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Top 10 classical music moments of 2009

By Mark Swed, Times Music Critic A prerequisite for all music critics last century included a working knowledge of the New York subway system. It still does. But now anyone reporting on classical music must learn the L.A. freeway system as well. If that wasn't already obvious in 2003 when Walt Disney Concert Hall opened, it surely was in 2009, a critical year. Esa-Pekka Salonen left the Los Angeles Philharmonic with a remarkable series of concerts; Gustavo Dudamel caught the world's attention big-time when he took over five months later; and Los Angeles Opera began its ambitious and audacious $32-million "Ring" cycle, its lagging bank accout be damned.

By Mark Swed, Times Music Critic

A prerequisite for all music critics last century included a working knowledge of the New York subway system. It still does. But now anyone reporting on classical music must learn the L.A. freeway system as well. If that wasn’t already obvious in 2003 when Walt Disney Concert Hall opened, it surely was in 2009, a critical year. Esa-Pekka Salonen left the Los Angeles Philharmonic with a remarkable series of concerts; Gustavo Dudamel caught the world’s attention big-time when he took over five months later; and Los Angeles Opera began its ambitious and audacious $32-million “Ring” cycle, its lagging bank accout be damned.   (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Best goodbye

Esa-Pekka Salonen‘s final concerts as Los Angeles Philharmonic music director included a record number of premieres (including his own inspired Violin Concerto) and two Peter Sellars stagings that were final proof that his 17-year tenure changed music in Los Angeles and orchestral life in America.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Best hello

Without missing beat, the L.A. Phil proved that its glory years are not behind it when Gustavo Dudamel began his rapturously hailed tenure with “¡Bienvenido Gustavo!,” his euphoric, free concert at the Hollywood Bowl.  (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

Best Dudamel performance so far

John Adams‘ “City Noir,” which was commissioned to daringly open the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Dudamel gala in Disney but which didn’t really come to life until the new music director reprised the 35-minute symphony during the orchestra’s bold West Coast, Left Coast festival six weeks later.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Best news for 2010

The Los Angeles Opera’s production of Wagner’s “Ring” got underway with the first three operas in wonderfully delirious (if eminently controversial) productions by Achim Freyer; and the company got a life-saving $14-million Christmas present from the county Board of Supervisors in the form of a bailout, ensuring that the full cycle will get mounted next year.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Best Brahms

The Berlin Philharmonic under Simon Rattle, visiting Walt Disney Concert Hall, made Brahms and Schoenberg sing and soar like many of us had never heard before.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Best new music theater

The soulful, brilliant Polish company Teatr Zar presented the U.S. premiere of its revolutionarily ritualistic “Triptych” at UCLA, which used music, ancient and new, as well as sacred and profane, to profoundly underscore the most elemental aspects of life and death, of flesh and the spirit.  (Robert Lachman / Los Angeles Times)

Best hello, Part 2

Salonen and French director Patrice Chereau made their Metropolitan Opera debuts with a new production of Janacek’s “From the House of the Dead” that had more than one critic credibly calling it the best thing the company had ever done.  (Bebeto Matthews / Associated Press)

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