Last night’s concert introduced us to the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Douglas Boyd.  The major work was Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, transcribed for a chamber orchestra by Schoenberg in 1921 for a chamber orchestra of 14, and completed by Rainer Riehn in 1983.  I didn’t like this.  At over an hour in length, it wasn’t a condensation.  “Listen to all of Mahler’s pretty melodies without all those messy instruments getting too emotional.”  (Yes, I recognize that Schoenberg’s motivation was to try to bring a contemporary work to a local audience, even if he had to strip

Pierre-Laurent Aimard is music director for this year’s Ojai Music Festival, and his program for last night explored music in which the piano is used as a percussion instrument, while also continuing the use of multiple pianos begun last night.  With Saturday morning set for his solo program, his work yesterday evening was as a colleague.  The percussion group Nexus played in all three works of the program, as did his colleague Tamara Stefanovich on piano.  For the past several months Stefanovich has been Aimard’s fellow-player of choice, having filled in for another pianist who suffered what sounds like tendon

The 61st Ojai Music Festival opened last night.  Helena Bugallo and Amy Williams, returning after their success two years ago in their performances of Nancarrow, gave us a great survey of modern works for two pianos with works by Stravinsky, Ligeti, Sciarrino, and this season’s featured composer, Peter Eötvös.  (Us amateurs have trouble coming to a decision as to the best mispronounciation of his name.)  But let me start with the featured composer, glad I can write the name and not try to speak it. The second half of the program opened with his Cricketmusic (1970) a tape of cricket

John Schneider and his group “Partch” gave their annual REDCAT concert of Partch’s music last night.  The program included Partch’s film of U.S. Highball:  A Musical Account of a Transcontinental Hobo Trip (1958, film completed in 1968).  The program began with the eight hitchhiker inscriptions of Barstow (1941/1943/1968); this interesting site provide clips of different performances of the first inscription.  The second half of the program included rousing performances of Ring Around the Moon (1950) and Castor & Pollux (1952), both involving the seven instrumentalists in the group.  The audience jumped up and called their approval at the end. There were

This week’s Los Angeles Philharmonic program honored 1960, with three works composed in that year, a composer of a fourth (and major) work who was born that year, and performed by a soloist born that year.  I’ll start with the last point.  The soloist was Dawn Upshaw.  Adjectives are inadequate.  Looking up quotations to find some marvelous comment on “dawn” wasn’t useful.  I simply cannot imagine another singer performing the two works at any level approaching her artistry. The program was constructed around two works for singer with orchestra.  First, before intermission, was Time Cycle (1960) by Lukas Foss.  A good

One of the treats of the Los Angeles Philharmonic programming in recent years has been a series of related concerts on a particular theme of 20th and 21st century music.  The theme might be a composer (Schoenberg, Stravinsky), or it might be a style (minimalism).  This year’s special theme has been “Shadow of Stalin”:  music of the Soviet Union before, during, and after the controls placed on music style and content.  A nice range of programs has been established: five programs by Philharmonic musicians; a symposium; two films; an all-night re-mix with visuals; contemporary underground pops; and a youth orchestra concert.

On Sunday, April 27, KUSC will broadcast (and stream on the internet) the program with Dudamel conducting the L.A. Philharmonic.  It was an exciting performance, and I hope that comes across when broadcast.  For those of you in the center of the known universe the broadcast will begin at 7:00 pm.  For those of us in more adventurous climes, it begins at 4.  The program is Dances of Galanta by Kodaly, the Rachmaninoff Third Concerto with Bronfman, and Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra.  That’s on KUSC, with links for PC, Mac, and iTunes.  And do try to see and hear the Viola/Salonen

Julius Eastman’s Crazy Nigger (1978? 1979?) was given its West Coast premiere last night at REDCAT.  Three members of California EAR Unit gave up their usual instruments (flute, cello, percussion) for the piano to join their pianist Vicki Ray in giving the work its four-piano interpretation.  While the score doesn’t specify a particular instrumental combination, it was recorded by Eastman with four pianos, and this recording was the one that brought the work to the public.  It would be interesting to hear Crazy Nigger in a different configuration, but it would certainly take more than four musicians to give the sonorities

Last night the Los Angeles Master Chorale gave the premiere of Requiem by Christopher Rouse.  This is an excellent work.  It is beautiful.  It is emotional.  It is powerful.  It is dramatic, and it is peaceful.  This is a Requiem that sets a standard for composers of the future while holding its own against compositions of the past. Jerry Bowles gave us the link to the video recorded by Grant Gershon as summarized the work for his Board; it’s worth hearing again, so here’s the link.  David Salvage reported Thursday on his interview with Rouse, so scroll down and re-read