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Post by erik on Jun 6, 2022 5:45:25 GMT -8
Quote by eaglemaster:
Thank you very much, and rest assure that I will. There's seven more to come between now and Labor Day, with the next one on July 14th that involves a showing of the movie West Side Story, the 2021 Steven Spielberg version, with the L.A. Philharmonic performing Leonard Bernstein's music for it.
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Post by erik on Jul 15, 2022 6:11:35 GMT -8
Last night at the Hollywood Bowl can be summed up in three words: WEST SIDE STORY. Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra Gustavo Dudamel, conductor WEST SIDE STORY (2021) In Concert Tony: ANSEL ELGORT Maria: RACHEL ZEGLER Anita: ARIANA DEBOSE Bernardo: DAVID ALVAREZ Riff: MIKE FAIST Chino: JOSH ANDRES RIVERA Valentina: RITA MORENO Lt. Schrank: COREY STOLL Officer Krupke: BRIAN D'ARCY JAMESThis was my fifth movie night at the Bowl--and I wasn't about to miss this for the world, as it was director Steven Spielberg's re-imagining of the 1957 Broadway musical and subsequent 1961 film that essentially is an Americanized Romeo And Juliet. The great music of Leonard Bernstein was performed to the film by Dudamel and the L.A. Phil as the poignant saga of Tony and Maria, caught in the middle of an ethnic White-vs.-Hispanic gang turf war over twenty blocks of upper west side Manhattan that are about to be torn down for Lincoln Center, unfolded. I reviewed the film when it was in theaters last Christmas ( chicksrock.proboards.com/thread/14944/spielbergs-west-side-story-2021); but last night also involved gauging the reaction of a Bowl audience numbering about 11,500. It may have been because of the fact that the film is close to two hours and forty minutes long, but the whole thing started right on time at 8:00 PM. All the music/dance numbers elicited gigantic rounds of applause at the end of each one, especially the rousing Mambo, and the on-the-street take on "America" led by DeBose. There was plenty of laughter too in all the right places, notably when the Jets trash the NYPD's 23rd Precinct in the ever-popular "Gee Officer Krupke". The quieter moments seem to have affected the audience as well, especially those involving Elgort and, naturally, Moreno at Doc's pharmacy. Moreno provided some levity to Elgort's Tony, who wants to try and show Zegler's Maria his love for her by communicating to her in Spanish " Quiero ser contigo para siempre" ("I want to be with you forever"), when she asks him "You don't want to start maybe with 'I'd like to take you out to coffee'?", which the audience laughed along with. We got to intermission right at the end of "One Hand, One Heart", where Tony and Maria make their vows at the Cloisters. The second part, of course, is where things reach Def Con 3 as the Jets and the Sharks get down to the basics of their all-out rumble at the Salt Shed, a rumble that Elgort tries to stop, but actually unintentionally instigates by being straight with Alvarez about his love for Zegler. And no matter how much everyone knew the story, I could still hear a lot of audible gasps from the audience where Faist's Riff unwittingly impales himself on Alvarez's switchblade, provoking Elgort's lethal response. The fact that the still-contentious "I Feel Pretty", with Zegler and her fellow female Puerto Rican cleaning crew at Gimbel's, follows immediately upon this, was a tragic irony lost on nobody. And the film's overwhelmingly tragic conclusion left the audience in silence and poignant reflection. Incredibly, the Bowl audience last night was actually well-behaved with not too much in the way of talking--which was probably just as well, not only because of the gravitas of the film itself, but the Bowl's sound system being even more effective than it usually is, particularly when Dudamel and the orchestra got into it on "Mambo", "America", "Krupke", and the almost Verdi-like "A Boy Like That/I Have A Love" battle between DeBose and Zegler. The primary bone of contention in the story is why Zegler would still welcome Elgort back into her good graces after Alvarez, who is her brother, had been stabbed by Elgort; and for this, I would point out the fact that Elgort's Tony is scared of his capacity for violence after having served a year in jail for a previous assault charge, something that he expressed to Zegler at the Cloisters, and the fact that it is Alvarez who almost beats Elgort to a pulp at the start of the rumble. Zegler comes to understand that however hard Elgort tried to mediate, when two stubborn individuals like Alvarez and Faist, and two warring groups like the Jets and the Sharks, want to violently get it on, something horrible was going to happen, which makes her capacity to forgive Elgort easier to understand when one thinks about it long and hard enough. The night ended with a huge round of applause for Dudamel, the orchestra, and the incredible movie that we saw on the Bowl's five HD screens, capping off another memorable night under the stars in the hills above Hollywood. Here is a YouTube video from inside the Bowl of the showing of the Mambo sequence, which is where Tony and Maria lock onto one another:
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Post by drizzletown on Jul 23, 2022 9:56:56 GMT -8
Kaleo. Nice to see some straight rock n roll, great catchy guitar riffs, amazing vocals, and they put on a great show. Was back in April. LOL Oh wait, I saw Vixen & Rag Dolls.
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Post by erik on Jul 29, 2022 5:45:58 GMT -8
Last night's Hollywood Bowl concert was one of an interesting combination of the distant past still very much in our present.
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra Gustavo Dudamel, conductor
Jorge Glem, cuatro Elena Villalon, soprano Arnold Livingston Geis, tenor Elliott Madore, baritone Los Angeles Master Chorale (Grant Gershon, choral director) Los Angeles Children's Chorus (Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, artistic director)
Gonzalo Grau: ODISEA (CONCERTO FOR VENEZUELAN CUATRO AND ORCHESTRA) Carl Orff: CARMINA BURANA
The concert began with an L.A. premiere of a work by Venezuelan composer Gonzalo Grau entitled "Odisea" (or "Odyssey"), a work for cuatro and orchestra. The "cuatro" in this case is a small four-string guitar (hence the Spanish name); and for this instrument, Mr. Grau had composed a 24 minute-long, single-movement concerto in which the rich indigenous flavor of his native land, including the influences of the Incas, was much evident. Mr. Glem, who was our soloist for the piece, was for all intents and purposes a master of that instrument, much like Andres Segovia and Los Romeros are for the traditional classical guitar. But this was not what anyone could call a traditional guitar concerto by any means, and nor was the orchestration involved. A great deal of exotic and authentic percussion was involved, along with harp glissando passages and even Latin jazz influences. Mr. Glem also engaged in a complete four minute-long improvised solo on his instrument, full of intense strumming, that had the crowd of about 9,700 applauding quite vociferously at the end. He came back on for an encore of a medley of various well known classical pieces, including J.S. Bach's "Toccata And Fugue" and Beethoven's "Ode To Joy". Both Dudamel and Glem actually welcomed the composer onto the stage for the biggest round of applause.
Following intermission, we had both the L.A. Master Chorale and the L.A. Children's Chorus, along with our three vocal soloists for the evening, come onto the Bowl stage for what is almost certainly the single most popular choral work of the 20th century, the German composer Carl Orff's monstrous 55 minute-long cantata "Carmina Burana", which appropriates various drinking songs froom medieval Europe, particularly the Beuren region of Germany, all of which were either sung in Latin, French, or Middle High German. Much of the content of the songs can be best described as...well, lewd and lascivious, and sometimes grotesque and full of either graphic or blackly comic imagery. The work is bracketed with the famous "O Fortuna" passage, which helped the work find extreme popularity among audiences, though the fact that Orff, who composed this work in the mid-1930's, was unnerved by how popular the work was with one particular section of people in his native Germany--and that would be the Nazi Party. Even so, it would be most inaccurate to associate this work too closely with a regime that, within ten years, would gut the entire European continent; and Orff never sought out that kind of attention for the one work of his that audiences around the world would know him for. Given that the orchestration was quite large, with a battery of percussion to rival Richard Wagner, and the choral component was large and very outspoken for this work, the Bowl's sound system, and probably some of the audience's hearing, got quite the workout
It was very much a work of the exotic and the outrageous during a night that cooled off enough from the heat of the day in the hills above Hollywood.
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Post by erik on Aug 10, 2022 5:44:22 GMT -8
Last night at the Hollywood Bowl, it was two very new works and, by those aforementioned standards, a symphonic war horse.
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra Dalia Stasevska, conductor Pekka Kuusisto, violin
Anna Meredith: NAUTILUS Daniel Bjarnason: SCORDATURA (FOR VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA) Dvorak: SYMPHONY NO. 8
Dalia Stasevska, the Ukrainian-born Finnish conductor who is currently principal conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in her homeland of Finland, and principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony, led last night's performance at the Bowl. It started off with a five and a half minute orchestral work by the Scottish female composer Anna Meredith entitled "Nautilus", a musical experiment of sorts that she actually composed eleven years ago, in 2011, for electronic instruments and then orchestrated it into a form that combined Philip Glass-style minimalism with ironclad brass fanfares. The brass and percussion got themselves a workout on this relatively short piece.
That, however, was followed by a single-movement violin concerto by the Swedish composer Daniel Bjarnason entitled "Scordatura", which the soloist, the Finnish-born Pekka Kuusisto, had performed once before at the Bowl, during the 2017 season. This was a thorny kind of work really, with a running time of twenty-four and a half minutes, and plenty of percussion, plus the soloist's combination of pizzicato playing and even whistling. In the middle of the work, Mr. Kuusisto engaged in a fiendish violin cadenza that was so often off the chart it was as if the Devil himself were playing. As an encore, he also engaged the audience in two Nordic fiddle works, one from his native Finland, the other from Sweden (the latter, he said, was "one you must assemble" because it was Swedish).
The night concluded with the Eighth Symphony of the great Bohemian composer Antonin Dvorak, utilizing many of the dance forms of his native land, plus a melodic motif that would play out in both the first and fourth movements of this 37 minute-long work. The second movement Adagio had its moments of pastoral gravitas, while the G Minor third movement, marked "Allegretto Grazioso", had elements of it that would be found in his later New World Symphony.
While there was a breeze last night, it was a warm one, so it never quite cooled down from the intense heat we have been experiencing for the last several weeks here in Los Angeles. Because it was a weekday concert, the amphitheater was only a little more than half-full, at about 8,800. Still, it was a very fascinating night that combined the recent or the relatively unknown with the standard, something that has been happening at the Bowl quite frequently both this season and last season, coming out of the pandemic.
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Post by erik on Aug 17, 2022 5:50:54 GMT -8
Last night's Hollywood Bowl concert was all about the great late 19th/early 20th century Russian composer and pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Los Angeles Philharmonic Louis Langree, conductor Nobuyuki Tsujii, piano
Rachmaninoff: PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2 Rachmaninoff: SYMPHONY NO. 2
Louis Langree, the French-born music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, stepped in for the recently departed Bramwell Tovey, who was to have conducted this concert before his untimely death on July 12th at the age of 69, and conducted this all-Rachmaninoff affair. The Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujji was a more than capable soloist for the extremely challenging Piano Concerto No. 2, especially considering that it is the piano by itself that starts the piece in the first forty seconds. The work's highly charged first movement, in the home key of C Minor, was then followed by the lush, ultra-Romantic Adagio, whose principal theme figures into one of the great pop-rock ballads of the 1970's, namely "All By Myself" by Eric Carmen. With a barely noticeable break, we were then launched into the work's finale, where quotations of "Dies Irae" were sprinkled throughout, but where everything concluded with a buoyant C Major declamation at the end. Given that we were outdoors, the Bowl's high-definition sound system mostly managed to dampen the effect of the three aerial intrusions that occurred during the work's 34 1/2-minute running time. Mr. Mtsujii came back on for a solo piano encore, which was "La Campanella" by Franz Liszt.
Following intermission, Mr. Langree came back to conduct Rachmaninoff's ultra-Romantic Second Symphony, a work that the composer finished in 1907, ten years after the unbelievably disastrous premiere of the First (disastrous became his fellow composer Alexander Glazunov, who conducted the premiere of the First Symphony, was sloshed). The fairly sizeable orchestration necessary for the work and the melodies contained in it obviously inspired more than a few film composers in Hollywood over the rest of the 20th century, including even John Williams in a lot of ways. The highly-charged second movement, a Scherzo in all but named (actually marked Allegro Molto), was followed by the work's famous Adagio, whose main melody is noted for having inspired another 1976 Eric Carmen hit, "Never Gonna Fall In Love Again". Everything was resolved in the work's splashy conclusion, with more quotations from "Dies Irae" and a piece of the Adagio's main melody, going from the high-calorie dark romanticism of the work's original key of E Minor the a triumphant finish in E Major. It may be noted that for the first sixty-six years of this symphony's existence it was performed with severe cuts to it, both in concerts and recordings, something that changed in 1973 with two recordings, one by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the other by Andre Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Langree performed this uncut, which meant that the work ran to exactly an hour in length.
Much of the summer here in Los Angeles has been quite hot; and while there was a breeze that cooled things down a little bit, it stayed quite sultry throughout, which made things fairly labor intensive for conductor, orchestra, and soloist. But once again, it was another fabulous night under the stars in the hills of Los Angeles.
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Post by erik on Aug 26, 2022 5:49:50 GMT -8
Three different works by three different composers were on the docket for my sixth trip to the Hollywood Bowl this summer.
Los Angeles Philharmonic Courtney Lewis, conductor Isata Kaneh-Mason, piano
Mendelssohn: HEBRIDES OVERTURE (FINGAL'S CAVE) Clara Schumann: PIANO CONCERTO IN A MINOR, OP. 7 Dvorak: SYMPHONY NO. 7
Courtney Lewis, the English-born music director of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra in Florida, was on hand to replace original conductor Marta Gardolinska, who had come down with a mild case of COVID, for this particular concert. The night began with the much-beloved "Hebrides Overture" of Felix Mendelssohn, inspired by a trip he made to the northern coast of Scotland in 1829, including the Hebrides region and a dwelling in the coastal rocks known as "Fingal's Cave" (hence the work's sub-title). Mr. Lewis and the L.A. Phil accurately and vividly gave a picture of the chilly, overcast setting in this part of Scotland that Mendelssohn saw, including the crashing of the waves on the rocks, all in the haunted key of B Minor.
After a minor pause, the British-African pianist Isata Kaneh-Mason came out with Mr. Lewis to perform a work that she has been championing for the last ten years or so with great success, the Piano Concerto of Clara Schumann, the wife of the troubled but frequently brilliant German composer Robert Schumann, whose life was plagued by mental illness and ended by suicide in 1856 (Clara outlived her husband by forty years, passing away in 1896). Each of the three movements of this highly charged and dramatic work were played without pause; and in watching and hearing her play, it was very easy for me to see why Ms. Kaneh-Mason was such a staunch champion of this work in concerts (and in the recording she had made of it a few years ago with Holly Mathiessen and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra); it is a stunning virtuoso piece, requiring the utmost concentration, with orchestration similar to the concerto in the same A Minor key of her husband's (though trombones were also added). The crowd of 8,500 vociferously applauded both Mr. Lewis and Ms. Kaneh-Mason at the conclusion, knowing that this was a work that had been undeservedly obscured for close to 180 years simply because its creator was a woman, and the wife of a composer who struggled with inner demons. Ms. Kaneh-Mason had more than made the case for Clara Schumann's concerto, which was remarkably compact in size at just slightly over twenty minutes in length.
Following intermission, Mr. Lewis returned to conduct the L.A. Phil in the dark D Minor Symphony No. 7 of Antonin Dvorak, a work he composed in 1889, and in which he expressed his Bohemian heritage and the depth of the feelings he had for his mother, whom he had lost that year. The intensity of the work's first movement was then followed by the more pastoral idealism of the Adagio, which reflected the influence of his good friend Johannes Brahms. The third movement, marked as a Scherzo, was Dvorak incorporating the native Bohemian dance known as the Furiant, with a middle Trio section that recalled the slow movement's pastoral feelings. The turbulent final movement of this thirty eight minute work finally came to a triumphant conclusion (very much in the Beethoven/Brahms tradition) in the D Major key, resulting in a great amount of applause for Mr. Lewis and the orchestra.
A modest sea breeze rolled in after it got dark, cooling things off from the heat of the day, though the skies remained largely clear; and spite of five of the usual aerial interruptions that being in an outdoor venue like the Hollywood Bowl entails, it was yet another great night of concert-making.
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Post by erik on Aug 31, 2022 5:49:09 GMT -8
It was a night of firsts, and a night of a Ninth, at the Hollywood Bowl last night.
Los Angeles Philharmonic Eva Ollikainen, conductor Michelle Bradley, soprano Riah Chaieb, mezzo-soprano Joshua Blue, tenor Nathan Berg, bass-baritone Los Angeles Master Chorale (Grant Gershon, chorus director)
Samy Moussa: ELYSIUM Beethoven: SYMPHONY NO. 9 (CHORAL)
Ms. Ollikainen, born in Finland and recently appointed to be music director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, was on the podium on what was a hot, sultry evening in the hills above Hollywood. The night began with "Elysium", a work by the contemporary Canadian composer Samy Moussa that was inspired by Greek mythology. Mr. Moussa, who is the artist-in-residence for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, conceived of this work as a depiction of the paradise of Greek mythology that is full of wonderment and peace and contentment. For this, the L.A. Philharmonic's size was fairly large, particularly in the areas of brass and percussion, which made this twelve minute-long work initially seem like a cross between the Wall of Sound as personified by the works of Anton Bruckner and the score Miklos Rosza composed in 1959 for the epic movie Ben-Hur, with its visions of Greek procession. It also weaved elements of Gustav Holst's "The Planets" near the end. "Elysium" was receiving its American premiere at this concert, and it was highly welcomed by the crowd of 10,700 at the Bowl, with the composer himself coming onstage with Ms. Ollikainen to receive the plaudits.
During intermission, the size of the orchestra was reduced (most of the large brass and percussion were moved off the stage), while the 100-member Los Angeles Master Chorale took their seats in the risers behind the orchestra.
And then it was time for Ms. Ollikainen and all assembled to perform one of the great masterworks of Western music: Beethoven's immortal Symphony No. 9. The imposing first movement was unusually propulsive under Ms. Ollikainen's direction (perhaps a function of supposedly conforming to Beethoven's original tempo markings when he composed the symphony over a seven-year span from 1817 to 1824, a work that he was only ever able to hear in his mind). The famous (or infamous, if you've seen Stanley Kubrick's ultra-controversial 1971 film A Clockwork Orange) Scherzo had its twists and turns, punctuated by some fairly graphic timpani strokes within, as well as the lighter Trio section in the middle. The short pause between the Scherzo and the Adagio allowed time for our four vocal soloists to take their seats to the left of the podium. The Adagio itself, though taken a bit faster than the tempo marking indicted, still maintained its elegiac feel, given that this was the first post-pandemic performance of the Ninth here in Los Angeles. And then, of course, came the immortal final movement, in which our four soloists and the Master Chorale took their turns in the interpolation of Friedrich von Schiller's "Ode To Joy", which was naturally sung in German, though English sub-titles were there to be seen on the Bowl's HD screens. This work, known as the "Choral Symphony", will soon be approaching its 200th birthday (it was first heard in Vienna on May 7, 1824); and its extreme popularity around the world, boosted by its use in movies, including the aforementioned A Clockwork Orange, and Die Hard, was certainly not lost on anyone at this particular concert.
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Post by erik on Sept 5, 2022 5:48:49 GMT -8
Los Angeles Philharmonic David Newman (first half) John Williams (second half)
Various (arranged by Williams): TRIBUTE TO THE FILM COMPOSER (film montage) Korngold: MARCH FROM "THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD" (with film) Waxman: SUITE FROM "A PLACE IN THE SUN" Waxman: SUITE FROM "SUNSET BOULEVARD" (with film) Suppe: OVERTURE OT "MORNING, NOON, AND NIGHT IN VIENNA" (set to Warner Brothers cartoon "Baton Bunny") Mancini: MARCH FROM "THE GREAT WALDO PEPPER" (set to a Snoopy/Red Baron cartoon) Williams: WITH MALICE TOWARD NONE/FROM "LINCOLN" (Trumpet solo: Thomas Hooton) Williams: FLYING THEME/FROM "E.T.: THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL"
(intermission)
Williams: OLYMPIC FANFARE AND THEME Williams: HEDWIG'S THEME + HARRY'S WONDROUS WORLD/FROM "HAPPY POTTER" Jerry Bock (arranged by Williams): EXCERPTS FROM "FIDDLER ON THE ROOF" (Bing Wang, violin) Williams: THEME FROM "SCHINDLER'S LIST" (Bing Wang, violin) Williams: SCHERZO FOR X-WINGS/FROM "THE FORCE AWAKENS" Williams: OBI-WAN'S THEME/FROM "STAR WARS" Williams: THRONE ROOM AND FINALE/FROM "STAR WARS"
Encores Williams: HELENA'S THEME/FROM "INDIANA JONES 5" Williams: MARCH FROM "RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK" Williams: IMPERIAL MARCH/FROM "THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK"
This had the potential for being a hair-raising night in terms of the weather; violent thunderstorms were occurring only thirty miles north of the Bowl in the San Gabriel Mountains and the Santa Clarita Valley. Fortunately, the weather did hold; the temperature, however, stayed exceptionally warm the entire night.
David Newman, whose father was the legendary film composer Alfred Newman and whose cousins include Thomas and Randy Newman, conducted the first half of the show, which was a significant celebration of film composers, particularly the ones of his father's generation, including Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and Franz Waxman. There was also plenty of amusement to be had, as we also saw the Bugs Bunny short cartoon "Baton Bunny", one of Warner Brothers' frequent riffs on Disney's Fantasia, set to the famous overture for the late 19th century operetta "Morning, Noon, And Night In Vienna" by the Austrian composer Franz von Suppe, followed by a Snoopy/Red Baron aerial chase set to Henry Mancini's music for the 1975 George Roy Hill film The Great Waldo Pepper. The first half ended by setting the table for the second half, as the orchestra's principal trumpeter Thomas Hooton performed "With Malice Toward None" from Williams' score to Lincoln; and then, of course, there was the famous Flying Theme from E.T., a can't-miss piece any time, but especially as this year marked that film's 40th anniversary.
The second half was given over to the now 90 year-old Williams, who was greeted by probably 5,000 light sabers being lit up throughout the dark interior of the Bowl (I often refer to John Williams night at the Hollywood Bowl as the annual Light Saber Convention). The line-up started with the Olympic Theme and Fanfare he wrote for the 1984 Summer Olympics that were held here in Los Angeles.. Then we proceeded onward with the two excerpts from Williams' Harry Potter scores. Following those, the orchestra's concert mistress Bing Wang took her solo violin turn in excerpts Williams arranged from the 1971 film version of the Broadway musical Fiddler On The Roof, followed by the truly melancholic theme for Steven Spielberg's 1993 Holocaust masterpiece Schindler's List. After this, the Light Saber Rule was in effect with "Scherzo For X-Wings" (from The Force Awakens), the heretofore unheard "Obi-Wan's Theme", and the "Throne Room & Finale" from the original Star Wars. Since my seat was at near the top of the Bowl, I got a literal bird's-eye view of the light saber action like nobody's business.
Williams indulged us with three encores, one of which was for a film score that he had only just finished recording--"Helena's Theme", for the fifth Indiana Jones film (which won't even be out until June 2023); the famous March from Raiders Of The Lost Ark; and the "Imperial March" from The Empire Strikes Back.
And thus, with heat, humidity, a hot wind, and thousands of light sabers, ends another concert-going season at the Hollywood Bowl for me.
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Post by eaglemaster on Sept 5, 2022 23:21:38 GMT -8
It sounds like you really enjoyed that concert evening, Eric.
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Post by erik on Sept 6, 2022 16:31:23 GMT -8
Quote by eaglemaster:
Very much so. The Hollywood Bowl is arguably the premier outdoor concert venue in America, with a seating capacity of 17,500, and it has just put the cap on its 100th year of existence, the last twenty-five of which (save for the COVID-cancelled 2020 season) I have been a part of. I am already looking forward to 2023--though the schedule for that won't be coming out for another five months.
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Post by DCXMMXVI on Dec 27, 2022 9:43:42 GMT -8
My mom and I will be seeing Wynonna Judd, Martina McBride and Kelsea Ballerini in February. Hopefully I don't get too sick to go. I got sick and had to miss The Chicks in October, which was a major bummer. But I gave my ticket to my grandma. She and my cousin had a great time and brought me back an 'Earl's in the Trunk' bumper sticker and a shirt.
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Ross
Teen Chick
Posts: 699
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Post by Ross on Jun 27, 2023 2:25:19 GMT -8
Steve Earle was the last gig i went to on Sunday. Also seen Be Your Own Pet, Jaime Wyatt and Amanda Shires recently.
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Post by erik on Jul 8, 2023 9:28:29 GMT -8
Last night began the first of seven nights of this year's music under the stars at the Hollywood Bowl, and it was (largely) about John Williams.
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra Gustavo Dudamel (1st Half) John Williams (2nd Half) Cal State Fullerton Singers Los Angeles Children's Chorus
Richard Whiting: HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD (arranged by John Williams) (film clips) John Williams: OVERTURE TO "THE COWBOYS" Bernard Herrmann: SCENE D'AMOUR/FROM "VERTIGO" John Williams: CALL OF THE CHAMPIONS (clips from NBC's Olympic coverage) John Williams: DRY YOUR TEARS, AFRIKA/FROM "AMISTAD" John Williams: DIEL OF THE FATES/FROM "STAR WARS: THE PHANTON MENACE" (clips from the Star Wars franchise) John Williams: LOVE THEME AND MARCH FROM "SUPERMAN THE MOVIE"
(intermission)
John Williams: THE ADVENTURES OF MUTT/FROM "INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL" John Williams: HELENA'S THEME/FROM "INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY" John Williams: RAIDERS MARCH/FROM "RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK" John Williams: THEME FROM "JURASSIC PARK" John Williams: THEME FROM "SCHINDLER'S LIST" (Violin Solo: BING WANG) John Williams: THE ASTEROID FIELD/FROM "THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK" John Williams: PRINCESS LEIA'S THEME/FROM "STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE" John Williams: THRONE ROOM + FINALE/FROM "STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE"
Encoures John Williams: YODA'S THEME/FROM "THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK" John Williams: FLYING THEME/FROM "E.T.: THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL" John Williams: IMPERIAL MARCH/FROM "THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK"
The Light Saber Rule was in effect for this first concert of the year for me, because John Williams was making his annual pilgrimage to a place he had been conducting in (excepting the COVID-shuttered 2020 season) since 1978. But that was in the second half, and L.A. Phil music director Gustavo Dudamel held down the first half of a varied program that was curated at Williams' suggestion. The only non-Williams pieces in the first half were "Hooray For Hollywood", and the "Scene D'Amour", this last one composed by Bernard Herrmann for Hitchcock's 1958 classic Vertigo. "Call Of The Champions" and "Dry Your Tears, Afrika" (the last one from Steven Spielberg's 1997 historical drama Amistad) featured the L.A. Children's Chorus and the University Singers of Cal State Fullerton to real uplifting effect.
Following intermission, the now 90 year-old Williams held court with the Usual Suspects of "hits"--the stuff from Star Wars and Indiana Jones. including "Helena's Theme" (from The Dial Of Destiny). There was also the Philharmonic's concertmistress Bing Wang on hand to do the violin solo for the theme to Spielberg's 1993 Holocaust epic Schindler's List, a moment of poignancy amidst the blockbuster levity, preceded by Jurassic Park (both films are celebrating their 30th anniversaries in 2023). The near-sold-out crowd, several thousand of whom pulled out their light sabers out to lighten up the otherwise dark interior of the Bowl, had three encores, two from The Empire Strikes Back, with the famous Flying Theme from E.T. sandwiched in-between. Dudamel and Williams engaged in a little light-sabers-as-batons contest during the "Imperial March", amusing the crowd like nobody's business.
This was a great way to kick off my twenty-seventh year of Bowl concerts, during this the Bowl's 101st anniversary.
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Post by eaglemaster on Jul 9, 2023 2:32:53 GMT -8
Good for you, Eric. I am glad that you enjoyed the concert so much.
Did you have a light saber as well?
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Post by erik on Jul 10, 2023 6:14:45 GMT -8
Sadly, I outgrew light sabers years ago. But it was fun watching those that did have them whirl them around during the concert, when the interior of the Bowl was otherwise dark.
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Post by erik on Jul 21, 2023 5:35:47 GMT -8
Last night's Hollywood Bowl program was all about Russia, but even more about the great things that the country we had always been taught to fear had actually given to the world in terms of music and art.
Los Angeles Philharmonic Gustavo Dudamel, conductor Alisa Weilerstein, cello
Prokofiev: SYMPHONY NO. 1 (CLASSICAL) Tchaikovsky: VARIATIONS ON A ROCOCO THEME FOR CELLO AND ORCHESTRA Prokofiev: EIGHT SELECTIONS FROM "ROMEO AND JULIET"
A very warm night under the stars began with maestro Dudamel leading reduced forces of the L.A. Phil in Sergei Prokofiev's ultra-popular Classical Symphony (#1), a work he composed during the final months of World War I as a modernist homage to the late 18th century symphonies of Haydn and Mozart. Utilizing the same number of orchestral forces that were in use during the Viennese classical era, the symphony, which at fifteen minutes is only half as long as the ones it emulates, has some very modernist idioms and chord changes that are very sharp. The second movement, marked Larghetto, seemed to honor the slow movements of the later symphonies of Beethoven and Schubert; while the third movement was a throwback of sorts to the Baroque period, marked as a Gavotte. The finale, of course, was rapid-fire, as if it were Haydn and Mozart under the influence of cognac.
The size of the orchestra was reduced further (trumpets and timpani were absent) for what was a cello concerto in all but name, the Variations on a Rococo Theme by Russia's most popular composer, Peter Tchaikovsky. This is one of a number of works in Tchaikovsky's canon that pay homage to Mozart, whom he regarded as a "musical Christ"; and tonight, we heard it performed by one of the great classical musicians of this age, cellist Alisa Weilerstein. Ms. Weilerstein had much to work with here in this work that consists of a particular original but Classical era-inspired theme, followed by eight variations, in a work lasting seventeen and a half minutes and performed primarily uninterrupted. Ms. Weilerstein was greatly applauded at the end, and proceeded to do a five-minute solo encore that may have been one of J.S. Bach's solo works for cello, though the program didn't mention it.
Following intermission, the orchestra was greatly enlarged for the eight selections from Prokofiev's 1936 ballet adaptation of Shakespeare's timeless "Romeo And Juliet". The eight selections were: "Montagues and Capulets"; "Morning Dance"; "The Young Juliet"; "Masks"; "Balcony Scene"; "The Death Of Tybalt"; "Romeo At Juliet's Grave"; and finally "The Death Of Juliet". The ballet so greatly captured the passions of the two lovers, and the ultimately useless fighting amongst their two families that leads to both of them basically committing suicide. While much of this music was very modern and at times quite brash in typical Russian fashion, the ending was very quiet and subtle, leading to a lot of reflective pause when the music ended, and several bursts of applause for Dudamel.
As much as we sometimes like to rat on Russia, last night's program was a reminder of the great things that that country has given to us, in the music of two of its greatest composers.
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Post by erik on Jul 26, 2023 5:35:38 GMT -8
Last night's Hollywood Bowl concert was one in which we heard three works that explored America's past, present, and future
Los Angeles Philharmonic Leonard Slatkin, conductor Makoto Ozone, piano
Cindy McTee: TIMEPIECE Gershwin: RHAPSODY IN BLUE Dvorak: SYMPHONY NO. 9 (NEW WORLD)
Leonard Slatkin, the Los Angeles-born conductor who has held prime music directorship roles with the St. Louis Symphony, the National Symphony (in Washington), and the Detroit Symphony, was on hand for three works that explored a wide range of sounds. The night began with a work from 2000 entitled "Timepiece" by his wife, the composer Cindy McTee, which was written in 2000 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (it was premiered on February 17th of that year, with Andrew Litton conducting). Various percussion instruments in the orchestra (wood block; xylophone) and piano simulated many clocks ticking away after the piece emerged from some infinite space in the ether. The influences of jazz were very much in evidence during this eight and a half-minute single-movement work; and at the end, one of the Bowl spotlights caught a glimpse of the composer, who was in the audience, taking in the applause of the crowd of 9,000 people.
Next up was one of the premier works that identifies the American Sound--namely the 1924 "Rhapsody In Blue" by George Gershwin. The Japanese-born pianist Makoto Ozone was on hand for this work; and while I had heard this work three times before at the Bowl, I had never heard it done quite like it was done by Mr. Ozone. He often indulged in a lot of jazzy riffs and cadenzas in-between the places where both piano and orchestra were required to be together. This resulted in "Rhapsody In Blue" being greatly, and I do mean greatly, extended, from the usual seventeen minutes it usually takes to perform when done straight, to a mind-busting twenty five and a half minutes. As an encore, Mr. Ozone did his own jazzy solo piano riff, but the title of the piece he played was unknown to me.
Following intermission, Slatkin returned to conduct the L.A. Phil in a work that is known by every American orchestra, even though its composer was only a visitor to America: the New World Symphony (#9) of the great Czech composer Antonin Dvorak. As maestro Slatkin pointed out before the night's concert began, there really isn't anything so strictly "American" per se about the work, but that Dvorak's Czech musical instincts combined with what he heard among Native American and African- American populations as far west as Iowa during his visit in 1892-93. The work's second movement contained an English horn solo passage that would give rise to the African-American spiritual song "Goin' Home", while the familiar Scherzo and triumphant finale combined both Dvorak's nationalist feel of Bohemian dance rhythms with what he had seen in the American landscape.
It remained very warm that evening, as it had been for much of this month; and there were admittedly a few noisy distractions in the skies immediately above the darkened Bowl amphitheater, but none were sufficient to drown out the music being performed, on another great night in the hills above L.A.
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Post by erik on Aug 4, 2023 6:03:24 GMT -8
Last night at the Hollywood Bowl, it was the Ultimate Trip--in the form of a film that did not show its age so overtly, despite it having been released fifty-five years ago. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
Los Angeles Philharmonic Caleb Young, conductor Los Angeles Master Chorale (Grant Gershon, chorus master)
Richard Strauss: ALSO SPRACH ZARATHUSTRA/I: PRELUDE (DAWN) Johann Strauss II: THE BLUE DANUBE Ligeti: REQUIEM/II: KYRIE Ligeti: LUX AETERNA Khatchaturian: GAYANE'S ADAGIO/FROM "GAYANE" Ligeti: ATMOSPHERESDirector Stanley Kubrick's groundbreaking 1968 science fiction masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey was shown last night on the Bowl's five hi-definition screens, with its all-classical soundtrack being performed onstage by the L.A. Philharmonic under Caleb Young. The epochal strains of "Zarathustra" were juxtaposed with the cagey use of "The Blue Danube" in the orbital ballet sequence where a Pan-Am spaceplane docks with the wheel-shaped spaceport. The Adagio from Aram Khatchaturian's 1943 ballet "Gayane" emphasized the isolated life that the two crew members (Keir Dullea; Gary Lockwood) of the USSC Discovery feel as they make their voyage to Jupiter, under the watchful eye of cinema's most famous computer, HAL. The highly modernistic pieces of Gyorgy Ligeti emphasized the eerie presence of the black monolith: "Lux Aeterna" being performed a capella by the L.A. Master Chorale, and the "Kyrie" of Ligeti's "Requiem" being performed by the combined forces of the orchestra and the Chorale. The entrance into the Star Gate was enhanced by the bass proportions of the Bowl's sound system, which caused the concrete surface of the Bowl to vibrate ever so slightly The atonal nature of "Atmospheres" emphasized the character of Dullea's and his voyage across time and space to that mysterious room, where he undergoes the aging process and perishes, to be reborn in the final minute and a half of the film as the Star Child, with the opening of "Zarathustra" filling the interior of the Bowl for one final time. It is, in my opinion, far too easy to take this film's visual effects for granted, because we are spoiled rotten by CGI; but the truth of the matter is that most films that utilize CGI nowadays (including all of the DC, Marvel, and Star Wars films) owe an extreme debt of gratitude to the FX concepts, more than a few of which were designed by the late Douglas Trumbull (including the Star Gate). plus the fact that they were put into the service of a complex story of the nature of mankind, its place in the cosmos, and how technology is either used or misused. And I also felt that some audience members (the crowd I estimated to be around 14,000) were spoiled by a lot of those CGI films that are known for being fast-paced and having a lot of razzle-dazzle, which is definitely not what 2001 is, at a length of two and a half hours (and with only 40 minutes of actual dialogue, by the way), plus the fact that they were impatient to have the answers spoon-fed to them, something that neither Kubrick nor his co-screenwriter, the great Arthur C, Clarke (whose 1948 short story The Sentinel inspired the film's principal themes), were willing to do (in my view, rightly so). The nature of this film is, as always, to raise questions, because invariably the answers are to the imponderable nature of the Universe and the inquisitive nature of the human species. The temperatures remained warm until intermission (at the point where HAL can be seen reading the lips of both Dullea and Lockwood in the space pod); and the subsequent coolness emphasized the coldness of the film's depictions of deep space. Meanwhile, Mr. Young capably guided both the L.A. Philharmonic and Master Chorale through the classical works that Kubrick so cannily used for the soundscape of this movie, which even after fifty-five years still inspired awe and wonder among the more patient members of the audience, and among the Hollywood film directing elite (most notably, of course, Steven Spielberg), In sum, it was another great Move Night at the Hollywood Bowl.
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Post by erik on Aug 30, 2023 5:40:28 GMT -8
It was all Ludwig van...as in Ludwig van Beethoven...last night at the Hollywood Bowl.
Los Angeles Philharmonic Simone Menezes, conductor Clara-Jumi Kang, violin
Beethoven: VIOLIN CONCERTO Beethoven: SYMPHONY NO. 3 (EROICA)
Almost four weeks since the "2001" concert, during which time L.A. had been hit by its first-ever named tropical storm in its history, I was back at the Bowl for an evening of two significant works of Beethoven, with Brazilian-born conductor Simone Menzes on the podium. The first was the epochal D Major Violin Concerto, the Mount Everest of this form. Stepping into the violin solo role was the German-born Clara-Jumi Kang. Four introductory taps of the timpani led into this imposing work of the violin repertoire; and Ms. Kang began her part after a three and a half minute introduction of the first movement's main material. The solo part called for some extremely elaborate solo passages during its 23-minute running time (Beethoven never provided any solo cadenzas, so violinists have always supplied their own). The second movement Larghetto was a far more restrained affair, being lush and elegiac, with romantic solo passages that gave Ms. Kang a chance to show the more romantic side of her instrument. The music got more intense in the bridge between the Larghetto and the work's Rondo finale, which again allowed Ms. Kang the chance for virtuosity without showing off too excessively.
Following intermission, on what was a warm night following a typically hot late August day, Ms. Menezes returned to conduct Beethoven's imposing Eroica Symphony (#3), a work that was, from its inception in 1803, the longest symphony of its time (until Beethoven's own Ninth). The two sharp introductory chords allowed Ms. Menezes and the orchestra freedom of movement to bring to life an impressive vision of individual heroism (the composer had originally famously dedicated the symphony to Napoleon, but then angrily retracted it when Napoleon had the unmitigated gall to declare himself emperor of France in 1802). The second movement Funeral March, which has been a fixture at many times throughout history in times of mourning (from JFK's assassination to 9/11), was done with considerable dignity, but also with the requisite drama. The third movement was a highly energetic Scherzo, revealing the tremendous volcanic energies that Beethoven was successfully attempting to convey through music despite continuing to lose his hearing. The work concluded with a set of variations on a theme featured in the finale of the composer's 1802 ballet "The Creatures Of Prometheus"; and its triumphant conclusion had the crowd on its feet.
In summation, another great night at the Hollywood Bowl was had.
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Post by erik on Sept 6, 2023 5:38:25 GMT -8
Despite an overcast early evening, it was still "Mozart Under The Stars" at the Hollywood Bowl last night.
Los Angeles Philharmonic Nicholas McGegan, conductor Bomsori Kim, violin
Mozart: OVERTURE TO "DON GIOVANNI" Mozart: VIOLIN CONCERTO NO. 5 (TURKISH) Mozart: SYMPHONY NO. 38 (PRAGUE)
Nicholas McGegan, the British-born Conductor Laureate of America's premiere period-instrument orchestra, the Bay Area-based Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, was on the podium for this all-Mozart program, explaining with dry British wit some of the particulars of the first two works on the evening's program. The first was the overture to what is by far the darkest opera in Mozart's oeuvre, the 1786 opus "Don Giovanni". It is a very inverted kind of opera overture, beginning with the two gigantic ominous chords in D Minor which presage the appearance of the giant statue of the Commendatore at the opera's end who helps drive the libertine, ne'er-do-well titular character to an incendiary demise, before getting into the somewhat jollier main body of the overture, which is in the key of D Major. What was somewhat unusual about the main body of the overture was that Mr. McGegan chose to conduct this at a slightly (but still somewhat jarring) slower pace than is typical for performances of the piece.
After a little bit of orchestral reconfiguration (trumpets and timpani were given a rest here), we had the Korean-born violinist Bomsori Kim come on for Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 (he had written all of his five concertos for the instrument in 1775-76). In fact, Ms. Kim played as if she were a member of the orchestra itself for the first 60-75 seconds of the work before assuming her solo parts, which were very complex and full of well-thought-out violin cadenzas. The Adagio movement, which allowed Ms. Kim the opportunity to display the tenderness of her instrument, was in the very unusual neighboring key of E Major. The finale itself, besides affording Ms. Kim more opportunities for violin virtuosity, was one which integrated elements of Turkish military music, which was how the work was given its nickname, the Turkish concerto.
Following the intermission, we got one of Mozart's most elaborate symphonies, the "Prague" symphony, #38 in his canon. Premiered in the city of Prague (hence the nickname) near the end of 1786, after his opera "The Marriage Of Figaro" had been given a huge standing ovation there, the work, at thirty-two minutes in length (with the expositional repeats in the outer movements), allowed for plenty of dramatic gestures, though there were more tranquil feelings in the middle movement Andante. Meanwhile, the finale, with its rapid-fire velocity, was as exciting as all-get-out; and it may have given Sergei Prokofiev ideas for the finale of his Classical Symphony, which came a little over 130 years later and which was very much an homage to the Mozart//Haydn era.
Even though it cooled off a fair amount with the cloud cover wafting into the sky, it was still another great night of music-making in the hills above Hollywood.
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Post by erik on Sept 13, 2023 5:37:40 GMT -8
The seventh and final concert of the 2023 Hollywood Bowl summer season was a fairly big one, combining the natural and the cosmic all in one.
Los Angeles Philharmonic Karen Kamensek, conductor Anne Akiko Meyers, violin Pacific Chorale (Robert Istad, artistic director)
Adam Schoenberg: COOL CAT (world premiere) Philip Glass: VIOLIN CONCERTO NO. 1 Holst: THE PLANETS
Chicago-born Karen Kamensek was on the podium for a varied and decidedly modern program. It began with the world premiere of a short (5-minute) orchestral fanfare called "Cool Cat", by composer Adam Schoenberg, who is a professor of music at Occidental College in Eagle Rock. The "Cool Cat" in question is the famous mountain lion known as P-22. This fastidious feline made his way all the way across the Santa Monica Mountains from near the Ventura County line to Griffith Park back in 2010, going through various hillside communities and managing to cross two of the busiest freeways in the world, I-405 and U.S. 101, to get there. He had become instantly famous after a motion sensor camera picked up his lithe figure passing along a hiking trail just underneath the Hollywood sign. P-22 sadly had to be euthanized just before Christmas of last year after wildlife experts found him suffering from injuries believed to be caused by a collision with a car. Thus, Schoenberg's piece was a celebratory elegy to the most famous wildcat Southern California has ever known.
The second work on the program was the First Violin Concerto of Philip Glass, one of the highest profile American composers of the late 20th century and a master of what is known as "minimalism". The great violinist Anne Akiko Meyers was on hand as the soloist; and she had quite a lot to work with during the work's 27-minute running time. Glass' melodic style can seem, well, repetitious to some; but when one wraps their mind around it, it evokes cosmic imagery that is a challenge to describe in layman's terms. Following the end of the piece, Mr. Glass himself was bought out to receive the plaudits of the audience, but he needed the help of Ms. Kamensek, Ms. Meyers, and Mr. Schoenberg to come up onstage as, at the age of 86, he seemed to be in frail health. Nevertheless, he was congratulated mightily by the crowd.
Following intermission, Ms. Kamensek led the (very enlarged) L.A. Philharmonic in one of the great works of the 20th century, namely "The Planets" by the English composer Gustav Holst. This is a work that had its roots in the composer's interest in astrology and Hindu mysticism, and it is also a work that probably gave more than a few ideas to such Hollywood film composing legends as John Williams (Star Wars, anybody?) and Jerry Goldsmith {Star Trek: The Motion Picture). The sonic shockwaves of "Mars, The Bringer Of War" and "Uranus, The Magician" were balanced with the serenity of "Venus, The Bringer Of Peace" and "Saturn, The Bringer Of Old Age". The final movement of this great work, "Neptune The Mystic", featured the distant (and unseen) wordless women's voices of Orange County's Pacific Chorale capturing the distant and timeless visions of the cosmos.
And thus ends my twenty-seventh season of concert-going in the hills above Los Angeles.
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