AROUND TOWN/MUSIC: Major concerts on calendar during next fortnight

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.

Four major concerts occur in our region during the next fortnight — and that doesn’t count the final two events of the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival at Walt Disney Concert Hall: a 2 p.m. concert by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, featuring cellist Alisa Weilerstein (LINK), and a 7:30 p.m. recital by 110 (!) cellists that will wind up the nine-day-long festivities (LINK).

Also on today’s agenda is the final “LA Phil Live” movie theater telecast: the season-opening all-Gershwin concert with Gustavo Dudamel conducting and legendary jazz pianist Herbie Hancock as soloist in Rhapsody in Blue. (LINK)

And then comes:

• MUSE-IQUE TOMORROW AT PASADENA CIVIC AUDITORIUM
Rachael Worby begins this group’s second season with a typically cheeky program entitled “Ebony Meets Ivory.” Six pianists, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Joanne Pearce Martin, will perform on three Steinway pianos in a program that ranges from Baroque to jazz, rap to classical (Moonlight Sonata), and the spoken word. The program takes place on stage — literally — as both performers and the audience will be on the stage and a loading bay of the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. This is the first of seven performances on Muse-ique’s 2012 season. Information: muse-ique.com

• LOS ANGELES CHAMBER ORCHESTRA ON MARCH 24 (Alex Theatre, Glendale) AND MARCH 25 (Royce Hall, UCLA)
Music Director Jeffrey Kahane leads his ensemble and pianist-composer Timothy Andres in the world premiere of Old Keys, the latest installment in LACO’s “Sound Investment” commissioning program. Also on the concert is the West Coast premiere of Andres’ “reconstruction” of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 26, K. 531 (Coronation). Mozart wrote only a few measures for the left hand of this work although the first published edition was complete, possibly from Mozart’s publisher. In this new version, Andres has replaced those left-hand sketches with his own creation; how this “mash-up” works will be part of the concert’s intrigue. Information: www.laco.org

• PASADENA SYMPHONY ON MARCH 31 AT AMBASSADOR AUDITORIUM
Nicholas McGegan, known worldwide as one of the premiere interpreters of Baroque music, takes on a larger task as he leads concerts at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. in Ambassador Auditorium that conclude with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (Eroica). Prior to intermission, Armenian pianist Nareh Arghamanyan will be the soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20, K. 466. Information: www.pasadenasymphony-pops.org

• LOS ANGELES MASTER CHORALE AND MUSICA ANGELICA ON MARCH 31 AND APRIL 1 AT WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL
LAMC Music Director Grant Gershon conducts 40 singers of his Chorale, soloists and one of the nation’s premiere period-instrument ensembles in the first performances of Bach’s St. John Passion to be played at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Information: www.lamc.org
___________

(c) Copyright 2012, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

Comments

[MarK]

You got the number of cellists participating in Sunday evening concert at the WDCH wrong by about a hundred - there were 110 of them.

[Bob Thomas]

Oops!

[Labor Posters]

Oh I see I thought it was 100 thank you mark for telling us.