Around Town/Music: Chamber music admidst Mahler

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.

In the midst of a busy month for orchestral concerts, a couple of chamber music presentations are worth noting.

• For more than a quarter-century, Pacific Serenades has been known for (a) beginning its season after the New Year holiday and (b) commissioning new works. The inaugural concert of its 2012 season — locally on Jan. 29 at 4 p.m. in Pasadena’s Neighborhood Church — will feature its 103rd commissioned work: the world premiere of Different Lanes for string quartet and iPad by Los Angeles native and Emmy-award winning composer Laura Karpman (the title refers to five L.A. freeways) The program will also include Beethoven’s String Quartet in D Major, Op. 18, No. 3, and Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello (2001).

Information: www.pacser.org

• Musica Angelica’s concerts next weekend will feature a performance of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, a work at least as well known through its German version when J.S. Bach put different German text atop Pergolesi’s music (composers during that time were freer about “borrowing” music both from themselves and others). Martin Hasselböck will lead his top-notch period-instrument ensemble along with soloists Dame Emma Kirkby, soprano, and countertenor Daniel Taylor. Sacred arias by Bach and Handel will fill out the program.

The Jan. 28 performance, at 8 p.m., will be the group’s first time in the AT&T Center Theater in downtown Los Angeles. Old-timers will recognize this as the old Transamerica Life headquarters. Radio station KUSC 95.1 FM recently moved to the AT&T Center. Originally used as a conference hall, the performing space reportedly will be acoustically retrofitted by KUSC to accommodate small- and medium-size musical groups.

The January 29 (3 p.m.) concert will be at First Presbyterian Church, Santa Monica.

Information: www.musicaangelica.org

• The Simón Bolivár Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela moves into Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s “Mahler Project” gets much busier during the next couple of weeks. Gustavo Dudamel, music director of both the LAPO and SBSOV, will conduct all performances:
* Today at 7:30 p.m. Symphony No. 2 (Resurrection) with the SBSOV, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and soloists Miah Persson, soprano, and Christianne Stotijn, mezzo-soprano.
* Tuesday at 8 p.m., Symphony No. 3 with the SBSOV, women of the L.A. Master Chorale, L.A. Children’s Chorus, and Stotijn.
* Thursday at 8 p.m., Symphony No. 5 with the SBSOV.
* Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. with the LAPO playing Symphony No. 6.
* Jan. 31 at 8 p.m., Symphony No. 7 with the SBSOV.
* Feb. 2 and 3 at 8 p.m. and 5 at 2 p.m. Symphony No. 9 with the LAPO.
* Feb. 4 at 8 p.m. at the Shrine Auditorium (near USC). Dudamel will lead members of both orchestras, eight soloists, and more than 800 singers from 16 choruses in a performance of Symphony No. 8 that will live up to its billing (appended not by Mahler but by a promoter) as “Symphony of a Thousand.” Note, however, that at Friday night’s L.A. Phil performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, LAPO President announced that tickets for the performance has sold out. Check the Phil’s box office (323/850-2000) for returns and cancellations.

Information on the “Mahler Project” concerts: www.laphil.com
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My reviews of the LA Phil’s performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 and Songs of a Wayfarer on Jan. 13 is HERE. My review of the Phil’s performance of Symphony No. 1 is HERE. My reviews of the upcoming performances will be posted the day after each concert.
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(c) Copyright 2012, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.