CONCERT REVIEW: FESTIVAL OF CAROLS

Los Angeles Master Chorale. Photo by Ken Hively.

Songs of the shopping spree

By Ed Rampell

You better watch out, you might want to shout, because the Los Angeles Master Chorale is in town, regaling listeners with its annual Festival of Carols. If you’re not in the Christmas spirit yet, experiencing this songfest at the Walt Disney Concert Hall may be just the ticket. The festive aural cascade of seasonal song includes around 20 numbers, ranging from the solemn to the celebratory, the traditional to the pop, in a variety of languages.

The show, which has one intermission, was kicked off by an acappella rendition of an English Wassail song. Other oldies but goodies were accompanied by Lisa Edwards on the piano and/or by John West on the organ. The ensemble of 50-ish male and female vocalists regaled the audience's ears with many of those beloved standards. They included zesty versions of "Deck the Hall," "Silent Night," "White Christmas" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" -- which were accompanied by a certain visitor who may have arrived via a reindeer-powered sled, who then slid down the Disney’s chimney. Before the Chorale belted out a rousing "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" conductor Grant Gershon invited the Angelenos to sing-a-long from their seats, the words provided in the show’s program.

A Hebrew Folk Tune enhanced the repertoire, as soprano soloist Ayana Haviv sang "Hiney Mah Tov." Noting that the Jewish Festival of Lights had already ended prior to the first concert, which was on Dec. 7, Gershon good-naturedly joshed that this was “the first Hanukkah carol of next year.”

Highlights of the second act included soprano saxophonist Doug Masek accompanying the Chorale during the German carol, "Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming,"  which was arranged by Shawn Kirchner, composer in residence. Gershon, who provided wise and witty patter between songs, introduced the Kenyan folk song, "Wana Baraka," by dedicating it to that African giant we just lost, Nelson Mandela.

During Act II West returned to the stage and announced that there would be “an unscripted word” -- and never were truer words ever spoken, as the Hall’s high tech organ actually could not play. As West wrestled with what I suppose is a computerized musical instrument, I thought the organ was going to say, like HAL in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001:“I’m sorry Dave, but I can’t do that.” As the audience cooled its heels a technician was actually brought onstage and performed what I suppose was an, uh, organ transplant.

During the grand finale I thought I was at a Dodgers’ game for a moment as the organ swelled, resounding throughout the auditorium, accompanying a rousing rendition of "Joy to the World." No, rockers -- not Three Dog Night’s version with the “Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog” lyrics, but the one based on Psalm 98, composed by Isaac Watts in the 18^th century with the 'come let us adore thee' words. Truth be told, the Chorale’s rapturous singing so expressed what that immortal philosopher Linus van Pelt called “the true meaning of Christmas” that your atheistic reviewer actually experienced a few transcendent seconds of splendor and bliss, when for a moment all worldly woes and weariness dissolved in a dew and joy dwelleth in the heart. And that alone, dear reader, is worth the price of admission.

If you’re nice not naughty, Gershon and his musical “elves” just might perform an encore or two. Take someone you love to go see the melodic gospel according to Grant and the Chorale, which is celebrating its 50^th anniversary.

Fa-la-la-la-la, peace on Earth, goodwill to all men and women.

 

 

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CONCERT REVIEW: VESPERS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN

The Los Angeles Master Chorale at WDCH.

Hymm to her

By Ed Rampell

Downtown Los Angeles is certainly an epicenter for 21^st century hustle and bustle. But inside of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, with its futuristic façade, one can find an acoustical oasis from the dissonant sounds of traffic, construction, boom boxes and the like, far from the madding crowd. To paraphrase Max Ehrmann’s splendiferous poem, Desiderata, within this vestibule of a more genteel culture one can “Flow placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in sacred music.”

With its performance of four century old vocal and instrumental compositions, WDCH became a sort of time machine on Nov. 18, as the Los Angeles Master Chorale (LAMC) and Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra (MABO) presented the Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi’s seldom played 1610 Vespers of the Blessed Virgin. Vespers is a form of religious music derived from Catholic prayers and Monteverdi’s scarcely heard hymns were serenely sung by the aptly named Master Chorale’s 40-ish sopranos, altos, tenors and basses, stylishly clad in gowns and tuxedos, conducted by music director Grant Gershon. Eight soloists alternated with groups of singers, males with females, moving on and off the stage and around the interior of WDCH, even climbing up beside the organ in the nosebleed seats, as if to be closer to the god they were praising in Latin. The Vespers’texts were translated in Performances Magazine, a program guide given to each ticket buyer.

The LAMC was accompanied by the MABO, which likewise varied in size over the course of the 90-ish minute Vespers of the Blessed Virgin, ranging up to 13 musicians. The baroque band leaned towards the strings, with two violinists, a violone-ist and a cellist, and most intriguingly and entrancingly for one accustomed to 21^st century instrumentation, an arch-lute and a theorbo, played by John Schneiderman and Daniel Zuluaga. The latter two are long necked plucked stringed instruments; with their round deep backs, lutes were all the rage during the Renaissance, while theorbos were popularized in the late 16^th century.

MABO also includes a portative organ (Ian Pritchard tickled the proverbial ivories) and a brass section consisting of three cornetto plus three sackbut players. The latter is a Renaissance/Baroque era trombone with a telescopic slide that allows for a more chromatic range of notes.

The combination of LAMC and BAMO produced a mellifluous, transcendent, soaring, sublime sound. The tranquil tonalities and harmonies transported one’s soul either back in time, before modernism’s harsh sound and fury, or even towards the heavens. Mezzo Soprano Janelle DeStafano’s solos were particularly lovely. Indeed, the music’s delicate beauty made one feel that the “house of the lord” they sang about was right there in WDCH -- that is, if one believes music is the laughter of the lord.

Interestingly, some of the Vespers of the Blessed Virgin's lyrics are sexually suggestive. For instance, in "Nigra Sum" the sensuous words translate as: “I am a black but beautiful daughter of Jerusalem, So the king loved me and led me into his bedroom and said to me: ‘Arise, my love, and come away… the time of pruning has come.’”

Well, who’s to say what’s sacred and what’s profane? No “ifs,” “ands” or “buts” about it: How splendid to hear this all too rare rendition, with sackbuts, a lute and theorbo played about 400 years after their heydays, long after heavy metal rockers and hip-hoppers have replaced strolling minstrels and troubadours. As Desiderata counsels: “Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.” These age old instruments, along with Monteverdi, still offer repose and solace in order to soothe the seething souls of our high anxiety age.


For information: (213) 972-7282; www.laphil.org  

 

 

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MUSIC FEATURE: WDCH 2011/2012 SEASON

LA Phil Music Director Gustavo Dudamel.

Holler for Mahler, Mozart and more

By Ed Rampell

When it comes to L.A. Philharmonic's sprawling new season, it seems fitting to paraphrase Hamlet: “There are more things in heaven and earth, concertgoer, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” 

From a full stage production of Don Giovanni, all of Gustav Mahler's symphonies, the Piatigorsky Cello Festival and the world premiere of two operas, plus much more, the 2011/2012 season may be the L.A. Phil's greatest season ever.

Last night the season kicked off at the world-renowned Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles with a trio of jazzy George Gershwin classics -- Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris and Cuban Overture. Legendary multiple-Grammy Award winning composer and the L.A. Philharmonic's Creative Chair for Jazz Herbie Hancock tickled the ivories under the able baton of that 30-year-old wunderkind, Gustavo Dudamel, who returns for his third season as L.A. Phil’s Music Director.

The WDCH 2011/2012 season highlights include:

A special Halloween screening on Oct. 30 of a German Expressionist masterpiece and trendsetting horror movie, the 1919 silent film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, accompanied by a live, improvised soundtrack performed by organist Clark Wilson, who has scored many silent pictures, including Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. Nicknamed "The French Fries," the Walt Disney Concert Hall organ has 6,134 pipes that range in size from 800 pounds, 32' to a quarter inch long; 61-note manual keyboards; and 32-note pedal boards...it’s enough to wake a murderous, hypnotized somnambulist up!

After offering his signature Beethoven, plus a world premiere composed by Anders Hillborg, in late November, in early December former L.A. Phil Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen will conduct the world premiere of the late Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich’s opera, Orango. Reportedly the story about the corporate media and a human-ape creature, Orango is directed by Peter Sellars, who previously collaborated with John Adams on topical operas, such as Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer.

In celebration of Mahler's 150th birthday anniversary, from Jan. 13 to Feb. 5 “The Mahler Project” -- featuring all of Mahler’s 10 symphonies, plus other works by the Austrian composer – will be performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela. The series kicks off with Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 and his Songs of a Wayfarer, with Dudamel conducting baritone Thomas Hampson and soprano Miah Persson. From there you can get all the Mahler your ears desire (or finances can afford) at what many consider the world's greatest acoustic venue. However, please note that due to the size of production, the Mahler Project’s crown jewel takes place Feb. 4 at L.A.’s Shrine Auditorium, where the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra and L.A. Phil team up, literally, with hundreds of singers to present Mahler’s much vaunted Symphony No. 8, "Symphony of a Thousand." This massive effort to perform all of Mahler's symphonies in such a short time may very well be one of the greatest feats in Los Angeles' musical history. It will certainly be one of Dudamel's defining career efforts.

April 5-7 L.A. Philharmonic Creative Chair John Adams conducts the West Coast premiere of minimalist composer Philip Glass’ Symphony No. 9, which the L.A. Phil co-commissioned. 

If hearing Glass sounds like something crystal cool, crystal cool, crystal cool, just wait until May when Dudamel conducts Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s immortal opera, Don Giovanni, with set designs by none other than Frank Gehry, the imaginative architect who created the Disney Concert Hall’s wavy gravy design. These are already the hottest tickets of the season.

Finally L.A. Phil’s 2011/2012 season closes with a bang: Dudamel will conduct the world premiere of Adams’ vocal work, The Gospel According to the Other Mary, which will run May 31-June 3. In what might be described as Gabriel Garcia Marquez meets the Bible, The Gospel According to the Other Mary mixes New Testament Stories, Latin poetry and a combination of other materials, creating a magical realist take on social justice.  

Throughout L.A. Phil’s eclectic season works by Hector Berlioz, Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Schubert, Jean Sibelius, Edvard Grieg, John Cage, Billie Holiday, etc., will also be played, as will holiday favorites, such as Handel’s Messiah. World renowned pianist Lang Lang, violinist Joshua Bell, guitarist Paco de Lucia, the greatly influential Steve Reich, singer-songwriter Judy Collins and Broadway crooner Elaine Stritch in a rare (and what may be her last) West Coast appearance, are among the solo artists who are also scheduled to take the Disney Concert Hall’s stage during this season’s hectic cavalcade of sound fury – and fun. 

The Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic and New York Philharmonic will also perform at WDCH this season.

Lastly, if this sounds great to you, you may want to order your subscription(s) through one of the LA Phil's best kept secrets, Walt Disney Concert Hall's Priority Seating Office. Catering to exclusive patrons, the office can offer you priority seating, free ticket exchange, free ticket replacements, a money back guarantee, free parking, free comp tickets, no taxes and a slew of other benefits not offered anywhere else. You can contact the office at the unpublished number, 323-850-2049. If you are polite and act like you are in the know when you ask for your "representative," they will most likely hook you up (mornings are better).

For more information see: www.laphil.com.   

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