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:

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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.

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Listen online now to upcoming release of Lutosławski symphony cycle by Salonen and LA Phil

January 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Lutoslawski Symphonies: Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles PhilharmonicIf you missed Esa-Pekka Salonen’s visit to So Cal a month ago to play some Lutosławski with the Los Angeles Philharmonic – or if you were there and are currently missing the thought of those concerts — you now have reason to rejoice a little:  on January 25th, the recording of the First Symphony made at that time will be released as part of a compilation of all four of the symphonies, plus the Fanfare for Los Angeles Philharmonic, as done by the same conductor and orchestra.

If you don’t want to wait that long, this week, the good folks at WQXR have made it their “Album of the Week” and are streaming online all five of those Lutosławski works.  The best part is that these are being made available at everyone’s favorite price:  zero; zilch; nada; “free fifty free.”

To listen, just click HERE

(Major thanks to Lisa Hirsch for pointing this out today on Iron Tongue of Midnight).

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Five concerts, four conductors at different stages of their relationship w/ the LA Phil (part 3 of 4): Esa-Pekka Salonen then and now

December 20, 2012 1 Comment

Esa-Pekka Salonen by SONJA WERNER When Esa-Pekka Salonen comes back to conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic, you expect finely polished performances of complex programs.  In two weekends of concerts earlier this month, that’s exactly what you got and then some.  E-P was in town to help the orchestra celebrate Lutosławski’s centenary, with both sets of programs featuring major works by the much-admired Polish composer.

The first weekend’s Friday performance was  probing, athletic, and rich in detail.  Lutosławski’s First Symphony, with its traditional four movement structure, sounded closer to works by Shostakovich or Bartók — or his own Concerto for Orchestra – than the Second Symphony that he would pen two decades later.  The LA Phil playing was as crisp and whip-crack precise as it could be, making it sound like old hat rather than a premiere for both orchestra and conductor.  In addition, the orchestra’s brass gave the brief but raucous Fanfare for Los Angeles Philharmonic a no-holds-barred reading that pinged brightly throughout Walt Disney Concert Hall.

That orchestra and conductor slayed the Lutosławski should shock no one.  Mr. Salonen’s relationship with the orchestra goes back almost three decades, and the chemistry between the LA Phil and its Conductor Laureate remains superb.  In fact, E-PS’s 1984 debut with the orchestra included Lutosławski’s much thornier Third Symphony, and it was on the strength of those performances that  the relationship was allowed to blossom and grow to ESP levels:   As Mr. Salonen tweeted:  ”Such a joy to be back with my old band in LA. They sound great and still somehow read my mind. Deeply touched & humbled by the experience.”

His evolving skill with Beethoven is an entirely different matter.

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Five concerts, four conductors at different stages of their relationship w/ the LA Phil (part 2 of 4): Lionel Bringuier and the latest Green Umbrella new music concert

December 11, 2012 Leave a comment

Lionel BringuierThe first time I learned about Lionel Bringuier was in November 2006.  The late great Alan Rich wrote about how the powers-that-be at the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the time — among them, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Deborah Borda, orchestra musicians, and board members — were blown away by Mr. Bringuier and named him Assistant Conductor at the tender age of 20.

In the ensuing years, Mr. Bringuier has not stopped impressing people wherever he has gone.  Locally, he has been promoted twice, first to Associate Conductor, then in 2011, to the newly created position of Resident Conductor.  Further afield, he’s made repeated waves with notable guest gigs on both sides of the Atlantic before making his biggest splash yet a couple of months ago by being named the new Music Director Designate of the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra.

His international profile and experience may be growing, but Los Angeles has probably had the best chance to watch him grow and develop vs. anywhere else in the world.  We’ve seen him conduct a broad range of repertoire under a variety of conditions:  subscription programs at Walt Disney Concert Hall; Toyota Symphonies for Youth educational concerts; Hollywood Bowl gigs with all of their quirks; and as a last-minute replacement — most memorably in 2010 when he took over conducting the Tchaikovsky Sixth Symphony after Gustavo Dudamel injured his neck mid-concert.  Under all circumstances, he has been unflappable, with interpretations that are interesting and enjoyable.

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Upcoming concerts that will hopefully make it a musical December to remember

November 29, 2012 Leave a comment

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.  

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Salonen, Philharmonia bring a vivid “Wozzeck” to Walt Disney Concert Hall

November 16, 2012 Leave a comment

Esa-Pekka Salonen is certainly among the most popular of classical musicians world-wide, but here in Southern California, it’s on a slightly different level.  You’d expect the current Conductor Laureate and former Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic to have a strong following among the locals, and sure enough, he got a loud and prolonged ovation the moment he walked out onto the Walt Disney Concert Hall Stage.

But if I needed an even better indication of how truly deep his appeal runs around these parts, I got it from an unlikely source. As I pulled into the parking structure underneath Walt Disney Concert Hall this past Tuesday evening, the parking attendant tossed a stub onto my dashboard and asked me, “Are you here to see Esa-Pekka?  He’s great, isn’t he?”

Yes.  Yes, he is.  Even a guy stuck in a booth four stories beneath Grand Avenue knows it.

Tuesday night, Esa-Pekka the Great brought the Philharmonia Orchestra into WDCH, a quick one-night stop before heading further south to Costa Mesa and eventually San Diego.  Of the three programs he and his London cohorts brought on tour, Los Angeles got the most challenging one:  a semi-staged performance of Berg’s landmark opera, Wozzeck.  Only someone as truly great as Mr. Salonen would have the cajones to bring such a work on tour AND be able pull it off as magnificently as he did.

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Twitter: where Esa-Pekka Salonen and The Rite Offspring (?!) coexist

July 22, 2012 Leave a comment

For the longest time when it came to Twitter, I fought the power.  I thought it served best as a source of comedic fodder for late night talk shows and their friends (e.g. how could anything ever top this brilliance?  I gained a newfound respect for Josh Groban after seeing it).

I finally jumped into the fray early this year, and since then, well . . . it has exceeded my very low original expectations.  It has proven to be a good source of timely information, not to mention an occasional source of unexpected amusement.  That said, you often have to wade through a lot of chaff to get to the Twitter grain, and because of that, I sometimes take a few days off at time from reading my Twitter feed.  Usually, this is no big loss.  Sometimes, though, you can miss out on something cool or fun, especially if you don’t scroll back in time.

Today, for example, Esa-Pekka Salonen tweeted links to musical clips of two of his compositions — the Violin Concerto with Leila Josefowicz and Nyx — and had I not actually logged in today, I probably wouldn’t have learned about that.  (I also learned that the upcoming Deutsche Grammophon release of these two works will feature the Finnish Radio Orchestra instead of the Los Angeles Philharmonic — a topic for a different post on another day).

I took a multi-day break from Twitter earlier this week, and almost missed out on some silly musical fun, care of The Royal Conservatory of Canada.

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Anniversary of Bernstein’s last day as NY Phil Music Director

May 17, 2012 Leave a comment

Care of the folks at Composers Datebook at American Public Media:

On today’s date in 1969, Leonard Bernstein conducted his last concert as the Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. Bernstein had been named the orchestra’s Music Director in November of 1957, and was the first American-born and trained conductor to hold the position.

So for baseball fans, these were Bernstein’s “stats” as of May 17, 1969: He had conducted 939 concerts with the orchestra, more than any other conductor in its history. He had given 36 world premieres, 14 U.S. premieres, 15 New York City premieres, and led more than 40 works never before performed by the orchestra.

To listen to the Composers Datebook  program streaming online, click HERE.

It’s not a competition, but just for comparison, here are Esa-Pekka Salonen’s stats after his 17 year tenure as Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic ended in 2009:

  • Commissioned over 54 new works
  • Conducted 120 world and U.S. premieres
  • Served as music director longer than anyone else in the orchestra’s history, leading the orchestra in 973 concerts and 23 tours.
Just to add one more parallel:  upon retirement, Mr. Bernstein was given the title of “Laureate Conductor” and is still officially listed by the NY Phil as such; Mr. Salonen was given the title of “Conductor Laureate” the last day he was the LA Phil’s Music Director.

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Photo credit:  Bob Cato (www.leonardbernstein.com)

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A familiar voice expands his reach

May 14, 2012 Leave a comment

Brian Lauritzen — radio personality extraordinaire, under-appreciated cellist, and friend of All is Yar — is known primarily for his smooth, easy-going voice on Classical KUSC (that’d be 91.5FM for all of you who still listen to terrestrial radio in Southern California), as well as podcasts for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Opera, and Concrete Voices.   But you know, that isn’t quite enough, is it?

Mr. Lauritzen has now joined that elite cadre of those blogging about life and classical music . . . okay, wait, that’s not entirely accurate.  He’s been blogging for a while, just on other people’s sites.  Now, he’s finally got a place on the interwebs that he can call his very own, conveniently titled “Brian Lauritzen” and found at www.brianlauritzen.com.

Among his many past and current accomplishments and honors, he can now include onto his resume his status as a privileged member of the All is Yar blogroll.  Congratulations, Mr. Lauritzen.

Incidentally, if you want to hear some of Mr. Lauritzen’s handy work hosting the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s weekly broadcasts on KUSC, click HERE to catch the program streaming online.   This week happens to feature the concert from earlier this season with Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting the world premiere of  Shostokovich’s Orango and the same composer’s Symphony No. 4 (my own thoughts from that concert HERE).  Besides the benefit of getting to hear Mr. Lauritzen host an awesome concert, you get the additional bonus of not having to endure Peter Sellar’s exceedingly tedious videos shown in Walt Disney Concert Hall during the live performances.

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Photo credit: classicalkusc.wordpress.com

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Happy Birthday, Jean Sibelius

December 8, 2011 Leave a comment

On this date in 1865, Jean Sibelius, Finnish composer and nationalist, was born.

  • In his honor, below is a brief excerpt of his Second Symphony played by the Gothenburg Symphony, conducted by their Music Director, Gustavo Dudamel.
  • If you want to hear the whole thing, here’s also a live recording of the whole Second Symphony conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Vienna Philharmonic (you have to put up with the static picture of some random Japanese animation character, but the music is great).

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Fashionably late: Salonen and the LA Phil take on lost-and-found Shostakovich

December 5, 2011 1 Comment

Dmitri Shostakovich

Esa-Pekka Salonen was back for his second week with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. With a world premiere of the abandoned opera Orango paired with the withdrawn-for-25-years Symphony No. 4, his all-Shostakovich concerts were a study of two contrasting works that had both been hidden and eventually brought to new light. To add to the lost-and-found theme, E-P himself was late to the proverbial Shostakovich party. Early in his conducting career, Mr. Salonen actively avoided conducting any of the Russian/Soviet composer’s works, comparing it in 1987 to his well-known love for Stravinsky this way:

“Shostakovich is in many ways a polar counter-force for Stravinsky. [...] When I have said that the 7th symphony of Shostakovich is a dull and unpleasant composition, people have responded: ‘Yes, yes, but think of the background of that symphony.’ Such an attitude does no good to anyone.”^

Of course, he eventually changed his mind. On Saturday night at Walt Disney Concert Hall, he led compelling performances of two works that were written only a few years apart, but created very different aural landscapes:  one circus-like and oddly cheery; the other, manic, dark, and brooding.

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Gustavo Dudamel and new music: some comparisons to Salonen (Part Two of an ongoing series)

December 3, 2011 3 Comments

With Esa-Pekka Salonen returning for a second weekend to the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s podium, and with me trying to kill an hour before tonight’s all-Shostakovich program begins at Walt Disney Concert Hall, I thought it was time to fulfill a promise I made in a prior discussion; namely, to compare Mr. Salonen’s penchant for conducting new music when he was Music Director against that of his successor, Gustavo Dudamel.

It should go without saying to anyone who has followed the classical music scene since, say, the mid 1980′s, that Mr. Salonen has a strong reputation for being a proponent and advocate of new music.  His leadership in this area helped propel the LA Phil into the forefront of major orchestras in not only its willingness to play such music, but also to draw a regular and, eventually, enthusiastic audience to these concerts.  This was not just limited to the concerts that Mr. Salonen conducted himself, but also in the programming of entire seasons and his strong support of the orchestra’s Green Umbrella series.  On top of that, there is the matter of Mr. Salonen himself  being a composer of importance; not only was he awarded this year’s prestigious Grawemeyer Award, he became the first person to have conducted the world premiere of two Grawemeyer Award winning compositions (his own Violin Concerto which won this year, and “Neruda Songs” by Peter Lieberson in 2008).

He remains a towering figure in the local music scene, and the LA Phil and Mr. Dudamel have much to be thankful for when it comes to Mr. Salonen’s impact on the orchestra’s current success.

Now then . . . reputations aside, how do Messers. Salonen and Dudamel compare head-to-head as music director when it comes to conducting the LA Phil in music written in the past 40 years or so?  After all, unlike his predecessor, Mr. Dudamel’s reputation was not made on advocating new music — there’s no way he’d stand up, right? The results may surprise you.  They surprised me.

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Listening to “Sirens” without being tied to a mast: Salonen and the LA Phil with Ax, Hillborg, and Beethoven

November 30, 2011 Leave a comment

Esa-Pekka Salonen, in a rare moment without a black polo shirt or Nehru jacket

Esa-Pekka Salonen is back, and there is much rejoicing.

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.

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Quick hits on a Tuesday

August 16, 2011 3 Comments

  • First and foremost, many thanks to Timothy Mangan, esteemed music critic and muppet fan extraordinaire, for adding “All is Yar” to the blogroll of ClassicalLife.net.  As much as I appreciate his wry sense of humor when covering popular culture, I continue to hold out hope that the editors and publishers of the Orange County Register come to their senses and allow him to resume more regular coverage of the burgeoning OC music scene.
  • The Los Angeles Philharmonic made their latest iTunes release available for download today:  Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting the vastly under-appreciated (and lengthily titled) “Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber” and various works from Wagner operas featuring baritone Bryn Terfel.  I haven’t downloaded it yet, but I was at one of the performances at which this was recorded, and I’ve been looking forward to this finally making it online.  Freshly minted Principal Flute David Buck showed off his considerable chops in the 3rd Movement solo in the Hindemith; Mr. Terfel was at his charismatic and nuanced best, though his large voice sometimes failed to rise above the orchestra in the loudest moments of the Wagner; the Philharmonic brass sounded resplendent throughout the whole evening.  And to top it all off, it was Wagner the way I like it best:  in small chunks.  (For reference, here are reviews of the concerts from Mark Swed in the Los Angeles Times and Brian in OutWestArts.com)
  • David Bilger, Principal Trumpet of the Philadelphia Orchestra, has started his own blog, “Dave’s Mouthpiece,” on the heels of all the publicity surrounding the his appointment as Visiting Professor at the University of Georgia (my previous post on the topic HERE).  Apparently, the letter he sent to Peter Dobrin  meant to clarify the situation had the opposite effect, and as he states,  “My attempt to stop a rumor had only fueled it.”  Given his stature as a musician combined with the ongoing challenges being experienced by his orchestra, Mr. Bilger is certain to have many interesting insights to share and I look forward to following his future posts.
  • “Met Futures,” a blog known for speculating about future productions at the Metropolitan Opera, has been shut down.  According to the blog’s publisher, Brad Wilber:  “For some time, I have been engaged in discussions with the Metropolitan Opera about the aggregated Met Futures content on my web site.  We have agreed that as of August 8, 2011 I will permanently dissolve my Futures list.”  Earlier today, the story was picked up by the New York Observer, who interviewed Mr. Wilber and reported that the site seems to have been killed on pressure from the Met itself.  The story goes on to discuss whether or not Mr. Wilber’s predictions were accurate (they usually were) and whether this was a worthwhile effort for the Met to undertake (they doubt it).  Read their entire report HERE.

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