The rain has given Los Angeles and the surrounding area a touch of green lately, and as if it were, the early February art scene is just as lush now. I'm Mark Sweed , music critic for The Times, who replaced Carolina Miranda, columnist for Times Art & Design, and I can smell the roses in our art garden in bloom.
Los Angeles Radar Room Music
Bonanza features active chamber music that I have gleaned from recent concerts and recordings. Chamber music in Los Angeles is generally overlooked. It's our secret. The truth is that any history of Los Angeles and Hollywood would be very small if it didn't tell us how important chamber music was to our art and our society. This is particularly true for our films.
For decades, studio musicians have preferred to make intimate music, that is, to play chamber music. Arrangements have been made for such nights over the years. Young film and jazz enthusiasts like André Previn played with respected heavyweights like violinist Joseph Szigeti , whom Previn considered one of his most important mentors. On the other hand, when Albert Einstein was a resident of the California Institute of Technology in the 1930s, the famous physicist and amateur violinist enjoyed playing with the famous pianist the most. Arthur Schnabel .
The Hollywood String Quartet, made up of Golden Age studio musicians including violinist and bandleader Felix Slatkin and cellist Eleanor Aller (parents of Leonard Slatkin ), was one of the finest string quartets of the 1980s and 1950s in the during its brief existence. world. . He made master recordings of Beethoven , Schubert and Schoenberg . Occasionally when Frank Sinatra is unsupportive.
Yasha Kheyfets and Gregor Pyatigorsky , Lithuanian violinist and popular Ukrainian cellist respectively, taught at USC where they taught chamber music and made popular recordings. When will he become a pianist They were joined by another local resident, Artur Rubinstein , and were called the Million Dollar Trio .
All kinds of players have gathered in the city. The Rachmaninoff Festival with Yuja Wang and Gustavo Dudamel this weekend and next weekend at the Walt Disney Concert Hall at the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Beverly Hills will feature special programs that explore the intersection between the Russian composer and his many other star neighbors. . .
However, Hollywood didn't seem to have that in mind when two long-established, famous string quartets played local shows last month. The Takak Quartet, which performed on the main stage in Santa Monica, was founded in 1975 by students from the Budapest Academy of Music. Two days later , the Prazak Quartet, founded in 1974 by students from the Prague Conservatory, performed at Caltech's Beckman Hall .
In the mid-1970s, the two Eastern European capitals were the worst cities under Soviet rule. Chamber music was relaxing and sometimes frightening. Both quartets survived and flourished for nearly half a century, filled with new musicians. However, each original performer, cellist András Fejer en Takács and violinist Joseph Klasson at Prazak Now living at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Takac has two interesting young Americans, violist Harumi Rhodes and violist Richard O'Neill . Prazak remains in Prague, the whole Czech quartet, a little reserved but full of depth.
Although the shows mainly focused on traditional reporting, they were not regular shows and were surprisingly interspersed with the West Coast.
Takak wrote one of Gydn's last quartets, Opus 77, no. 2, winning Fanny Mendelssohn's String Quartet in E major (Félix's sisters) and finally Schumann's superb Piano Quintet (also in E-flat major) with pianist Jeremy Denk .
The latter proved to be a good reminder of the Paganini Quartet recording with Rubinstein in Los Angeles in 1950. Another unique ensemble in Los Angeles, Paganini was founded by violinist Henry Temyanka in 1946 and has been around for two decades. Participants played four paired Stradivarius violins that belonged to Paganini. Their deep voice was unlike any other and had to be heard to be believed.
Year Temyanka, who died in 1992, was a city violinist, founding member of the California Symphony Orchestra , resident of Royce Hall, and conductor of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra . In his digs at Ranch Park and various celebrity and immigrant residences in Beverly Hills and the Pacific Palisades, he organized chamber music gatherings, often featuring star musicians who were in town, like friends by Thomas Mann. , Bertolt Brecht , Franz Werfel , Bruno Walter and Jack Benny . Jazz drummer Shelley Maine was a popular rock star in the 1960s.
The Paganines also played new music, including a quartet written for the ensemble by longtime French composers and Mills College professors such as David Brubeck , Philip Glass , Bert Bacharach and Steve Reich.
Prazak String Quartet No. 1 Milhaud in a program that opens with one of Haydn's early quartets and a superb rendition of Dvořák's late string quartet. Better would have been Schoenberg's fourth string quartet, written by Brentwood, of which Prazak made an excellent recording.
To highlight the long history of chamber music in Los Angeles, Prazak's performance was hosted by Sundays With Coleman . Coleman's concerts began in Pasadena in 1904 and have continued with little interruption since. Growing up in Pasadena, I first met John Cage , Olivier Messiaen, Harry Partach , Luciano Berio , Elliott Carter , and many other great contemporary composers from the Coleman Encounter series. They all changed my life.
Other regulars at Coleman's concerts were Richard Lehrt, music director of the Austrian-born Pasadena Symphony Orchestra, and his wife Vicki Baum , on whom the 1932 Oscar-winning film The Grand Hotel was based . Did Baum bring her good friend and Grand Hotel star Greta Garbo? More likely.
Six days after Prazak, the all-star trio of pianist Emmanuel Ax , violinist Leonidas Kavakos , and cellist Yo-Yo Ma performed Beethoven's Saturday morning concert at Disney. Describing Beethoven as a life-affirming composer, Ma called John Williams a few days ago and asked the 90-year-old composer if he 'd like to do a little arrangement of his piano trio theme for Schindler's List . The notes arrived quickly. Its passionate premiere served as the catalyst for a mighty million-string performance by Beethoven's "Archduke" trio.
Hollywood's attitude toward chamber music goes back to weaving and weaving. The Hollywood String Quartet last year played the Don Davis String Quartet no. 2 Stray, Hate Points have made an incomparable contribution to making The Matrix films “ what they are”. . . In the finest traditions of Los Angeles, cellist Clive Greensmith will perform one of chamber music's most compelling works in March – Schubert Kinteit in c.
This show will be part of another chamber music tradition unique to Los Angeles, Music in Historic Places (originally founded in 1980 by MaryAnne Bonino when Chamber Music in Historic Places). This series often features cameras you wouldn't expect, making for a unique and thought-provoking Southern California underground tour. The new Hollywood gig will take place at Stimson House , a Romanesque mansion on Figueroa Street.
The tradition of making complex string quartets continues rapidly. Founded in 1998 by students from USC (near Stimson) , the Calder Quartet has become one of the top quartets in the country. More recently, the Kalidor String Quartet reunited in 2010 at the Colburn Conservatory where Greensmith, a former member of the Tokyo Quartet, teaches.
Today, New York-based Kalidor released a recording of Beethoven's Last Strings on Simin Records . Maybe the world doesn't need another one of these great musical landmarks, but here they are boldly recorded, played with incredible depth, another amazing and life-affirming piece of music.
Here is another. The Lyris Quartet is a random ensemble of four independent musicians based in Los Angeles with a unique flair for new music. As a Super Bowl chamber defense, Leiris will perform Ben Johnson's "Amazing Grace" quartet as part of the new Jacaranda Musical Series at First Presbyterian Hall in Santa Monica on Sunday.
In fact, chamber music throughout its history has served, like Hollywood musicians, Czechs, Hungarians and many other studio musicians in times of oppression, as a suitable personal and intimate artistic expression: just fight. Shostakovich. For example, 14 string quartets. Southern California's valuable chamber music journal Click is around every corner with its detailed weekly listings.
Los Angeles I will miss you Dudamel
Earlier this week, the classical music world was rocked by the news that Gustavo Dudamel will be leaving his post at the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the New York Philharmonic in 2026. It's hard to imagine how point the maestro changed the cultural landscape of Los Angeles in just 17 years, from his tenure with the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra (YOLA) to the emergence of established and up-and-coming composers on stage. Not to mention getting up. This means for the Hispanic community. Dudamel called me before it became known and confessed that the prospect of conducting the historic New York Philharmonic was an exciting new challenge that he was ready to take on. But when Dudamel told members of Phil's orchestra in Los Angeles on Tuesday, violinist Bing Wan said , "His voice vibrated…he's the kind of conductor everyone wants to have." …He's just one of us. He feels like a man in Los Angeles. In our Breaking News article, my colleagues Deborah Vankin, Jessica Gelt and I break down all the details.
Dudamel's departure is an incalculable loss for Los Angeles. However, it should be noted that the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the orchestra of Leonard Bernstein and Gustav Mahler, has not had a superstar conductor for decades. He hopes the East Coast support will help Dudamel fill seats, expand the music in concert halls and change the mood of the orchestra. Phil doesn't have to save New York, but he does. But as I pointed out earlier this week in my article on what Dudamel's exodus means, "The question is not whether Dudamel is ready for New York, but whether New York is ready for him. "
The full report on Dudamel is available here.
Gallery
Art historian Christopher Knight reviews a major Uta Barth retrospective at the Getty Museum. In his work, the German-born photographer often uses a conceptual approach that challenges the basic rules of photography. For example, in Barthes' Terre n°41, there is an image of a blurry bookshelf. “But the more you look, the more things come together with sudden clarity,” Knight writes. "Yes, the image is blurry, but it looks like what you'd expect from, say, a study or a portrait. You feel like a missing person. The only people in this photo are the photographer and you. There was a strange closeness. Come before the salon closes on February 19th.
And art journalist Deborah Vankin shared an interesting look at what it took to transport two luxury cars recently exhibited at the Andy Warhol Auto Show at the Peterson Automotive Museum : a silver 1937 Mercedes-Benz W 125 Grand Prix and a 1970 Benz Type C. 111. .-ll experimental sports car: on an international trip. Advice? Do not start cars. Read all about the unique traffic jams of these cars here.
Art exhibition season is upon us.
Not sure how to prioritize your travel schedule for the many art fairs coming to Los Angeles in the coming days, including Frieze, Felix , and LA Art Fair ? Do not be afraid ! The artistic team supports you. A special edition of the LA Goes Out newsletter by Art Fair correspondent Stephen Vargas features a comprehensive guide to art fairs , events, conferences and other exciting offerings.
Highlights include a series of Outside and Westside-specific work collected by Del Vaz Projects , and a focus on young artists such as Clifford Prince King , a photographer often associated with queer communities. Also on the program: great deals (snack packs!) and as if that weren't enough, a list of new galleries will open in LA during the fairs.
And don't miss Vankin's many art exhibits this weekend and next.
On stage and off stage
Now there is no shortage of art supplies. This week, theater critic Charles McNulty watched the Worcester Group, an experimental New York-based company, perform one of Bertolt Brecht's plays on REDCAT . They're an odd pair at first glance, but they're so effective that they "make me wonder why the company took so long," writes McNulty, in which technological postmodernism finds its political heart.
Vargas has a second profile of Lee Edward Colston, playwright and actor, whose wonderful family drama First Deep Breath has a West Coast premiere at the Geffen Playhouse . The show's decade-long run charts Colston's torturous journey onstage as he goes to work as a correctional officer before landing at the Juilliard School . "There really was no written path for young black artists to follow," Le Vargas said. "At least one visible to me in my community."
If musicals are more your thing, two blockbusters Frozen and The Lion King will premiere in Southern California this weekend. Jessica Gelt sits next to Jennifer Lee and Erin Mechi , the duo that created popular movies and musical sequels: Lee wrote the screenplay for the musical Frozen , and Mechi wrote the screenplay for The Lion King. During their long conversation, the two men discuss the obstacles of working in a male-dominated industry and why these romances have survived.
And announcer Eva Resinos will feature talented Los Angeles-based artist Dorian Wood at the end of her extensive REDCAT project "Canto de Todes" , which combines live performance of chamber music, projection, immersive music and cantatas. As Wood told Racino, "In the beginning, I was always bothered by an outsider's strange point of view, and I learned to fully accept who I am and what my voice is."
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More classic notes
Of course, there is something to talk about in the field of classical music. The Los Angeles Opera recently opened The Marriage of Figaro by Hollywood director James Gray with its first company. Lifelong opera fan Tim Greaving, known for his character studies including Grey, Armageddon Time and The Refugee, says he loves opera "because music is the way to the heart". A person combined with behavior known to us. – although large – and accepts and accepts the extremes of our soul. It's a transition."
In my review of The Marriage of Figaro, I was impressed by Gray's traditional lyrical setting, which was reminiscent of Mozart in 1786, right down to the costumes and sets. He, as I have already noted, "went further in his usual fidelity to Mozart's score and Lorenzo da Ponte 's libretto than any respectable modern opera director would dare". When he did, he received an enthusiastic response from the audience that night.
The tireless Gelt has books on this year's Hollywood Bowl lineup, which features pop and rock stars ( Janet Jackson, Sparks, Jill Scott, Culture Club and more), as well as classic events, including the return of Pan American Dudamel. Musical inspiration from the Mexican composer Francisco Cortes-Elvarez and tribute to the late Stephen Sondheim with "La Serpiente de Colores".
moving
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art has announced the retirement of Larry J. Feinberg. Robert and Mercedes Eichholtz Director and CEO.
Lauren Cross has been named Huntington's New Patron of the Fine Arts of America .
Tickets
Kelly Scott , former arts, culture and entertainment editor of the LA Times, known for her 25 years as a newspaper editor, has died at 68. In Scott's obituary, journalist Matt Pierce described how his unique editorial approach resulted in "intelligent, independent and intellectually curious coverage of the newspaper".
Pop singer-songwriter Burt Bacharach has died of natural causes. He was 94 years old. Не знаете, с чего начать свою карьеру в Бахарахе? Поп-музыкальный критик майкл Вуд оъясняет, Почему эти 20 основных Песен Важны для каталога Пойо
Умер Гарри Келси, бывший куратор Музея естественной истории в Лос-Анджелесе .
В других новостях
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По фильму «Ла-Ла Ленд» готовят бродвейский мюзикл.
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Как Всегда, В эти Выходные В лос -анджжесе уээта купера много Произведений искусства В во линейке
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