Out West Arts: Performance at the end of the world

The L.A. Philharmonic with Christoph Eschenbach
Photo: mine 2009

Remember how I was going on about Christoph Eschenbach the other day? Well, Friday we in Los Angeles had a visit from the other Eschenbach, the thoughtful, enthralling maestro who delivered a stellar performance of Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony. It was the final Los Angeles Philharmonic concert of the 08/09 season, and, even though it’s been a lame duck operation since Salonen left in April, the Philharmonic delivered, and we did go out with a bang. Though Eschenbach took his sweet time about it. The Symphony was stretched to an amazing 75 minutes, well beyond the average running time of around 65, in a strategy similar to that taken by the conductor when he appeared as piano soloist on Tuesday in a chamber music program at Walt Disney Concert Hall playing Schubert’s Piano Sonata in B-flat major Op. 960. This veritable slow motion allowed Eschenbach's conducting to build in a marvelous swirl and intensity that makes these works great. While this slow pacing can run the risk of seeming ponderous, in his hands it was never dull. The orchestra demonstrated an amazing ability to sustain tension over the course of beautiful lengthy lines pulled taut over the influx of extra seconds and minutes.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 08/09

Christoph Eschenbach with the LA Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2009

The LA Philharmonic enters the home stretch of its 08/09 season over the next two weekends. And with Salonen long gone from the scene, these last few concerts are being placed in the hands of Christoph Eschenbach. At least you can say the organization is willing to take some risks. Whether or not those are good or bad ones I suppose depends on your point of view, but I’ve always felt that Eschenbach is a bit of a split decision – sometimes everything works out very well, and sometimes it doesn’t. Friday’s show was rough. The first disappointment was that scheduled soloist Julia Fischer who was to make her L.A. Philharmonic debut with the first Shostakovich Violin Concerto canceled for “personal reasons.” So with apparently no one to fill in, out went the Shostakovich and in its place, like the proverbial lump of coal in the Christmas stocking, was Tchaikovsky’s Francseca da Rimini. Whether the issue was too little rehearsal or a conducting problem or whatever, I’m not sure. But I can tell you it was a mess. Disjointed and out of sync, the various sections of the orchestra seemed to be playing different pieces of music at the same time. No one on stage looked particularly pleased with the situation, but maybe that’s me reading into things.

The second half of the program remained intact with Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony. Here Eschenbach and the orchestra seemed on more solid ground. This is not the most user-friendly piece of music, but Eschenbach kept things together and there seemed to be more attentiveness and interaction amongst the players this time around. Not everything worked, with the first two movements seeming more solidly performed. It wasn’t quite as urgent or manic as the piece can sound in the best of circumstances, but it was serviceable. The crowd seemed pleased, though I couldn't help but wonder what everyone was really thinking both on stage and off. The audience was filled with a number of young people who stood out mostly due to their being over dressed for such an occasion in rented tuxedos and what must pass for prom dresses. I wasn't clear if they were heading somewhere later or if this was an event in and of itself, but I couldn't help but wonder what they made of this militaristic, folk-tune imbued twentieth-century work.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 08/09

John Adams with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Master Chorale
Photo: mine 2009

John Adams’ A Flowering Tree finally arrived in Los Angeles this weekend after performances around the globe. As is typically the case, all this traveling has honed the work to the point where now it is finally getting the performance it deserves at Disney Concert Hall. I'd wager this weekend's performances are the best the work has seen. Adams led the Los Angeles Philharmonic himself in a semi-staged production directed by Peter Sellars with the original cast of Eric Owens, Jessica Rivera, and Russell Thomas in addition to three dancers. In fact, little has changed with the work since I saw it over two years ago in San Francisco, including my general feelings about it. However, the things that were different here in Los Angeles were substantial. First and foremost was the massive amount of space the cast had in Disney Concert Hall compared to some of its other stops. Occupying a stage-spanning riser behind the orchestra, the six principal cast members had the room to actually move. Seated behind them were the members of the L.A. Master Chorale dressed in bright neon colored South Asian garb and the Frank Gehry designed pipe organ lit with the colors of the rainbow. The sound was quite a bit richer as well, likely due to a combination of the impeccable playing of the L.A. Philharmonic with this kind of material and the superlative acoustics of Disney Hall. This meditative and hypnotic score seems more certain now, and the cast have come to inhabit the roles, singing them with an abundance of warmth and assurance.

The work is based on a South Asian myth concerning a young woman, Kumudha, who is able to transform herself at will via a ritual into a flowering tree. She initially does so in an effort to support her poor family by making beautiful flowers. However, when the local prince discovers her rare ability, he falls in love and marries her. Sadly, Kumuhda is severely maimed by her envious sister-in-law who persuades her to perform her "trick" in order to leaving her trapped between human and tree form. Kumuhda wanders the streets for years in her newly deformed body until she is again reunified with her husband. Like many other myths, the plot here can be slow, with little getting under way until Act II. But I'm not sure that this is really all that different from other operatic works based on myths. Think Parsifal. In fact, that might be the best thing to do, given that Wagner appears to hover more and more over Adams work as the years go by.

The strongest parts of A Flowering Tree are those divorced entirely from the narrative, where the music alone is left to create the images of Kumudha's transformation to tree and back. Or as my friend Howard but it, it's akin to the second act of Siegfried. There are a couple of wonderful vocal bits as well, though, including Khumuda's aria "You are the forest" in Act I and the closing duet between Kumudha and the prince. I was generally more taken with the piece this time around than on my first exposure. There seemed to be more of an intensity here, and, while all of the multicultural elements that make up the experience were still there, I felt less beaten about the head with them. The work still comes off as a big, bright, colorful hug - it's pretty, but with minimal edge and conflict. The dancers who mimic and act out the libretto, now seem an integral part of the production. They seamlessly meshed with the the three impeccable vocal artists in the cast. Maybe it's just familiarity from repeated exposure, but it seemed to gel more for me this time around. As to whether or not A Flowering Tree will have the same legs as El Nino or any of Adams' operas remains to be seen, but it is surely an attractive diversion even in the short term.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 08/09

John Adams and members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2009

What’s left to do for your contemporary music program when your two biggest assets are no longer part of the picture? That was the question facing the L.A. Philharmonic’s “Green Umbrella” series on Tuesday with a show that closed out the season without either Esa-Pekka Salonen or Steven Stucky, the two figures that have shaped this corner of the repertory for nearly two decades. The answer was to bring in John Adams who is also leading weekend performances of his own A Flowering Tree later this weekend. On Tuesday night, he offered up the L.A. premiere of his own Son of Chamber Symphony while making room for new works from much younger composers as well. It’s a virtually identical format to the last young composers revue that Salonen anchored with a work of his own last month but with Adams picking the fresh meat this time around. And, while Adams is no slouch, this was a noticeably less satisfying evening on the whole.

The young composers were 24 year-old Timothy Andres and a decade or so older Payton MacDonald. And while both presented pieces that were noteworthy in many ways, overall their music went mostly to prove how much influence Adams’ own work is having on a whole generation of younger American composers. In fact, you might not have even noticed that all the work on Tuesday wasn’t attributable to the more elder statesmen if it wasn’t for Adams' own piece, which provided that missing element of authenticity. Andres offered two works, How can I live in your world of ideas? for solo piano and Nightjar for chamber-sized orchestra. Ideas was originally written for two pianos with a plaintive lyrical line being repeatedly interrupted by a more obstinate and aggressive one. Andres later condensed the two parts into one. I think it may have worked better in the original context in that the intrusions by the second bit of material seemed to more clearly lie in wait than come out of nowhere in this single player format, which the composer preformed himself. Nightjar is inspired by birdsong, not the soaring celestial kind, but a more earth-bound variety populated by specimens from the New England wilderness. It was pleasant, in an Adams-channeling-Messiaen way.

MacDonald’s Cowboy Tabla/Cowboy Raga was the more intriguing of the young composers’ pieces on the program. A percussionist by training, MacDonald has fashioned a thirty minute or so single movement work that functioned as a not-quite concerto for a series of percussion instruments, found and otherwise, fashioned to reproduce the effect of an Indian tabla. Some electronic loops and augmentation are added when MacDonald switches from the ersatz tabla to a marimba in the second part of the work. The effect is to maintain some of the more hypnotic elements of South Asian musical traditions in a Western context and, again, there was this feeling of a post-Minimalist lyricism that strongly brought Adams’ own music to mind. The crowd reponded quite warmly to something that clearly grew on the listener over time.

In the end, though, it was Adams' own show, and he led the L.A. Philharmonic new music group through the frenzy and frolic of his second chamber symphony. He nearly danced along as he conducted the group, yet, while I enjoyed the piece very much, I can’t say I had strong feelings about it either way. It was undoubtedly the more intimate and playful Adams at work here as opposed to the one associated with the grand and dramatic gestures of his works for orchestra or the stage. Lucky for us, there is a fine example of that latter composer waiting just around the Tuesday. Adams is certainly making a case for how he’s casting his own long shadow in the musical world.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 08/09

Xian Zhang, Yefim Bronfman, and the LA Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2009

This weekend’s performances from the Los Angeles Philharmonic seemed a bit unusual. On one level, it had the markings of a big event with appearances by a living composer and the local debut of a rising-star conductor. But on the other hand, it was an odd program even by the usual standards of our contemporary music loving local audience. First off, it was conducted by recent NY Philharmonic Associate Conductor Xian Chang. Sadly, an appearance by a woman conductor is still unusual enough even here that it warranted comment by staff and patrons in the lobby after the show. Chang has developed a good reputation in New York advocating for 20th century music, so it would seem appropriate for her to appear with the world’s leading orchestral ensemble in this repertory. As if to emphasize that point, it was an all 20th century program, the centerpiece of which was Prokofiev's 3rd Piano Concerto played here by Yefim Bronfman. It’s an odd piece filled with orchestral passages out of any big-screen romance that is suddenly overrun with wild flights of much less romantic stuff from the keyboard. Bronfman was his commanding self, but seemed a little perturbed to me when the crowd erupted into applause at the end of the first movement. He stood looking surprised with this “I guess I’m done” look and then shrugged towards Zhang and the concertmaster. He took what appeared to be some quick mock bows and then immediately sat down as he and the orchestra launched into the second movement without waiting for the crowd to stop. He must not have been too irritated, though, given that he did give a brief encore and did not deliver a political manifesto from the stage, a well known local tradition in the City of Angels.

Prokofiev was the odd man out on an evening, though, that was otherwise marked by works of either direct or more obtuse references to Chinese culture. Zhang herself is from China and the evening began with the only work from a Chinese composer, Chen Yi’s Momentum. At ten minutes, this snippet directly infuses Chinese folk melody with modern Western musical instrumentation. With large waves of thundering percussion roles and surging strings, it seemed to be announcing something. What followed though seemed a little less directly tied to a Chinese theme. After the Prokofiev was John Adams’ The Chairman Dances, a suite cut from the same cloth as, but not taken directly from, his opera Nixon in China. It seemed world’s away from everything else on the menu, but Adams was present in the crowd and did make an appearance on stage. (He’s likely in town for a series of programs next week he’s conducting including his own A Flowering Tree and Son of Chamber Symphony). Then, sticking with the ersatz-Chinese theme, the orchestra lunged into Bartok’s Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin. It was a showy and direct performance, but certainly a worthwhile one. I wasn’t always sure this hung together the way one might like it to, but it does seem admirable on the other hand to perform so many pieces all from the relatively recent musical past that present such radically different approaches in incorporating Chinese cultural influences into Western musical tradition. Here's the proof that Chinese culture has influcenced Western music in a myriad of ways over time in a far from unitary or predictable way. The program repeats Sunday afternoon.

Oh, and for those of you in need of a little etiquette clarification, as the woman seated next to me requested, having an infant at home does not provide justification for sending text messages repeatedly throughout the course of the performance. While your commonplace ability to procreate may be impressive to you, we’re still trying to have a civilization here. (And while we’re at it, you can drop the very American stance of taking offense at being politely asked by another person in the world to stop doing something that is annoying to everyone around you.)

Labels: LA Philharmonic 08/09

Lionel Bringuier, Joshua Bell, and the LA Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2009

I suppose it was inevitable that, with all of the superb and historic programs at Walt Disney Concert Hall over the last two weeks, the hangover was bound to kick in. And on Thursday it did in spades as the lame duck season with the Los Angeles Philharmonic got under way following the departure of former music director Esa-Pekka Salonen. So what do you follow that up with the following weekend? How about an evening of lesser known French romantic works with an overrated soloist under the young, but very competent hands of Assistant Conductor, Lionel Bringuier.

Well… maybe not. But that is in fact what we got and, despite everyone’s best efforts, it didn’t prove to be a winning combination. Most of the program consisted of French works playing with other cultural traditions such as Ravel’s Alborado del gracioso. Ravel seems easy, but tonight was evidence that in fact it isn’t. Bringuier and the orchestra seemed all over the place, uncertain of where to go. It was a short stint, though, followed by Joshua Bell playing Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole. Lalo’s version of Spanish flair didn’t fare much better, although Bell energetically flew through the work. Things seemed to be missing a certain light fleetness of spirit that would have helped. Sometimes I think maybe I’m judging Bell too harshly, but then he’ll play a souped-up version of Yankee Doodle, as he did this evening, for an encore and that usually takes care of that.

The balance of the evening was dedicated to Florent Schmitt’s La tragédie de Salomé, a work and a composer overshadowed not only by the more musically important opera on the same subject, but also sadly by the composer’s pro-Vichy stance during WWII. The music is big and bright and sometimes quite interesting. But this off-the-beaten-path nugget wasn’t really enough to turn the tide of things. By the time we arrived at the final piece on the program, Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz No 1, the crowd was clearly restless and ready to move on. But the band did play on and rightly so. There was a part of me that was just glad to be there to see our beloved orchestra moving on, even if it wasn’t the orchestra’s most shining moment. The program repeats Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 08/09

There was hardly a dry eye in the house. Esa-Pekka Salonen’s final concert as music director took place this afternoon in Los Angeles and, despite our beloved maestro’s disdain for self-aggrandizement, it was finally quite a touching affair from those who loved him most, the member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.


It was a capacity crowd filled with Salonen’s musical, artistic, and actual families – Yefim Bronfman, Dawn Upshaw, Peter Sellars, John Adams, Steven Stucky, Bill Viola, Frank Gehry, and so on. The afternoon started with Deborah Borda and board president, David C. Bohnett, announcing that Salonen had been appointed conductor laureate for the organization in recognition of their relationship both now and into the future. Salonen didn’t appear on stage at this point, but arrived for the fourth performance of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex and Symphony of Psalms this weekend. The program seemed to work better than it did on Friday and Saturday to my mind. The orchestra seemed to be playing with every ounce of love they could for their departing leader, creating perhaps the most monumental and warm Symphony of Psalms I think I’ve ever heard.


The audience clapped and clapped through bows from the cast and design team. Finally, a seemingly reluctant Salonen arrived for a solo bow to thunderous applause and a surprise impromptu fanfare from the brass players on stage.


There were the requisite flowers presented by several of the musicians and Salonen looked noticeably moved from where I sat. And then the orchestra members stood and, encircling him as a group, took turns hugging him one by one.


He made no comments from the stage but stood surrounded by his colleagues as the audience clamored on and on. And then it was over. He left the stage, and we all very sadly went our own ways. There will always be music in L.A., but it won't ever be quite like this again.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 08/09

Salonen with the LA Philharmonic and members of the LA Master Chorale
Photo: mine 2009

There’s no avoiding it. We’ve reached the end, and it’s time to say goodbye. Esa-Pekka Salonen completed his tenure as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic this weekend with one final program. The good news is that he did not go out with an overabundance of sentiment or a lazy sop to nostalgia or his own ego. Instead, it was as it always has been with Salonen – an eye to the horizon, lots of ambition, and thoughtful, detailed music. The program was a big production in just about every sense featuring two major works by Stravinsky, the short opera Oedipus Rex and Symphony of Psalms. Although the works were separated by an intermission, the intention of director Peter Sellars was to create a single experience with the Oedipus story's denouement occurring in the latter piece. Together the two works are presented as a tale of redemption that allows for a closer spiritual examination of both Oedipus and Stravinsky himself. It's a thoughtful project and, while I wasn't completely satisfied with this particular program on this particular evening, it was still something to admire.

Oedipus Rex opens with Antigone, here voiced by actor Viola Davis, recounting the general events of the story in a new English-language text written by Sellars replacing the Jean Cocteau script in Stravinsky's original. Davis gives a very engaging performance and fits in nicely with the rest of the singing cast, which included Rodrick Dixon as Oedipus and Anne Sofie von Otter as Jocasta. Ryan McKinny and Daniel Montenegro rounded out the cast in the smaller parts. The soloists were seated at the rear of the stage on the highest riser with the men's chorus below them and the orchestra in front. The chorus was dressed in causal street clothes in hues of blue and the soloists were given thrones to sit on. These were no ordinary chairs, however, but instead art works from Ethiopian sculptor Elias Sime who recently wrapped up an exhibit in Santa Monica. All the cast performed their parts with a series of sharp and repetitive hand gestures to emphasize the content of their speech. And, while all of this was interesting, it was frustrating that, despite rather mild amplification of the speakers and soloists, it was often hard to hear them over the orchestra. The chorus was a big highlight, though, providing most of the hour's biggest drama. At the end, a blinded Oedipus is led across the stage by his daughter Ismene in front of the chorus with their backs turned. Following this, the entire cast, conductor, and orchestra left the stage deferring any bows until the end of the evening.

In Act II, Antigone begins again with a monologue accounting the events that led up to Oedipus's eventual death after his exile including his disappearance into nothingness. As before, the events are acted out following this descriptive passage, this time in pantomime since there are no solo vocal parts in the Symphony of Psalms. This time out, the chorus began divided into four groups on the various staircases within the auditorium and then slowly moved to form a large circle around the entire stage and part of the audience. Oedipus is led to an enclosure of neon lights where he lays down and later vanishes following the return of his daughters. In the end, he has transcended this plane for another. Salonen again led a wonderful performance of the piece with this orchestra he's come to know so well. Here was redemption, not in a heroic, romantic 19th century way, but something less familiar. It was a distinctively more modern version that encapsulated quite well Salonen's larger project here in Los Angeles - keeping art music relevant by showing us all how things have moved on after 1900 while still maintaining connections to its own history.

So what's my problem? It was really one of expectations. It's unreasonable to believe that the final show will be the best one Salonen ever led with the orchestra, just as it is to believe that the last show should sum everything up in a nice and clean way. I wanted something more cathartic that recognized my own sense of loss for our beloved music director. But as always, Salonen avoided placing himself at the center of attention and ended his run here in L.A. amongst a large cadre of artistic collaborators including the orchestra and chorale. There was a rapturous standing ovation for his solo bow, but he remained one of many here in his closing moments. An important reminder that regardless of his own contributions to this orchestra and this city, he has left us with things much greater than himself. No matter who is at the helm of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, we are a community much richer than we were before. And I for one will miss Esa-Pekka Salonen's regular appearances here greatly.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 08/09

Leila Josefowicz and Esa-Pekka Salonen with the LA Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2009

The penultimate (I love that word) program from Esa-Pekka Salonen and the L.A. Philharmonic arrived Thursday and it was one excellent show. All of the L.A. music glitterati were there again including the likes of Peter Sellars, Bill Viola, Frank Gehry, and John Adams. It seemed all of the few remaining big print music journalists were present such as Tommasini, Alex Ross, and our own local crew creating a World Wildlife Fund-like tableau of creatures at risk of vanishing from the face of the earth. Needless to say it was turning out to be a Big Occasion. The evening started off with the Salonen tribute video the Philharmonic put together and he was again met with a standing ovation, an experience I’m sure will be repeated frequently in this next week, although tonight there was even more reason for such responses in that the centerpiece of the evening was the world premiere of Salonen’s Violin Concerto written especially for soloist Leila Josefowicz.

Before that business, though, the audience got to revisit Ligeti’s Clocks and Clouds one of a multitude of twentieth century works Salonen introduced to L.A. audiences. (In fact, the commemorative programs distributed at these shows contain a huge multi-page list of exactly what all of those newly introduced works were.) It was Salonen at his astral and haunting best and another reminder of all that we’re losing with his departure. In many ways, there couldn’t have been a more appropriate intro to Salonen’s own composition than the Ligeti in that while they are musically dissimilar, his impressive new work is cut from the same cloth on a more emotional level. The Violin Concerto appears to be blazingly difficult, and the dexterity that Josefowicz showed in nearly non-stop flights of notes in the first and third movements at break neck speed should make one re-evaluate exactly where she stands in the hierarchy of violin greats.

The four movement work starts with “Mirage”, one of these virtuosic spans that is all about the string sound, not just that produced by the soloist, but from the orchestra as well. Unlike Salonen’s recent Piano Concerto, he gives Josefowicz plenty of room to roam, and the orchestration, while often accenting her part, is not constantly eclipsing it. The piece then slides into two middle sections “Pulse I” and “Pulse II”. Although very different in attack, the movements both are based around the soloist's response to a somewhat regular rhythm laid out in the percussion. Salonen refers to this as akin to a heartbeat in the program notes, and in the first “Pulse” section the tone is quiet, steady, and glowing. There is an intimacy here, although the music is never exactly delicate or fragile. The second “Pulse” is diametrically opposite in its aggressive tone and flight of noise. Salonen references pop music idioms by incorporating a standard drum kit to underscore the tone. The soloist now fights to keep in the mix, but not in a bad way at all. The final movement, “Adieu” again returns to an astral oscillation of sorts with the soloist returning to a position more like the Ligeti piece. Salonen notes that the movement references a natural process of transition between beginnings and endings. There is certainly a drama here, and, though the piece never seems to have a distinct direction from A to B in a narrative sense, it’s a frequently beautiful reflection on time and process. I rather liked the Violin Concerto overall and found it much more interesting than Salonen’s Piano Concerto. I felt mesmerized by this piece over its thirty minutes. The collaboration between the composer and soloist in developing the work has created something special and, I would argue, very memorable.

The evening ended with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in a juiced-up, muscular performance that never lost its cool. It was really good and again seemed a perfect fit for Salonen’s own composition considering its reliance on some of the same rhythmic elements to set the stage for other activity. The crowd was highly enthusiastic and gave Salonen huge ovations at every point in the evening. It’s going to be such a let down when all this comes to an end. But there is still time to get in on some great shows and this one will repeat on Friday morning and Saturday night.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 08/09

Fang Man and Esa-Pekka Salonen with the members of the LA Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2009

So this is how it goes. The final Esa-Pekka Salonen-led shows at Walt Disney Concert Hall kicked off on Tuesday with the “Green Umbrella” series for contemporary music. It’s particularly bittersweet in that not only are we losing Salonen, but also composer Steven Stucky, who was also making his last appearance in association with the series since his start with it in 1987. Sadly, it’s unknown whether Salonen’s replacement will have anywhere near the level of interest in this music and whether or not the “Green Umbrella” will be set adrift against the broader scope of L.A. Philharmonic programming remains to be seen. But we still have tonight, and rather than make it some melancholy affair, Salonen and Stucky put together a forward looking program featuring four world premieres from four composers under 35 as well as one of Salonen’s own works. If this was any indication, these final shows will clearly be "events." A packed house showed up filled with out-of-towners from music writer Alex Ross, to the young British composer Thomas Adès.

First up was Enrico Chapela’s Li Po, a 10-minute piece structured around Chapela’s own recording of a poem by fellow countryman José Juan Tablada about the eponymous Chinese poet. Chapela attempts to recreate the sounds of his own voice in the recording for a small ensemble of strings, winds, and percussion. The sound is further augmented with electronic bits from his recorded reading. It’s a bit of a whirlwind that cleverly plays on the original poem, which is written in a way to mimic Chinese calligraphy. Form becomes substance and sound is taken at its word here. Next up was a piece from British-born Anna Clyne entitled Within Her Arms. Written following the death of her mother, this quiet, but surprisingly expansive piece focuses on the resources of a 15 member string orchestra. There was no electronic augmentation in contrast to the rest of the evening, but Clyne still managed a particularly layered effect in taking bits of very pretty melody bordering on folk tunes and overlapping them against one another over and over between different sections of the ensemble. It’s a subdued piece with a big sound and won over many in the crowd. California’s own Emily Gee rounded out the first half of the evening with Mouthpiece XI. Gee had made a reputation for herself with this series of works that exploit non-lingual vocalizations à la Berio and Cathy Berberian. Unusually, Gee often performs the vocal parts in much of her work herself, clicking and popping while cascading out a series of nonsense syllables. It's meatier than one might have expected, creating a sort of beat-box effect for a classical music score. Again amplification and electronic augmentation are the rule here, but the distinctive incorporation of vocal material is unique.

Kandinsky's Deluge

Probably the most ambitious of the new works on the program, though, was Fang Man’s Deluge, a work inspired by the Kandinsky painting of the same name. The music is evocative of the discordant but beautiful structure and color of its inspiration, and the composer noted that she was thinking of incorporating water elements into the music as she went along. But rather than take this in a literal sense, Man often goes instead for a sort of liquid transition between elements in what is often a loud and raucous piece. There were again electronic pre-recorded augmentation to the small orchestral ensemble she had gathered. But here the electronic elements were much more tightly bound to the live material leaving for a smooth flow between them. It was rattling, but with no loss of subtlety. Hopefully, there will be much more to hear from her in the not distant future.

Just for the record, though, there was a little "looking back" allowed during the evening. The evening ended with Salonen’s Floof, a work for five musicians and soprano based on the writing of Polish science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem. It was the first piece of Salonen’s played in the “Green Umbrella” series and it returned here with hysterical and precise vocals from Grammy-winner Hila Plitmann. She cooed and babbled throughout the piece, which takes some glancing blows at pop music idioms. It’s funny stuff with some serious underpinnings. In some ways it was telling at the end of the bill to have a piece summing up much of what the younger composers had laid out earlier in the evening. Salonen’s been there. He’s done that. There will be plenty more to hear over the next two weeks, and given the crowd’s standing ovation following a brief tribute video the Philharmonic aired before he came out on stage, it’s going to be quite a time.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 08/09

Bernard Labadie, Martin Chalifour, and
Richard Paré with the LA Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2009

There is life beyond Wagner, and here in L.A. that meant the show going on across the street this weekend at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In the last show before the final concerts under Esa-Pekka Salonen, the orchestra was joined by Canadian conductor and early music specialist Bernard Labadie who brought us works from Handel and Haydn in an enjoyable if not always a barn-burning evening. The order of the day seemed to be moderate curiosities or at least not completely obvious choices. First up was Handel’s Organ Concerto in D minor with soloist Richard Paré. The work is unusual, as Labadie explained from the stage, in that Handel wrote it primarily to perform himself leaving stretches of the organ part to be played from memory or improvised later on as he saw fit. Additionally, Handel would borrow both from himself, or in this case Telemann, as necessary to get the point across. In this version, Paré augmented with bits from the Messiah in a solid and brisk run through. The French Canadian influence continued into the next piece, Haydn’s Violin Concerto in C played by L.A. Phil concertmaster, Martin Chalifour. On the heels of Johannes Moser’s very lyrical and impressive performance of Haydn's Cello Concerto just last week, it was a tough comparison. But Chalifour is no slouch, and Haydn’s music was well served.

After the intermission was the second trip off the beaten path with an orchestral version of Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Our Savior on the Cross. Like The Creation this is Biblical material given the full 18th-century treatment with all the restraint and polish of a royal visitation. Labadie set up a scenario to evoke the original performance context where the piece was given on Good Friday in a cathedral darkened save for one chandelier. Here, all the house lights were dimmed for the next hour and a speaker, William Christian, was hired to read relevant Biblical passages to accompany the movements in the work. While the Disney Concert Hall has been used for maximal effect in theatrical ways to augment performances of nearly everything, it was a nice reminder that over-the-top theatrical tendencies are hardly new. Again, the performance was well controlled and passionate. But this is music from a different era and all things being equal, "stirring" today is not what it was 200 or so years ago. Labadie made the most of the evening, though, and deserves recognition for putting together a program worth thinking about as well as hearing. He’ll return to L.A. later this year to reprise performances of the Messiah with Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle du Québec featuring David Daniels around the Holidays.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 08/09

Johannes Moser, Herbert Blomstedt, and the LA Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2009

When the most contemporary piece on an evening’s program is Mendelssohn’s Symphony No 3, you can almost be assured that the foot-tappers and hummers will be out in force at the concert hall. And they were this weekend in Los Angeles where that ironically “Scottish” symphony is the big number in a show that also includes Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks and Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C major. And while we’re talking about user-friendly, why not have Hebert Blomstedt on the podium? But the thing is, if you could actually get away from all the cacophony of tappers and hummers, it was a pretty solid show. This stuff is easy to overcook and for the most part, Blomstedt kept things at a simmer without really boiling over.

If there was a disappointment, it was likely the Handel. After David Daniels, Harry Bicket and the English Concert had provided such exemplary Handel performances earlier this week, this big band arrangement of Fireworks did seem rather bulky and intrusive. But nimbleness wasn’t far off by the time the Haydn came around. The soloist was the cute and talented Johannes Moser. Haydn can be a rather plain-Jane composer for today’s non-discriminating crowds, but the young Moser proved to be rather a Rumpelstiltskin turning Haydn’s straw into gold. With just enough lyricism and plenty of technique, he kept things honest but lively in a really engaging turn.

Then there was the Mendelssohn, which comes on the heels of a whole lot of Mendelssohn here in Los Angeles in the last few weeks. But Blomstedt’s direct and unfussy take was right on the money. He didn’t ruffle any feathers, but he really didn’t need to, which is exactly what makes the show worth seeing. It repeats again on Saturday and Sunday.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 08/09

Kate Royal, Philip Smith, and James Wilt
Photo: mine 2009

It’s nice to be back home - especially after a not so barn-burning weekend of opera in New York. What’s even nicer is to be welcomed back by a talent as impressive as Kate Royal’s. Actually, she saw me off as well on Tuesday night at Walt Disney Concert Hall where she performed as part of the L.A. Philharmonic’s chamber music series. She sang three Handel arias, two with accompaniment from James Wilt on trumpet and Philip Smith on the large Frank Gehry-designed organ. Her clear and dark-hued tone shone wonderfully in this context giving Handel’s music a real warmth and beauty. You’d think the organ would be tough competition for a vocal soloist, but Royal demonstrated that it was no match for her human talent shining like a diamond in front of the great machine.

With such a precedent, it’s no surprise that she could arrive in the last few minutes of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony over the weekend and virtually steal the whole show. Pablo Heras-Casado, who was filling in for an ailing Yuri Temirkanov, conducted the program this weekend, which also featured Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony. The Mendelssohn was a bit of a mess often surging ahead more than one might wish in unexpected areas. Thing’s started off better with the Mahler in a performance that made the most of the child-like aspects of the work. Sometimes things got rather ragged around the edges with several flubbed brass entrances and some mishandled quiet passages. But Royal arrived with some minimal dramatic flair riveting attention to herself, and rightly so. The final movement suddenly seemed to right the entire symphony that preceded it with her sheer force of will. While it may have been a small bit in a rather mixed program, she definitely made it an evening worth seeing.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 08/09

Martha Argerich, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the L.A. Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2009

It takes a lot to upstage the members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic on their home turf, but this weekend has one of the performers who can do it. The soloist is piano great Martha Argerich who is on a rare tour of the West Coast, which I saw on Friday. Her legend has been only enhanced by her acknowledged disdain for performing in public and her history of cancellations for health and other reasons. She got the requisite legion of rabid fans who were on hand for ovations she had to bring to an end by pulling the orchestra off stage. And to boot, this weekend's appearances are especially a treat considering that on this tour she’s playing Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, a work she has recorded twice and is closely associated with. And, yes, the performance was indeed that good. It was absolutely riveting. I can’t recall the last time I saw a performer make such intensity look so casual and off-hand. As my friend Howard noted, it was almost as if the whole thing was improvised.

But Argerich was not the only star on the program. The conductor for the evening was the young Canadian Yannick Nézet-Séguin who was clearly working as a collaborator in the fullest sense. The orchestra was crisp and forceful coming to Argerich at every turn. YNS even went so far as to perform alongside Argerich in the first of her two encores, a selection from Ravel's Mother Goose arranged for four hands on piano. Dressed in a thin tie and black suit with the tuxedoed orchestra, he looked like some latter-day Elvis Costello or perhaps a young Bob Odenkirk. YNS has scored some big assignments on the international stage this year after taking the helm of the Rotterdam Philharmonic and will make his Metropolitan Opera debut on New Year’s Eve conducting their new production of Carmen with Angela Gheorghiu. If his handling of the French works on this program were any indication, Ms. Gheorghiu may not be the big story of that evening. He’s clearly got a handle on both the control and dynamics. Nowhere did the orchestra sound tepid or hesitant. In the opening piece, Ravel’s La Valse and the closing 5th Symphony of Shostakovich, YNS delivered the "delicate" and the "sweeping" with equal concern and real attention to detail. There are two more shows on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, but Sunday is already sold out so act fast.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 08/09

Sarah Chang, James Conlon, and the L.A. Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2009

I know I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating with less adornment. The heir to Esa-Pekka Salonen as the leader of all things musical in Los Angeles is not in fact Gustavo Dudamel. (At least not yet.) No, the person who has more or less already assumed that mantle is none other than James Conlon, the current music director at Los Angeles Opera who is on another hot streak in town this spring where he, not unlike Savoir Faire, is everywhere. He just opened up an outstanding production of Das Rheingold last weekend as the kick off for the city’s massive Ring cycle next year. In April, he’ll follow that up with Die Walküre and Braunfel’s Die Vogel. Next weekend he’ll lead two free encore performances of Britten’s Noye’s Fludde at Our Lady of the Angeles Cathedral downtown. (Forget it. The free tickets are already long gone.) And in between all this, he’s on the podium this weekend over at Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. What can’t the man do? Last season we had a splendid program of Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich and this year it’s more Mendelssohn than you can shake a stick at.

Yes, Yes, it’s the whole anniversary business. And do we really need to hear the Midsummer Night’s Dream stuff again? But Conlon does not mess around and gave really sharp, brisk and urgent readings of the works on offer. At the opening was Mendelssohn’s First Symphony, a work never before performed by the L.A. Philharmonic, as Conlon himself acknowledged in comments from the stage, noting he never hears the piece except when he’s conducting it. It’s the work of a 15 year old prodigy who was sadly already at middle age unbeknown to him. Still, the symphony is informed by his predecessors and Conlon made a best case argument for its very classical style. In between this and the inevitable wedding music, was the ubiquitous violin concerto with the even more ubiquitous Sarah Chang as soloist. She’s an attraction I suppose, but not one for me. She stomped her way through Bruch's violin concerto last year to little payoff. This time around a red fishtail frock managed to tone down the floor show, but there was still plenty of contortion to go around. With all of the action, I was waiting for her to take flight, but no such luck. Her Mendelssohn was decidedly earth bound despite the histrionics. But we still had Conlon, and the city would be poorer without him.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 08/09

Grant Gershon, Nico Muhly and the L.A. Master Chorale
Photo: mine 2009

While I haven’t yet seen the new Das Rheingold at LA Opera (that will have to wait until Wednesday this week), I did have a weekend filled with music from a variety of other notable ensembles reminding us that Wagner was not the only game in town. Probably the highlight of the weekend was the latest Los Angeles Master Chorale show. Who knows what the theme was – there seemed to be hundreds of them. The show was billed as “Chorus + Organ” and many of the pieces did involve at least some cursory organ accompaniment from Christopher Bull. But just as much of the music on the bill didn't. There was also a good bit of new and very recent music, and director Grant Gershon bandied about some banalities about “darkness and light.” You can take your pick, but the program showed off what I love best about the chorale, superb musicianship and a serious interest in contemporary compositions. To start, though, was some not-so-contemporary stuff from Arvo Pärt, Brahms, and a pair of motets from Anton Bruckner. Yes, I never though I’d see the name Bruckner so close to the word “motets” either but there they were in all their romantic German glory and they were likely the highlight of the whole evening. Offset against these works were two world premieres – Andrea Clearfield’s Dream Variations and Steven Sametz' Music’s Music. The former was a movie-music sounding setting of Langston Hughes poems commissioned with the Debussy Trio in mind that was rather forgettable. The Sametz piece, was a commission from retiring LAMC friend and administrator Kathie Freeman taking a text from a poem written by her daughter at the composer's suggestion. It was very pretty with a substantial solo part for mezzo Erica Brookhyser and clearly meant a lot to everyone in the organization. Probably the musical stand-out among the newer works, however, was Nico Muhly’s Expecting the Main things from You, a setting of poems by Walt Whitman. While Muhly’s piece was the most substantial, it was also the most recognizably derivative from recent forebearers like John Adams and Steve Reich. But if you’re going to borrow, borrow from the best I always say. Above it all, though, was our wonderful local chorale. Subscriptions have gone on sale for the LAMC 09/10 season featuring choruses from The Death of Klinghoffer, Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion, a new work form Meredith Monk, Pärt, Americana, and more recent work than you can shake a stick at.

Christian Zacharias with the L.A. Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2009

Prior to this show, I caught Sunday’s matinee performance from the L.A. Philharmonic conducted by the piano soloists and friend of the L.A. Phil, Christian Zacharias. Shows under his guidance are usually warm and engaging, and this was no exception, although things fared much better when he was playing than just conducting. There were rather lukewarm performances of Brahm’s Serenade No. 2, and Haydn’s sinfonia concertante in the first half of the program. But the real prize was Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor. Zacharias switched from the mechanical to the exuberant with this work, giving a gorgeous, unfussy performance. Not a program for the record books perhaps, but no slouch either.

Meanwhile, UCLA Live offered up a performance from the touring Munich Symphony Orchestra on Saturday under the direction of piano soloist Philippe Entremont. More German romantics were in the offing starting with Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll and the first Beethoven Piano Concerto. Both were accurate and engaged, but often overly plodding and deliberate, I felt. Entremont played with a sharp clarity, but it seemed a little on the careful and predictable side. There’s pretty and then there’s slow if you know what I mean. Things picked up after the break with Webern’s Fünf Sätze, and Mendelssohn’s Fourth Symphony. The zip was back at this point with taut, energetic attacks.

Labels: LA Master Chorale 08/09, LA Philharmonic 08/09

Wang, Dutoit, and the LA Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2009

This week was all about polish. And that's a good thing, even if it isn’t always for the best in every situation. The venue, of course, was the Walt Disney Concert Hall where the L.A. Philharmonic hosted conductor Charles Dutoit and rising star Yuja Wang on piano. Based on these performances, this would seem a match made in heaven. Dutoit is an old master, and there are few that can match his ability to go so far with so light a touch. Thursday night’s program included the very French Debussy’s Petite Suite and the less so Scheherazade of Rimsky-Korsakov. In Dutoit’s hands these works sparkled with smooth, warm, and fragile surfaces, in performances that were nothing if not admirable. Concertmaster Martin Chalifour got to shine in the solo bits of the latter and I do admit I was taken up with all of this overall.

Wang is a kindred spirit to Dutoit and gave two rather well honed performances of her own this week. With the Philharmonic, she assailed Prokofiev’s 2nd Piano Concerto with amazing technical prowess and command. Again admirable and well received, but the Prokofiev is a stranger fish than the other works on the evening's program, and, for all of it’s rough edges, I wasn’t sure how much Prokofiev's difficult score benefited from the energetic but ultimately restrained approach. I wished for something more maniacal, more drastic in the offing here. Still, Wang’s talent is undeniable and Tuesday’s performance of Franck’s Piano Quintet in F minor with members of the L.A. Philharmonic had moments of beauty as straightforward as breathing – simple, clear, and unassailable. Wang will undoubtedly be popping up again, and that is very good news. So the history of the Franco-Russian camaraderie in music at least carries on. It may not always be a perfectly harmonious one, but this weekend proves it continues to have a wealth of rewards.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 08/09

Hilary Hahn, Leonard Slatkin, and the LA Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2009

I’ll admit it. I have a hard time getting excited about Leonard Slatkin. In my mind he’s in that Robert Spano category, someone who seems to have all the attributes and interests you would want in a conductor, but somehow missing that excitement factor. Maybe it’s my own bias against all things quintessentially American, and maybe its just that familiarity breeds contempt. But I will say, with shows like this weekend’s LA Philharmonic program, I might just change my mind. The program was a jumble of unrelated works, all played with real commitment and attention. After Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet overture – a likely sop to audience members who must have one piece they recognize in every program- came the main course, the Glazunov violin concerto. It’s not much of a concerto, in that the orchestra has virtually nothing to do and the solo writing is dramatic and romantic if not overly flashy. Hilary Hahn was the soloist and it must be said that she spun straw into gold. Hahn wrenched more passion and thought out of this 20-minute piece just by sheer intensity and force of will than I would have thought possible. She’s remarkable, and I hope she wins one of those Grammys next week for her Schoenberg vionlin concerto recording.

The second half of the show was completely unrelated to the first. It began with a really good run through of Steven Stucky’s Son et lumière. Slatkin concluded the piece by noting that Stucky and John Adams have become virtually a “household names” at least in musical circles in this town. By way of introduction to the final piece, William Schuman's Symphony No. 3, Slatkin noted that a prior generation of American composers, including Schuman and the likes of Roger Sessions, are largely fading from American stages despite the important connection between early 20th-century American music and their late 20th-century descendants. Schuman’s Symphony No. 3 was offered here as an introduction to this important time in American classical music. The work, which I was previously unfamiliar with, is not bogged down in folk idioms in the way many composers earlier in the century had been, like Copland. And while there is something "American" about it, I would not describe it as being evocative of particular cultural milleu in the way one thinks of Gershwin. The influence on later generations is also clear, although Schuman, like his contemporaries, was interested in maintaining a European heritage of Symphonic music that has largely gone by the way side in recent decades. It was a fine performance and well deserved, all thanks to the L.A. Phil and Leonard Slatkin.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 08/09

Giuliano Carmignola and the Venice Baroque Orchestra
Photo: mine 2009

The first programs offered by the Los Angeles Philharmonic this week following a spectacular run of shows over the last two weeks under Esa-Pekka Salonen were a decidedly mixed bag. Following Tuesday’s very good Green Umbrella program of contemporary works, Walt Disney Concert Hall was thrown decidedly into reverse with a performance from Giuliano Carmignola and his Venice Baroque Orchestra featuring music from Vivaldi, a decidedly long-deceased composer. However, this, too, was quite a treat. While the group has been here before with largely the same shtick, it doesn’t get old. The Venice Baroque Orchestra’s playing remains crisp, dynamic, and well paced. Carmignola never overplays Vivaldi’s hand and lets the music do what it was intended. His solo work in the four violin concertos on the program was also quite admirable with a light enough touch without skimping in the energy department.

Denève and the LA Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2009

Speaking of violin soloists, however, Gil Shaham had a much less successful stint in this weekends shows with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Stéphane Denève. Shaham did the dirty work in the Khachaturian violin concerto with a technically admirable performance that really failed to connect. It wasn’t all his problem, though, in that Denève led one of the most torpid and arduous performances I’ve heard here in awhile. (That is, if you exclude Mr. Dudamel) Let’s put it this way, you know that you are in serious trouble over the course of an evening when you start thinking, “Well, maybe the Rachmaninoff will be better.” It wasn’t. The Syphonic Dances, like the Khachaturian, is one of those later-romantic messes that cries out for someone to step in to temper the histrionics. Instead, Denève plunged head in stretching out every last half-baked idea beyond the breaking point and adding what seemed like hours to a reasonably short program. I’ve come to really enjoy the maestro’s performances in L.A. over the last few years, but this was not one of them. The show also featured Stravinsky’s “Dumbarton Oaks” concerto, a bit of tepid Americana à la Copland that didn’t help matters either.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 08/09

Lionel Bringuier and members of the L.A. Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2009

With the last two weeks of programming from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, one would wonder why we need a separate “new music” series at all. With three new commissions and an orchestra generally known for its skill with 20th and 21st century music, a separate weekday series devoted exclusively to these works would almost seem beside the point. Of course, it isn’t though, and the “Green Umbrella” series continues to be the most exciting and worthwhile programming the L.A. Philharmonic does. Tuesday was the latest show in the series with an amalgam of works with little relationship to one another other than their ability to showcase the talents of the various members of the Philharmonic, the respective composers, and assistant conductor Lionel Bringuier who led the evening (sporting a rather fetching new haircut with appropriately hot new head shots to match—this is L.A. after all).

The show was mostly dedicated to a performance of Louis Andriessen’s De Stijl, which has graced the Green Umbrella stage once before. It’s a choral work meant to reflect on the work of Piet Mondrian and sets a text consisting of mathematical principles for four vocalists and a small ensemble of pianos, electric guitars, percussion and brass with saxophones and flute thrown in for good measure. This performance followed closely on the heels of Andriessen’s double piano concerto, The Hague Hacking, which premiered over the weekend. De Stijl contains a spoken interlude in which an anecdote about Mondrian is recalled by a narrator and the speaker, Susan Narucki, made the most of Disney Hall by entering from the back with separate lighting and wandering through the crowd for a dramatic entrance. This sort of mixing of dialog, vocal writing and music is key to several of Andriessen's works and again reminded me of his La Comedia which appeared in Amsterdam last summer. De Stijl relies on popular music idioms as much as anything else from the history of Western art music and even when it threatens to break out into full fledged rock, it falls just short, bringing you back to the start. Bringuier led a very enthusiastic and sharp performance of the piece that was serious without being overly dramatic.

The first part of the evening was no less interesting, starting with a work from Estonia's other famous living composer Erkki-Sven Tüür. Architectonics III (postmetaminnimalism) was originally commissioned by our own hometown California EAR Unit and proved rather exciting here in the hands of the Philharmonic members who made the most of its loud and upbeat tone. The work shares little with the work of Tüür's countryman Pärt, but actually did have a rather stately and epic quality to it I rather admired. The evening also included Steven Mackey's Ars Moriendi, a string quartet reflecting on the composer's experience surrounding the death of his father. The nine movements of varying length can be discordant at times, less so at others, and had an satisfying way of shifting between impressionistic and literal ideas. It was moving, substantial, and quite well played.

All in all it was another winning night of new music at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The big question now is, will the lines between the headline weekend programs and the "Green Umbrella" evenings continue to be blurred by the Philharmonic, or will the coming seasons under new music director Gustavo Dudamel stick new music in the ghetto of a handful of Tuesday nights? We should have some of the answers soon when Dudamel appears with L.A. Philharmonic President Deborah Borda on Thursday the 22nd to announce programming for the 09/10 season. If you want to see the cold hard facts for yourself, the press conference will be webcast live at 1:30pm PST.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 08/09