Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

Last Night in L.A. - Getting Ready for Next Season

Summertime in Los Angeles isn�t absolutely devoid of contemporary music, it just seems that way. The Phil�s concerts at Hollywood Bowl are even less interesting than the concert schedules of the New York Philharmonic, picking one bastion of century-old music. At the Bowl these years, doing �Three Places� by Ives is about as adventurous as the programming gets, and it does something like that only rarely.

But of course if the Phil has to perform two different programs each week, sometimes only two days apart, often with two different conductors, at least one of whom is new to the orchestra --- well, in such circumstances it�s understandable that the programming emphasizes the familiar, the comfortable, the works which can readily be brushed into condition for performance outdoors. And since the Phil charges close to Disney Hall scale for tickets to the Bowl, they want the ticket buyers to be comfortable with the programs, an attitude which also emphasizes the tried and true.

The other orchestra, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, has the role of providing the orchestra for the pops and musicals concerts. So we rarely go to the Bowl, getting our musical �fix� from two of the smaller organizations around the county, both of which do most of their work in and around Pasadena and points east, but which periodically come downtown.

But we get ready for the coming Phil season. The tickets to our Philharmonic subscriptions were delivered last week, and this week Phil subscribers get to order additional tickets before they are offered for sale to the public. I�m sure that many other subscribers ordered additional tickets to be able to hear either of the Beethoven Symphony cycles that Salonen will offer next season, one cycle of Beethoven only, the other which combines one or two Beethoven symphonies with another work which Salonen feels resonates with the Beethoven. But our tastes are a little different than that, so we made sure we got tickets for two more programs of the Minimalist Jukebox programs, for the performances to complete the cycles of Shostakovich symphonies and Shostakovich string quartets, and for two or three additional programs where there was a composer we wanted to hear.

The Musical Jukebox series is really getting close to deserving the name of �Festival�. There are three orchestral programs, which were announced as part of the season; Reinbert de Leeuw, Stefan Asbury, and John Adams will serve as conductors with music of Andriessen, Part, Reich, Glass, and Adams.

Also announced was Donald Crockett conducting the Contemporary Music Ensemble of USC in performance of the symphony-film �Decasia� with music by Michael Gordon and film by Bill Morrison. To this they have added three non-subscription programs. In one, a set of musicians from CalArts will perform Riley�s �In C�. In another, Glenn Branca will perform/lead his Symphony 13 �Hallucination City� (for 100 electric guitars). In a third, four of the best pianists in the city who collaborate in a set of piano recitals under the name PianoSpheres will collaborate in a joint program.

The Branca and the PianoSpheres concerts are bargain priced at $10 per ticket, tickets which go on sale next week. Going to a Disney Hall concert for the price of going to a movie will certainly be a treat. It�s good to be in a city that recognizes live composers.

posted by Jerry Zinser 8/30/2005