Robert D. Thomas/Class Act

PREVIEW: Colburn Orchestra opens season Saturday at Ambassador Auditorium

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News
This article was first published today in Pasadena Scene magazine.
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The Colburn Orchestra; Yehuda Gilad, music director and conductor
Saturday, September 24, 7:30 p.m.
Ambassador Auditorium, 300 W. Green St, Pasadena
Free admission (tickets are required; download from Web site— or call 213/621-1050)
NOTE: As of today, the orchestra had announced a sellout although a standby line will be available via the Web site.
Information: www.colburnschool.edu

After years of wandering from one home to another, The Colburn Orchestra will play all five free concerts of its upcoming season in the acoustically friendly confines of Pasadena’s Ambassador Auditorium.

Music Director Yehuda Gilad (pictured right), who founded the orchestra when Colburn’s Conservatory of Music was formed in 2003, will lead the opening concert on Sept. 24 at 7:30 p.m. with a program that includes Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture, the Mussorsky/Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition and Dvorak’s Violin Concerto, with Colburn student Francesca dePasquale, winner of the 24th Irving M. Klein String Competition in 2010, as soloist.

The Colburn Conservatory is the West Coast equivalent to such prestigious East Coast institutions as The Juilliard School in New York City and Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. As many as 100 students, ages 17-26, play in the orchestra with approximately 30 percent of the ensemble turning over each year.

“It’s a fascinating dynamic and each year is different,” says Gilad, also a fine clarinetist who teaches at both The Colburn School and the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. “All the students all come in with fine technical ability — they can all play the notes and play in tune. My job is to find ways to meld them into a cohesive, beautiful whole, to mold them rather than changing them.”

Even the orchestra’s principals (i.e., first-chair players) change from year to year. “We hold auditions every year and my staff and I then choose a leadership pool to help guide the entire ensemble,” explains Gilad, who was born and raised on a kibbutz in Israel. “Some principals are new; others remain from previous years. The ones who have been here before know what sort of color and timbre I want and they help the others. For example, this year, we’ll have different wind principals for every concert, which does present a unique set of challenges.”

Gilad will lead three of the five concerts, including programs on Oct. 22 and Feb. 4, 2012. Gerard Schwarz, who recently completed a 25-year tenure as music director of the Seattle Symphony, will conduct on Dec. 3. Bramwell Tovey (pictured right), music director of the Vancouver Symphony and principal guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Hollywood Bowl, will lead the season’s final concert on March 3.

“I love having two or three guest conductors a year,” says Gilad. “They bring a different flavor, another point of view to the orchestra and that provides great experience for the students who, after all, will experience just that sort of thing routinely when they move on to professional orchestras.”

One of the issues that Gilad won’t face this year is adjusting to five different halls. The Colburn School’s main performing space, Zipper Hall (which is located across the street from Walt Disney Concert Hall) is an excellent locale for chamber music but neither the size of the stage nor the hall’s capacity are appropriate for orchestral concerts.

“It would be wonderful to have our own hall on campus where we could both practice and rehearse all the time,” says Gilad. “However, Ambassador Auditorium is a wonderful hall and I always look forward to working there. Each hall has a completely different sound and it always takes a while to adjust. My staff and I have to listen very closely to get the right balances and quality of sound; eventually we find what we want. As the season goes on, we’ll come to think of Ambassador as home — there’s a real sense of excitement and expectation for all of us. We’ll be up to it — I know I am!
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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

PREVIEW: Electric guitar (yes, you read that right) to be featured at Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra opening concerts

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News
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Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; Jeffrey Kahane, conductor, Wiek Hijmans, electric guitar
Mozart: Magic Flute Overture; Osvaldo Golijov: Sidereus (West Coast premiere); Derek Bermel: Ritornello for electric guitar and orchestra (West Coast premiere); Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major
Saturday, September 24, 8 p.m. • Alex Theatre, Glendale
Sunday, September 25, 7 p.m. • Royce Hall, UCLA
Preconcert lectures one hour before each program.
Information: www.laco.org

Electric Guitarist Wiek Hijmans will be the soloist in this weekend’s season-opening concerts by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (details above). Photo credit: Tom Weerheijm
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Beethoven and The Beatles? Well, The Fab Four won’t be appearing at this weekend’s Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra concerts — the opening programs in the ensemble’s 43rd season — but one of the featured works on the program will certain channel the boys from Liverpool … and the concert will conclude with one of Beethoven’s most sublime piano concertos.

Jeffrey Kahane will begin his 15th season as LACO’s music director with an eclectic program that seems wildly exotic but, in fact, is tightly knit by tradition. Kahane will open and close with two cornerstones of classical music: Mozart’s Overture to The Magic Flute and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, in which Kahane will both be soloist and conduct from the keyboard.

In between will come two West Coast premieres: Sidereus, an overture-like work by Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov that was premiered a year ago by the Memphis Symphony, and — most intriguingly — Ritornello for Electric Guitar and Orchestra by LACO Composer-in-Residence Derek Bermel. Dutch musician Wiek Hijmans, for whom the latter piece was written, will be the soloist.

Don’t be put off by the solo instrument, says Hijmans. “Ritornello [Encyclopedia Britannica calls the title ‘a recurrent musical section that alternates with different episodes of contrasting material’] is written in a very classical form,” he explains, “with very beautiful and even catchy material. Audiences come away whistling the tunes.”

For both the composer and soloist, electric guitars were seminal influences in their musical upbringing. “As a teenager,” writes Bermel (who, like Hijmans, was born in 1967), “I was an avid fan of the prog-rock band “King Crimson” in its second incarnation, which featured the great electric guitar duo Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew. When I set out to write this concerto, their mesmerizing contrapuntal textures came to mind. As the piece evolved, the material seemed connected to the Baroque concerto grosso, both in style and form exemplified by composers such as Corelli and Vivaldi.”

As with many concerto grosso works, Bimel has left spaces in the 14-minute piece for improvisation. “Knowing that Wiek Hijmans is a formidable improviser,” says Bimel, “I left room for him to explore further musical possibilities, separating the ritornello sections with 'French Overture' interludes (exemplified by composers such as Lully), the second one overlaid with a thrash-metal (Metallica, Slayer, et al.) solo that likewise evokes the Baroque aesthetic in its mannered, epic style.”

If that all sounds a bit formidable, relax, says Hijmans. “The cadenzas are a very old form, and they give me the chance for me to meld classical and electric guitar sounds,” he explains. “Moreover, each time I play the piece it’s a different experience. I develop the cadenza in concert, as it were, feeding off of each audience and each hall; I can’t tell you now exactly what it will sound like. Things like the size of the hall and the reaction of the audience make a difference.”

Hijmans has been able to grow into the work, which was premiered May 21 by David Allen Miller and the Albany [NY} Symphony Orchestra. A month later came the European premiere with the Netherlands Jeugdorkest (Youth String Orchestra) in Amsterdam’s famed Concertgebouw concert hall. “I’ve played the piece five times with the Netherlands YSO,” says Hijmans. “It’s quite exceptional that a new piece for orchestra has been played eight times in five months.”

The 44-year-old Hijmans has been working to this moment for most of his life. His parents were trained in classical music. “However,” he says with a chuckle, “I grew up listening to The Beatles (which my sister introduced into our house). I was totally psyched by their music and from a very early age, I felt the urge to merge Western classical music sounds with rock music.”

Although Hijmans lived in what he termed “quite a boring town in southwest Holland,” he did attend new music festivals that featured composers such as Morton Feldman and John Cage. Hijmans played percussion in the school orchestra and electric guitar and experimented with the improvisational sounds and styles of jazz

He eventually went on to the Sweelinck Conservatory of Amsterdam because, as he wryly notes, “there was no rock academy where I could study.” He studied genres such as Palestrina counterpoint along with classical guitar, where a progressive teacher allowed him to use his electric guitar during lessons. During that time, he and several students formed improvisatory ensembles that performed music ranging from Stockhausen to rock.

Hijmans eventually won a Fullbright Scholarship to study with David Starbio at the Manhattan School of Music. One of the members of the Fullbright jury was Bermel and the two struck up a friendship that is reflected in this new concerto.
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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

STORIES AND LINKS: Remembering Kurt Sanderling and other items from the inbox

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

As you may know from previous posts (LINK), I was in Montréal but the emails kept pouring in as seasons get underway and other news occurs. Here’s some of the latest:

• Kurt Sanderling, who spent much of his life leading orchestras behind the Iron Curtain but later became a beloved guest conductor with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, died in Berlin on Saturday. He would have turned age 99 today.

Sanderling first conducted the L.A. Phil in 1984 (the Los Angeles Times obituary HERE quoted Martin Bernheimer, the Times Music Critic at the time, who began a review of Sanderling’s first LAPO concert with: “Who, you have a right to ask, is Kurt Sanderling? As far as the United States is concerned, he has been a painfully well-kept secret for nearly half a century." Sanderling conducted several concerts a year during his seven years with the Phil (essentially being the orchestra’s principal guest conductor without the title). Those performances were always committed and probing, among the best work the orchestra often did during those sometimes turbulent years.

Internationally, Sanderling was best known for his work with the Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) Philharmonic, where from 1942-1960 he was joint principal conductor with Yevgeny Mranvinsky. Sanderling was also a close friend of composer Dmitri Shostakovich. The conductor, who was Jewish, returned to Germany (he had fled in 1933 to escape the Nazis) to head up the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the East Berlin rival of the Berlin Philharmonic.

— CK Dexter Haven, in his Blog “All is Yar,” offers his perspective HERE along with links to other obituaries.
— The New York Times obituary is HERE.

• The Pasadena-based Los Angeles Children’s Chorus has unveiled its 26th season and hired Larissa Donnelly as director of the ensemble’s Apprentice Choir. Donnelly, who has music degrees from Michigan State and Florida, has taught in public and private schools around the country. LACC’s Apprentice Choir is for young singers with little or no previous vocal training. Many members of will eventually move up to the LACC’s more advanced choirs.

The group’s winter concerts will be Dec. 4 and 11 at Pasadena Presbyterian Church. Reflecting the chorus’ upcoming South African tour, the repertoire will include South African pieces, along with works by Sir David Willcocks and other British composers inspired by Shakespeare; lullabies from Holland and Philippines; carols from France, England and Catalonia; and more. Information: www.lachildrenschorus.org

• The Los Angeles Philharmonic is offering students a great deal for upcoming “Green Umbrella” (aka contemporary music) series: $50 for five concerts. Check out the details HERE.

• K. Eugene Shutler has been named president of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Michael Rosen, LACO’s immediate past president, who served as president for four years, has been appointed Chairman of the Board. Three new board members were named: Roberto Apelfeld of Santa Monica), Dana Newman of Altadena, and Jamie Ohl of Los Angeles. DETAILS

• LA Opera has commissioned a new children’s opera, Jonah and the Whale, by composer Alexander Prior and librettist Velina Hasu Houston. LAO Music Director James Conlon will conduct the new work in free concerts March 16 and 17, 2012 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles. Eli Villanueva will direct the production. DETAILS
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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

OVERNIGHT REVIEW: LA Opera opens sparkling production of Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte"

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News
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Los Angeles Opera
Mozart: Così Fan Tutte
Sunday, Sept. 18, 2011 • Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
Next performances: Sept. 22, 24 and Oct. 5 at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 2 and 8 at 2 p.m.
Information: www.laopera.com

Saimir Pirgu (Ferrando), Ruxandra Donose (Dorabella), Aleksandra Kurzak (Fiordiligi), Ildebrando D'Arcangelo (Guglielmo) star in Los Angeles Opera's production of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte. Photo by Robert Millard.
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Last February when Los Angeles Opera mounted a sparkling production of Rossini’s The Turk in Italy, who knew that it would be the beginning of an “opera buffa” revolution at the nation’s fourth-largest opera company? Judging from the top-notch presentation of Mozart’s Così Fan Tutte, which opened yesterday afternoon at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, LAO may have found its true calling as it begins its second quarter-century of operation.

Presenting top-quality “opera buffa” (“comic opera”) isn’t as easy as it might appear. Great “opera buffa” requires wit, style and a total commitment by everyone in the company to make this genre work. Among other things, the entire cast must be strong and blend together expertly; even one miscast role can doom a production. In addition, the orchestra and conductor must be able — and willing — to master this unique musical style, sometimes (as was the case yesterday) a day after playing a totally different kind of music (in this case, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, which opened its local run Saturday night).

Fortunately, James Conlon (beginning his sixth season as LAO’s music director) has built the LAO Orchestra into a first-rate ensemble and they set the bar very high yesterday. Conlon’s pacing was graceful when the score called for that (often) and full of brio when those moments occurred. The orchestra, which numbered just 46, was in top form throughout the afternoon, a noteworthy feat particularly when you realize that Così began less than 16 hours after Eugene Onegin ended Saturday night.

Così is the last in a trilogy of operas that Mozart wrote in collaboration with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte. It’s the least performed of the three (the others are The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni). Unlike the first two, which focus on the foibles of men, Così offers its take on the behavior of women (although the men don’t exactly emerge in glory, either).

With LAO continuing in its cost-containment mode, the company imported this production, created in 2006 by Nicholas Hytner, from England’s Glyndenbourne Festival Opera; that same company also was the source of last year’s The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten. One advantage of using borrowed productions is that other companies get to produce the occasional flops, while we get to pick and choose the successes. This was one of the latter.

Like the Britten opera, this Così used a clean, yet elegant, unit set that used sliding walls to shift the action between inside rooms, terraces and gardens located (in this case) presumably in Naples. Ashley Dean, making his U.S. debut, directed deftly, aided by two more U.S. first-timers, Vicki Mortimer (costumes) and Andrew May (lighting).

The sextet of singers — four of them making their company debuts — looked appropriately young, sang beautifully, and acted their roles in this “battle of the sexes” story with saucy panache. Polish-born soprano Aleksandra Kurzak handled the wide range of Fiordigi with seeming ease and brought real pathos to her moving arias in both acts. Romanian mezzo Ruxandra Donose was a somewhat lower-key Dorabella. Albanian tenor Saimir Pirugu sang with gleaming, sweet tones, while Italian bass-baritone Ildebrando D’Arcangelo portayed Gugliemo with appropriate amounts of power. Another Italian, Lorenzo Regazzo, was effective as the scheming Don Alfonso and Roxana Constantinescu nearly stole the show with her wicked portrayal of the maid, Despina.

LAO last presented Così a dozen years ago. One hopes it won’t be another 12 before it returns. In the meantime, grab a ticket for one of the remaining five presentations and prepare to be thoroughly delighted.
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Hemidemisemiquavers:
• As usual, James Conlon (with his ever-present iPod) delivers an erudite preconcert lecture an hour before each performance. Among other things, Conlon pointed out that the opera’s title is Cosi fan tutte with an e at the end of the last word because tutte is feminine gender in Italian (tutti with an I would have denoted men or everyone). Conlon’s lecture was particularly helpful for those who never seen Così before, with lots of good information, a deft plot synopsis, and an intriguing question at the end.
• There are several articles worth reading ahead of time on the LAO Web site HERE (they’re also in the printed program).
• The production runs abut 3:35 with one 25-minute intermission.
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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

AROUND TOWN/MUSIC: Five orchestra to open 2011-2012 seasons ... and more

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

Five of the Southland’s top orchestras — including the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra — open their 2011-2012 seasons within the next fortnight. In chronological order:

• The Pacific Symphony begins its 33rd season Thursday through Sunday at Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa. Carl St.Clair begins his 21st season as the orchestra’s music program with a program of music by Berlioz, Respighi and James Newton Howard. Sarah Chang will be the soloist in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. Information: 714/755-5799; www.pacificsymphony.org

* The Colburn Orchestra, flagship ensemble of one of the nation’s premiere music schools, will play all five of its free concerts this season at Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena. Music Director Yehuda Gilad leads the opening program Saturday night with music by Berlioz, Mussorgsky/Ravel (Pictures at an Exhibition) and Dvorak. Colburn School student Francesca dePasquale will be the soloist in Dvorak’s Violin Concerto. More on this in Thursday’s “Pasadena Scene” magazine and on my Blog. Information: 213/621-1050; www.colburnschool.edu

* The L.A. Chamber Orchestra’s 43rd season begins Saturday night in Glendale’s Alex Theater and Sunday evening at UCLA’s Royce Hall. Jeffrey Kahane, celebrating his 15th anniversary as LACO’s music director, opens with a typically eclectic program that concludes with Kahane playing and conducting Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4. There will also be two West Coast premieres, including Wiek Hijmans as soloist in Ritornello for electric guitar and orchestra (yes, you read that correctly) by Derek Bermel, who is LACO’s composer-in-residence. More on this in my Blog Tuesday. Information: 213/622-7001; www.laco.org

* Music Director Gustavo Dudamel returns to Walt Disney Concert Hall as the L.A. Philharmonic opens its 93rd season with the now-traditional “gala concert” on Sept. 27. The all-Gershwin program includes An American in Paris and features jazz legend Herbie Hancock as soloist in Rhapsody in Blue. Subscription concerts begin Sept. 30, Oct. 1 and 2 when Dudamel conducts music by John Adams, Argentine composer Esteban Benzecry, and Berlioz (Symphonie Fantastique). Information: 323/850-2000; www.laphil.com

* The Long Beach Symphony opens its 2011-2012 season in Long Beach’s Terrace Theater as Music Director Enrique Arturo Diemecke leads a program of Wagner, Tchaikovsky and Mahler (Rückert Lieder, with mezzo-soprano Barbara Dever as soloist). Information: 562/436-3203; www.lbso.org

There are also two other free orchestral concerts to highlight, both next weekend.

• The Pasadena Symphony and Pops play their annual “Music Under the Stars” concert Saturday at 7:30 p.m. on the steps of the Pasadena City Hall’s newly refurbished Centennial Square. Three-time Tony nominated conductor Larry Black will lead the orchestra in a program of music from the Broadway stage. Lisa Vroman, Christina Saffran and Norman Large are the soloists and the Donald Brinegar Singers will also perform. The concert is free but patrons are encouraged to bring their own chairs and/or blankets. Information: 626/793-7172; www.pasadenasymphony-pops.org

• The Rio Hondo Symphony will open its 78th season of free concerts on Sept. 25 at 3 p.m. in Whittier High School’s Vic Lopez Auditorium. Music Director Kimo Furumoto leads Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (Eroica), Rossini’s William Tell overture and Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1, with Alison Edwards as soloist. 562/698-8626; www.riohondosymphony.org
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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

NEWS AND LINKS: LA Opera offers 25% discount on all remaining "Cosi Fan Tutte" tickets, plus a "10 Questions" link

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

Los Angeles Opera opens its 26th season this weekend and is offering 25 percent off all ticket prices for all performances of Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte, which opens Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. Saturday night, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin kicks off the season at 7:30 p.m. Both productions will play at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Use the promo coupon and code HERE for the discounted Cosi tickets.

As he did for Eugene Onegin (LINK), Brian of “Out West Arts” has posted a nice “10 Questions” feature HERE for Cosi Fan Tutte, this time with Aleksandra Kurzak, who sings the role of Fiordiligi in the LAO production.
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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

OVERNIGHT REVIEW: Montreal Symphony shows off new home with Messiaen's "Turangalila Symphony"

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News
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Orchestre symphonique d’Montréal; Kent Nagano, conductor, Joshua Bell, violin
GLAZOUNOV: Violin Concerto; TCHAIKOVSKY: Meditation (excerpt from Memory of a Cherished Place), orch. Glazounov); MESSIAEN: Turangalîla-Symphonie, for solo piano, solo ondes Martenot and orchestra
Tuesday, September 13 2011 • La Maison symphonique de Montréal
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When completed, the exterior of La Maison Synphonique de Montréal will be as striking as the interior of the new home of Orchestra Symphonique de Montréal.
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La Maison Symphonique de Montréal — the new and newly named (LINK) home of Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (aka Montreal Symphony Orchestra), Orchestre Métropilitain and, eventually, Les Violons du Roy — has garnered positive reviews from orchestra musicians, audiences and most critics, and based on what I heard last night from Music Director Kent Nagano and Co., the accolades were right on point, at least when it comes to the performing space.

Like many new venues (most notably, in my experience, Costa Mesa’s Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall five years ago), areas surrounding the interior are very much a work in progress and it will be several weeks, perhaps months, before all the fixtures, wall coverings, signage, etc. are in place.

It’s not just the new hall that’s under construction; Rue Sainte-Catherine, the main street that runs adjacent to Place des Arts (the complex that houses the new hall and several other performing arts facilities and museums) is also under construction as workers try frantically to get finished before the first snow falls in a couple of months.

Fortunately, unlike New York City’s Lincoln Center, the Montréal Metro (subway) direct underground entrance into Place des Arts (Montréal’s equivalent to Lincoln Center and Los Angeles’ Music Center) works just fine, a good thing, too, since the city was raked this evening by heavy thunderstorms and, as noted above, snow will be arriving shortly. The hall rests on about 180 rubber “isolators” that are designed to minimize sounds and vibrations from, among other things, the Metro, which runs quite close to the new hall.

Moreover, once inside, the new hall is a light, airy, cozy space that has many similarities to Segerstrom Concert Hall. For one thing, it seats about the same: about 1,900 plus an additional 200 bench seats behind the orchestra that can be used when a chorus doesn’t accompany the ensemble.

Like Segerstrom, La Maison uses a shoebox design for its interior with subtle curves (far more subtle than either Segerstrom or Walt Disney Concert Hall) fronting the three balconies to break up the rectangle effect and reflect sound. The sides of those three balconies use just one row of moveable chairs to keep clear sightlines to the orchestra. Regular seats fill the balance of the hall’s space.

La Maison features wood walls and floors constructed primarily of Canadian beachwood; unlike Segerstrom’s red seats, La Maison chairs are lined in light gray, which accentuates the airy feeling. As is the case at Segerstrom (and Disney Hall) walking space to the seats except on the main floor is very tight; that’s the tradeoff for the compact feeling — even most of the rear balcony seats seem right on top of the orchestra.

Artec, the firm that oversaw Segerstrom’s sound, also was employed at La Maison. Like its Costa Mesa counterparts, there are giant moveable acoustical panels in the roof that can be adjusted for different types of programs. There are no giant doors as is the case with Segerstrom, but there are open spaces surrounding the orchestra covered by slats that can also be adjusted for sonic shifts. Overall, I found the sound to be quite clean from my balcony seat (more like Disney than Segerstrom). All sections were heard clearly, inner voices came across well in soft and loud sections, and the brass sounds were mellow, not — well — brassy.

Just getting the new Montréal hall built was quite an achievement and took decades to bring to fruition. The cost (reportedly about $269 million Canadian, which includes estimated operating expenses for the first 27 years) was borne mostly by the province of Quebec, although the project was a public-private partnership (LINK). What the province (the Canadian equivalent of states in the U.S.) got for its money was a sparkling new orchestra home that also counts as another great reason to visit this most European of North American cities.

Last night was the OSM’s first subscription concert in the new hall (OSM debuted the building last week opened with a series of gala concerts last week that concluded with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9). Nagano’s choice of music last night (the program repeats tonight) was designed to show off the hall and the orchestra which has regained the luster it had under the 25-year tenure of Nagano’s predecessor, Charles Dutoit.

The concluding work last night was Olivier Messiaen’s sprawling, 10-movement, 80-minute long Turangalîla-symphonie. When Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic played this piece last October at Disney Hall, this is how I opened my review: “Writing about Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla-symphonie … music critic Paul Griffiths reportedly once said the piece was ‘not a work to be understood.’ … Like much of Messiaen’s music, especially his massive works, the Turangalîla-symphonie has long stretches of powerful, sweeping, sometimes rhythmically pulsating music interspersed with moments of mysteriously quiet sublime beauty. There were moments when I couldn’t wait to hear what was coming next and others where I wanted to whine “Are we there yet?” A few people fled the hall at various stages of the performance last night; most stayed and cheered mightily at the end. None of that is surprising for Messiaen.” (The entire review is HERE).

Not much was different about last night. A few people fled — but only a few. As was the case in Disney Hall, most of the rest stayed and cheered, with good reason. The 59-year-old Nagano — the California-born conductor who has led the OSM since 2006 and before that was the first music director of Los Angeles Opera — led a compelling account of this rarely played work and the orchestra (many who had probably never performed the piece before this week) played their hearts.

Nagano, a Messiaen specialist, had some interesting ideas about how to seat his orchestra for the performance. The players sit on semicircular risers (similar to the configuration at Disney Hall). The violins were divided left and right with the violas, cellos and basses in between them. Nagano split the massive percussion section so that, in effect, it wrapped completely around the orchestra along the top tier of risers, divided on that tier by the trumpets, trombones and tuba. Sonically, the effect was fascinating and, even in the final cathartic chord the brass didn’t blast us out of our seats, a tribute both to the hall’s sound and to the careful attention given by Nagano and his players.

The Turangalîla-symphonie calls for two soloists. Montréal native Jean Laurendeau gave a bravura performance on the ondes martenot, a sort of classical version of the musical saw, and he was heard clearly throughout the performance. Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt displayed formidable chops in the lengthy piano portions although, curiously enough, from my balcony seat I didn’t find the sound to be particularly forthright (whether that can be laid at the feet Hewitt, the instrument, or the hall won’t be known until several other concerts with piano have been played).

When Dudamel and the Phil played the Turangalîla-symphonie last year, it was the only work on the program. Whether Nagano wanted to show off the hall’s different sounds, felt that the program needed some additional length or the OSM wanted some additional star power to beef up the attendance, violinist Joshua Bell was the soloist in two different and somewhat oddball pieces prior to intermission.

He and the orchestra opened with Tchaikovsky’s Meditation in D Minor, which is an excerpt from an 1878 work entitled Memory of a Cherished Place. Actually it was the original slow movement of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto; when the composer’s friend, violinist Yasif Kotek, expressed some misgivings about the piece, Tchaikovsky eventually wrote a different second movement for the concerto. Composer Alexandre Glazounov orchestrated the excerpt.

Bell played the eight-minute excerpt sweetly and followed it with an elegant performance of Glazounov’s own Violin Concerto. Especially in the softest sections, both performances showed off the hall’s ultra-live acoustics (which, like Disney, also accentuates any sound from the audience). Nagano and the orchestra accompanied sensitively.

Judging from this first hearing, it’s obvious there will be a period of adjustment in the coming months as the hall settles in and the players continue to become accustomed to their new digs. However, what we heard last night was a promising beginning and things can only get better.
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Hemidemisemiquavers:
• An article from last week’s Globe and Mail (Toronto) has a series of photographs of the new hall HERE.
• High on the wall behind the orchestra is a series of intriguingly placed metal pipes (pictured) in front of sound chambers ; they will, at some point in the future, become the sound elements of a new organ designed by Casavant Frères of St.-Hyacinthe, Quebec. No official completion date has been announced, although one report put it in the 2013-2014 season. With four manuals and 83-stops, the mechanical-action instrument will be considerably larger than Segerstrom Hall’s organ but smaller than the one in Disney Hall. It should be plenty big for the room.
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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

SAME-DAY REVIEW: Pasadena Master Chorale's 9/11 concert 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
Sunday, September 11, 2011 • La Crescenta Presbyterian Church
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People looking for solace and hope in times of grief often turn to music and Jeffrey Bernstein, artistic director of the Pasadena Master Chorale capitalized on that longing on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks with a 70-minute concert this afternoon before a nice-sized audience at La Crescenta Presbyterian Church.

The centerpiece of the afternoon was a performance of Fauré’s Requiem, which, as Bernstein noted in a brief talk, is one of the more hope-filled pieces written in this genre based on the Roman Catholic funeral liturgy. However, Bernstein negated much of the effect of the texts that Fauré used by electing to not provide either printed translations or projections of the Latin and Greek text.

Instead, Bernstein concentrated on the composer’s often-graceful score and led a performance that was usually credible and occasionally more than that, especially in the Sanctus and In Paradisum movements where the sopranos sounded quite angelic in their floating lines. Bernstein also built long arcs of sound in the broader sections, although moments of intonation insecurity crept in occasionally.

The two soloists were exemplary. Soprano Krystle Casey poured out a lusciously creamy tone in her thoughtful Pie Jesu, while baritone Cedric Berry delivered clear, clarion tone in his solos during the Offertory and Libera Me sections. Although the balance of the program was a cappella, organist Edward Murray was a disappointingly sloppy accompanist for the Requiem.

After opening the concert with the presentation of colors and the Chorale singing Bernstein’s gentle arrangement of America the Beautiful, Bernstein led three pieces that, as he said, covered different corners of the American spirit.

The simple setting of By the Waters of Babylon by Don McLean in his American Pie album was accompanied by 9/11 images assembled by artist Alex Lopez. A muscular rendition of Virgil Thomson’s arrangement of My Shepherd Will Supply My Need was notable especially for the Chorale’s diction. Unfortunately, the texts were less understandable in the performance of Ross Lee Finney’s canonic anthem Words to be Spoken. Following the Requiem, Bernstein and the Chorale curiously elected to encore with Paul Simon’s America. The performance was affectionate but, once again, written or projected texts would have been helpful.
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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

LINKS: Two good reads on a Sunday

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

As the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra prepares to begin its 43rd season, Los Angeles Times Music Critic Mark Swed delivers a nice article on LACO Music Director Jeffrey Kahane HERE. Kahane, who celebrates his 55th birthday tomorrow, is celebrating his 15th anniversary as LACO’s most recent music director.

Next week, I’ll offer a profile of Holland native Wieck Hijmans, who will be the soloist in Ritornello for Electric Guitar and Orchestra (yes, you read correctly, electric guitar) by LACO’s composer-in-residence, Derek Bermel, which will be part of the opening program on Sept. 24 at Glendale’s Alex Theatre and September 25 at UCLA’s Royce Hall (LINK).

Meanwhile, in today’s Orange County Register, Timothy Mangan, the Register’s music critic, offers his retrospective HERE of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts (originally called the Orange County Performing Arts Center) in Costa Mesa as the Center celebrates its 25th anniversary.

Among other performances to open the anniversary season will be the Pacific Symphony’s opening concerts Sept. 22-25 (LINK) and a free recital by organist Cameron Carpenter on Oct. 2 (LINK), both at Segerstrom Concert Hall, which opened five years ago adjacent to the original OCPAC building. Tim’s article touches on the many contributions of Henry Segerstrom and his family in the Center’s quarter-century of growth.
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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

STORY AND LINK: And the winner is ...

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

What’s in a name? Quite a bit, apparently, in Montreal where the city’s new symphony hall — now officially known as “Maison Symphonique de Montréal” — opened last night.

In the midst of all the hoopla (which included settling a long-standing labor dispute between the orchestra and its musicians at nearly the last minute), one question lingering in advance of the opening was the actual name of the new hall. Throughout its construction and, indeed, right up to the opening night, the OSM’s Web site had simply called it the “New Symphony Hall” (or La nouvelle salle de concert in French). The more informal name was “L’addresse symphonique,” which, to a poor French-speaking American, had a kind of neat sound as it rolled off the tongue.

Finally, according to Anthony Tommasini in a New York Times article (LINK), the Quebec provincial government revealed the hall’s new name yesterday during a media tour on the day of the hall’s official unveiling. (Quebec — Canadian provinces are analogous to U.S. states — provided the bulk of the funding for the new facility, which is part of Montréal’s Place des Arts complex, the city’s version of the Music Center in Los Angeles).

Somewhat ironically (at least to Americans), there was no English translation of the hall’s name announced, although “The Symphony Home of Montreal” would certainly be appropriate because in addition to the Montreal Symphony, aka “L’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal,” the hall will also host concerts by the Orchestre Métropololitain and Les Violons du Roy.

Many Montrealers, of course, don’t see any problem with the name. Although Canada is officially bilingual, most people outside of Quebec would define that word as English and French while most Québécois would reverse the order.

Moreover, there are plenty of sites in Montreal with names always spoken in French — only a boob Anglophile would call the city’s arts complex “Plaza of the Arts” for example; virtually everyone calls it Place des Arts “(plaas day-zar” in French).

There are also places where the names in both languages are used virtually interchangeably (e.g., St. Joseph’s Oratory of Montreal/Oratorie Saint-Joseph du Mont-Royal). Both languages use the same word for Montreal’s wonderful underground subway, Métro (although French speakers add the accent, just as they do for the city of Montréal).

All of this is just part of living in and traveling to Montreal (with or without the accent).
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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.