Robert D. Thomas/Class Act

NEWS AND LINKS: L.A. Phil to present Mahler's 8th at the Shrine Auditorium

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News

One of the intriguing questions left open from the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s 2011-2012 season announcement was the location for the performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 (which the Phil expects will match the work’s usual subtitle, Symphony of a Thousand) on Feb. 4, 2012. The answer? The Shrine Auditorium.

The 8 p.m. concert will be the culmination of the Phil’s “Mahler Project,” which will see Gustavo Dudamel leading the LAPO and the Simón Bolivár Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela (two of three orchestras he heads) in all nine of Mahler’s symphonies, the Adagio from Symphony No. 10, and Songs of a Wayfarer, beginning Jan. 13, 2012 in Walt Disney Concert Hall. Season tickets are still on sale. Single-ticket sales ($30-$170) will begin Aug. 21 via credit card online and via phone (www.laphil.com; 323/850-2000)

The Shrine, located on Jefferson Blvd. adjacent to the University of Southern California, was a logical choice for Mahler’s 8th for several reasons.

Perhaps first and foremost, its stage (194 feet wide and 69 feet deep) is nearly big enough to house the thousand musicians that will be used in the performance, although Sophie Jefferies, the Phil’s Director of Public Relations, says the orchestra will need to extend the stage for the performance. Disney Hall could (maybe) hold the two orchestras but the choristers would have to be in surrounding seats.

In addition to the combined orchestras, Dudamel will lead an octet of vocal soloists (still TBD) and about 800 choral singers from 15 different ensembles, including several from the San Gabriel Valley: Los Angeles Master Chorale; L.A. Children’s Chorus; Pacific Chorale; Angel City Chorus; Angeles Chorale; Choir of All Saints Church, Pasadena; Chorus of the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles; Gay Men’s Chorus; L.A. Chamber Choir; Los Robles Master Chorale; Pasadena Pro Musica; Pasadena Master Chorale; Philippine Chamber Singers; Vox Femina; and the National Children’s Chorus.

Second, with about 6,300 seats (although Jefferies notes the stage extension will eat up some of those) the Shrine can hold five times the number of spectators that could have been accommodated in Disney Hall after choral musicians filled 800 of WDCH’s 2,250 seats.

While the Shrine can’t match Disney Hall’s acoustics, its sound qualities will undoubtedly prove adequate for this one-shot venture. Among other things, the Shrine hosted opera productions frequently in the days before the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was built; my earliest recollection is seeing the opera Hansel and Gretel as an elementary school student in the 1950s. San Francisco Opera also made regular visits in the 1940s and 1950s.

In addition to opera, the long and colorful history of the auditorium (which was opened in 1926) has seen it play host to several editions of the Academy Awards and Grammys and the 2006 Miss Universe Pageant. The Shrine was where, in 1984, Michael Jackson accidentally set his hair on fire while filming a Pepsi commercial. For 33 years the Shrine stage was home to USC basketball and the Lakers actually played a few playoff games there when the nearby Sports Arena (the Lakers’ original home) was unavailable. A Wikipedia link with other historical information is HERE.

The complete L.A. Phil media release is HERE.
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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

OVERNIGHT REVIEW: Pasadena Pops opens 2011 season

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News
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Pasadena Pops Orchestra; Michael Krajewski, conductor
Saturday, June 18, 2011 • The Lawn Adjacent to the Rose Bowl
Next concert: July 23; 7:30 p.m.
Information: www.pasadenasymphony-pops.org
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On the eve of the City of Pasadena’s 125th birthday, the Pasadena Pops Orchestra opened its 2011 season last night at The Lawn Adjacent to the Rose Bowl with a program that joined in the citywide celebration and proved to be notable for more than the music.

Like the California Philharmonic and Hollywood Bowl, the Pops erects large video screens on the sides of the stage. However, rather than being content with showing just the conductor and orchestra musicians, the Pops engaged Elliot Forrest, a Peabody Award-winning visual designer, to create still and video projection montages that accompanied many of the evening’s pieces. Some of the montages were more successful than others but the concept was innovative and definitely worth considering for future concerts.

Some of the image collections were predictable. To accompany Carmen Dragon’s Tournament of Roses March, Forrest used pictures from familiar Pasadena scenes, including Caltech, the Rose Bowl and the Rose Parade (as an aside, it’s worth noting that there are other educational institutions in the city than Caltech). Images of familiar Italian scenes accompanied Robert Wendel’s pastiche of Puccini opera tunes and God added a glorious sunset, as well. Dragon’s arrangement of America the Beautiful was accentuated by familiar Americana images.

Others were more whimsical. Forrest illustrated Shostakovich’s Festive Overture with a graphic sequence that had overtones of the opening segment (Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor from Walt Disney’s 1940 movie Fantasia. Rockin’ with the Beach Boys used a series of period images, including covers of the group’s albums.

After a tentative beginning, guest conductor Michael Krajewski — Pops conductor for the Jacksonville, Houston and Atlanta Symphonies — proved to be a witty raconteur and kept things moving forward smartly on the podium. The one exception was the final work on the printed program, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, which merely plodded.

The orchestra’s playing was crisp throughout most of the evening, although the Tchaikovsky had several ragged moments. Fortunately, the 1812 and Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Together, which served as the sole encore, were accompanied by spiffy fireworks displays that sent everyone home in a properly festive mood.
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Hemidemisemiquavers:
• The video-screen quality appears to have improved from last season. The colors are more lifelike without the annoying bright red hue that was evident last season.
• The concert was preceded by mercifully brief speeches from Pasadena Symphony Association President Melinda Shea, Chief Executive Officer Paul Jan Zdunek and the city’s vice-mayor, Margaret McAustin.
• Krajewski noted in advance of Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances that people would recognize the first theme (used for the 1950s song Strangers in Paradise). The baby boomers in attendance undoubtedly did, but it’s open to question as whether the youngsters knew what it was).
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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

AROUND TOWN/MUSIC: Pasadena Pops, Cal Phil to open summer seasons

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

Contrary to what a well-known critic at the 300-pound gorilla on Spring St. wrote a couple of weeks ago (I used to call the Los Angeles Times the 800-pound gorilla but it’s shrunk considerably in recent years), there’s a lot more to summertime music in Southern California than Hollywood Bowl (although I will discuss the Bowl season in future columns).

Consider the Pasadena Pops and the California Philharmonic, which kick off their 2011 summer campaigns during the next fortnight, each offering programs of amiable music and the opportunity for enjoying munching and music under the stars (even if the latter aren’t always visible in the ozone).

The Pops returns to The Lawn Adjacent to the Rose Bowl with four concerts beginning this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. when guest conductor Michael Krajewski leads a program celebrating the 125th anniversary of Pasadena that includes a fireworks display. The program has both classical selections — Rossini’s William Tell overture and Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture — and a healthy selection of familiar pops fare as well, including God Bless America, 76 Trombones and (appropriately enough) Everything’s Coming Up Roses.

Krajewski is a major figure in the world of Pops orchestras; he’s the principal pops conductor of the Houston Symphony and the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, and is the first person to hold that title with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

On July 23, one of the world’s most decorated composer-conductor figures, Marvin Hamlisch makes his first appearance as the Pasadena Pops’ principal pops conductor when he leads the first of three concerts that will conclude the 2011 season. Hamlisch is one of just two people to have been awarded Emmys (he’s won four), Grammys (four), Oscars (three), and a Tony plus a Pulitzer Prize (the other to capture that quartet is Richard Rodgers). Hamlisch has also won three Golden Globes.

In recent years, Hamlisch (who attended The Juillard School and graduated from Queens College) has focused more on conducting. In addition to his new Pasadena post, he is principal pops conductor for the Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Dallas, Seattle and San Diego symphony orchestras.

In the three concerts at the Rose Bowl, Hamlisch will focus on what he knows best: his own music on July 23, Broadway on Aug. 6 and motion pictures on Aug. 27.

Information: 626/ 793-7172; www.pasadenasymphony-pops.org

Meanwhile, Music Director Victor Vener and the Cal Phil open their summer series on June 25 at 7:30 p.m. in the Los Angeles County Arboretum with the return of “Beethoven and the Beatles.” The program repeats the following afternoon at 2 p.m. in Walt Disney Concert Hall. Soloists are “The Fab Four,” a group that looks like the Beatles and does its best to sound like them, too. The Beethoven is the Egmont Overture and Symphony No. 5.

The back-to-back concert pattern continues for remainding four programs except for the second one — “Andrew Lloyd Webber meets Puccini” (another of Vener’s tried and true oldie-but-goodie offerings) — when the Disney Hall concert is on July 3 and the Arboretum event is July 9.

The balance of the season is July 23/24 (“Dancing Under the Stars,” with a mix of classical and popular selections); Aug. 6-7 (“Rodgers and Hammerstein in Europe,” a curious title since the music includes South Pacific and Oklahoma, neither of which were set in Europe); and Aug. 23-24 (“That’s Entertainment”).

Information: 626/300-8200 ; www.calphil.org
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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

NEWS AND LINK: Major shakeup at Salzburg Easter Festival

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News

The Salzburg Easter Festival, one of Europe’s most prestigious music events, has announced that it’s severing ties with the Berlin Philharmonic after a 45-year run. The Dresden State Orchestra, led by Christian Thielmann, will become the festival’s principal orchestra beginning in 2013. The Berlin ensemble’s last appearance at the Easter Festival will be next year.

According to a published report, Festival director Peter Alward said his organization would not agree to a demand from the BPO to stage four opera performances instead of two MORE.

Thanks to Opera Chic for the heads up.
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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

SAME-DAY REVIEW AND COMMENTARY: Los Angeles Philharmonic in movie theaters

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News
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Los Angeles Philharmonic; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor; Renaud Capuçon, violin, Gautier Capuçon, cello
Brahms: Double Concerto; Symphony No. 4
Friday, June 3, 2011 • Walt Disney Concert Hall
Sunday, June 5, 2011 • Alhambra Renaissance Theater
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Much like Pittsburgh, Penn., where the Allegheny and Monongahela meet to form the Ohio River, today’s Los Angeles Philharmonic concerts marked the confluence of several things. Today was:
• the end of the Phil’s 2010-2011 Walt Disney Concert Hall season;
• the wrapup of the Phil’s five-week “Brahms Unbound” festival;
• the third and final concert in the “LA Phil LIVE” series of telecasts into more than 400 movie theaters around the United States and Canada; and
• the conclusion of Gustavo Dudamel’s second season as the Phil’s music director.

Each of those “streams” could be the subject of this article but I was most interested in how a very mainstream classical music program would translate to a movie-theater screen. The previous program in March — a pairing of Tchaikovsky’s music and Shakespeare’s texts — had the advantage of novelty but today was hardcore, 19th century romanticism: Brahms’ Double Concerto and Symphony No. 4 in E Minor. That the afternoon worked says a lot about how the Philharmonic approached this groundbreaking concept and, in particular, how well the idea fits the style of Music Director Gustavo Dudamel.

To compare with this afternoon, I heard Friday morning’s concert in Disney Hall. In both programs, the Philharmonic played superbly throughout and Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, were riveting as the soloists in the Double Concerto. Perhaps most impressive was how eerily similar were the tone the Capuçon’s got from their instruments; sometimes it was hard to know when one stopped and the other took over.

However, those in the movie theaters got a dose of added-value insight into this concerto, one of the last orchestral works that Brahms composed. In interviews with host John Lithgow, Dudamel explained that, years ago, someone gave him a cassette tape of Isaac Stern and Yo-Yo Ma playing the Double Concerto. The youthful Dudamel fell in love with the third movement and wore the tape out in a month. Then Renaud Capuçon revealed that he now plays the 1737 Guarneri del Gesù, the "Panette,” that Stern owned from 1947 to 1994 (which means Dudamel’s tape was recorded on that instrument).

Another fascinating insight came when Dudamel and the orchestra were rehearsing Brahms Symphony No. 4. In the second movement (marked “Andante moderato”) Dudamel wasn’t satisfied with how the strings were playing a key pizzicato section and he tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to articulate what he wanted. He eventually called it “pizzicato sostenuto,” which sounds somewhat like an oxymorn. However, violinist Stacey Wetzel and Principal Bassist Christopher Hanulik both explained how they worked to achieve what Dudamel asked for. When the passage was played again, Dudamel raised his arms and exclaimed, “Yes! I want to cry it’s so beautiful.”

Clips like that help to bring to life in a unique way even a familiar work like Brahms’ fourth and aren’t available to those in the concert hall (although the ones recorded ahead of time could be posted online). The Phil has announced that iTunes will release a recording of today’s performance as an audio download. Too bad it’s not a video download with the above clips included.

Moreover, I hope the orchestra remembers the winsome quality of these segments when planning future seasons of “Upbeat Live,” which happen before each concert. The best of these preconcert programs invariably involve the composer or performers. The same is true of the “Talkback” segments on “Casual Friday” concerts that include Dudamel.

There are obvious negatives about hearing a concert in a movie theater. The sound isn’t as wonderful as it is in Disney Hall but (a) it’s not as problematic as other critics have carped; (b) it’s as good as I’ve heard in some inferior halls; (c) it’s a lot better than we hear in outdoor, amplified concerts; and (d) using Disney Hall as your standard is pretty tough since few halls in the world measure up to the Phil’s home hall.

Obviously those in charge of the sound in the telecasts bear a heavy responsibility but the Phil’s audio engineers seem to be doing pretty well. They tend to accentuate the strings but considering the sterling quality of the Phil’s string section that’s not all bad. Moreover, winds and brass come through clearly enough most of the time.

Whether you like the selection of close-up shots during the performances is mostly a matter of taste. I find the jumping from player to player to be somewhat distracting and the close-ups — both of Dudamel and the instrumentalists — occasionally too close (although I sensed today that, at least in the case of Dudamel, there was an attempt to use more longer-range shots). However, the intensity from all performers really comes across to those in the theaters even more so than it does in the concert hall.

The one significant negative I’ve noticed during the last two telecasts (I didn’t see the first one as I was in a choir rehearsal that day) is how difficult it is for those in the theaters to get a good sense of the inside of Disney Hall. Part of that is the nature of television; it’s a two-dimensional medium. Notwithstanding that, there are issues. During the performances, the hall is dark — it seems much darker than when I’m sitting in the hall — and the lighting seems quite strange, heavy on red and blue hues. No one can get any real sense of the hall’s beauty, although it looks radically different — much more lifelike — during the rehearsal interviews with Dudamel. The auditorium is so dramatic that I think it would be quite worthwhile to have a series of short segments about the inside (and the outside) of the hall.

The most important aspect of the telecasts, of course, are that they’re available and at a price that most people can afford (I paid $18 for a senior ticket at the Alhambra Renaissance theater and parking is free). For those who can’t get to a Disney Hall concert (or who are discouraged by the prices), concert telecasts are a viable alternative. Moreover, for those who don’t have any sort of orchestra available (and that accounts for a large number of people in the U.S. and Canada), the concerts may be their only chance to hear — and see — great symphonic music. And, or course, it’s probably the only way they will to see Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Even for those who live in cities with orchestras, these telecasts might spur people to try a concert by their local ensemble. Each of the “LA Phil LIVE” telecasts has included a general pitch for local orchestras; Lithgow was winsomely passionate about the subject today.

So far the Phil hasn’t released attendance or income figures about the success of “LA Phil LIVE”. Deborah Borda, the Phil’s president and CEO, said at the end of today’s telecast that the orchestra plans to move forward with the project. I, for one, certainly hope so.
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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

OVERNIGHT REVIEW: Pasadena Master Chorale at La Crescenta Presbyterian Church

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News
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Pasadena Master Chorale; Jeffrey Bernstein, conductor
Saturday, June 4, 2011 • La Crescenta Presbyterian Church
Next concert: Today at 4 p.m. at Altadena Community Church
Info: www.pasadenamasterchorale.org
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Green is the predominant color as Music Director Jeffrey Bernstein and his Pasadena Master Chorale conclude their third season this weekend with a concert focusing on elements of nature. It’s also a program that resonated with the baby boomer generation; even the two pieces that Bernstein wrote while a college student in 1988 and 1989 and Randall Thompson’s 1959 opus, Frostiana: Seven Country Songs, were firmly rooted stylistically in the post-World War II era.

Except for the ubiquitous Alleluia, Thompson’s work doesn’t show up all that much on choral programs these days (and Alleluia was sung last night at La Crescenta Presbyterian Church, led with somewhat lugubrious tempos by Assistant Conductor Lauren Buckley).

Bernstein devoted the second half of the program to Thompson’s setting of seven Robert Frost poems that the composer wrote for the bicentennial of Amherst, Mass. in 1959. Frost, of course, was associated with Amherst and he and Thompson knew each other, so the commission made perfect sense. Although reports vary as to whether Frost liked the piece, the composer deftly captured Frost’s familiar words with music that sounds unmistakably Thompson.

The seven movements are arranged in an arch, with the entire chorus singing the first, fourth and seventh movements, while the women and men alternate in the other four sections. The Chorale sang The Road Not Taken with elegant simplicity and closed powerfully with Choose Something Like a Star. The men’s selections, particularly Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening, were more balanced and secure than the women’s offerings. Pianist Shawn Kirchner accompanied with evocative elegance.

The other major piece on the program was In the Beginning, Aaron Copland’s 1947 setting of the first Biblical creation story (Genesis 1:1-2:7). This is a challenging piece for any chorus, and while the PMC delivered some moments of great beauty, there were others when it struggled with intonation (first notes of several pieces proved to be shaky all night). The Chorale’s diction was crisp throughout most of the 20 minutes and mezzo-soprano Suzanna Guzmán was the powerful soloist. Kirchner provided discrete piano support.

Bernstein’s The Elm at the Crossroads was an effective musical setting of a poem by Walter Hard, which spoke of a 108-year-old elm tree that was cut down to make way for a road intersection. The Chorale sang the poignant music with feeling and clear diction; only some occasional stridency in the upper soprano ranges marred the chorus’ rich sound. The conductor’s second work, The Echoing Green, a setting of a William Blake poem for women’s voices, was less effective.

One of the Chorale’s educational efforts is to mentor young singers and several of the students joined the chorale for Alleluia and Ye Shall Have a Song, a portion of Thompson’s 1936 oratorio, The Peaceable Kingdom.
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Hemidemisemiquaver:
• Guzmán sat unobtrusively in the back of the hall to listen to the portions of the program in which she wasn’t singing. It was a classy touch from a classy lady and something that's not often done by soloists.
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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

Five-Spot: What caught my eye on June 2, 2011

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News
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Each Thursday morning, I list five events that peak my interest. Here’s today’s grouping (no free concert this week — sorry):
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• Today and Saturday at 8 p.m. Tomorrow at 11 a.m. Sunday at 2 p.m. at Walt Disney Concert Hall
Los Angeles Philharmonic: Dudamel concludes “Brahms Unbound”
For the past month, Music Director and the Los Angeles Philharmonic have worked their way through most of Brahms’ major orchestra music, plus a healthy slice of contemporary pieces. The final concert in the survey pairs Brahms’ Double Concerto with his Symphony No. 4. Soloists in the concerto are violinist Renaud Capuçon and his brother, Gautier, on cello. INFO: www.laphil.com

• Sunday at 2 p.m. Various movie theaters
Los Angeles Philharmonic on the big screen
Sunday is the last of three concerts in this season’s “LA Phil LIVE” series, in which a concert is telecast live to more than 400 movie screens around the United States and Canada. The program is what’s listed above; the telecast includes rehearsal footage and interviews by John Lithgow. INFO: www.laphil.com

BTW: If you haven’t tired of reading about Gustavo, Tim Page — who won a Pulitzer Prize for his work as music critic of the Washington Post and now a professor of journalism and music — has an article on Dudamel beginning on page 94 in this month’s Los Angeles Magazine. A link to the magazine’s preview digital edition is HERE. It’s hard to read in this format; LAM obviously hopes you’ll buy a magazine instead.

• Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at La Crescenta Presbyterian Church. Sunday at 4 p.m. at Altadena Community Church
Pasadena Master Chorale; Jeffrey Bernstein, conductor
The PMC concludes its third season with a “Green Concert” that features music about nature and the earth that includes two pieces by the conductor/composer, along with music by Randall Thompson and Aaron Copland. Mezzo-soprano Suzanna Guzmán will be the soloist in Copland’s In the Beginning. The performance of Thompson’s Ye Shall Have a Song (a selection from his cantata The Peaceable Kingdom) will have 30 singers from the Pasadena Unified School District joining with the Chorale: INFO: www.pasadenamasterchorale.org

• Saturday at 8 p.m. at Terrace Theatre, Long Beach
Long Beach Symphony; Enrique Arturo Diemecke, conductor
All season the LBSO has been featuring Russian music on its programs and the concluding concert is more of the same: Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade and Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with 2009 Van Cliburn gold medal winner Haochen Zhang as soloist. The evening opens with Menuet Anteque by Ravel — ask not why. INFO: www.lbso.org

• Sunday at 4 p.m. at The Neighborhood Church, Pasadena
Pacific Serenades
Concluding its 25th season, Pacific Serenades presents the world premiere of Rapsodia Andina (Andean Rhapsody) by Berkeley native Gabriela Lena Frank. Usually Pacific Serenades does its own commissioning but for this piece was joined by six other groups. The program also includes Pacific Serenade by Miguel del Aguilla, which the group premiered in 1998. This program also plays Saturday in a private home and Tuesday at the UCLA Faculty Center. INFO: www.pacser.org

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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.