Around Town/Music: Chamber music admidst Mahler

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.

 

In the midst of a busy month for orchestral concerts, a
couple of chamber music presentations are worth noting.

 

For more than a quarter-century, Pacific Serenades has
been known for (a) beginning its season after the New Year holiday and (b)
commissioning new works. The inaugural concert of its 2012 season — locally on
Jan. 29 at 4 p.m. in Pasadena’s Neighborhood Church — will feature its 103rd
commissioned work: the world premiere of Different
Lanes
for string quartet and iPad by Los Angeles native and Emmy-award
winning composer Laura Karpman (the title refers to five L.A. freeways) The
program will also include Beethoven’s String Quartet in D Major, Op. 18, No. 3,
and Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello (2001).

 

Information:
www.pacser.org

 

Musica Angelica’s concerts next weekend will feature a
performance of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater,
a work at least as well known through its German version when J.S. Bach put
different German text atop Pergolesi’s music (composers during that time were
freer about “borrowing” music both from themselves and others). Martin Hasselbck
will lead his top-notch period-instrument ensemble along with soloists Dame
Emma Kirkby, soprano, and countertenor Daniel Taylor. Sacred arias by Bach and
Handel will fill out the program.

 

The Jan. 28 performance, at 8 p.m., will be the group’s first
time in the AT&T Center Theater in downtown Los Angeles. Old-timers will
recognize this as the old Transamerica Life headquarters. Radio station KUSC
95.1 FM recently moved to the AT&T Center. Originally used as a conference
hall, the performing space reportedly will be acoustically retrofitted by KUSC
to accommodate small- and medium-size musical groups.

The January 29 (3 p.m.) performance will be at First Presbyterian Church, Santa Monica.

 

Information:
www.musicaangelica.org

 

The Simn Bolivr Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela moves
into Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s “Mahler
Project” gets much busier during the next couple of weeks. Gustavo Dudamel,
music director of both the LAPO and SBSOV, will conduct all performances:

* Today at 7:30 p.m. Symphony No. 2 (Resurrection) with the SBSOV, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and
soloists Miah Persson, soprano, and Christianne
Stotijn
, mezzo-soprano.

* Tuesday at 8 p.m., Symphony No. 3 with the SBSOV, women of
the L.A. Master Chorale, L.A. Children’s Chorus, and Stotijn.

* Thursday at 8 p.m., Symphony No. 5 with the SBSOV.

* Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. with
the LAPO playing Symphony No. 6.

* Jan. 31 at 8 p.m., Symphony No. 7 with the SBSOV.

* Feb. 2 and 3 at 8 p.m. and 5 at 2 p.m. Symphony No. 9 with
the LAPO.

* Feb. 4 at 8 p.m. at the Shrine Auditorium (near USC).
Dudamel will lead members of both orchestras, eight soloists, and more than 800
singers from 16 choruses in a performance of Symphony No. 8 that will live up
to its billing (appended not by Mahler but by a promoter) as”Symphony of a
Thousand.” Note, however, that at Friday night’s L.A. Phil performance of
Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, LAPO President announced that tickets for the
performance has sold out. Check the Phil’s box office (323/850-2000) for
returns and cancellations.

 

Information on the
“Mahler Project” concerts:
www.laphil.com

_______________________

 

My reviews of the LA Phil’s performance of Mahler’s Symphony
No. 4 and Songs of a Wayfarer on Jan.
13 is HERE. My review of the Phil’s performance of Symphony No. 1 is HERE. My
reviews of the upcoming performances will be posted the day after each concert.

_______________________

 

(c) Copyright 2012, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved.
Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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