Eating at dal Corsaro, considered by many to be Cagliari’s best, specializing in fresh fish and traditional maiale, baby pig, is an exercise in rustic cooking.  It is included on my Autentico Italiano list because it is an island unto itself, despite being part of Italy as of recent times.

Sardinia is an ancient island with influences from the many [...] Continue Reading…

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the new John Axelrod website.  A great deal of thought has been put into the process, design and implementation, and both ARTICOMM, the designer, and I hope you like the new look!

Making a new website brings questions to mind:  why should the organic, performance of music need to have a visual (and technological) support in the [...] Continue Reading…

Dear Friends,

The holiday 2009 season arrives none too soon, after what has certainly been a full, yet fulfilling year.  Hard to imagine, but in 2009, I finished my tenure in Lucerne after five years, and earned my new position as Music Director with the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire.  I also made my first concert as Music [...] Continue Reading…

This is Thanksgiving.  Allow me a few words to share on this day and for the holidays:

I have been recently called a Jewish American Texan, a JAT for those in the know, but I prefer to call myself an ABC, an Ameropean By Choice.

This newfound status offers great advantages:  I get to live in this wonderful union of European [...] Continue Reading…

Dear Friends,
What a summer its been. To be on tour with Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang was extraordinary in every way. Not only were these supreme musicians a joy to make music with, filled with technical virtuosity and free improvisation, but their humanity and warm spirits made the tour into a family like experience: From Montreux to Lyon to [...] Continue Reading…

Providence.  Destiny.  Fate.  Synchronicity:  Big words during big times.  And it happened just after my 43rd birthday.

In order for me to have been able to conduct Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde for Opera Nantes/Angers this April -June, a decision would have had to be made regarding any titled position, as I had other engagements scheduled in the period.  Fortunately, after [...] Continue Reading…

What better way to sample the best Italian outside Italy in Japan than to start with the best: the Enoteca Pinchiorri exported from Florence to the heart of the Ginza district in Tokyo. Next to Gucci and Armani on the 7th floor of an unsuspecting department store lies a hidden palace of gastronomic luxury. Despite deafening crowds and talking [...] Continue Reading…

I’ve gotten used to finding good Italian restaurants in Germany, and even finding those “special” kind of authentic Italian in small German cities.  You know, the kind that have canzone Napolitano in the background and everyone in the restaurant speaks with a rather strong Sicilian accent.  Indeed, in these places, the recipes are authentic, the service quite friendly and [...] Continue Reading…

Normally Italian food is enjoyed in more casual circumstances:  the neighborhood trattoria, the enoteca, the osteria, the cafe, the pizzeria.  But occasionally, one gets to enjoy the finer elements of Italian cuisine.  In Lugano, just north of the Italian border separating Italy and Switzerland, there are two such restaurants, famed for their awards as much as their wine and [...] Continue Reading…

When one thinks of Faust, the recurring theme of making a deal with the devil is the most dominant image. When one eats at Fausto’s in Budapest, I cannot help but wonder if this chef made a deal with Mephistopheles just to be able to prepare food so decadent and delectable. Natually, Fausto is the Chefs real name, but [...] Continue Reading…

Gourmet Italian is one thing. Good Fellas Italian is another. And both can hit the spot, literally. While in Darmstadt conducting, I had a full week to enjoy this home of German Jugendstil. Instead, amidst the snow and Chrstmas rush, I spent my time, when not rehearsing or in concert, at Ristorante San Remo, across from my hotel, where [...] Continue Reading…

Imagine this to get your taste buds salivating….an amuse-bouche of crab with avocado and yellow tomato gelee, brochette of squid, scampi and bacon. Followed by seared scallops with smoked tuna and a gazpacho of tomato and lemon creme. Finally, the entree arrives. A filet of deer with jerusalem artichokes and carrots, orange and red (again!), and glazed pumpkin. Finally, [...] Continue Reading…

As a conductor from Houston who often works in Europe, and as the occasional food critic, I am frequently asked by friends what restaurants I would recommend in some of Europe’s great cities. Though such a subject could be a book in itself, I was very happy when ArtsHouston asked me to share some of my best-kept secrets for [...] Continue Reading…

This concert is called Classics à Go-Go because it presents certain works as not only representative of the marriage of jazz and classical music into a kind of urbanist style, but also works which have become fixed in the consciousness of popular culture. Popular Culture- the phrase is a kind of misnomer. I define it as those products of [...] Continue Reading…

Undoubtedly, the biggest problem facing classical music – both its industry as a performing art and as a recorded product – is not the short term cash flow crises of many orchestras operating today, nor the shrinking market share of classical music product; but it is what has been described as the “greying” of the traditional audience and the [...] Continue Reading…