AROUND TOWN/MUSIC: Finales

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 Southern California groups wrap up their 2010-2012
seasons during the next few weeks with major programs.

 

Los Angeles Chamber
Orchestra
concludes its season tonight at 7 p.m. in UCLA’s Royce Hall.
Music Director Jeffrey Kahane conducts and also joins Concertmaster Margaret Batjer
as soloists in Mendelssohn’s Concerto in D minor for Violin and Piano. The
program also includes the world premiere of Derek Bermel’s Mar del Setembro (September Sea) and Mozart’s Symphony No. 38 (Prague). Information: 
www.laco.org

 

Chorale Bel Canto
joins forces with the Chancel Choir of First United Methodist Church of
Pasadena, the Rio Hondo College Chamber Singers, soloists and orchestra in a
performance of Verdi’s Requiem on Saturday at 4 p.m. at Pasadena’s FUMC.
Stephen Gothold, who directs both Chorale Bel Canto and the Chancel Choir, will
lead his combined forces. KUSC’s Kimberlea Daggy will give a preconcert lecture
at 3:15 p.m. Information: www.choralebelcanto.org

 

Gustavo Dudamel and
the Los Angeles Philharmonic
will wrap their season with the final three
weeks of “Brahms Unbound” at Walt Disney Concert Hall. On Thursday, Friday and
Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 2, the program will be Brahms’ Tragic Overture and Symphony No. 2 along
with the U.S. premiere of Glorious
Percussion
by Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina. The soloists in the
concerto will be the ensemble “Glorious Percussion;” the musicians performed the
world premiere in September 2008 and stayed together while appropriating the
concerto’s title for their name.

 

On May 26-29, Dudamel pairs Brahms’ Symphony No. 3 with
Henryk Gorecki’s Symphony No. 3. The Gorecki work replaces the world premiere
of Peter Lieberson’s Percussion Concerto; Lieberson died before he could
complete the concerto.

 

The season concludes June 2-5 with Brahms’ Symphony No. 4
and his Double Concerto, with violinist Renaud Capuon
and his brother, cellist Gautier Capuon,
as soloists. This concerto replaces Gorecki’s Symphony No. 4; the Polish
composer died last year before he could complete it.

 

The 2 p.m. June 5 program will also the last of the “LA Phil
LIVE” series of telecasts to more than 450 movie theaters around the United
States and Canada. John Lithgow will be the program host. Information: www.laphil.com

 

The Los Angeles
Master Chorale
concludes its season next Sunday at 7 p.m. in Disney Hall as
Grant Gershon and James Newton leads the Master Chorale, jazz orchestra,
soloists and tap dancer Channing Cook Holmes in selections from Duke
Ellington’s three Sacred Concerts.

 

The first of the three concerts took place in 1965 at Grace
Cathedral in San Francisco. The second occurred three years later at the
Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City and the third premiered in
1973 at Westminster Abbey in London. Ellington called them “the most
important thing I have ever done.” 
Information: www.lamc.org

 

Other groups wrapping up include:

Camerata Pacifica,
Tuesday at 8 p.m. at the Huntington Library and Art Gallery in San Marino.
There’s a 50% discount offer for first-time ticket buyers. Information:
805-884-8410; www.cameratapacifica.org

 

La Mirada Symphony,
Saturday at 8 p.m. at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. Hector
Salazar, the last of five conductors auditioning for the position of LMS Music
Director, will lead a program of American music, beginning with a work by
William Grant Still and concluding with Howard Hanson’s Symphony No. 2.
Information: www.lamiradasymphony.com

_______________________

 

(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved.
Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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