davies Symphony Hall. (Brandon Patoc/San Francisco Symphony)

The famed Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini died Saturday. Listen to his music, and you'll still hear life in every note.

Love him or hate him, Philip Glass is inescapable. His 20 piano etudes have become essential listening, his impact on three generations of artists indelible.

LOS ANGELES — In 1994, Philip Glass wrote six seemingly ordinary piano etudes for conductor and pianist Dennis Russell Davies on the occasion of his 50th birthday.

LOS ANGELES — In 1994, Philip Glass wrote six seemingly ordinary piano etudes for conductor and pianist Dennis Russell Davies on the occasion of his 50th birthday.

The excited media coverage last week of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's choice for a new music director treated 28-year-old Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä like the second coming of Gustavo Dudamel.

It's been asked before, and we'll ask it again: If music festival-goers need payment plans, have concert tickets gotten too expensive?

With Verdi's 'La Traviata' and Huang Ruo's 'Book of Mountains and Seas' as well as other projects, L.A. Opera is attempting to cover all operatic bases. Can opera thrive here?

When Gustavo Dudamel stepped on the stage of Walt Disney Concert Hall last week to conduct his Los Angeles Philharmonic for the first time in three