AROUND TOWN/MUSIC: Chamber music rocks!

By Robert D. Thomas

Music Critic

Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily
News

This article was first
published yesterday in the above papers.

 

After a month when orchestral concerts dominated the local
classical-music landscape, chamber music will be in the spotlight during the
next couple of weeks. Here are a few of the potentially intriguing programs:

 

Muse-ique presents
the Doric String Quartet

Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. at
Castle Press (Pasadena)

Rachael Worby continues her penchant in Muse-ique’s first
year of presenting programs in unusual sites — in this case, the Doric String
Quartet, making its Los Angeles debut amid stacks of paper and the printing
presses of this north Pasadena establishment (the musicians will be standing on
the press while the audience will sit on other presses and rolls of paper).

 

The featured work on the evening will be a new string
quartet by Southern California native Peter Knell that the composer and Worby
will discuss and the Doric Quartet (which took first prize in the 2008 Osaka
International Chamber Music Competition) will play. The evening will also
contain movements from quartets by Haydn, Schubert and Bartok, and — given that
Worby is in charge — there’s sure to be a surprise or two. Information: 626/539-7085; www.muse-ique.com

 

Musica Angelica
salutes its founders

Nov. 12 at 8 p.m. at
Neighborhood Church, Pasadena

Lutenist and guitarist John Schneidermann will join Hideki
Yamaya, guitar and lute, violinists Janet Strauss and Susan Feldman, cellist
William Skeen, tenor Daniel Plaster and Denise Bries on viola da gamba in a
program that honors Michael Eagan and Mark Chatfield, who founded Musica
Angelica in 1993. Eagan, a lute player, died in 2004, while Chatfield, a
cellist, passed away in 1998. The duo formed the ensemble that has become one
of the world’s Baroque music groups. The concert repeats Nov. 13 in Santa
Monica. Information: 310/458 4504; www.musicaangelica.org

 

Los Angeles Chamber
Orchestra performs Bach’s Brandenburgs

Nov. 5 at 8 p.m. at
the Alex Theatre; Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. at Royce Hall (UCLA)

LACO Concertmaster Margaret Batjer leads the ensemble in its
51st performance of Bach’s famed concerti. Information: 213/622-7001; www.laco.org

 

The Chamber Music
Society of Lincoln Center

Nov. 6 at 3:30 p.m.
at Beckman Auditorium (Caltech)

The New York City ensemble plays music by Beethoven and
Brahms as part of the 108th year of the Coleman Chamber Concerts. Information: (626) 793-4191;
coleman.caltech.edu

 

Meanwhile, Los
Angeles Opera
resumes its season next Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Dorothy
Chandler Pavilion when it brings back its Ian Judge-created production of Gounod’s
Romo et Juliette. Tenor Vittorio
Grigolo and soprano Nino
Machaidze
sing the title roles; Plcido Domingo conducts. Information: 213/972-8001;
www.losangelesopera.com

_______________________

 

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

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