Like a boss: David Robertson and SLSO at Segerstrom Concert Hall show how it’s supposed to be done

March 22, 2013 Leave a comment

Good chemistry between a conductor and orchestra is a difficult thing to predict or explain, but as former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart might say, I know it when I see it.  And I know I saw — and heard — it this past Monday night when David Robertson brought the St. Louis Symphony into Segerstrom Concert Hall for a very generous evening of interesting works, care of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County.

How else does one explain the powerful yet easy-going and relaxed music making I experienced?  This is the way all concerts should be.  Details were attended to without any fussiness.  Technical hurdles were overcome with more than sufficient aplomb, and Mr. Robertson had his orchestra turning on a dime with no problems.  Smiles were everywhere.  There was much to love, and there was much rejoicing to be had by all.

Read more of this post

Filed under All Reviews, Music (News & Reviews), Philharmonic Society of Orange County, Reviews 2012/2013 Tagged with , , , , ,

Southwest Chamber Music announces details of their 2013 Summer Season at The Huntington

March 21, 2013 Leave a comment

Southwest Chamber Music Summer Festival at The Huntington Loggia (photo by CK Dexter Haven)

Just got the announcement from our friends at Southwest Chamber Music detailing the four concert Summer Season they’ll be offering at The Huntington.  I like it.  A nice mix of old and new, rare and familiar.

  • Stravinsky under the stars?  Check.
  • Britten Anniversary?  Check.
  • Eine Kleine Nachtmusik?  Check
  • Works by living composers Oliver Knussen and Gabriela Ortiz?  Check.
  • And the ever present “much more”

Full details after the jump below.

The concerts offer the very nice setting of The Huntington’s Loggia, with a choice of seating

  • On the Loggia itself if one prefers a somewhat more formal seating in a space with very good acoustics, OR
  • On the lawn where you can spread out a blanket, have a picnic while listening to the music, and be more laid back (literally and figuratively), all for less than half the price for single tickets.

Details and tickets (for both the concerts themselves and pre-concert Tea Room dinners, if one were interested) are available now on Southwest’s website (HERE).

Read more of this post

Filed under Music (News & Reviews), Southwest Chamber Music Tagged with ,

Anne LeBaron’s latest gem out-sparkles the rest at final LA International New Music Festival concert

March 20, 2013 Leave a comment

Anne LeBaron in Vienna (2008)

Anne LeBaron in Vienna (2008)

In an ideal world, I would have been able to see all four concerts that formed the “LA International New Music Festival 2013″ presented by Southwest Chamber Music; alas, life often gets in the way.  Thankfully, after multiple thwarted attempts to make my way out to The Colburn School for the festival, I was able to attend the final offering in the series.

Works by South American composers Carlos Chávez and Alberto Ginastera occupied the first half and two world premieres were offered up after intermission.  It was all worthwhile, but by far, the most compelling music of the night was the new aria from Anne LeBaron, Some Things Should Not Move.

The work is intended to be just one part of a larger autobiographical monodrama for soprano and chamber ensemble, with the soloist playing three different roles (the Composer, the Daughter, and the Viennese Psychic).   It stems from Dr. LeBaron’s 2008 sabbatical when she lived in Vienna; the flat she occupied had many abstract paintings hanging on its walls, and happened to be in a former monastery building.  She describes in the program notes the rather unexpected stuff going on around her:

“After some weeks of living and working in this apartment, there were strange goings-on that became increasingly intense.  Perhaps the strangest manifestations of unusual activity were subtle changes in the paintings themselves:  colors would shift, shapes would alter.  The work of art near the bed where I slept was the most active in these ways, and I had to remove it — not a good idea.” (Anne LeBaron, 2013)

Her daughter, Yvonne Eadon, provides the libretto.  Now an undergrad at U.C. Berkeley, she was a high-school exchange student at the time in a nearby Austrian town, and she had some first-hand observations of the “goings-on” at her mother’s place — not to mention her mother’s reactions to them.

The resulting aria inspired by these strange events is rivetingly beautiful.

Read more of this post

Filed under All Reviews, Music (News & Reviews), Reviews 2012/2013, Southwest Chamber Music Tagged with , , , , ,

The LA Master Chorale to celebrate its 50th Anniversary with impressive 2013/2014 season

March 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Los Angeles Master Chorale (photo by Lee Salem)I was very happy to see this very promising information show up in my inbox this afternoon:

The Los Angeles Master Chorale announced their 2013/2014 season, a year which celebrates a pair of anniversaries:

  • 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:

  • The 2013 Hollywood Bowl season, with three performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic
  • Chicago’s 2013 Ravinia Festival:
    1. 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.
    2. 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.

Here’s the full press release:

Read more of this post

Filed under Los Angeles Master Chorale, Music (News & Reviews) Tagged with , , , ,

And the hits just keep on coming . . .

March 13, 2013 Leave a comment

Just when I was hitting my stride again with writing and blogging, I managed to injure my shoulder and arm.  After trying to fight through the increasing pain and soreness, I finally got in checked out last week and discovered that I had actually torn something — muscle, tendon, ligament — not sure which yet.

Anyways . . . it’s slowed me down MUCH more than I’d like, but not stopped me completely.  Reviews of Southwest Chamber Music and “The Gospel According to the Other Mary” are forthcoming.

Filed under Uncategorized

LA Phil tuning up the programs they are taking on tour (part 2 of 3): Dudamel swings for the fences with “La mer” & “Firebird”

March 8, 2013 1 Comment

Gustavo Dudamel (photo by Andrew Eccles)

“I think that Debussy is, perhaps,  the most important composer of this century.  I also happen to think that today, the future of classical music has a lot to do with Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, and less to do with Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern.

The relationship between Debussy and Stravinsky is particularly interesting.  First of all, young Stravinsky was very much influenced by Debussy’s music, but also Debussy was one of the few people who understood what Stravinsky was trying to do . . . and the relationship between these two men was one of the most interesting chapters in music of this century.”

– Esa-Pekka Salonen, In Rehearsal (DVD), 1997

Back at the beginning of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s 2012/2013 season, Gustavo Dudamel conducted the world premiere of Symphony by Steven Stucky and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, taking direct aim at repertoire that have been veritably owned by his predecessor, Esa-Pekka Salonen.  For this past weekend’s concerts, he doubled down with another concert of two more of Mr. Salonen’s calling cards, Debussy’s La mer and The Firebird by Stravinsky.

The natural inclination to juxtapose the two conductors in this repertoire is particularly strong:

  • First, Mr. Dudamel is choosing to conduct La mer in his fourth season as Music Director, the same point in Mr. Salonen’s tenure that he decided to record it for Sony, thereby allowing listeners to directly compare their interpretations after each have had roughly the same amount of time to lead the orchestra.
  • Second, Mr. Salonen and the LA Phil happened to perform and record both La mer and The Firebird for DG near the end of his tenure with the orchestra.  This makes it easy to compare interpretations that are separated by just a few years.

Mr. Dudamel’s versions of these works invite particular scrutiny because he and the LA Phil will be performing them on their upcoming trip to Europe and New York.  Given that the rest of the music to be done on tour is much newer, these early 20th century classics will undoubtably be the most well-known works those audiences will hear.  For all intents and purposes, they will serve as the yard-stick against which both orchestra and conductor will be measured while on the road — all the contemporary works could be hits, but if the Debussy and the Stravinsky miss the mark with out-of-town audiences and journalists, it would be disappointing to say the very least.

I had the good fortune to be able to attend two performances of this program, just as I had done with the season opener.  I am happy to say that they were both concerts this weekend were very good.  Yet while I’d describe those dazzling season-opening concerts as home runs — perhaps even grand slams — this past weekend’s concerts were doubles to the gap that could have been legged-out for triples but weren’t:   welcome accomplishments in any case, but the latest pair felt like an opportunity not fully realized.

Read more of this post

Filed under All Reviews, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Music (News & Reviews), Reviews 2012/2013 Tagged with , , , , ,

A brief word about my last bottle of ’95 Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon

March 7, 2013 Leave a comment

Recently, we were on our way to celebrate a family birthday at Chez Melange, the celebrant’s restaurant of choice. As we were about to leave the house, I peeked into our “wine cellar” to grab a wine for the evening — specifically, a cabernet sauvignon, since we all seemed to be in a beef & lamb mood. After a quick look through the possibilities, I noticed that there was one lonely bottle of ’95 Beringer Private Reserve left.

The 1995 vintage of Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon was a legendary one, and when it was released, I stocked up on as much Beringer, Caymus, Groth, Robert Craig, Paradigm, et al that I could afford.  Over the years, we slowly worked our way through the collection, and this was the last chance to enjoy a great example from it.  On top of that, conventional wisdom says that the vintage is past is prime, so I figured there was no reason to sit on this bottle any longer.

So . . . was it a little long in the tooth?  Yeah, it was.  The front end was noticeably softer than I remember, and overall it was a subdued version of what it had been just a few years previous.

That said, comparing this wine today to how it was five years ago isn’t exactly fair.  Most wines currently in their prime wished they had the depth and complexity of flavor that this nearly 20 year-old wine had.  You could still taste the fruit — perhaps not as bold as it was, but very much still there.  Considering that Beringer Private Reserve has never been the fruit bomb that some boutique Napa Cabs are, plus the somewhat lower alcohol level in the ’95 versus current vintages, this was still impressively elegant.

Glad that my last experience with this excellent vintage was as good as it was.  Now to make my way through the ’97s before that vintage starts to go down hill. . . .

—————

Photo credit:  CK Dexter Haven

Filed under Drink, Wine Tagged with ,

Live tweeting from tonight’s final dress rehearsal of LA Opera’s “Flying Dutchman”

March 6, 2013 Leave a comment

Flying Dutchman
Once again, the nice folks at Los Angeles Opera have invited me and the rest of the distinguished usual suspects to share our insightful observations, witty opinions, and occasional double entendres at the final dress rehearsal of one of their productions — 140 characters at a time.  Tonight’s fun:  The Flying Dutchman by Richard Wagner.

I invite you to follow along with the collective banter at “#LAODutchman” or simply click HERE to be taken directly there.   It all starts around 7:15 Pacific Standard Time.  Hope that you’ll join us.

Filed under Los Angeles Opera, Music (News & Reviews) Tagged with ,

LA Phil tuning up the programs they are taking on tour (part 1 of 3): Packing up the Green Umbrella for a road trip

March 6, 2013 4 Comments

Joseph Pereira outside Walt Disney Concert Hall

The Los Angeles Philharmonic has begun presenting to local audiences the programs they will be taking on tour, all of which include music exclusively from the 20th and 21st Century.  London, Lucerne, Paris, and New York get the two big programs: one featuring works by Vivier, Debussy, and Stravinsky; the other with John Adams’s massive oratorio, The Gospel According to the Other Mary.

As if that weren’t enough to show their dedication to newer music, the LA Phil’s New Music Group will be performing an extra concert in London:  the Green Umbrella program they unveiled at Walt Disney Concert Hall last week.  In fact, it will be the very first concert they give on tour — a statement-making concert, if you will.

This is certainly admirable and ambitious in concept, and based on what I heard, the works performed certainly gave the musicians a chance to show off their range and flexibility.  Moreover, the three compositions fit together well while also presenting some diversity in musical language.

Read more of this post

Filed under All Reviews, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Music (News & Reviews), Reviews 2012/2013 Tagged with , , ,

Jacaranda’s latest concert highlighted by 4handLA’s piano rendition of “The Rite of Spring”

March 2, 2013 Leave a comment

4handsLAThe folks at “Jacaranda, Music on the Edge” are on a bit of a roll.  The seats at Santa Monica’s First Presbyterian Church (AKA “First Preb”) were almost all full and the crowd was enthusiastic.  The program, billed as “Thresholds:  The Scandals of 1912-13″ was chock-a-block with works from the Second Viennese School; however, in this centenary year of Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring), the big draw seemed to be a performance of the piano four-hands version of Stravinsky’s masterpiece.

Piano soloists for the evening were Danny Holt and Steven Vanhaewaert, who perform together as “4handsLA.”  The duo made their Jacaranda debut in 2009 playing The Rite, and given their magnificent performance this time around, it makes complete sense that they were asked to perform it again.

Direct comparison between orchestral and piano versions of any work can often be dicey given the different capabilities of the instruments, but all things considered, this was a performance that had the same bite, mysteriousness, and raw primitivity that you’d want from the fully orchestrated version.  Messers. Holt and Vanhaewaert deftly managed all sorts of manual contortions and gymnastics to bring the work to life, all while drawing a wide array of textures and timbres out of the single grand piano.    When it was done, the ovation they received was easily the loudest and most sustained of the evening.

Read more of this post

Filed under All Reviews, Music (News & Reviews), Other classical music concerts and recitals (in So Cal and beyond), Reviews 2012/2013 Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Dudamel, Shaham, and LA Phil make old standards sound fresh; Julien Beaudiment sits in as first-chair flute

February 28, 2013 Leave a comment

Gil Shaham (photo by Luke Ratray)Gustavo Dudamel returned to the Los Angeles Philharmonic podium for the first time since October 14, 2012.  Most of the next few weeks will be devoted to preparing programs for the orchestra’s upcoming tour to Europe and New York, but this past weekend’s concerts were not going to be played out of town.

On paper, it seemed like an unexciting tune-up — Music Director and orchestra getting a little re-acquainted after a few months apart by playing some Romantic oldies by Wagner and Schumann, and joined by star violinist Gil Shaham for another run through the ubiquitous Brahms violin concerto.

Fortunately, what could have been a hum-drum concert turned out to be a lovely Sunday afternoon of music, with Messers. Dudamel and Shaham helping to bring these works to life.  Pieces that can easily feel like drab museum pieces instead were made to sound vigorous and contemporary.

The collaboration between conductor and soloist in the Brahms was particularly rewarding to experience.  These are two extremely committed musicians who are always having fun while they are on stage, and they aren’t afraid that anyone else knows it.

Read more of this post

Filed under All Reviews, Auditions & Appointments, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Music (News & Reviews), Reviews 2012/2013 Tagged with , , , , ,

RIP Van Cliburn

February 27, 2013 1 Comment

Sad news comes that pianist Van Cliburn has passed away this morning in Fort Worth, TX.  He was 78 years old.

I was a Van Cliburn fan from an early age.  He was the first world-class pianist I ever knew by name, thanks to my parents owning his LP (yes, vinyl 33-1/3) of Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.”  I listened to that thing endlessly.  When I eventually went shopping for my very first bunch of CDs, included in that three-disc purchase was his recording of the Tchaikovsky First and Rachmaninoff Second concertos.

Born Harvey Levan Cliburn in 1934, he burst onto the world’s musical scene in 1958 when he won the gold medal in the inaugural Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow.  Given the Cold War political backdrop, the notion of an American winning a prestigious competition in what was then the Soviet Union helped to turn him into a mega-celebrity.

It isn’t an exaggeration to say that he helped to end the Cold War many years later:  at the end of a performance for a White House state dinner where Mikhail and Raisa Gorbachev were the honored guests of President and Mrs. Ronald Reagan, Mr. Cliburn began to croon “Moscow Nights” in Russian — much to the delight of the Soviet dignitaries in attendance, most of whom, including the Soviet leader, sang along.

-

Full obituaries from the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram (HERE), the Los Angeles Times (HERE), and The New York Times (HERE).

—————

Photo credit:  courtesy of the Van Cliburn Foundation

Filed under Music (News & Reviews) Tagged with , , , ,

Dutoit finally gets to show his Austro-Germanic side in latest program with the LA Phil; Gautier Capuçon & Carrie Dennis stellar in “Don Quixote”

February 26, 2013 3 Comments

Dutoit-G.Capucon-DennisCharles Dutoit’s annual visits to conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic have become a highlight of every season, and his residency this year was more of the glorious same.  Adding to the joy was the chance to see and hear him conduct something other than the FrancoRussian rut he has been in during the past seven or eight years; I’m not sure whether pigeonholing him in that repertoire has been his idea, the orchestra’s, or some combination thereof.

In fact, the last time he conducted anything vaguely Teutonic was in 2006 in a program that included Mozart’s Figaro Overture and Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto.  Since then, there have been only two composers he has conducted locally that weren’t from either French or Russian composers:  a Ginastera curtain-raiser and the ubiquitous Grieg Piano Concerto.

His concerts this year featured music from Mendelssohn, Mozart, and Strauss.  It showed that no matter what he conducts, he continues to offer balanced and compelling interpretations of great beauty.

Nowhere was this more evident than in Strauss’s Don Quixote.  Mr. Dutoit elicited a sonorous yet bright sound from the orchestra, rich in expression and texture, while maintaing clarity throughout.  He also had the good fortune of having two wonderful soloists in the key roles.

Read more of this post

Filed under All Reviews, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Music (News & Reviews), Reviews 2012/2013 Tagged with , , , , ,

Observations from LA Phil’s 2013/14 season presser (um, “Death of Klinghoffer” perhaps?!!)

February 25, 2013 7 Comments

As promised, I did my best to tweet details of the upcoming Los Angeles Philharmonic 2013/2014 season.  That said, I’m sure there are those among you who didn’t follow along for whatever reason — perhaps you were otherwise occupied, or maybe you just don’t do that newfangled Twitter thing, or the dog ate your homework.  In any case, you can see the entire stream of consciousness HERE, some of which are included in my observations below (after the jump).

The entire press packet is available online (HERE).  That said, there were some interesting things mentioned at the press conference (aka “the presser” if you’ll permit me) that ARE NOT in that press release — the biggest one is this:

  • Deborah Borda (President and CEO) mentioned that in conjunction with the orchestra’s upcoming “Minimalist Jukebox Festival,” the Los Angeles Philharmonic will collaborate with Long Beach Opera in a performance of The Death of Klinghoffer.

Wait . . . what was that?  Really??!!!

The long saga about John Adams’s controversial opera will take forever to try to explain here, but suffice it to say that this is a big deal — “Klinghoffer” has never been performed in Southern California despite the fact that Los Angeles Opera was one of the original commissioning organizations.  I’ve asked for additional information, and we’ll see if I/we get any in the coming day or two.  (UPDATE, Feb 27:  per the Los Angeles Times, Long Beach Opera confirmed that they will present The Death of Klinghoffer in 2014, with James Robinson directing.  No other details were given).

In the meantime, here are some other observations about the 2013/2014 season:

Read more of this post

Filed under Los Angeles Philharmonic, Music (News & Reviews) Tagged with , , ,

Planning to live tweet from today’s LA Phil 2013/2014 season announcement

February 25, 2013 Leave a comment

The Los Angeles Philharmonic will be announcing the details of their 2013/2014 season today’s at 12noon Pacific Time.

I will be there, and for those wanting up-to-the-minute info, I am planning to live tweet from today’s press conference using the hashtag “#LAPhil1314″ starting around 11:45am.  To follow along, click HERE to get to http://www.twitter.com/MrCKDH or if you prefer, you can see the most recent tweets on the sidebar in the right.

The LA Phil has been pretty tight-lipped so far, but they did tweet this over the weekend:  ”BIG announcement this Monday at noon. Hint: It’s time to celebrate!”

The upcoming season will represent the 10th anniversary of the opening of Walt Disney Concert Hall, so that probably has something to do with it. Also, some concert info has already been released by other performing arts organizations in other cities.  From Lincoln Center’s Great Performers and the Philharmonic Society of Orange County come details about these concerts:  

  • March 16, 2014 (Avery Fisher Hall, New York):  Corigliano – Symphony No. 1; Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 5 (Gustavo Dudamel, conductor)
  • March 17, 2014 (Avery Fisher Hall, New York):  Bjarnason – New Work; Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto No. 1 (Yuja Wang, piano); Brahms – Symphony No. 2 (Gustavo Dudamel, conductor)
  • April 26, 2014 (Segerstrom Concert Hall, Costa Mesa):  Bartok – Violin Concerto No. 2 (Gil Shaham); Macmillan – Three interludes from The Sacrifice; other works TBD (Stéphane Denève, conductor)

We’ll see very soon what else they have in store.

 

Filed under Los Angeles Philharmonic, Music (News & Reviews) Tagged with

← Older posts

Newer posts →

%d bloggers like this: