Around TOWN/MUSIC: Esa-Pekka Salonen ends his Bowl tenure with a bang

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News
This article was first published today in the Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News.

Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Los Angeles Children's Chorus, eight soloists; Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor
Tuesday and Thursday, 8 p.m.
Hollywood Bowl; 2301 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood
Tickets: $1-$95.
Information: 323/850-2000; www.laphil.com
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September is always a transition month for classical music lovers. Outdoor seasons wind down and indoor schedules begin, each with their own unique offerings, but usually we tend to look toward the future.

However, this year is somewhat different. Tuesday and Thursday begin the countdown to the end of Esa-Pekka Salonen's 18-year tenure as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. For his final concerts as the L.A. Phil's leader at Hollywood Bowl, Salonen will lead his orchestra, two choruses and eight vocal soloists in the most gargantuan of symphonic works: Mahler's Symphony No. 8.

The work's subtitle comes from its first performance on Sept. 12 in Munich when a chorus of 850 and an orchestra of 171 led Mahler's agent to call the work the Symphony of a Thousand (Mahler reportedly didn't approve of the title). Salonen won't have that many musicians on stage (when Zubin Mehta conducted the work years ago, he had about 440) but it will certainly be a mighty number.

The 80-minute work is in two disparate movements. The first, about 22 minutes long, is a setting of the Latin hymn, Veni Creator Spiritus that opens with a mighty E-flat organ chord, which would pulsate indoors at Walt Disney Concert Hall but will undoubtedly emerge with a thud in the Cahuenga Pass amphitheatre. The second movement is a grandiose, hour-long setting of Part II of Goethe's Faust.

Even for Mahler, who produced some of the most oversized symphonies ever written, the eighth was epic. "Can you imagine a symphony that is sung throughout?" wrote Mahler. "So far [in his previous symphonies] I have employed words and the human voice merely to suggest, to sum up, to establish a mood ... But here the voice is also an instrument. The whole first movement is strictly symphonic in form yet it is completely sung ... the most beautiful instrument of all is led to its calling."

Among the eight soloists are soprano Christine Brewer, with whom Salone collaborated so successfully in The Tristan Project a couple of seasons back and tenor Anthony Dean Griffey (a late replacement), who was stunning at the Met last year in the title role of Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes.

There are several other Bowl concerts remaining including the final event, the Silk Road Project with cellist Yo-Yo Ma in a concert on Sept. 27 celebrating the work of the 13th century Persian Sufi poet Rumi (Mowlana Jalal-e Din Rumi). Performers include Sheikh Hamza Chakour and Ensemble Al-Kindi, The Qaderi Dervishes of Kurdistan and Nour Mohammad Dorpour. The evening will also feature poetry readings by Shohreh Aghdashloo and Iraj Gorgin and live calligraphy by Ostad Kaboli. For those who love (or are intrigued by) this music and its history, this will undoubtedly be another in the long line of successful concerts by Ma and his ensemble.

For a completely different experience, grab your Austrian clothing and warm up your voices for the Sing-Along Sound of Music on Sept. 19. If the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical or the movie of the same name is too much saccharine for you, don't both showing up. On the other hand, if you're a fan or you've never experienced one of these evenings, don't miss it.
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(c) Copyright 2008, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.