Cheers for a Happy New Year from Culture Spot LA! Celebrate this first week of 2012 with some great music from greater LA east to west. The LA Phil brings back Miguel Harth-Bedoya with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, the Pasadena Master Chorale joins the Los Angeles Daiku for a rousing Beethoven Ninth, and the Da Camera Society brings the Moscow String Quartet to the Mermaid in Topanga.
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LA Phil with Miguel Harth-Bedoya and Jean-Yves Thibaudet
Jean-Yves Thibaudet is known as a soloist in the salons and chamber halls of LA, and he is in demand as a soloist in the film industry for his ability to express passionate music. He is a great match with Liszt. Conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya is an international star, and his leadership of the Fort Worth Symphony is lauded by the cultural community, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Program:
• Dvorák: Hussite Overture
• Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 2
• Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3, “Organ”
Saint-Saëns Third Symphony was his last, and he dedicated it to the memory of his friend Franz Liszt, who died that year, 1886. Fans of the film Babe will recognize the theme.
Thursday, Jan. 5, 8 p.m.
Friday, Jan. 6, 11 a.m.
Saturday, Jan. 7, 8 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 8, 2 p.m.
Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Avenue, LA
Tickets: LAPhil.com, the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office or any Ticketmaster outlet. To order by phone with credit card, please call the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office at (323) 850-2000, or Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. For more information, call (323) 850-2000.
Upbeat Live pre-concert events take place in Walt Disney Concert Hall’s auditorium one hour and 15 minutes prior to the Friday concert and in BP Hall one hour prior to the Thursday, Saturday and Sunday concerts, and are free to all ticket holders. Alan Chapman, KUSC-FM radio host, composer-lyricist and pianist, hosts.
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Pasadena Master Chorale and Los Angeles Daiku sing Beethoven’s Ninth
Beethoven’s Ninth comes to LA in grand style on Jan. 7, when the Pasadena Master Chorale (PMC) joins Los Angeles Daiku at the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse in a wonderful concert to hail the new year.
Jeffrey Bernstein, Artistic Director of both PMC and Los Angeles Daiku (the largest such group outside Japan), says that “when a Japanese person says ‘daiku,’ he or she is referring to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. In Japan, there are literally hundreds of performances per year, with some of them drawing massed choirs of 500 to 600 participants.”
Soloists are Krystle Casey, soprano; Jessica Marney, mezzo-soprano; Arthur Rishi, tenor; and Cedric Berry, baritone.
Saturday, Jan. 7, 7:30 p.m.
San Gabriel Mission Playhouse, 320 S. Mission Drive, San Gabriel
Tickets: $25
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Moscow String Quartet
The Da Camera Society Chamber Music in Historic Sites brings the Moscow String Quartet to Topanga at the Mermaid.
The ensemble players are Eugenia Alikhanova and Galina Kokhanovskaia, violins; Tatiana Kokhanovskaya, viola; and Olga Ogranovitch, cello.
Program:
• Borodin: String Quartet No.2 in D Major
• Mozart: String Quartet in D Major, K575
• Shostakovich: String Quartet No.1 in C Major, Op.49
Expect the Borodin quartet to be authentic — Jim Eninger’s Clickable Chamber Music Newsletter says that the quartet players “are graduates of the Moscow Conservatory and Gnessin Musical Institute in Moscow, who met in the class of renowned cellist Valentin Berlinsky of the Borodin Quartet. They went on to gain international acclaim by winning the Leo Weiner International Quartet Competition in Budapest, Hungary. The quartet also won First Prize for best performance of Classical music and Grand-Prix for its interpretation of contemporary music at the International Quartet Competition in Evian, France.”
Sunday, Jan. 8, 2 & 4 p.m.
The Mermaid, Topanga
Single tickets: $88, $78, includes a light reception
For information, call (213) 477-2929.
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~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.