Last night, GRAMMY Week kicked off with the Salute to Classical event, a true celebration of classical music.

There’s a full and official recap over at grammy.com for the evening, full of information and quotes, but the best thing to know about last night was that it was an evening full of wonder and excitement for not only those new to classical music, like KM and AA – the two GRAMMY U students helping us Twitter and blog – but for those unwilling to be impressed simply by the legendary names and settings.

Jeffrey Kahane conducted the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra from the piano, a rare treat, in a performance KM thought, “tore it up,” which I can only agree with. John Lithgow struck a delicate note between humor and solemnity, singing our honorees praises and amusing the audience in turns. Sir Neville Marriner strode onto the stage from the front row for his turn at conducting, practically launched himself onto the podium and conducted Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro Overture without sheet music or a baton. At times it seems he conjured the performance rather than conducted it, and the joy and respect of the performers couldn’t have been more apparent.

Kahane and Marriner accepted their honors – Kahane’s on behalf of the entire LACO – with humble faith in the power of music. Marriner believes that the standard of orchestral music has risen noticeably due to the quality of recordings and said that he is eminently grateful to the recording industry. He recounted an early recording session where the physical limitations of recording music to be played on one half of a record dictated a faster speed in the tempo.

A small handful of photos from the event can be found on Facebook and the first in a series of videos from last night is up on YouTube. Stay tuned for more recollections from a whirlwind week of celebrating music.