ORCHESTRA NEWS: Rattle to London Symphony

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Los Angeles Newspaper Group

Scratch one major orchestra off of the leader search list. Sir Simon Rattle has been appointed music director of the London Symphony Orchestra, effective Sept. 2017, the year before he will step down from a similar position with the Berlin Philharmonic. Read the LSO media release HERE.

Note that Rattle’s title is music director, not principal conductor as has been the case with previous LSO musical leaders, including the incumbent, Valery Gergiev. The releases states, “As Music Director [Rattle] will be involved in every aspect of the LSO’s work as well as championing the importance of music and music education.” Michael Cooper in the New York Times (LINK) says that Claudio Abbado held the music director title from 1984-87.

Lisa Hirsch, in her Blog “Iron Tongue of Midnight,” has a list of orchestras looking for new musical leadership HERE, a group that includes another of Rattle’s former ensembles, the City of Birmingham (England, not Alabama) Symphony Orchestra but doesn’t list the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra nor the Long Beach Symphony.
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(c) Copyright 2015, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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PREVIEW: Orange County Philharmonic Society unveils 2014-2015 season

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News

Season schedules for 2014-2015 are beginning to filter into email boxes and although the Orange County Philharmonic wasn’t first off the block (that “honor” went to the Long Beach Symphony — INFO),the OCPS announcement is noteworthy because it usually gives a tease of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s upcoming Walt Disney Concert Hall season.

The L.A. Phil and Music Director Gustavo Dudamel will journey to the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa on Sunday, Nov. 23 for an afternoon concert that will feature what’s being termed the world premiere of Stephen Hartke’s long-delayed Symphony No. 4 “Organ.” The Hartke piece was originally scheduled to debut in May, 2010.

Also on the program are Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3 (also subtitled “Organ”) and Barber’s Toccata Festiva for Organ and Orchestra. Cameron Carpenter and the Phil’s own keyboard virtuoso, Joanne Pearce Martin, will be the soloists, playing the hall’s William J. Gillespie Concert Organ.

Assuming that this is not, in fact, the world premiere of the Hartke piece — i.e., if we presume that this performance will follow concerts in Disney Hall with the same program — that cycle will give organ lovers a chance to compare the Segerstrom Concert Hall Organ with Disney Hall’s much larger instrument.

The OC organ, a “tracker” or mechanical action organ built by C.B. Fisk, Inc. of Gloucester, Mass., has 4,322 pipes in 75 ranks with 57 stops. It was first played in concert in 2008. Glatter-Götz of Germany built the Disney Hall instrument under the tonal direction and voicing of Manuel Rosales and its first concerts were in 2004. The Disney Hall is much larger than its OC counterpart: 6,125 pipes in 109 ranks with 72 stops. Reflecting its Fisk design concept, the OC organ sounds much brighter than the Disney Hall instrument; its bright metal pipes also provide a much different look from the “overturned French fries” façade in Disney Hall, which was designed by Frank Gehry. The comparisons will be fun and instructive.

The upcoming OCPS schedule could easily have been termed “The British are Coming, The British Are Coming.” The season opens Oct. 11 when Vladimir Jurowski conducts the London Philharmonic in music by Dvorak, Tchaikovsky (Symphony No. 6) along with Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet as soloist.

Also coming across the pond is the London Symphony Orchestra, led by Michael Tilson Thomas on March 28, in a program including Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from the opera Peter Grimes, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, and Gershwin Piano Concerto in F with Yuja Wang as soloist.

As part of a 50th anniversary season tour, the Monteverdi Choir makes appearances at Segerstrom Hall April 24 and 25, 2015 led by Sir John Eliot Gardiner. The first concert is Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 and the second is that composer’s L’Orfeo. The English Baroque Soloists accompanies the choir.

Other orchestras on the schedule:
The Czech Philharmonic, conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek on Nov. 14, with a program of Dvorak’s “New World” Symphony paired with Liszt’s second piano concerto, with Jean-Yves Thibaudet as soloist.
The Rotterdam Philharmonic, led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, on Feb. 11, 2015 in a meaty program of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 and Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1, with Hélène Grimaud as soloist.
The Venice Baroque Orchestra on Feb. 28, 2015 playing with Israeli mandolinist Avi Avital.
• The State Symphony of Mexico, commemorating the 40th anniversary of its first U.S. Tour, on March 5, 2015, with Enrique Batiz conducting a program of two works by Manuel Maria Ponce: his Piano Concerto, with Irina Chistiakova as soloist, and Concierto del Sur, with Alfonso Moreno as guitar soloist. Music by Rimsky-Korsokov and Borodin rounds out the evening.

The season also includes recitals and chamber-music concerts, some at Segerstrom Hall and others at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. One of those evenings will be a salute to Carl St.Clair’s 25th anniversary as music director of the Pacific Symphony. Another will performances of the Mark Morris Dance Company’s production of Dido & Aeneas on May 15 and 16.

The complete media release is HERE: www.philharmonicsociety.org

Subscriptions are now on sale (Info: www.philharmonic society.org). Single tickets are scheduled to go on sale this summer.
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(c) Copyright 2014, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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