Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

Next Season in L.A. - More Modern Music

The LA Philharmonic has announced the 2006-2007 schedule, and once again it appears that the orchestra is scheduling more contemporary music than any other band in the country. Granted, there�s nothing like this season�s �Minimalist Jukebox� for a broad survey of a segment of recent music, but there are still some special treats.

The featured composers are the Australian Brett Dean and the Finnish-French Kaija Saariaho. Dean will play the viola in the U.S. premiere of his Viola Concerto, a Phil co-commission, and he will conduct a Green Umbrella concert including two more of his works, the Pastoral Symphony and Voices of Angels. He will also conduct two works by his compatriots Liza Lim and Anthony Pateras, giving first U.S. performances for those two works.

Saariaho�s La Passion de Simone, an oratorio on Simone Weil and a Phil co-commission will be performed in January. Saariaho will also be featured in a Green Umbrella concert with the performance of her Graal theater, Six Japanese Gardens, and Lonh. Dallapiccola�s Quattro liriche di Antonio Machado will complete that program. Dawn Upshaw will be featured soloist in both programs, reuniting Saariaho, Upshaw, and Salonen.

Thomas Ad�s receives the unusual recognition of being invited back for a second year�s �residency� with the Phil in which his music will be played in concert by the full orchestra and he will appear in both a chamber music concert and a Green Umbrella concert with music of his choice (his first residency begins in two weeks). The featured Ad�s work next season will be Asyla, For his Green Umbrella concert he has elected to conduct Irishman Gerald Barry�s The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit in its first U.S. performance. The program for the chamber concert has not been set; for last night�s chamber concert he was pianist in works by Beethoven and Schubert.

John Adams is once again the most-programmed American composer. Salonen and the Phil seem to have a special rapport with Adams� Na�ve and Sentimental Music, and we get to hear another reprise of that symphony. Gnarly Buttons and Grand Pianola Music will also be performed at a Green Umbrella Concert.

The Phil is trying an interesting idea in programming under the title �Shadow of Stalin� in which there will be five concerts exploring music in the Soviet Union before and after the attack on new music. This will include scenes from Shostakovich�s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and The Nose and a performance of the full Prokofiev Alexander Nevsky to accompany the Eisenstein film. Sofia Gubaidulina�s Concordanza and Alfred Schnittke�s Symphony No. 4.

Additional contemporary works being performed include John Harbison�s Bass Concerto, a Philharmonic co-commission; Osvaldo Golijov�s Three Songs for Soprano and Orchestra, sung by Upshaw, on a program with Lukas Foss� Time Cycle; the U.S. premiere of Esa-Pekka Salonen�s Helix. The Phil is also performing Steve Reich�s Triple Concerto in one of the subscription series.

Of course the most-in-demand tickets (with scalping not quite at the Super Bowl level) will be the return of the �Tristan Project�, that marvelously beautiful Salonen-conducted performance of Tristan und Isolde with video art by Bill Viola for the length of the work. Christine Brewer, who was excellent two years ago, will be returning as Isolde. Two years ago each act was performed on a separate evening, preceded by a more modern work which Salonen felt had resonance with the Wagner; there was no consolidated performance. This time around a work by Debussy will precede each act. In addition, there will be a consolidated performance, 5-plus hours.

For those of you near New York, Lincoln Center will be bringing the L.A. production to New York, creating space in the Armory for the performance. Put these dates on your calendar and begin scheming on how to get affordable tickets: April 30, May 1, and May 2 (2007) for the individual acts and April 27 and May 5 for complete performances.

posted by Jerry Zinser 2/10/2006