FIVE SPOT: May 11-14, 2017

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Southern California News Group

Each week about this time I list five (more or less) classical-music programs in Southern California (more or less) during the next seven days (more or less) that might be worth attending.

MARCH 11, 12, 13: NEW WEST SYMPHONY WITH GARRICK OHLSSON
7:30 p.m. Thursday at The Broad Stage; Santa Monica
8 p.m. Friday at Oxnard Performing Arts Center; Oxnard
8 p.m Saturday at Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza; Thousand Oaks
Garrick Ohlsson, one of the country’s finest pianists, will be the featured performer when the New West Symphony concludes its 2017-2018 season. Ohlsson will be soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major (“Emperor”). Chicago native Fawzi Haimor, (presumably) the last of the candidates to become the NWS’s next music director, will also lead Haydn’s Symphony No. 104 and Rossini’s Overture to La Scala di Seta.

BONUS: The Broad Stage is easily about a 15-minute walk from the 17th St./SMC stop on Metro’s Expo Line.

Information: www.newwestsymphony.org

MARCH 11, 12, 13: L.A. PHIL PLAYS SCHUBERT, MAHLER
8 p.m. at Walt Disney Concert Hall; Los Angeles
Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel continues his two-week series pairing the symphonies of Franz Schubert with song cycles by Gustav Mahler. This week it’s the third and fourth symphonies and Kindertotenlieder, with baritone Matthias Goerne as soloist in the Mahler.

Of the fourth symphony, Herbert Glass writes: “[Because Schubert] sought academic advancement, a friend suggesting he apply for a music-teaching position at a reputable German-language school in Laibach (today’s Ljubljana, in Slovenia). He didn’t get the job. And while it might be fanciful to hear in this C-minor Symphony anger at the rejection of his application, some other demons may have been exorcised here. It was surely written for personal reasons, being too emotionally exposed and technically demanding to be put into the trembling hands of the “family” orchestra. He would write nothing at all like it again.”

BONUS: Disney Hall is easily reachable (at least if you’re not mobility challenged) via Metro’s Red and Purple Lines. Exit at the 1st and Hill St. side of the Civic Center/Grand Park station and walk up two steep blocks to reach the hall.

Information: www.laphil.com

MARCH 11: CAMERATA PACIFICA
8 p.m. at Zipper Hall; Los Angeles
For its final local recital of the 2016-2017 season, Camerata Pacifica members play music by Haydn, Mozart and Dohnanyi.

BONUS: BONUS: Zipper Hall (on the campus of The Colburn School) is reachable (at least if you’re not mobility challenged) via Metro’s Red and Purple Lines. Exit at the 1st and Hill St. side of the Civic Center/Grand Park station and walk up two steep blocks to Grand Ave. and left one block to the school.

Information: cameratapacifica.org

MARCH 13: PACIFIC CHORALE
7:30 p.m. at Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall; Costa Mesa
Music Director John Alexander bids farewell to the Pacific Chorale after a 45-year tenure with a program that opens with several of his anthem favorites and concludes with Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 1 (“A Sea Symphony”). The Pacific Symphony and soloists Layla Claire, soprano, and Brian Mulligan, baritone, will perform in the Vaughan Williams work.

A preview by Paul Hodgins in the Orange County Register is HERE. My column from last Sunday is HERE.

Information: www.pacificchorale.org

MARCH 13: MARTHA GRAHAM AND WILDUP
8 p.m. at Valley Performing Arts Center; Northridge
The Martha Graham Dance Company joins with Christopher Rountree and his ensemble wild Up in a program of American dance music that includes Scott Joplin’s ZZZMaple Leaf Rag.ZXZ

Information: www.valleyperformingartscenter.org
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(c) Copyright 2017, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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