Out West Arts: Performance at the end of the world

Lionel Bringuier and members of the L.A. Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2010

What a difference a season makes. Why, it was only eight months ago that all the cool kids who write about music put together some piece on the changes in classical music in the U.S. with the arrival of Alan Gilbert at the helm of the New York Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel in Los Angeles. Gilbert, we were told, was an excellent choice, but had work to do to get the N.Y. Phil back on track while Dudamel’s choice seemed a no-brainer. Oh, but how things have changed. Gilbert is conducting three universally lauded sold-out performances of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre in New York while Dudamel has been sent back to the showers after leading bloated old-standards all over the country.

Given this reversal of fortune, it was best that the last WDCH performance from the L.A. Phil for the 09/10 season this weekend highlighted what is, was, and always will be the best thing about them, the great musicians that make up the orchestra to begin with. The program which included the Sibelius’ Violin Concerto, Dutilleux’ Metaboles, and Stravinsky’s Firedbird Suite, wasn’t earth shattering, but it was played exceptionally well. All of this was under the guidance of an exceptionally talented young conductor, Lionel Bringuier, who has the benefit of not having to heal the sick, raise people out of poverty, or fix the gulf oil spill. He just got to do what he does well, lead the orchestra in music without having to stretch it beyond recognition in the service of making some statement.

The Sibelius solo was played by Julian Rachlin with accuracy and skill. Bringuier kept it moving, though it probably could have been a bit more focused at times. The orchestra works in the second half seemed more to his liking. Dutilleux’ Metaboles is one of those works that calls for a huge orchestra but only rarely allows them to play together instead focusing on outbreaks of sound from here and there around the stage. There is an organic feel to the music that seems to develop out of its own workings as the title might suggest. The Firebird suite is always a nice way to close a season and Bringuier made the most of an orchestra that knows its way around a Stravinsky score. It was a lovely show and it reminded me of exactly how much I’m going to miss the L.A. Phil until October when they are finally released from the purgatory of the Hollywood Bowl.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 09/10

David Sefton
Photo: David Miezal 2008

I was saddened to hear the news today that David Sefton, the long time artistic director of UCLA Live, the university’s public performing arts series, has suddenly resigned. According to the Los Angeles Times, Sefton submitted his resignation to take effect immediately when he felt he could not abide a “restructuring” of the program dictated by the university and its own declining economic fortunes. Apparently the first change in the restructuring will be an end to the International Theater Festival Sefton championed since 2002 and which will not be a part of the upcoming season. It’s just tragic since the series has undoubtedly been the source of the most important programming UCLA Live has presented over the last decade. Sefton notes in the report that without this kind of programming, there is little interest for him in what the entire program has to offer in the future. I know how he feels. And without a replacement in the wings at a time of “restructuring”, it appears that the series risks entering a free fall in the not-to-distant future even though Sefton has reportedly finished booking the 2010-2011 season that is to be announced shortly. They might as well start booking that Steel Magnolias revival with Kathy Rigby as we speak. At least I’ll get to save some money by not renewing my subscription.

Meanwhile, people can’t stop writing about Gustavo Dudamel and his recently completed national tour with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. (So why should I?) Apparently feeling that Mark Swed’s damage control over the copious negative reviews of the recent tours was insufficient, the Los Angeles Times rolled out James Rainey (I know - who??) on the 26th to raise the inherent East Coast bias of those who dared to question the maestro's skills. His most shining moment in the piece, though, was his none-to-subtle implication that racism was a factor in these negative critiques as well. And who knows, maybe that garbage struck a nerve after all when you consider the further musings of Anne Midgette on the topic in today’s Washington Post. Midgette was one of the few critics who were enthusiastically supportive of Dudamel on the tour, but still she felt the need to write more in what is essentially a defense of her view in the follow-up. Yes, she admits, she still thought the concert in Washington was magnificent. But rest assured, she explains, she by no means thinks that Dudamel is the future of classical music. Though, on the other hand she is now certain he is not "falling into [the] trained-monkey syndrome.” Well there's some fair and balanced commentary for you if nothing else. Sometimes I worry that I’m not really qualified to write about the things I do on my blog. Then I read what passes for arts journalism and criticism in the legitimate press.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 09/10, UCLA Live 09/10

I really wasn’t planning on saying anything more about the L.A. Philharmonic’s quasi-disastrous U.S. tour that concluded on Saturday in New York. (For the latest bad news, see Justin Davidson's review in New York magazine.) However, following Mark Swed’s further attempt at damage control in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times, I feel compelled to open my mouth again. In his piece, Swed acknowledges that many major reviews of the L.A. Phil on tour have been negative, particularly with regards to the conducting skills of Gustavo Dudamel. (A "drubbing" is the term he used.) He also recognizes that while a “backlash” was not unexpected, the come-down after an unprecedented amount of positive attention was more than anticipated despite its inevitability. Of course, there is zero mention of the fact that Swed himself is one of the primary architects of this wave of hype and overstatement by his penning one breathless, unquestioning review of Dudamel’s performances here in L.A. after the next. The fact is that the sound of the orchestra is no worse now than it has been at any time during this 09/10 season under Dudamel. The difference now is that there are many more critical voices across the country who are unwilling to ignore the real problems that exist for the orchestra under Dudamel’s guidance at this time. Swed's rose-colored glasses seem welded to his head as he continues to minimize and look the other way from the music director’s penchant for histrionic dynamics and lack of precision.

Of course, the response to all of the criticism now that someone from out of town recognizes the emperor’s lack of clothing is for Swed to suggest that Dudamel is doing something groundbreaking and new by presenting old standards in ways that lie outside the expectations of listeners familiar with them. And, although he is clearly in the minority in his assessment of Dudamel's work to date, he goes further to imply that the conductor’s rock star status represents the future of classical music,

And all the excitement seemed too much for uptight Lincoln Center guards keeping me and mob at bay as we tried unsuccessfully to get backstage. Classical music isn’t supposed to be like this, which, of course, is what the reviews had been saying all along.

While this could be the dawning of a new age in Western Culture, I doubt Swed and a surprisingly small cohort of classical music writers at this point are the only ones to recognize it. I’ll agree that Dudamel is certainly bringing new faces and noisy crowds to concert halls unaccustomed to them. However, what Swed fails to see is that there is a difference between changing people’s minds about basic principles and riding on the wave of novelty. Dudamel won’t be the latest model forever. And when he isn’t, whether or not all those new-found listeners will really want to continue hearing Tchaikovsky or whatever else is on the bill seems rather unlikely to me. What we have here, in Gustavo Dudamel’s L.A. Philharmonic is a first, all right—America’s first “classical crossover” orchestra. An ensemble with a popular and enthusiastic following but which garners little respect or interest among people who actually like or follow classical music over the long term. Or, as my friend Jim says, we’ve got Lang Lang with a baton. Who cares what the L.A. Phil plays as long as Dudamel is on the podium? Who will care when he’s not?

So far what I have been saying about the Dud and the L.A. Phil all season long (and even before) is turning out to be closer to the truth than not. So what happens next? If I’m a betting man, the backlash will continue into a European tour next year. Meanwhile at home, as Dudamel becomes less of a topic of the moment, the predominantly novelty-seeking crowds will begin to thin out when they notice that the orchestra will be playing classical music most all of the time. How far civic boosterism will go in supporting this relationship beyond this contraction is anybody’s guess. Maybe things will change. I certainly hope they do. The orchestra has come so far in terms of its reputation to lose so much ground so quickly. Maybe Dudamel and the orchestra will reach some place that they're actually tolerable to listen to when playing together for more than 20 minutes at a stretch. And maybe, as Anthony Tommasini suggested in the New York Times on Friday, Dudamel will spend some time "immersing himself in the repertory."

Labels: LA Philharmonic 09/10

It appears that the second week of the LA Philharmonic's national tour under music director Gustavo Dudamel is not being received much better than the first. Despite the dispatch of KUSC staff and the Los Angeles Times' Mark Swed in an effort to provide some damage control, the lukewarm reviews continue to roll in from many quarters.

The New York Times' Anthony Tommasini notes there is a lot of work to be done to get the orchestra back to the level of regard it had on an a national stage even as recently as a year ago,

But part of the job description for a music director at a major American orchestra involves fostering the technical skills of the players and giving assured, fresh performances of works in the central repertory. In this regard, Thursday’s concert was a disappointment....

But Mr. Dudamel has to tend to the technical maintenance of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and may need to spend more time, as the Tchaikovsky performance suggested, immersing himself in the repertory.

The word from Philadelphia and Peter Dobrin was not much better,

Here was a slightly unkempt performance of John Adams' City Noir, a signature piece of this orchestra penned by its own creative chair, and an unremarkable Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6. But classical music was winning friends. Did it matter that many came for something other than the music?

With a rags-to-riches story and a media presence of perhaps unprecedented proportions, Dudamel, as leader of a major orchestra at a relatively young age, represents everything right classical music is doing today. Or wrong.

It depends entirely on what you think the field should be banking on as its future. The most cynical listener figures that the Los Angeles Philharmonic has recalculated aspects of the job once considered ancillary (community relations, education, fund-raising) as primary now, and a winsome persona is more important than revelatory interpretations.

I'd rather think that the Los Angeles board, administration, and players really believe they have a great musical thinker on their hands. But that's not who Dudamel is - not now, at 29, not Wednesday night in Verizon Hall.

As some consolation, at least The Washington Post's Anne Midgette was willing to brush aside the serious problems she acknowledged along with everyone else, by highlighting the excitement and high spirits of an enthusiastic conductor and crowd at a classical music concert.

There's no question that Dudamel is a brilliant talent, but there have always been things to criticize in his approach. He is an instinctive musician, but sometimes seems to conduct for the moment rather than with an eye to the whole work. On Monday, one could find plenty to carp at if one was so inclined: balance issues, shaky entrances, lackluster moments from the brass.

Frankly, though, that didn't matter, because Dudamel and the orchestra also offered one of the most involving and compelling performances of Tchaikovsky's "Pathétique" symphony I've ever heard. This was music played by someone who loves music, someone who had an idea where he was going with the piece. And the orchestra opened its collective heart and went right along with him. Perfect? No. Gorgeous? Yes.

So apparently it doesn't matter if the music is any good or not, as long as your heart is in the right place. After having had to listen to the Dud conduct all season in L.A., I'd take a little more skill and a little less goodwill in a hot second if given the chance. As before, these are only excerpts from the reviews, of course, so I’d encourage you to follow the links to read the whole thing yourself. The good news is that the L.A. Philharmonic will be back home next week to finish off the season. this time under the capable hands of Lionel Bringuier.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 09/10

Photo: Andrew Eccles 2009

As you may have noticed, the Los Angeles Philharmonic is currently out of town on a two-week concert tour of the U.S. under musical director Gustavo Dudamel. Of course, there is never any let up from the L.A. Philharmonic’s tireless PR machine that is bombarding us with everything from a new segment on “60 Minutes” to profiles in American Way magazine. The group hit San Francisco, Phoenix, Chicago and Nashville last week to sold-out houses and enthusiastic audiences at every stop. However, given the decidedly mixed reviews the performances have gotten so far, it seems what was billed as a "eat-your-heart-out" tour is provoking more than anticipated indigestion by people who regularly write about classical music.

The reviews have dutifully noted Dudamel’s energy and excitement and the great work he has done with young musicians. But at long last, critics have begun to notice the fact that while his conducting skills are promising, they are still highly underdeveloped, particularly with an orchestra of this caliber. This is not a surprise to me, of course, considering I’ve been saying the same things since 2007 here at outwestarts.com, but now Dudamel’s slip is beginning to show in other cities as well.

In San Francisco, the San Francisco Chronicle’s Joshua Kosman was “bewildered” by the L.A. Phil performances there:

In appearances presented Monday and Tuesday by the San Francisco Symphony as part of the Great Performers Series, Dudamel and his band offered up a head-spinning mass of puzzlements....

There were readings marked by phenomenal power and inventiveness, and others dragged down into a morass of ostentatious mannerism. At times Dudamel and the orchestra seemed utterly in sync, only to turn the page and come to grief on a simple question of ensemble or instrumental balance. The orchestra itself struggled in parts (the brass was particularly unpredictable) while excelling elsewhere (especially the strings). Where are they now? Where are they heading? Your guess is as good as mine.

Things didn’t much improve in Chicago where Andrew Patner reported in the Chicago Sun-Times on performances of Adam’s City Noir and Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony,

But I’m not seeing or hearing a lot of development. His repertoire of full symphonic works remains small. In a new addition for this tour, Tchaikovsky’s B minor “Pathetique” Sixth Symphony, Op. 74, Dudamel often went more for effect than either deep or subtle understanding. As was the case even more so with the first encore, the Intermezzo from Puccini’s opera “Manon Lescaut,” too often the dynamic choices were two: loud and louder. These emphases made for a third movement march both well-paced and stirring, but not much else in the rest of the work....

Most disconcerting, though, is Dudamel’s continuing difficulty – or lack of concern? – with section balances and ensembling. An experienced conductor should be able not only to prepare and lead his own interpretation of a piece but to detect and fix problems in performance quickly and correctly. Dudamel seemed so caught up in his conception of the work that he appeared not to notice lack of dynamic and rhythmic synch, ragged patches and peculiar drops in tension after big effects.

Patner wasn’t the only windy city scribe who dared to dissent though. The Chicago Tribune’s John von Rhein weighed in with significant negatives as well.

There's no question he is inordinately talented, a brilliant and inspiring podium dervish who can get an orchestra to do anything he wishes while lifting an audience out of its seats. Even so, there sometimes appears to be a disconnect between the musical ends and the means he employs to achieve them. Half-formed interpretative ideas betray a lack of musical depth. The problem is not so much one of faulty instincts as where and how he channels those instincts....

Dudamel looked to be in ecstasy on the podium, slashing the air with his baton, crouching and levitating as he drove the Russian warhorse onward. But that visual show of emotion did not translate into a particularly coherent or deeply felt reading. Pacing was erratic, balances were careless and there were noticeable lapses of tension between melodramatic effusions. Tchaikovsky's final plunge into black despair and death can be a shattering experience; not here. Only the march movement really worked.

These are only excerpts from the reviews, of course, so I’d encourage you to follow the links to read the whole thing yourself. Of course, this is only the first week of the tour, and the L.A. Phil will appear in Washington, Philadelphia and New York this week. Here’s hoping things pick up for them a bit more now that the cat is out of the bag about the hype monster created around the L.A. Phil’s new maestro.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 09/10

Esteban Benzecry

Tuesday brought the last performance of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s “Green Umbrella” contemporary music series for the season, which was notable for also being dedicated to the late Alan Rich who had been one of the biggest advocates for new music and Los Angeles’ place in the contemporary classical world. As to whether or not he would have thought highly of the show, we’ll never know, but as L.A. Phil president Deborah Borda noted, he certainly would have been there. The evening’s program was also the final major program in the Philharmonic’s “Americas and Americans” festival. Despite banal platitudes from music director Dudamel and others about music breaking down borders between peoples of the Americas, the festival has been notable for bringing a lot of unfamiliar music to the Walt Disney Concert Hall stage. The “Green Umbrella” program ran like much of the rest of the festival in presenting equal parts multi-cultural exploration and world-music kitsch on offer.

Music director Gustavo Dudamel conducted three works on the program in his first appearance at any Green Umbrella program this season. He clearly has some interest in 20th- and 21st-century music as evidenced by some of his performances this season, and it was nice to at least see him advocate for a living composer by his presence. Of course, he’s yet to say two words about any of it directly to a local audience either onstage or in a pre-concert venue as of yet. But before he took the stage in either half of the program, there were two solo performances by guitarist Andrew McKenna Lee. The first was a work based on a Bach prelude and the second was Leo Brouwer's Sonata, both of which featured Lee’s exquisite guitar virtuosity. I certainly admired the technical skill of his playing, but I must admit, I’m no connoisseur of guitar music. Listening to this stuff is just as likely to make me feel I’m in some restaurant waiting for a drink refill between the appetizer and main course.

However, there was plenty of other music on the program from other living composers. USC alumnus Andrew Norman’s Gran Turismo provided a lively little race for eight string players in the first half. Written while he was still a student, he noted before the show that the work has continued to garner him an unexpected amount of attention. It was fun, if brief, with its rapid sequences and interruptions between players. Norman has been commissioned for a new piece for the L.A. Philharmonic next year, so there is more to come. After this, Derek Bermel premiered one of the evening’s two new commissions with a work entitled Canzonas Americanas for small chamber orchestra. Bermel was asked to compose a piece inspired by the festival’s theme of musical and cultural integration and he went for broke, throwing in an amazingly wide array of American popular music idioms and Latin rhythms in what sometimes seemed a completely random haphazard fashion. There was a sort of sincerity about the piece, which could be charming, but also naïve in its wholesale incorporation of elements without any irony. The final movement of the work provided a brief vocal solo from Luciana Souza in a lovely coda.

Probably the more satisfying of the two premieres was Esteban Benzecry’s Fantasia Mastay. I wont trouble you with the mythological underpinnings of the piece, but it did concern the same new-agey riffs on peoples coming together across borders. The work slowly grew out of a swirling cacophony of contradicting sounds into a rushing ascending pattern of notes particularly in the percussion parts. Here the influence of musical traditions both Northern and Southern were fused together in a more hybrid way creating a new unitary construct in contrast to a hodgepodge of the typical references. It was by far the smartest work on the program and perhaps the most challenging work in the whole festival in its relatively few brief minutes.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 09/10

Osvaldo Golijov and Maria Guinand embrace at the conclusion of La Pasión Sugún San Marcos
Photo: mine 2010

Nearly a decade after its premiere, Osvaldo Golijov’s La Pasión Según San Marcos arrived in Los Angeles last night as part of the L.A. Philharmonic’s “Americas and Americans” festival. In some ways it’s a wonder that it has taken so long for the piece to arrive here. San Marcos is arguably the most successful piece of contemporary “classical” music yet this century. It was famously written at the request of Helmuth Rilling, who commissioned Golijov and three other composers to create latter-day Passions in memory of the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death. What Rilling got was a huge surprise and an almost instant hit altering Golijov’s career trajectory radically upward. Golijov took segments of the St. Mark’s Passion and infused his music with Latin folk and dance rhythms. Actually, “infused” is not the word so much as imported wholesale. The revolution to that first audience, and many Western European and American audiences since then, is the contrast between a very familiar sacred story and music that European culture has rarely associated with it. La Pasión Según San Marcos was a natural fit for the L.A. Phil’s festival, looking specifically at composers and works originating in the Western Hemisphere. And unlike the festival’s prior program, is much less indebted to European musical conventions outside of the subject matter.


On Saturday night, the work continued to create new enthusiastic fans, and it is very hard to resist its many, many charms. It is both intensely spiritual and ironically joyful at the same time. The large chorus in augmented with a number of dancers and solo vocalists including Luciana Souza, Roeynaldo González Fernández, and, in these outings, soprano and previous-Golijov collaborator Jessica Rivera. There are a range of vocal traditions presented here and the performers were necessarily miked. A small group of players enacted some elements of the story through dance in a manner not outside of the tradition of Passion plays with an actively involved chorus dressed in white and purple. It’s quite a sight, and luckily for those who weren’t in attendance, the cast is the same as that on a new DG studio recording of the work released just this month that includes a DVD of a live performance in Amsterdam under the direction of Robert Spano in 2008. It's the next best thing to being there.

However, many of the questions that have dogged the piece from the beginning are still there. Is it kitsch? It may well be. But even if it is, to paraphrase the legendary Sandra Bernhard, “this is good, quality kitsch. The kind of kitsch you want in your home.” Perhaps the other great limitation of the work is that it relies on forces not typical for most organizations that regularly present high art music in the West. To date virtually all the performances of Golijov's Pasión around the world have been conducted with variants of the same groups present at the premiere, the Schola Cantorum de Venezuela and the “Orquestra La Pasión,” a band of string players, percussionists, dancers and other musicians who travel largely to perform this work. The evening’s conductor, Maria Guinand, was also present at the premiere and, alongside Robert Spano, has led nearly all of the piece’s major performances. Guinand is the Artistic Director of the Schola Cantorum and a close, long-time colleague of L.A. Phil music director Gustavo Dudamel. And, while it is a wonderful performance, it’s hard to see it having a life outside of this particular group of performers. But for two days in L.A. it is back again and the not-sold-out hall did have a family atmosphere on Saturday. Whether La Pasión Según San Marcos represents the future of “classical” music or a very-successful momentary side bar in its history remains to be seen. But last night, it didn't really matter.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 09/10

Dudamel, Kelley O'Connor and members of the L.A. Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2010

The Los Angeles Philharmonic entered the final weeks of a season that has been as much about marketing as it has about music on Thursday and Friday with one of a handful of orchestral programs in their current “Americas and Americans” series. The concept here is an examination of the musical connections between North and South America. Or in the words of music director Gustavo Dudamel, "This festival is one that is meant to link us as a people, so that borders dissolve, and we find those common threads and musical moments which unite North and South America as one. This is our music". And while the composers over the next few weeks are exclusively from the Western Hemisphere, at least on Friday, the influence was still decidedly European in terms of both composition, format, and instrumentation. Granted these were not pieces in the standard repertoire of any major symphony, but they owed much more to their European ancestors than any indigenous influences in the Americas. All of this was under the direction of Dudamel who led with a much calmer and more subdued hand than in any of a string of unsatisfying shows last Fall.

First this evening was the Toccata for Percussion form Mexico’s Carlos Chávez, a surprisingly lyrical work for six percussionists. Chavez was able to produce some beautiful lines in between the beats with instrumentation that more often than not plays a background role on the concert stage. This was just a warm up, however, for the evening’s real centerpiece, Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs. The fact that the Philharmonic programmed this work at all five years after its debut here in 2005 is particularly daring. It appeared then in a performance conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen featuring the late, great Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, the composer’s wife for whom it was composed. Her performance is virtually unassailable as perhaps one of the most moving things ever to have appeared on the WDCH stage. This was undoubtedly a lesser performance, but Lieberson’s work is masterful and if its beauty is to live on, it will have to be performed by others. The L.A. Philharmonic should be applauded for bringing it back in the face of such a challenge. The soloist was the dark-toned Kelley O’Connor who has wowed local audiences in any number of pieces of new music. She gave a strong performance and certainly has one set of balls taking this project on given the circumstances here.

The concert closed with another bit of daring, but far less interesting, programming in Bernstein’s Symphony No.2. Pure mid-Century Americana, Bernstein’s symphony-cum-piano-concerto deals with the search for a spiritual center in the modern world. The soloist was a game Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and he and Dudamel made the best argument they could for the work. Its indebtedness to Copland is clear, but more often than not, it sounds like warmed-over Shostakovich raging along in a chaotic mass that finally arrives in one of those big swirling show-stopping finales. The orchestra sounded particularly tight tonight, especially in works with a fair amount of rhythmic challenge to them. So, even if the overall idea of a characteristic music from the new world seemed elusive on Friday, it was a well played and smartly planned program.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 09/10

Louis Andriessen and Reinbert de Leeuw
Photo: mine 2010

Tuesday brought the U.S. premiere of Louis Andriessen’s expansive, genre-bending opera La Commedia to the Walt Disney Concert Hall stage. Boy, were we lucky to have it. Andriessen's take one Dante’s Divine Comedy actually has a pedigree here in L.A.; two of the five acts in the piece had prior performances on this very stage – Act II, Racconto dall'Inferno, as part of the 2006 Minimalist Jukebox festival, and Act I, The City of Dis or:The Ship of Fools, by the L.A. Master Chorale in 2007. The full work had its premiere in a fantastic production during the 2008 Holland Festival where the live performance was augmented with a production conceived by American film director Hal Hartley. Then, Andriessen's score was accompanied by a film with a completely different narrative made by Harley that ran intermittently throughout the performance on one of a number of screens hanging at various angles around the Amsterdam hall. That performance, one of my personal highlights of the last few years, created a circus like atmosphere of sensory overload with images and sounds coming from all sides. Tuesday’s performance in L.A., which included the almost identical ensemble from Amsterdam, was a wonderful chance to revisit the work, this time in a concert performance that allowed a fuller appreciation of its complex and interesting score on its own substantial merits.

Marcel Beekman, Jeroen Willems, Claron McFadden, and Cristina Zavalloni
Photo: mine 2010

Andriessen revisits Dante’s trip to hell and back in a format that is preoccupied neither with plot or character development. There is direction however as Dante moves through the horrors of hell into the Garden of Earthly Delights and finally paradise in the five acts in La Commedia. The multi-lingual text is taken from numerous sources including Dante with various roles assigned to a cast of four soloists and two choirs. The music is a polyglot that gleefully moves from foreboding and dissonant to cheekily dabbling in any number of contemporary popular musical styles. As we get closer to paradise, tongue-in-cheek jazz and Latin rhythms appear in the music and in the end, everything begins to shine and twinkle. The ASKO/Schönberg Ensemble under the direction of Reinbert De Leeuw produced a formidable and piercing sound in a score that at times recalled a Charlie Kaufman screenplay with dizzying changes of direction and context. Synergy Vocals and the L.A. Children’s Chorus provided clear and assured backing throughout. The soloists were all spectacular and each performed from substantially different technical perspectives. Claron McFadden, who played Béatrice, a sort of guardian angel, is a well known opera performer in Europe whose interest in Baroque and contemporary repertoire have deprived her of a deserved large following in the U.S. Her clear and piercing tone was set against the unique vocal gymnastics of Cristina Zavalloni who dominated the stage with her sexy, dramatic Dante. Zavalloni has made a number of appearances in L.A. over the years, and as before, it was impossible not to watch her with nearly awe-struck admiration. She is the kind of performer who makes me want to use words like "elemental" in her description. Actor Jeroen Willems lends his movie star looks and a supremely sardonic attitude to the mostly spoken role of Lucifer. His closing monologue, Cacciaguida, was delivered in English instead of his native Dutch and was an absolute hoot. Andriessen’s devil gets all the laughs in La Commedia and Willems harangued lord of the underworld was a perfect complement to his costars and the score. The cast was rounded out by the brief, but memorable appearance of Marcel Beekman as Casella.

Andriessen received an enthusiastic standing ovation from the audience at the conclusion of the intermissionless two hours. He may not fit easily into one of the boxes composers often are forced into, but he is a lion of contemporary music and showed why with this amazing and ambitious two hour trip through the underworld. The only sad note in the evening is how little effort and heart the L.A. Philharmonic, who sponsored the evening’s performance, put into promoting this show, perhaps the most important piece of new(er) music in their entire season. There was zero stage or pre-performance presence by anyone from the organization and nary an advance word about the show outside of some random tweets earlier in the day and the standard e-mails. Apparently a few bucks could not be squeezed out of the budget after the three-quarters of a million dollars spent to fete the arrival of their new boy-blunder, Gustavo Dud-amel earlier in the season. Apparently Andriessen falls short in the “Electrico” department. But you wouldn’t know that by actually listening to his spectacular music, and the substantial crowd at WDCH on Tuesday reaped the benefits of seeing a major work from one of the most important living composers.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 09/10

Thomas Adès and Anthony Marwood with L.A. Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2010

To judge by the frequency of his highly regarded visits with our local orchestra, Thomas Adès loves Los Angeles. And Los Angeles loves him. Or at least I do. Even with a show he’s largely reprising from prior appearances here, his program this weekend with the L.A. Philharmonic outshines much of what has appeared at the Walt Disney Concert Hall this season. The first half of the program consisted of his own works – the overture These Premises Are Alarmed, a suite of dances from his chamber opera Powder Her Face, and his Violin Concerto. It was a brief but nice summary of Adès career so far in less than an hour of music. But virtually every note of it was pretty exciting. He’s got a flair for the dramatic and can incorporate other musical idioms into his compositions without them overwhelming the bigger project. His “dance music” from Powder Her Face is blown up here from the original chamber orchestra of the opera score to a much bigger ensemble. There is plenty of story contained in these movements far beyond the waltz and tango rhythms they ape. The music effortlessly recalls Britain in the 60s and its ability to evoke such a distinct time and place is the hallmark of a composer who knows what he’s doing. The Violin Concerto, which was played here by Anthony Marwood, as it has been from the piece’s inception, was again a lovely puzzle with the orchestration providing punctuation to the soloist’s ongoing monologue. Marwood and Adès last performed the piece here in 2006 and seeing it again under such great circumstances seems like an embarrassment of riches.

Another thing I love about Adès is his apparent respect for composers that don’t necessarily have the biggest cache of gravitas. Two seasons ago he gave us a slew of chamber works by Francois Couperin. The second half of this weekend’s program was devoted to Respighi’s Feste Romane. This is showy music meant to please with large rumbling crescendos and organ and brass for days. Adès makes no apologies for any of it, giving a lovely theatrical performance with the orchestra. It was a crowd-pleaser in the best sense of the phrase. Adès unfortunately is gone all too quickly this season after this weekend, however he plans to be back for much more extensive involvement next season. So, until then, we have this reminder of his story thus far.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 09/10

Semyon Bychkov and the L.A. Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2010

I’m back from New York and my first stop is at the Walt Disney Concert Hall for this weekend’s L.A. Philharmonic program featuring conductor Semyon Bychkov and Mahler’s 5th Symphony. If my memory serves me, the last time this particular piece was heard on this stage was an auspicious if generally unpleasant occasion when Gustavo Dudamel led the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra through an overwrought thrashing of the score. And while I wasn’t having to dodge escaping audience members this time around, I can’t say the Bychkov’s approach was a decidedly preferable alternative to that particular sideshow. (I saw a handful of audience members bail on this one as well though there were far more empty seats to begin with on this evening.) Bychkov is no stranger to Mahler, but I’ll admit he is not the first conductor that jumps to mind when you think of this pinnacle of German Romanticism. In fact he doesn't leap to mind with most things, although he makes the rounds at major stages around the world including several West Coast appearances both here and in San Francisco. I’ve heard him conduct Shostakovich in the past with a fair amount of bombast so I entered the Mahler with some trepidation.

To my surprise, this was a remarkably restrained account of the 5th Symphony. In fact maybe it was a little too restrained. There were some lovely moments tonight, particularly in the second and fifth movements. There were certainly a clear sense of dynamics throughout. However, particularly in the first and third movements, I often felt like the overall line of the music was lost amidst a million little pieces. Phrases were left unconnected as if they were all independent entities and not related in a larger whole. If the 5th Symphony is in fact a journey, there will certainly be stops along the way, but there should also be a sense of actually going somewhere. There were some really wonderful contributions from the many fine L.A. Philharmonic players. Principal Horn William Lane sounded especially clear and warm and the brass overall was on top of their game. The program repeats Friday and Saturday.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 09/10

Robin Ticciati hugs Lars Vogt with the L.A. Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2010

The Los Angeles Philharmonic continued a series of concerts this month that have been uniformly strong and well thought out. It wasn’t anything flashy and didn’t involve some overarching programmatic concept, but the quality of playing and conducting lately almost begins to make up for a particularly weak fall stint of shows under the orchestra’s still-in-development new musical leadership. This week’s guest conductor Robin Ticciati was making his local debut and reinforced the perception created by our local orchestra that young dynamic conductors apparently grow on trees. With his bushy curly hair, I couldn’t help but wonder if many of the less aware in the audience mistook him for Gustavo Dudamel. Personally, I would prefer to think that the very warm and enthusiastic reception he got was attributable to the fact that he led a great and often exciting show.

There was a Northern European focus with Sibelius’ suite from King Christian II, the Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor, and Magnus Lindberg’s Chorale. Ticciati’s soloist for the Grieg piece was pianist Lars Vogt who has always struck me as far more attractive and youthful in person than in photographs. Last night he also struck me as a pretty brilliant musician breathing ample life into Grieg’s very familiar music. It was a thinking-man’s approach to the music, paced out with no rushing. The clear romantic line of the second movement struck me as one of the more romantic (with a small r) things I’ve heard in months. The first and third movements were elegant and restrained allowing the composition to provide its own thrills.

Dale Hikawa Silverman with the black viola on the right.
Photo: mine 2010

The rest of the show was equally strong. Lindberg’s 6 minute Chorale was tantalizingly too short. Even the closing work, Elgar’s Enigma Variations sounded more coherent than I typically think it is. Perhaps the real mystery of the evening for me though, was the black replacement viola played by Dale Hikawa Silverman throughout the evening. Whether it’s a temporary or permanent replacement of her usual instrument is unknown to me, but it’s funny how the smallest details can catch your eye and interest when they are out of place. The show repeats on Saturday night.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 09/10

Joyce Yang, Edo de Waart, and members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2010

I have long been a fan of Dutch conductor Edo de Waart. Even after abandoning the music director post at Santa Fe Opera before it had even started, he remains one of those conductors I feel I can always count on for a worthwhile performance. He’s in town this weekend conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic and does deliver a very impressive program of Strauss and Beethoven. In fact, I’m starting to think of de Waart as a superior conductor of Strauss this season. He led magnificent performances of Der Rosenkavalier in New York last fall while pinch-hitting for James Levine and this weekend he served up Ein Heldenleben. It was big, beautiful and cheeky in that Straussian way. Strauss may have joked about his “Hero’s Life” being inspired by Beethoven’s Third Symphony, but in fact it’s more likely a twist on Wagner’s Siegfried. It was another rich and polished performance from the orchestra that was Romantic, but not histrionic. Concertmaster Martin Chalifour played beautifully in his extended solo passages as well.

The other half of the concert was occupied by a 10 year-old work from Qigang Chen entitled The Five Elements. These short miniatures were, in fact, inspired by the five elements of fire, water, earth, wood and metal. Chen, the final student of Olivier Messiaen, draws from both eastern and western musical traditions in his work which was evident even in these brief moments. Although the orchestration involved relatively little traditional or folk instrumentation, sounds associated with Chinese music were replicated in various places in the orchestra. It was a nice way to start the evening, although I’m not sure how it necessarily related to anything else. The middle of the program was taken up by a much less successful third Beethoven Piano Concerto performed by Joyce Yang. It may have been simply a matter of lack of rehearsal time with the orchestra, but Friday’s performance sounded robotic and heavy handed from Yang. The orchestra was there to pick up the ball, but on a number of occasions, Yang was nowhere to be found. Still, the Strauss was good enough on its own to make the evening worthwhile and the show repeats Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 09/10

Peter Eötvös, Gregory Vajda, and members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2010

Tuesday’s “Green Umbrella” program sponsored by the Los Angeles Philharmonic seemed neglected in a way. The L.A. Philharmonic’s "Creative Chair" for new music, John Adams wasn’t there, and the Philharmonic’s Associate Conductor scheduled for the program, Lionel Bringuier, was absent following an injury. Whether or not either of these facts contributed to the lower than normal turn out for one of the contemporary music programs at the WDCH isn’t clear. But outside of the talented Philharmonic members that played in the program, the evening seemed rather untethered from the place and organization as a whole. Nevertheless, it was still a fine evening, featuring primarily the music of Hungarian composer Peter Eötvös. A well-known figure in Europe, Eötvös has been featured on local stages in the past including a big role in the 2007 Ojai Festival, and his return was welcome.

There were three of his works on the schedule, all of which were led by Eötvös' fellow countryman Gregory Vajda, with the exception of a string quartet. Setting the tone was Snatches of a Conversation which, as the name implies, involved a half-whispered vocal part consisting of phrases one might overhear in a crowded restaurant or party. The percolating music had a heavy jazz influence including a major part for a double-bell trumpet played by Brandon Ridenour referencing the snatches of jazz the composer remembered hearing over illegal radio channels in his youth in communist Hungary. This musical scatter of notes was reflected in two other works, Sonta per sei and Korrespondenz, a string quartet. The six players in the Sonata were two pianos, a sampler, and three percussionists. It too achieved a certain stillness or meta-narrative apart from the jingling passages in both sets of instruments. Korrespondenz was played by the Calder Quartet and was intended to mimic actual letters written between Mozart and his father when the young composer was living in Paris. The words from the letters are printed in the score and different sets of notes are matched with different letters and sounds in the words. The conversation takes place between the viola and first violin on the young man's side and the cello and second violin standing in for the father. All of the works seemed to create something much larger apart from their methodologies and intricate and busy activity.

The other piece on the program belonged to a student of Eötvös', Vykintas Baltakas, entitled (co)ro(na). Baltakas composed this piece as part of a series of works built up from small musical elements of one another and expanded into much larger proportions. (co)ro(na) alternates sequences of jittery percolating notes across the ensemble with longer held notes placed for sharpest contrast. It felt cut from a similar cloth as the other works in the program and captured the same sense of stillness in the context of motion. All of the music was fascinating to listen to and rather exciting overall. And, while apparently being a major European conductor and composer doesn't pull the weight around L.A. that it used to, it's programs like these that continue to be the highlight of the L.A. Philharmonic season.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 09/10

James Conlon, Lise de la Salle and the LA Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2010

If the start of Daylight Savings Time this weekend isn't enough for you, there's an even more potent harbinger of Spring in Los Angeles this weekend as the Los Angeles Philharmonic welcomes James Conlon back to town. One of the many fringe benefits of Conlon's work as Music Director of the Los Angeles Opera is that we’ve been privileged with a series of excellent concerts he’s led across the street at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Thursday’s all-Prokofiev outing was another in this very well played and satisfying series. Conlon likes to speak to audiences (a sadly rare event for LA Phil audiences these days) and noted that taking a break from all the Teutonic goings-on in his preparation for LA Opera’s upcoming Ring cycle performances with a decidedly Russian evening may have been striking some sort of musical balance. Whether or not that's true, it was an excellent show.

The first half of the program, which he termed the “Opus 1” section, included Prokfiev’s First Symphony, the “classical”, and his First Piano Concerto played by soloist Lise de la Salle. The symphony, like the concerto, seemed detailed and fleeting and I felt I was rushing to savor every moment of these comparably brief works. De la Salle’s playing was limber in this very demanding storm of notes, and while she may have wanted for a little more power sometimes, it was an admirable and memorable appearance. After the break were the omnipresent selections from Romeo and Juliet which I will admit I wasn’t super excited about. But much to my surprise, Conlon had something new to offer local ears in a very theatrical take on selections he took from the whole ballet intentionally to emphasize the narrative flow. Conlon's operatic expertise served him well taking music that risks sounding pedestrian and tuning it into something more cohesive and exciting. The orchestra had a real richness of sound and marshaled through two players breaking strings and the subsequent on-the-fly repairs. But while it may have been a bad night for individual strings, it was a great night for the audience. And while Prokofiev may not be Wagner, hearing Conlon lead the orchestra under these circumstances whets one’s appetite for the far more ambitious undertaking under his musical guidance over the next few months.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 09/10

Charles Dutoit and the LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC
Photo: mine 2010

The February "pageant of the masters" continues this weekend with the Los Angeles Philharmonic who welcomed another legendary conductor, Charles Dutoit, to town. It was a really wonderful program of 20th-century works that incorporate folk elements. The program began with Ginastera’s Variaciones concertantes, an often quiet series of variations built around a latin theme that allows for numerous solo performances from different players. Written in the 50s, Ginastera abstracts the latin influence in his own way, assigning music that traditionally might belong to a guitar to the harp instead, which plays a central role in the work. It was beautifully played by L.A. Phil harpist Lou Anne Neill and was an absolutely lovely way to start.

Perhaps the biggest surprise to me though was the performance of Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand that followed. The soloist was the young Russian Nicolai Lugansky and he should be credited for taking an overly familiar Romantic concerto and presenting it in a way that sounded like it was a completely different piece of music. It was totally new here with an internal idiosyncratic rhythm free of any histrionic flourishes that can easily creep in. It was the polar opposite of the work-a-day take on Beethoven’s fifth piano concerto Louis Lotrie had delivered just two night before. I did notice that Lugansky repeatedly used his right arm and hand to balance himself against the side of the piano while playing which did seem a little like cheating though I'm sure there's no formal written rule about it.

Returning to a work brimming with folk elements, Dutoit then led a very solid version of Stravinsky’s Petrushka. This was also gratefully clear-headed maintaining a lot of the whimsical detail but still swelling with boundless energy and sound. The tinkling carnival music of the opening scene was perfect and the quiet, almost sputtering ending of the performance gave off both a tragic and surreal aura fitting perfectly with the theme. It was a winning night and a very worthwhile performance which you can still catch on Sunday.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 09/10

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos
Photo: mine 2010

With all the emphasis on youthful energy and eye twinkle in these parts, it was refreshing to hear the Los Angeles Philharmonic play so well this weekend under the direction of 76 year-old Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. It wasn’t a revolutionary program by any means, but it was probably one of the best shows they’ve had so far this season. This shouldn’t be a surprise however since Frühbeck de Burgos has proven to be one of the most consistent visiting conductors the Philharmonic has engaged season after season. He manages to evoke such a warm polished performance nearly every time with so little fuss. This weekend was thankfully no exception to this rule and a welcomed reprieve from truckloads of youthful promise that has become the mainstay of our local musical diet.

First up was Schumann’s Symphony No. 3, which came to life in the first few bars with such energy and finesse that it seemed there might not be anywhere else to go. But there was, and the five movements were splendid even if they were dragged out by incessant clapping from the first-timer/date-night-heavy Valentine’s Day weekend audience. After the break was Debussy’s Nocturnes, a piece favored by Esa-Pekka Salonen and given several worthwhile performances here in the not too distant past. And, while Frühbeck de Burgos's was a bit more full-bodied than the precision performances we’ve come to love, it was still to be savored. Finally, the orchestra returned for Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe Suite No. 2, which burst open with color and brightness. This particular Ravel work has been highlighted frequently in L.A. in recent seasons including a typically overworked version under Dudamel, and I was thrilled to hear this snippet done so well. So while the audience may have been stacked with more than its usual share of young lovers, it was definitely a weekend where experience and wisdom won out.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 09/10

Herbert Blomstedt and the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2010

Rest assured, while OWA has been out of commission over last weekend, I have not been hiding under a rock. I was actually out and about at several points over the weekend most notably attending the most recent L.A. Philharmonic performance under the direction of Herbert Blomstedt. He’s not flashy and has neither curly hair nor a twinkle in his eye, but he does know what he’s doing. He can take a program as uninspired as this one, which consisted of Haydn’s Symphony No. 101 and Beethoven’s 7th, and make it exciting. The Haydn was splendid and clear without too much fuss. The Beethoven meanwhile was thoroughly enjoyable if a bit overly rhythmic at the expense of broader lines in the score. But this is quibbling. It was a great, unassuming show without the need for big new ideas.

Alexandra Silber as Julie Jordan in Carousel
Photo: Reprise 2010

Speaking of the tried and true, I also got over to the UCLA campus for Reprise’s closing performances of Carousel. The bare bones staging under Michael Michetti’s direction was decidedly meager looking. This isn’t a bad strategy, particularly in tough economic times, but if you go this route you’ve got to have performances that are better than good. And some of them were. Particularly Alexandra Silber as Julie Jordan, a role she has played to acclaim in London and elsewhere. She was both engaging and believable in a part highly reliant on outmoded cultural mores. Her singing was fantastic as well. The rest of the cast was good but often seemed cramped in the small area left for them at the front of the stage even without scenery or many props. Robert Patteri’s Billy Bigelow was a bit too pretty and worldly for my liking. It really wasn’t too much of a stretch to see why Julie might fall for him here. But in this day and age, Carousel is tough material to pull off with its ghost-story melodrama, and Michetti and Reprise should be congratulated for concocting something as coherent as this production. It certainly could have been a much less pleasant weekend.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 09/10, LA Theater Reviews

Kiera Duffy, Stefan Asbury and members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2010

The Green Umbrella new music series from the Los Angeles Philharmonic returned on Tuesday night with a program focusing on some 20th-century works dealing with madness. The show took place under the watchful eye of John Adams, the L.A. Philharmonic’s Creative Chair, who proved he’ll be no absentee landlord when it comes to the orchestra's New Music Group programming. Even in the absence of his own music, he spoke during the pre-concert lecture about his memories of first hearing Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, the cornerstone of the evening’s selections. Starting things off though was a much bigger surprise. Joseph Pereira, a composer and the L.A. Phil’s Principal Timpanist since 2007, entered the stage shirtless and barefoot to perform Vinko Globokar’s ?Corpore. The work calls for a percussion soloist to literally play himself – slapping, tapping, scratching his or her own chest, body and head. Placed in the center of a set of microphones, Pereira did just that, often accompanied by vocalizations indicated for responses to the self-inflicted blows. Needless to say the thrashing about in a state of semi-undress resulted in a distinct vision of madness with definite musical overtones. We already knew Pereira was a great timpanist, and frankly rather easy on the eyes, but this performance was something brave, unique, and, I would wager, beyond the call for many musicians. As Adams himself noted, this is not a piece you just approach someone about performing, “they have to come to you.”

With such a high standard set, the rest of the evening was in danger of seeming pro forma. But it wasn’t and there were other surprises around the bend. Next up was Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King made famous in a recording by fellow composer Julius Eastman. Here, baritone Thomas Meglioranza embodied George III in the wildly dynamic screeching, hollering, and whispering that make up this score. It’s music that is alternately creepy and comical from the high pitch parody of Handel’s Messiah to his prowling about the stage, eventually smashing a (fake) violin relieved from one of the other performers. Davies wrote for an ensemble largely the same as Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire and the similarities between the two works are multiple. Meglioranza had the nearly impossible task of sounding both totally unhinged and precisely musical and he did an admirable job of it. And while the entire performance may not have lived up to the standard set by Eastman, it was still a rather bracing one from the entire ensemble.

After the break, a new ensemble returned with conductor Stefan Asbury and soprano Kiera Duffy for Schoenberg’s touchstone song cycle. In some ways the cards were stacked against it, in that by then, Pierrot almost sounded pedestrian and restrained given what preceded it. Duffy, who is featured in Susan Froemke’s film The Audition about the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, gave a solid reading of the vocal part. I personally felt she was singing it a little too much as opposed to placing it in the Sprechstimme Schoenberg intended. The poetry is still beautiful, but sanity reigned more than anywhere else in the evening. I know it may be hard to believe that Schoenberg could be the sleepiest music on a program, but there it was. Which may speak more to how much things have changed in music since Pierrot Lunaire. Now madness has many faces and contemporary artists have found a new vocabulary to talk about these ideas building on Schoenberg's legacy.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 09/10

Vasily Petrenko and Piotr Anderszewski with the LA Philharmonic
Photo: mine 2010

Sunday was a pretty good day for music. And while none of the proceedings at the Walt Disney Concert Hall benefited from Beyoncé or Lady Gaga, there was certainly more than enough excitement. First up in the afternoon was the concluding performance from the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Vasily Petrenko. The young, seemingly good-natured Russian led an appropriately Romantic Manfred Symphony with all the heartstrings intact. This is potboiler Tchaikovsky at his most long-winded and towards the end of the nearly hour-long work its normal for the mind to wonder. But Manfred is pretty much what you get here, and despite its ostentation, it was well played. Prior to this was the highlight of the afternoon. Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto with Piotr Anderszewski as soloist. Anderszewski is one of the most compelling pianists before the public today, and he turned out a performance of an old warhorse that was as fresh and alive as anything. With a fleet and surprisingly light touch, he carefully avoided overworking the first movement. The Largo was a cool, pristine burst of evening and amazing to hear. Anderszewski had also wowed the audiences downtown earlier in the week in a performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet along with members of the LA Philharmonic. Drenched in grief, the chamber piece had much more lyricism than one might expect from the Russian master known for his ability to turn rapidly between dirge and military drive. On both occasions it was just lovely, lovely playing.

Grant Gershon and the Los Angeles Master Chorale
Photo: mine 2010

Later on Sunday, the WDCH was occupied by Grant Gershon and the Los Angeles Master Chorale doing a program of largely a cappella 20th century sacred music including two settings of the Mass. Each half of the program featured a work with organ accompaniment followed by a larger a cappella composition. Even though it was all 20th-century material, there was a split between works from the living, like Nico Muhly, and those of the deceased, Frank Martin and Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur. The program opened with Muhly's Bright Mass with Canons featuring a rather Messiaenic organ part that tinkled along busily often in opposition to the chorale music. Gershon told us about Muhly’s being a hot, young talent and while I’m not convinced of the latter from any of his music I’ve heard so far, I would say that in the words of Meatloaf two out of three ain’t bad. Messiaen hung over the more substantial music on the program as well as in Daniel-Lesur's Le cantique des cantiques,a twelve-part a cappella work plumbing topics simultaneously spiritual and sensual that Daniel-Lesur's contemporary was no stranger to. It was magnificent with perhaps the most deeply felt sentiments in an evening filled with proclamations of faith. It was well paired with Frank Martin's Mass for a Double Choir that provided a beautiful and contemporary setting of the Mass. It's a shame that Martin's work isn't better known in this country, and I'm thankful to Gershon and the excellent musicians of the Chorale for sharing these two particular wonders with us.

Labels: LA Master Chorale 09/10, LA Philharmonic 09/10