For your viewing pleasure, I’ve assembled various production and behind the scenes pictures from Los Angeles Opera’s current version of Puccini’s Tosca. Photo credits include Robert Millard, Los Angeles Opera’s website and Facebook page, Lawrence K. Ho of the Los Angeles Times, and Brian Lauritzen.
In addition, click HERE for sketches drawn by Mike Sheehan for KPCC-FM.
I attended Saturday’s opening night performance, and will have the review up later tonight.
50 years since it’s founding by the legendary Roger Wagner as one of the Los Angeles Music Center’s resident companies.
10 years since it moved into Walt Disney Concert Hall
By all accounts, it’s an excellent looking season, with classics (including Carmina Burana, Bach’s B minor Mass, Verdi’s Te Deum), favorites from former Composer-In-Residence Morten Lauridsen, and newer works including four world premieres from Esa-Pekka Salonen, David Lang, Francisco Núñez, and Shawn Kirchner (current Composer-In-Residence).
The Master Chorale will also be participating in four big festivals:
August 26, 2013: The quartet version David Lang’s the little match girl passion with soprano Elissa Johnston, mezzo-soprano Adriana Manfredi, LAMC Music Director Grant Gershon singing tenor, and bass-baritone Cedric Berry.
Sept 7, 2013: Mr. Gershon conducts the Master Chorale in a performance of John Adams’s The Gospel According to the Other Mary with the original soloists and the Ravinia Festival Orchestra.
The Los Angeles city-wide “Britten 100/LA: A Celebration” with Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols as part of “Rejoice!,” one of four Holiday Programs
The LA Phil’s second “Minimalist Jukebox Festival.”
There’s much more to like in the details below after the jump. If I were to nitpick, I would have loved to have seen some Stravinsky or Mozart or even some Haydn, but hey, a wise man once sang that, “You can’t always get what you want,” so I’ll just have to deal with all the cool stuff actually being offered.
As we reach the end of December, it’s traditionally time for a retrospective look at the year that is just completed. Since 2012 was the first full calendar year of All is Yar‘s existence, it’s an especially important one for me. I’ve been fortunate — dare I say “blessed” — to have been able to experience more performances than I would’ve guessed at the beginning of the year — most of them somewhere between really good and truly awesome.
After some very detailed number-crunching, extremely scientific analysis, and deeply meditative internal reflection (OK, maybe more like some quality time with a green tea and some scotch), I decided to follow tradition and write-up a list of stuff I thought was worth mentioning. So cozy up to a loved one, grab a glass of your favorite beverage, and get yourself ready for . . . (cue trumpet fanfare) . . . the first-ever ”All is Yar‘s Most Favorite and Noteworthy Classical Music Stuff of the Year”.
First of all, we’re a talking Le Sacre du Printemps here, pretty much my favorite orchestral work ever. Secondly, the performance by the Mr. Dudamel and the LA Phil was as good as I’ve heard from that combination, so good in fact that I had to see it twice (hence the parenthetical plural “Concert(s)” above). Third, we got the added bonus of a bright new work from Mr. Stucky. Fourth, did I mention the concert included Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, which is pretty much my favorite orchestral work ever?
Really, CSO?? You don’t come to Southern California for more than a generation, and this is what you bring along?!! I mean, it sounded great and all, but . . . come on, man!
The Los Angeles Master Chorale’s December dance card was a bit more full than usual: two concerts of holiday carols, a straight-up performance of Handel’s Messiah, providing soloists for a Messiah sing-along, and an evening of Vivaldi and Bach that was titled, “Rejoice!”
I only had the opportunity to attend the Vivaldi/Bach concert, and judging from that single performance, I’d say that perhaps they were spread too thin.
It wasn’t an outright bad performance, and if you weren’t familiar with how well this world-class ensemble can usually sing, you may even have been inclined to have been impressed.
For me, however, it lacked polish and felt under-rehearsed. The Master Chorale’s trademark purity of tone and impeccable vocal blend was largely missing from the evening. Attacks and cut-offs could be rough. There was even a point in the evening when one of the choristers who did double duty as a soloist got up and began to walk to the front of the stage — except it wasn’t his turn to sing yet.
Here are the Southern California musical events happening in the coming month which are grabbing my attention, and that should be grabbing yours too:
Jacaranda’s holiday-ish “Winter Dreams” Concert this Saturday
Yes, ’tis the season for Messiah and The Nutcracker, but if you’re looking for something a little different, the intrepid folks at Jacaranda offer up this mix of music — some holiday-themed, some not – from Bach, Britten, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Ives, Glass and more, this coming Saturday. Performers include Jonathan Dimmock (organist for the San Francisco Symphony), the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, writer and raconteur Sandra Tsing Loh, and Cedric Berry (bass-baritone), among many others.
Esa-Pekka Salonen is back for two weeks in Southern California
He’s back, and there is much rejoicing. Most of you probably know about the three different programs over the course of seven concerts that E-PS will be conducting under the auspices of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s “Lutosławski Centenary” celebration. Some of you might even know that during the first three of these performances, Sony will be recording the First Symphony as part of a future release of all four Lutosławski symphonies (the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Symphonies have all been previously recorded for Sony by the E-PS and the LA Phil, and just for good measure, they also released a different recording of the 4th Symphony on DG Live).
What many of you probably don’t know is that in addition to his appearances at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Mr. Salonen will also be appearing at Hear Now Music Festival’s benefit concert on December 5th at the Briard House in Culver City.
All that said, their season is already off to an auspicious start with the release on CD and MP3 download of their latest recording for Decca: ”Górecki – Miserere,” featuring three works by Polish composer Henryk Górecki: Lobgesong (“Hymn of Praise”), the title track, Miserere, and the major-label premiere of Pieśni Maryjne (“Marian Songs”). Their live performance of these works at the end of last season was stunning, and this recording faithfully captures it.
Classical music, like life in general, abounds in so-called guilty pleasures. You know, the kind of stuff that you may not admit to friends that you like, but in the privacy of your own iPod earbuds, you relish with abandon. Warsaw Concerto is one for me. Carmina Burana is another one. Not a whole lot of people know Warsaw Concerto, but everyone knows Carmina Burana, whether they actually realize that they know it or not. It is this relative ubiquity that makes “serious” musical fans scoff Scoff SCOFF when Orff’s cantata shows up on programs.
“Spend your time listening to something deeper, more profound. Like the Mahler Eighth Symphony,” an uber-intellectual friend once told me.
As it turns out, I like to think of Carmina Burana as the Mahler Eighth’s evil twin: both split their libretto between Latin and Deutsche, both start with a booming chord in the orchestra followed by a grand entrance by the chorus, and both benefit from being done big. Of course, where the Mahler Eighth is all radiance and redemption, Carmina Burana is decadence and debauchery. Mahler has the Virgin Mary, Orff has the drunken “Abbot of Cockaigne.”
There is a time and place for both.
Last Thursday was the time, and the stage beneath the oversized white arches of the Hollywood Bowl was the place for the churning, chugging sounds of Orff’s paen to the whims of fortune and the joys of gluttony, drink, and lust. The performance benefitted from some standout soloists, smooth and energetic ensemble work by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, all managed by the capable hands of Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos.
For their season finale, the Los Angeles Philharmonic ordered up a world premiere of a major new work from John Adams, their Creative Chair and one of the most prominent American composers currently living. Once again, the orchestra was thinking big and taking risks.
You’ve gotta appreciate their moxy. Audentes fortuna juvat – “Fortune favors the bold” — as the old saying goes, and the orchestra has been both bold and fortunate in their many adventurous successes.
What Mr. Adams gave them was The Gospel According to the Other Mary, a new oratorio based more or less on the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus. A libretto by Peter Sellars uses a number of contemporary extra-biblical sources (including the writings of Dorothy Day, social activist and co-founder of the Catholic Worker) to supplant portions of the traditional narrative and re-focus the point of view of the story to be that of two women, Mary Magdalene and Martha. It is intended as a sort of companion to El Niño, Messers. Adams’s and Sellars’s decade-old oratorio constructed in a similar fashion.
Based on Thursday’s world premiere performance conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, there are other similarities: both scores have some sparkling choruses, moving arias, and incisive orchestral writing. More importantly, however, there are key differences, two of which prove troublesome:
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.
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.
Grant Gershon and the Los Angeles Master Chorale have spent the better part of a month helping the Los Angeles Philharmonic with their Mahler Project. With their Disney Hall roommates moving on to Venezuela for the rest of the “Project,” conductor and chorus have collectively moved on in their own way without having to leave home on Sunday — to the music of Bruckner (Mass No. 2 in e minor and Os justi meditabitur sapientiam) and Stravinsky (Symphony of Psalms). At first blush, it seemed to be an odd pairing as the two composers share few stylistic similarities; however, Mr. Gershon found common ground by creating a program devoted entirely to sacred music. Moreover, the contrasting works allowed the Master Chorale to show off different sides of its personality, resulting in a diverse evening of radiant singing.
All the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Conductor Laureate had to do was merely walk on stage Sunday afternoon, and the applause was enthusiastic and loud cheers were already audible. He didn’t disappoint. The first series of his two week stint was vintage Salonen.
The joy of living in Southern California is that the area offers so much to see/hear/experience; however, there is only limited space on my calendar and limited resources in my wallet, so I can’t do everything I would want. So with upcoming chunks of my time already being occupied by LA Phil performances, a Foo Fighters show, and USC football (not to mention the ubiquitous day job), here are just a handful of concerts – in no particular order — coming up in the next couple of weeks which I’d like to attend, but probably can’t. Hit them up yourself if you can:
A free concert by the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players
In addition to its regular orchestral concert series at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center, the LBSO offers a series called “Sounds & Spaces” devoted to performing chamber works in the community at architecturally notable locations. Amazingly, the cost of these concerts is Free-fifty-free (AKA $0). On Sunday, October 23rd, the LBSO Chamber Players will play the Mozart Flute Quartet in D major, the Villa- Lobos Quintette Instrumental for Flute Violin, Viola, Cello and Harp and Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro for Flute, Clarinet, String Quartet and Harp. Principal Flute Heather Clark and Harpist JoAnn Turovsky feature prominently.
The performance will take place in The Grand Salon of The Cooper Arms, a Long Beach building added to the National Historic Register in 2000. Noted Long Beach architectural historian and preservationist, Stan Poe, gives a brief talk about the venue, and a reception with the artists follows the concert.
To reserve your FREE ticket, call (562) 436-3203.
You’ve gotta love a Tuba concert
Norm Pearson, Jim Self, and Doug Tornquist are not only tubists in some of So Cal’s best ensembles, they also happen to be featured on most of the movie and TV soundtracks requiring that most sizable of brass instruments. That makes them heard more often than pretty much any other tubists around. Now you can hear them in person, along with some of their other tuba-playing colleagues on Wednesday, October 12th, at 7pm at USC’s Alfred Newman Recital Hall. The concert features premieres by David Jones, Anne McGinty and Steven J. Williams, along with other music by Bill Cunliffe, Anthony Plog and some guy named Beethoven.
The concert is FREE, though donations/contributions to the Patricia and Tommy Johnson Memorial Music Scholarship are welcome. Call (213) 740-2584 for more information.
Morten Lauridsen receiving the National Medal of the Arts (2007)
Arguably the most beloved living choral composer in this hemisphere, Dr. Lauridsen will have his works show up in in two different programs by groups with whom he has had a long association. Unfortunately for those of us fans, both concerts are happening at the exact same time: 7pm on Sunday, October 16th.
USC Thornton Chamber Singers and Concert Choir, Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church, 505 N. Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210 ($5 USC students and seniors; $15 general admission): As a Distinguished Professor and former head of the composition department, Dr. Lauridsen is rightly held in high esteem at USC. The Thornton School’s two vocal ensembles will perform his works, along with those of Manuel de Sumaya, Don Carlo Gesualdo, Benjamin Britten, Johannes Brahms, and Samuel Barber. More info HERE.
Los Angeles Master Chorale, Walt Disney Concert Hall ($24 – $119). Dr. Lauridsen’s relationship with the Master Chorale dates back to 1985 when Roger Wagner first conducted the Mid-Winter Songs on Poems by Robert Graves. From 1994-2001, Dr. Lauridsen was Composer-in-Residence, during which he created and the Master Chorale realized some of his most famous works, including O Magnum Mysterium, Lux Aeterna, and Ave Maria. Grant Gershon conducts the LAMC’s opening concert of the season in a typically diverse and intriguing program including works by Eric Whitacre, Tarik O’Regan, Shawn Kirchner, and a U.S. Premiere by Thomas Jennefelt, before ending the concert with the Lux Aeterna. Messers. Gershon and Kirschner join Dr. Lauridsen and Alan Chapman for the pre-concert discussion.
Franz Liszt’s 200th birthday and the Camerata Pacifica
The great Hungarian composer and pianist was born on October 22, 1811, and surprisingly, few local arts organizations will be celebrating the bicentennial of his birth. Thank goodness one of them is Camerata Pacifica, presenting pianist Adam Neiman as he performs Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes at four different Southern California locales:
Friday, October 14, 1pm* & 7:30pm: Hahn Hall, Santa Barbara (*lunchtime concert where only a selection of the Etudes will be performed)
Single tickets are $22 for the lunchtime concert in Santa Barbara, $40 for the afternoon concert in Ventura, and $45 for the three evening concerts. Click HERE to get your tickets in advance.
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Photo credit:
Michael Stewart for the National Endowment for the Arts
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As we reach the end of December, it’s traditionally time for a retrospective look at the year that is just completed. Since 2012 was the first full calendar year of All is Yar‘s existence, it’s an especially important one for me. I’ve been fortunate — dare I say “blessed” — to have been able to experience more performances than I would’ve guessed at the beginning of the year — most of them somewhere between really good and truly awesome.
I don’t remember the last time I heard the 
The great Hungarian composer and pianist was born on October 22, 1811, and surprisingly, few local arts organizations will be celebrating the bicentennial of his birth. Thank goodness one of them is 
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