Review: St.Clair and Pacific Symphony do right by Schumann and Brahms. The Orange County Register, Oct. 23, 2015.
Roger Kalia to debut as Pacific Symphony assistant conductor
Profile: New Pacific Symphony assistant conductor debuts with Halloween concert. The Orange County Register, Oct. 22, 2015.
Otto Ketting: Symphony No. 6 (2012)
James Gaffigan conducts the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.
Lang Lang opens season for Philharmonic Society
Review: Lang Lang triumphs at Philharmonic Society opening. The Orange County Register, Oct. 20, 2015.
Luis de Freitas Branco: Symphony No. 1 (1924)
I post the music above not because it is some sort of lost masterpiece. The piece has some dull patches and cliched utterances. But it also has some gorgeous moments and memorable themes and, overall, is well put together. I’m quite taken with it. Give it a listen, see what you think.
Luis de Freitas Branco (1890-1955) was a Portuguese composer. His Symphony No. 1 was written in 1924. As you will hear, the work is clearly modeled on Franck’s Symphony in D minor, and is rather conservative in style (especially compared to what else was being written in the 1920s). I had never even heard of Freitas Branco before I came upon this work, which is the type of piece we never hear in the concert hall these days because we seem afraid to stray beyond certified masterpieces and great composers and box office imperatives.
Anyway, I don’t want to make too big of a deal about this piece. It’s interesting and enjoyable. I’ve listened to it twice and parts of it are sticking in my ears.
Kalevi Aho: Symphony No. 1 (1969)
Esa Heikkila conducts the Lahti Symphony Orchestra.
UCLA’s Philharmonia to stream Honegger’s Symphony No. 3 live
UCLA Philharmonia orchestra’s first concert of the season will be streamed live at 8 p.m. Oct. 22 (that’s Thursday). Neal Stulberg will conduct the group in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8 and Honegger’s Symphony No. 3, “Symphonie Liturgique.” The Honegger is a rarity and very much worth hearing. The work was completed in 1946, just after World War II. Here’s what Honegger said he had in mind:
“My intention in this work was to symbolize the reaction of modern man against the morass of barbarism, stupidity, suffering, machine-mindedness, and bureaucracy that has been besieging us…I have reproduced in musical terms the combat that is joined in man’s heart between yielding to the blind forces that enclose him and his instinct for happiness, his love of peace, his apprehension of a divine refuge. My symphony is, if you like, a drama played out between three characters, whether real or symbolic: misery, happiness, and man. These are everlasting themes. I have tried to give them new life.”
Go here to listen to the live performance Thursday.
Andrzej Panufnik: Symphony No. 9, ‘Sinfonia della Speranza’ (1987)
Sir Andrzej Panufnik conducts the London Symphony Orchestra.
I. Maestoso
II. Un poco più mosso
III. Molto lento
IV. Molto vivo
V. Meno vivo
VI. A tempo (molto lento)
VII. Poco allegro
VIII. Meno mosso
IX. Maestoso
Gustavo Dudamel conducts Los Angeles Philharmonic in new work by Louis Andriessen and ‘The Rite of Spring’
Review: Dudamel knows his ‘Rite.’ The Orange County Register, Oct. 16, 2015.
A chat with Emerson cellist Paul Watkins
Fitting into the Emerson String Quartet. The Orange County Register, Oct. 16, 2015.
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