The chamber music season in Los Angeles may be winding down for the summer, but the stages are still lively this week with four great concerts that are all worth your attention. Thursday night, don’t pass up the opportunity to hear the moving music of Steve Reich and Yotam Haber at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall. Then, Saturday night is all-French, with a delightful offering of French Baroque at the Getty or Poulenc’s Babar the Elephant at Boston Court in Pasadena. On Sunday, the Da Camera Society brings the Benvenue Fortepiano Trio to town with its Chamber Music in Historic Sites series at the Ebell Club in mid-Wilshire.
Ancient Echoes/Modern Sounds
Chambermusic@ucla brings conductors NEAL STULBERG and HENRY SHIN and the music of STEVE REICH and YOTAM HABER to UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall Thursday evening.
Program
• Steve Reich (b.1936): Different Trains (1988) for string quartet and tape.
• Yotam Haber (b.1977): Death Will Come and She Shall Have Your Eyes (2008) for mezzo soprano, 15 strings, and archival tape. Mezzo-soprano soloist ROSE BEATTIE will sing in an American premiere, and Haber will speak with the audience before the performance. Click here to listen to a 15-minute interview with Haber about his work. Death Will Come will be repeated in a concert sponsored by the Jewish Music Commission of Los Angeles at Congregation Valley Beth Shalom on Friday, May 20, at 9 p.m.
Thursday, May 19, 8 p.m.
Schoenberg Hall, UCLA, Park in P2 ($10).
Tickets: $12 / $5 faculty, staff and students. Click for information or call the UCLA Department of Music at (310) 825-4761.
Gordon Getty Concert
San Francisco’s renowned PHILHARMONIA BAROQUE CHAMBER PLAYERS will join soprano CATHERINE WEBSTER to perform 17th century French Baroque in the Harold M. Williams Auditorium at the Getty Center. The program complements the current exhibition “Paris: Life & Luxury” (that includes a period harpsichord and original score by Rameau).
Program
• François Couperin: La Françoise from Les Nations ‘Sonade’
• Jacques-Martin Hotteterre: Suite for flute and continuo No.3 in G Major, Op.2 No.3
• Michel Lambert: Ma bergère est tender et fidelle, air de cour
• Michel Pignolet de Montéclair: Cantate La Bergère, Livre III, No.VI
• Michel Pignolet de Montéclair: Cantate La mort de Didon, Livre I, No.VI
• Jean-Phillipe Rameau: Concert No.5 in D Minor from Pièces de clavecin en concerts
Saturday, May 21, 7:30 p.m.
Harold M. Williams Auditorium, The Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles
Tickets: $20 / $15 students and seniors. To reserve tickets, call (310) 440-7300.
Music at Boston Court
Pianologues brings Poulenc and Babar the Elephant to life with SANDRA TSING LOH (narrator/commentary) and MARK ROBSON (piano) at Boston Court in Pasadena Saturday evening.
Program
• Francis Poulenc: Babar the Elephant
Saturday, May 21, 8 p.m.
Boston Court, 70 North Mentor Avenue, Pasadena
Tickets: $25 / $20 students and seniors.
The Da Camera Society with Chamber Music in Historic Sites
BENVENUE FORTEPIANO TRIO with MONICA HUGGETT (violin), TANYA TOMKINS (cello), and ERIC ZIVIAN (fortepiano) bring Mendelssohn, Bach, and Schumann to the Grand Salon of the Ebell Club Sunday evening. Huggett’s violin is a Joseph Albani from Bolzano 1707, and for this concert the ensemble will use an 1813 Broadwood fortepiano.
Program
• J.S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue No.9 in E Major, BWV878, and Prelude and Fugue No.16 in G Minor, BWV885, from Book II of The Well-Tempered Clavier
• Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No.2 in C Minor, Op.66. The Trio has a new recording produced by Avie Records featuring Mendelssohn.
• Schumann: Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op.47
Sunday, May 22, 4 p.m. (pre-concert talk at 3:30 p.m.)
Grand Salon, Ebell Club of Los Angeles, 4401 West 8th Street, Los Angeles
(Lucerne & Wilshire, between La Brea & Crenshaw)
Tickets: $49, $44, $39. For information, call (213) 477-2929.
~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.