A Selective Guide to the Arts in Los Angeles

On Tuesday, April 6, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Chamber Music Concert will again give rise to your spirit with an inspired program titled “Americas and Americans” in Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Quinteto en forma de chôros will be the best 10 minutes of your week!  Inspired by the instrumental ensembles in popular urban Brazilian music called chôros, the sound imitates the bands of Rio and São Paulo juxtaposed with indigenous folk melodies, yet drenched in the Parisian chamber style circa 1930.

William Kraft’s Encounters XI: “The Demise of Suriyodhata” will feature Carolyn Hove playing the English horn with percussionist Raynor Carroll – the artists for whom the work was originally commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and who premiered the piece at a Green Umbrella concert in 1999.  In the over 10 years of incubation that have now passed, I am curious to hear the musical patina formed of a tumultuous decade since its genesis.

William Kraft is among the most significant musical forces of the West Coast musical scene today – a reputation built over decades as a pillar of the LA Philharmonic as master percussionist, maestro, and champion of new music.  Kraft shaped Encounters XI to bring out the “wonders of the Southeast Asian gamelan,” then infused it with Debussy, decatonic harmony, and a touch of eternity.  The title of the third movement, “Peace of God,” is the gateway to “Suriyodhaya’s Dream,” the final movement.  (Read the Culture Spot LA review of the Southwest Chamber Music performance of Encounters X in a concert last year previewing their program for the Ascending Dragon Festival, which, incidentally, returns from a Vietnam tour to finish on Los Angeles’ stages throughout this month.)

The program will open with Stephen Hartke’s The Horse with the Lavender Eye for violin, clarinet, and piano, and close with Silvestre Revueltas’ Homage to Garcia Lorca, completed in 1937 as a tribute to the memory of his friend, the murdered Spanish poet.  Expect dramatic swings of mood in the music that often overlaps to produce a bittersweet sound.

Tuesday, April 6, 8 p.m.
Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., LA

Tickets: $51, $34, $26. For information, call (323) 850-2000.

This concert was selected from events listed in Jim Eninger’s Clickable Chamber Music Newsletter – check it out to see an extensive calendar of upcoming music events, large and small, happening all around Los Angeles.