FIVE-SPOT: March 9-16, 2017

Posted on March 8, 2017 by Robert D. Thomas

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 9 AND 10: RALPH KIRSHBAUM AND SHAI WOSNER PLAY BEETHOVEN
8 p.m. in The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Beverly Hills

Kirshbaum and Wosner play Beethoven’s complete cello sonatas over the course of two nights, along with music by Mozart and Handel. Kirshbaum is chair of the strings department at the USC Thornton School of Music and holds the school’s Gregor Piatigorsky Chair for Violincello.

BONUS: Kirshbaum and Wosner recently issued a CD of this music.

Information: www.thewallis.org

MARCH 10: USC THORNTON SYMPHONY PLAYS MAHLER
7:30 p.m. in Bovard Auditorium (USC); Los Angeles

Guest conductor Uriel Segal leads the USC Thornton Symphony in Mahler’s Sixth Symphony.

BONUS: Free Admission. Bovard Auditorium is easily accessible via Metro’s Expo Line. Exit at the Expo Park/USC line and walk north through the USC campus to reach Bovard (adjacent to the Tommy Trojan statue).

Information: www.music.usc.edu

MARCH 10, 11 AND 12: “WEST SIDE STORY”
March 10 at 8 p.m. March 11 at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. March 12 at 3 p.m.
In Valley Performing Arts Center (Cal State Northridge); Northridge

As we close in on the centennial of Leonard Bernstein’s birth (Aug. 15, 2018), McCoy Rigby Entertainment brings its production of the composer’s best-known work to VPAC. Next month it begins a run at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts (INFO).

BONUS: The Sunday show will be a sign-language interpreted performance. Also, check Goldstar for potential discount tickets HERE.

Information: www.vallerperformingartscenter.org

MARCH 10, 11 AND 12: LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC — BEETHOVEN AND SHOSTAKOVICH
March 10 at 11 a.m. March 11 at 8 p.m. March 12 at 2 p.m.
at Walt Disney Concert Hall; Los Angeles

Guest conductor Jaap van Zweden, incoming music director of the New York Philharmonic and continuing in the same role at the Hong Kong Philharmonic, conducts the LAPO in the fifth symphonies of Beethoven and Shostakovich.

BONUS: This represents a chance to compare and contrast the LAPO performance of Shostakovich’s fifth symphony with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic on March 16 at VPAC (see below).

Information: www.laphil.org

MARCH 15 AND 16: ST. PETERSBURG PHILHARMONIC
Wednesday at 8 p.m. in Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall; Costa Mesa
Thursday at 8 p.m. in Valley Performing Arts Center (Cal State Northridge); Northridge

The St. Petersburg Philharmonic and its longtime conductor, Yuri Temirkanov, are ending a cross-country U.S. tour with concerts in California. The OC concert is Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe, Suite No. 2, selections from Prokofiev’s ballet score Romeo and Juliet, and the Russian composer’s Violin Concerto No. 2, with Japanese violinist Sayaka Shoji as soloist.

The VPAC concert is Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 and Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1, with Garrick Ohlsson as the soloist. So, as noted above, this concert gives us a chance to compare the L.A. Phil with the folks from St. Petersburg who have Shostakovich in their collective DNA.

Costa Mesa information: www.philharmonicsociety.org
VPAC information: www.valleyperformingartscenter.org
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NEWS: Cecilia Bartoli, Seoul Philharmonic cancel upcoming So. Cal. appearances

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Robert D. Thomas

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Los Angeles Newspaper Group

Cancellations are the bane of concertgoers and (often) of presenters, as well. Sometimes reasonable reasons — illness, injury — are among the causes. Recently we have seen a couple of singers cancel because they’ve decided — belatedly — that the role doesn’t fit their voice or long-term plans.

Unfortunately, two recent cancellations would seem to go beyond the pale.

Mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli has cancelled her recitals on March 21 and 26 at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica and on March 23 at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa. The thoroughly useless, albeit mysterious, reason given by the presenting company was “due to unforeseen circumstances.”

Ticketholders for The Broad Stage recitals will be notified by box office and will receive credit towards future performances or a refund. For more information, contact The Broad Stage box office at 310/434-3200, Mondays through Fridays, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Ticketholders for the Segerstrom Hall recital will be notified by the Philharmonic Society of Orange County’s Patron Services Department to receive credit towards future performances or a refund. For more information, contact the Philharmonic Society at 949/553-2422, Mondays through Fridays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Meanwhile, The Seoul Philharmonic has cancelled its April tour to the United States that was going to include a stop at Walt Disney Concert Hall on April 15. The reason given by the L.A. Philharmonic was “due to a recent and significant cut in tour funding from the City of Seoul.”

However, Norman Lebrecht — in his Blog, “Slipped Disc” — reports that the reasons are far more nefarious, beginning with the dismissal of the orchestra’s Chief Executive Officer Park Hyun-jun, on grounds of sexual harassment. You can read his reports HERE and HERE (on the first post follow the embedded links for more information).

The tour from April 14-24, which was to bring Music Director Myung Whun Chung back to the city where he was once assistant conductor of the LAPO, had also planned stops in Santa Barbara, Davis, San Francisco, Seattle, Ann Arbor and Chicago.

Tickets will be refunded using the original payment method, says the LAPO. For further details or questions, call 323/850.2000 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.
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PREVIEW: There’s more to orchestras than the L.A. Phil

Posted on October 2, 2014 by Robert D. Thomas

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

Somewhat overshadowed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s opening this week (LINK) are a handful of other openings that should be noted.

• The Long Beach Symphony opens its 80th anniversary season Saturday night at 8 p.m. in Long Beach’s Terrace Theatre. Richard Guzman’s preview article on our papers’ Web site is HERE.

The orchestra’s board announced today that it has extended Kelly Ruggirello’s contract as the LBSO executive director through the 2017. Ruggirello took over the post 18 months ago and this announcement means, presumably, that she will be leading the orchestra through its music director transition. Enrique Arturo Diemecke resigned abruptly last season after 13 years as the LBSO’s music director.

Concert information: www.lbso.org

• The London Philharmonic Orchestra will make a stop at California State Northridge’s Valley Performing Arts Center on Oct. 10 at 8 p.m. Principal Conductor Vladimir Jurowski will lead the program of Dvorak’s The Noonday Witch, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 (“Pathetique”) and Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet as soloist. Incidentally, the LPO announced yesterday that Jurowski’s contract has been extended through at least 2018 (LINK).

Information: www.valleyperformingartscenter.org

The following day, the LPO moves down the 405 Freeway to the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa when it opens the Philharmonic Society of Orange County’s 2014-2015 season on Oct. 11 at 8 p.m. with the same program and performers as at VPAC. Information: www.philharmonicsociety.org

If you’re so inclined, you can comparison performances of the concerto because Behzod Abduraimov will be the soloist when the Los Angeles Philharmonic pairs Prokofiev’s third concerto with Dvorak’s Symphony No. 7 in a “Casual Friday” concert on Oct. 17. Basque conductor Juanjo Mena will conduct. The concerts on Oct. 18 and 19 add Prokofiev’s “Classical” Symphony to the aforementioned two. Information: www.laphil.com
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Class Act

The Southern California classical music scene with Bob Thomas

Tag Archives: Renée and Henry Segerstrom Center

FIVE-SPOT: March 9-16, 2017

NEWS: Cecilia Bartoli, Seoul Philharmonic cancel upcoming So. Cal. appearances

PREVIEW: There’s more to orchestras than the L.A. Phil