A Selective Guide to the Arts in Los Angeles

Here are just a few of the great concerts this week in Los Angeles – Jacaranda’s “music at the edge” series celebrates the Liszt bicentennial, the Capitol Ensemble performs its excellent Schubert and Mozart, and the LA Phil plays Tchaikovsky and Brahms with celebrated pianist Yefim Bronfman.

Jacaranda – music at the edge

Jacaranda continues their “music at the edge” series with a bicentenary birthday bash for Franz Liszt this week.  Conductor and organist Mark Alan Hilt will be joined by pianists Steven Vanhauwaert and Danny Holt, mezzo-soprano Buffy Baggott with pianist Armen Guzelimian, and the Jacaranda Chamber Singers.

Program for the Franz Liszt bicentenary:

•  Les Preludes

•  Four Goethe Songs

Mignons Lied, Der König in Thule, Wandrers Nachtlied I & II

•  The Battle of the Huns

•  Via Crucis

Saturday, April 23, 8 p.m.

First Presbyterian Church of Santa Monica, 1220 Second Street, Santa Monica

Tickets:  $40/$20 students (at the door); $35/$15 students (advance sale)

Capitol Ensemble

The Sundays Live Chamber Music Series presents a free string program (that will be broadcast live on KUSC) featuring the Capitol Ensemble, whose members are Phillip Levy and Julie Gigante (violins), Victoria Miskolczy and Andrew Duckles (violas), and David Low (cello).  This great program was performed at Le Salon de Musiques last week, and Culture Spot LA reviewer Henry Schlinger described the performances as “first-rate.”

Program

• Schubert: String Trio in B-flat Major, D581

• Mozart: String Quintet in G Minor, K516

Sundays Live is the longest-running music broadcast in Los Angeles.  Since 1948, it has produced weekly classical chamber music concerts and recitals by premier professional artists from Southern California and around the world. These one-hour concerts are presented free to the public at 6 p.m. on Sundays at LACMA, and no tickets or reservations are required.  Listen live via streaming audio at concert time, or listen to previous broadcasts at the KUSC website.

Sunday, April 24, 6 p.m.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art – Leo S. Bing Theater

5905 Wilshire Blvd. (just east of Fairfax), Los Angeles

Free admission.

For concert and artist information, call (323) 857-6234.

Pianist Yefim Bronfman

Conductor Juraj Valčuha leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic and pianist Yefim Bronfman at Walt Disney Concert Hall in three performances, Thursday through Saturday.

The program features:

• Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1, “Winter Daydreams”

• Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2

Juraj Valčuha is the principal conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Torino.  These concerts bring Valčuha’s Walt Disney Concert Hall debut; he appeared with the LA Phil at the Hollywood Bowl in 2009.  World-renowned concert pianist Yefim Bronfman is performing this season in Los Angeles and San Francisco as well as with the orchestras of Houston, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Atlanta and New York.

Upbeat Live pre-concert events take place one hour prior to the Thursday and Saturday performances, and on stage one hour and 15 minutes prior to the Friday performance, and are free to all ticket holders. Russell Steinberg, artistic director of the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra and UCLA composer, conductor and performer, will host.

Thursday, April 21, 8 p.m.

Friday, April 22, 11 a.m.

Saturday, April 23, 8 p.m.

Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles

Tickets ($44 – $167) are on sale now at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office, online or by phone at (323) 850-2000.

A limited number of $10 rush tickets for seniors and full-time students may be available at the Walt Disney Concert Hall box office two hours prior to the performance. Valid identification is required; one ticket per person; cash only.

~Theodore Bell/Culture Spot LA

Culture Spot LA recommends Jim Eninger’s Clickable Chamber Music Newsletter, an extensive calendar of upcoming music events, large and small, happening all around Los Angeles.