L.A. Phil to spotlight Chinese New Year with Disney Hall concerts

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Los Angeles Newspaper Group

One of the advantages of living in Southern California’s multicultural society is the chance to sample a wider range of holidays than folks in other, more homogenous societies. Case in point: Chinese New Year, which begins tomorrow and runs for 15 days. This is the Year of the Sheep,

zhangcolorThe Los Angeles Philharmonic will celebrate the festival for the first time with concerts on Feb. 19, 20 and 21 at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Rising conductor star Xian Zhang leads a program that mixes music by Chopin, Saint-Säens and Tchaikovsky with selections by Li Huanzhi and Tan Dun.

The latter is represented by the West Coast premiere of Dun’s The Triple Resurrection, the fourth installment in Dun’s “Martial Arts Cycle,” a set of concertos based on his famous film scores. The work uses themes and musical characters (violin, cello, and piano) from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero and The Banquet. Soloists will include Jin Wang, cello, Ning Feng, violin, and Haochen Zhang, piano, gold medalist in the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

The Triple Resurrection will also be presented at Hollywood Bowl on August 13 when the composer will conduct his own works accompanied by film clips.

The Disney Hall concerts are part of the Phil’s $20 ticket offer and traditional Chinese New Year celebrations will follow each concert.

Information: www.laphil.com
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(c) Copyright 2015, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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