A Sad Symphony With a Happy Ending

Down in Orange County, territory once looked upon by highbrow Angelenos as dumdum land, the O.C. Philharmonic Society's "Eclectic Orange" Festival, about to start its third run, has proved itself hugely adventurous and, thus, hugely successful. You may have squirmed a bit at the Philip Glass Fifth Symphony last year, but it took bravery beyond the call to bring the work in soon after its headline-making premiere. (The Golijov Passion, by the way, is on next season's agenda.) The operative word in both instances is, of course, "festival." It's anybody's guess whether the magic will rub off on another of our local heroes, Arnold Schoenberg, whose music is being "festivalized" by both the Philharmonic and the Opera this season. If it doesn't happen, it won't be for lack of trying.

The corpse, in other words, continues to twitch.

On the Cover

Located a few short steps off Cahuenga Boulevard and remarkably soundproofed from the whir of traffic is the elegant oasis known as Robert Cauer Violins. (See "Ten Who Care.") Clients are greeted in a Victorian-furnished waiting area, and the adjoining rooms are lined with neatly ordered stringed instruments. The few privileged enough to see the guts of this operation enter an extensive back area in which the needs of restoration and repair sprawl into several specialized rooms. It is here that Cauer and his staff coax impossible tangles of twisted strings and wood like the one pictured on the cover back to musical life.

--Anne Fishbein