An actual knight, joined by a king in name: Pepe Romero, Christoph Konig, and the LA Phil

April 30, 2012 Leave a comment

I had been really looking forward to these concerts.  It was supposed to feature two masterful Spaniards in a night featuring a good chunk of Spanish music.  Unfortunately, that went by the wayside as Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, conductor and friend of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, cancelled for health reasons.  Pepe Romero, the distinguished guitarist (not to mention USC Thornton School professor and Spanish Knight in the order of Queen Isabella),  was still scheduled to perform the Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquin Rodrigo.  But who to conduct the program?

I poked a little fun at the Pacific Symphony when they puffed that the “renowned conductor Christoph König” would be joining them this season.  Mind you, I didn’t have any problem with the conductor himself, but to call him “renowned” was (and still is) a bit of stretch.  As it turned out, his appearances in Orange County this past February turned out to be well received (Tim Mangan’s review HERE).  So it was with great interest that I saw that the young German would be stepping into the breach for Mr. Frühbeck, umlaut for umlaut, for four concerts with the LA Phil:  three at Walt Disney Concert Hall, and — as  irony, shrewd decision-making, and/or just damn luck would have it — one concert back at the site of his first local success,  Segerstrom Concert Hall in Orange County.

So, despite the new conductor and slight change in the program, I stuck with my plan and went to the concert anyway.  Good move.  Mr. Romero was the star, but Mr. König acquitted himself rather nicely too, thank you very much.

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There goes my hero: Kahane and Kahane with the LA Chamber Orchestra

April 27, 2012 Leave a comment

Saturday’s Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra concert in Glendale featured music about places (New England, Brooklyn, and London) as set in  two older pieces and one West Coast premiere.   The theme worked very well, each piece on the program setting up the next one nicely.  Jeffrey Kahane led everything joyously.  If you were paying attention, you’d notice an extra bounce in his step and gleam in his eye as he strode to the podium, indicative of a sense of occasion perhaps — and you’d be right.

Three Places in New England by Charles Ives was receiving its long overdue LACO debut, and this would be cause enough for at least a little rejoicing.  Haydn’s 104th symphony, the “London,” was closing the concert, and the presence on the program of this bouyant work would easily make most people smile.  The real reason, however, behind Mr. Kahane’s upbeat demeanor was that the newer work receiving its West Coast premiere had been composed by Gabriel Kahane, the conductor’s son.  Moreover, this was the first time in which a work written by the younger Kahane — not to mention featuring him as soloist — would be conducted by the older one.

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Classical music marketing: Norm Lebrecht needs a beer or two (updated)

April 20, 2012 Leave a comment

Back in 2007, long before All is Yar was a mere Fig Newton of my imagination, Victoria Bitter (VB) beer company teamed with the Melbourne Symphony and Orchestra Victoria — playing together as the “Victoria Bitter Orchestra” — to create a unique commercial:  it featured the combined orchestras playing VB’s jingle using variations on a theme of VB bottles in lieu of their regular instruments.  They posted the commercial and a behind-the-scenes video on YouTube, to the thanks and amusement of us all.

After I created this fine blog, I posted the two videos as well as some commentary and suggestions on other potential partnerships (click HERE to see the videos & suggestions).

It turns out that one of the men behind the creation of this commercial was Matthew VanBesien, formerly of the Melbourne Symphony and, as of January 2012, the soon-to-be Executive Director of the New York Philharmonic.

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Turning pages: it can’t be that hard, can it?

April 18, 2012 4 Comments

Thoughts of this coming weekend’s concerts of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra conducted by their tech-loving Music Director, Jeffrey Kahane, reminded me of how he has increasingly taken to using iPads instead of regular sheet music, especially when playing the piano.  Among other reasons, it helps him avoid page-turning snafus.  Timo Andres also used one when he played with the orchestra last month.

Is page turning really fraught with that much danger?  Well, maybe.

There was the unfortunate page turner at Marino Formenti’s recital earlier this year.  In addition, I was reminded of the two videos below.   The first is definitely how NOT to do it.  The second works, but perhaps is not the approved solution.

Enjoy.

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The final course: LACO’s Westside Connections 3 with Susan Feniger

April 17, 2012 Leave a comment

Margaret Batjer, Maia Jasper, Roland Kato, and Andrew Shulman: a vividly realized Ravel String Quartet in F

It was Holy Thursday and a few days before Passover,  and therefore rather appropriate that the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra would serve up the final version of this year year’s food-themed “Westside Connections” concerts as a kind of last supper.

Margarat Batjer, LACO’s concertmaster and series curator, mentioned that the initial premise for the evening was to salute the influence of great French music and cuisine.  Curiously, the only food-themed music came from a Czech composer, and the guest chef joining them for the evening, Susan Feniger, became famous for NOT cooking French cuisine.

Be that as it may, the best moments of the evening were definitely French.

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Classical music marketing done right: behind the SLSO’s “Save Powell Hall” campaign

April 10, 2012 6 Comments

As I’ve mentioned in the past, classical music marketing and advertising can be a thankless job.  If you think it’s easy, you try finding something new to say about  music that’s been around for hundreds of years.  Go ahead, I’ll wait. . . . See?  Not exactly a piece of cake.

No one likes doing the same old thing, but I can’t really hold it against those organizations that fall back onto the two most popular  ways to build interest and excitement about your typical orchestral concert:  hype the warhorse and/or hype the big-name personality, usually with one or more exclamation points:  Beethoven’s 5th!!  YO-YO MA!!!

Obscure programming creates a tougher challenge, but also provides an opportunity to be more creative.  And by far, the best orchestral marketing and advertising effort I’ve seen lately — probably ever — is St. Louis Symphony’s “Save Powell Hall” campaign.

Take a deep breath and relax.  There is nothing actually wrong with the orchestra’s historic home — the campaign aims to create buzz for this coming weekend’s performance of Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite.  It is attention-grabbing, clever, and multi-faceted, brilliant in concept and perfectly tongue-in-cheek in execution.  But has it been effective?  Given the alarmist nature of the tagline, has there been any negative backlash?

A campaign this good demanded  more attention, so I spent some time chatting with Jonna Robertson, Vice President of Marketing for SLSO, to get those questions answered and to find out more about the campaign.

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Some Bruckner for your Good Friday

April 6, 2012 Leave a comment

Anton Bruckner wrote multiple settings of “Christus Factus Est Pro Nobis.”  This particular one is near and dear to my heart because it was the first Bruckner motet I learned to sing.  In fact, it was the first Bruckner work of any kind to which I was introduced.

Here’s a rendition by the Bristol Cathedral Choir.

Christus factus est pro nobis obediens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis.  Propter quod et Deus exaltavit illum et dedit illi nomen, quod est super omne nomen.

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April is full of cool — not cruel — stuff to do

April 3, 2012 Leave a comment

One of the 30 pianos that will be part of the "Play Me, I'm Yours" art exhibit spread across LA County.

Long before Madonna was the most famous American in self-imposed exile in the UK, another noteworthy American-turned-Brit wrote some unkind words about April (or at least that’s what the Thunder said). Whatever.   Don’t believe the hype — April is a kick-ass month, and this one in particular is full of all kinds of stuff for a music-loving Southern Californian to do:

Pianos, pianos, everywhere, thanks to the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra

  • The art installation, Play Me, I’m Yours, featuring 30 pianos spread across Los Angeles County for the public to play and enjoy, officially launches on April 12th with simultaneous performances of Preludes from Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, on all 30 pianos.   Many thanks to LACO for bringing it to Southern California.  More details in a later post, but if you want a head start on deciding which pianos you want to visit, click HERE.

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Excellent again: LA Master Chorale shines in Bach’s St. John Passion

April 2, 2012 Leave a comment

I don’t remember the last time I heard the Los Angeles Master Chorale have a less-than-impressive performance, let alone a bad day.  It’s had to happen; the group is only human, after all.

The Master Chorale  has a long and distinguished history, but ever since Grant Gershon took over as Music Director in 2001, its consistency over a diverse repertoire has been remarkable.  Their latest endeavor had them giving two performances of Bach’s St. John Passion just in time for Holy Week.  On Saturday night, they were terrific once again, and a capacity crowd at Walt Disney Concert Hall enthusiastically took it all in.

Mr. Gershon led a reduced contingent of forty singers in a moderately paced performance, full of interesting details.  He generally honored baroque sensitivities without slavishly trying to imitate period practices, though the sounds of the Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra certainly helped to bridge the gap.

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A worthwhile Wednesday: “Spring Recital 2012″ by Radu Pieptea and Bryan Pezzone

April 1, 2012 Leave a comment

Radu Pieptea

One of the benefits of living in a “big city”  is that arts and entertainment options are relatively frequent and easy to come by.  This provides both opportunities and challenges to both audiences and performers.

  • For audiences:  how do you choose to spend your valuable time and money?
  • For performers:  how do you break through the clutter to gain an audience for your work?
  • How does the right audience find the right performer?

As much as I love living in Southern California, I have to admit that it is easier on audiences and performers alike to find each other in older, more traditional cities in Europe and the East Coast.  Locals and tourists in London or NY can easily discover an interesting concert for little or no expense just by walking around, whereas our spread-out 20th Century version of a metropolis makes it much harder to stumble upon such things or make spontaneous decisions to attend them.  There has to be something about performers, program, and price to make one willing to overcome freeways, paid parking, and a mid-week concert date.

Such was the case this past Wednesday evening in a recital by violinist Radu Pieptea with pianist Bryan Pezzone.  They offered a varied program of five works that included two that I particularly like (Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 1 and Jascha Heifetz’s transcription of Gershwin’s Three Piano Preludes) at a price everyone could appreciate:  free.

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