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Music Review: FOCUS ON ANDRIESSEN (LA Phil)
A TRIUMPHANT ANDRIESSEN Dutch-born composer Louis Andriessen worked in numerous styles of musical modernism over the course of a prolific career that began in the 1950s and continued until shortly before his death last summer. In recent years the Los Angeles Philharmonic commissioned and premiered several Andriessen pieces and even issued recordings conducted by orchestra…
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Music Recommendation: MEHTA CONDUCTS BRUCKNER & BERG (LA Phil; April 7-10, 2022)
AN EXPERIENCE NOT TO BE MISSED On a website which attempts to list every Anton Bruckner orchestral recording offered to the public (www.abruckner.com), the discography collector and annotator John F. Berky states that the Austrian composer “expanded the concept of the symphonic form in ways that have never been witnessed before or since. When listening…
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Album Review: BIG CRAZY LOVE (Courtney Freed)
FALL IN BIG CRAZY LOVE WITH COURTNEY FREED Ah, let the worries of the world simply melt away as chanteuse Courtney Freed takes you on a journey with her breezy new album Big Crazy Love. With a very wide and break-free range, and lightly tittering vibrato, Freed offers her own accessible tunes (“When We Were…
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Music Review: HILARY HAHN and PAAVO Jí„RVI (LA Phil) RANDALL GOOSBY and RODERICK COX (LACO)
Randall Goosby with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Roderick Cox conducting Now, why isn’t Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto played more often? It’s ridiculously beautiful in the first two movements, and fiery in the last. In fact, this may be the best solo work with orchestra of the three that Barber wrote. And Hilary Hahn performing…
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Music Recommendation: UNDER THE INFLUENCE (SummerFest 2022, La Jolla Music Society)
UNDER THE INFLUENCE? I’M HIGH ALREADY! As an Angelino, I have many of the greatest music programs to choose from weekly. Yet even with the plethora of professionals here, I still find myself venturing down to see what La Jolla Music Society has going in the San Diego area. Under Music Director Inon Barnatan, the…
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Music & Dance Review: ST. MATTHEW PASSION (LA Opera)
THE LATEST PASSION IS NOT THE GREATEST PASSION It’s been a busy time in Los Angeles for the visiting dance company Hamburg Ballet. First, its company debut performance at The Music Center, Bernstein Dances, based on the music and spirit of the multi-talented composer Leonard Bernstein, was a truly enjoyable evening. But last Sunday, the…
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Opera Review: TOSCA (Lyric Opera of Chicago)
YAY OR NAY? IT’S A TOSCA-UP I was really looking forward to seeing this season’s new-to-Chicago production of my favorite Puccini opera, but this Tosca did not live up to my expectations. It’s not a bad production, but neither is it a great one; it’s simply okay. The best thing about it is its diversity….
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Jazz Album Recommendation: GUITAR AND ME (Aleksi Glick)
EXQUISITE Warm, breezy, intricate, intimate, deft, and all together lovely, Guitar and Me, out this week, is the debut solo release from New York-based guitarist Aleksi Glick. The album plays as a genealogy of the guitar, weaving through various musical styles that have been crucial to the guitar’s evolution as well as influential to Glick’s…
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Music Review: JAY CAMPBELL + INTI FIGGIS-VIZUETA (LA Phil New Music Group at Disney Hall)
Concerts in the L.A. Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella new music series are always an adventure. Typically curated by the (often young) contemporary musicians and composers whose work is featured in the performances, these programs offer an eclectic array of unpredictable encounters with the avant-garde art music of our moment. Some of them are highly engaging; others…
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Music Review: PROKOFIEV & SHOSTAKOVICH (LA Phil; Ludovic Morlot, conductor; Sergio Tiempo, piano)
Best known as the successful former Music Director of the Seattle Symphony, French conductor Ludovic Morlot led one of Shostakovich’s greatest symphonies last week, depicting the despair in his Tenth with an uplifting mournful passion. The opening movement can feel ponderous in the wron g hands, but here it exuded constant momentum. Even with a…
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Album Recommendation: SHERYL: MUSIC FROM THE FEATURE DOCUMENTARY (UMe/Big Machine Records)
SOMETHING TO CROW ABOUT On March 11, a full-length documentary film directed by Amy Scott, entitled Sheryl about the singer-songwriter’s life and career, will premiere at SXSW, ahead of a spring premiere on SHOWTIME. An intimate story of song and sacrifice, Sheryl navigates an iconic yet arduous musical career while the artist battles sexism, ageism, depression, cancer, and…
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Recommended Concert: MUSE/IQUE & RACHAEL WORBY: SUNRISE ON SUNSET (The Wallis in Beverly Hills)
Rediscover Los Angeles through a fabulous night of music and history… THIS WEEKEND ONLY! Saturday, March 12, 7:30 pm, and Sunday, 13, 2022, 3 pm and 7 pm. MORE INFO & TICKETS The program, MUSE/IQUE & RACHAEL WORBY: SUNRISE ON SUNSET, features an ensemble of L.A.’s finest instrumentalists and singers in a night of fabulous music…
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Album Recommendation: COYOTE (Joe Purdy)
A PURDY DAMN GOOD THING With the goal of visiting all of our National Parks, I’ve spent much of my life hitting the back roads of America. It’s a stunning feeling spending so much time alone, away from the conveniences of modern life. There is always a bittersweet experience when seeing the awesome vistas of…
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Music Review: ELGAR AND TCHAIKOVSKY (LA Phil; Paolo Bortolameolli, conductor; Camille Thomas, cello)
WAR AND PEACE LA Phil’s Associate Conductor Paolo Bortolameolli made sure that two of the best-known chestnuts in the repertoire were presented by the LA Phil players last weekend in such a way that they sounded completely different than any interpretation one has heard. And given Russia’s hateful invasion of Ukraine last week, Elgar’s Cello…
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Album Release: GHOST SONG (Cécile McLorin Salvant)
THE GREATEST JAZZ SINGER OF OUR AGE IS BACK ON A NEW LABEL, Nonesuch Records releases Ghost Song, the label debut of singer/songwriter Cécile McLorin Salvant today. Ghost Song features a diverse mix of seven originals and five interpretations on the themes of ghosts, nostalgia, and yearning. Salvant says, “It’s unlike anything I’ve done before…
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Music Preview: ACADEMY OF ST MARTIN IN THE FIELDS WITH JOSHUA BELL, VIOLIN (The Soraya)
Thor Steingraber, the Executive and Artistic Director of The Soraya concert space in Northridge, has transformed this amazingly gorgeous hall from a college adjunct into a world-class location for the arts — one of the best in Southern California. On March 10, Joshua Bell and Academy of St Martin in the Fields return to the…
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Recommended Concert: MITSUKO UCHIDA WITH THE MAHLER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA (Cal Performances at Zellerbach Hall)
CAL PERFORMANCES AT UC BERKELEY PRESENTSMITSUKO UCHIDA WITH THEMAHLER CHAMBER ORCHESTRASUNDAY, MARCH 27 AT 3PMIN ZELLERBACH HALL Following her all-Schubert recital for last season’s Cal Performances at Home online streaming series Ms. Uchida comes to Zellerbach Hall for an in-person concert with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra that draws a line from Henry Purcell’s uniquely English…
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Dance & Music: MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANY (World Premiere: “The New Canticle for Innocent Comedians” composed and performed by Jason Moran at The Soraya)
A lost 1952 dance creation by Martha Graham herself — a primal artistic force of the 20th century — is reborn with the Martha Graham Dance Company’s World Premiere of The New Canticle for Innocent Comedians at The Soraya on Saturday, March 19 at 8pm. The program also includes two classic Graham works Lamentation (1930)…
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Music: BETHEL WOODS CENTER FOR THE ARTS (2022 Lineup)
Bethel Woods Center for the Arts 2022 Programming Bethel Woods Center for the Arts’”a non-profit performance venue, museum and site of the 1969 Woodstock festival’”has shared a preview of its 2022 lineup of concerts, exhibits and educational programming. Additional programming will be announced throughout the year. A full calendar of events can be found below…
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Jazz Album Recommendation: NIGHT TRAIN TO COPENHAGEN (Alvin Queen Trio on Stunt Records)
SUBLIME, SUBLIME, SUBLIME! THE SPIRIT OF OSCAR PETERSON LIVES ON WITH THE ALVIN QUEEN TRIO Alvin Queen arrived on the scene in the late 1960s, and quickly became known as the drummer for jazz icons including Horace Silver, Randy and Michael Brecker, George Benson, Tom Harrell, and many others: Even with this astounding resumé, Queen…
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