Violinists Ilia Korol, with Musica Angelica, and Lorenz Gamma, with Southwest Chamber Music, are in the spotlight this week. Korol will play Beethoven and Schubert with period instruments, and Gamma performs as part of the fabulous Ascending Dragon Festival and Cultural Exchange throughout the week at Zipper Hall.
Musica Angelica with Ilia Korol
Musica Angelica, one of the area’s finest period-instrument ensembles, brings violinist Ilia Korol together with the pianoforte of Natasha Grigorieva for long-awaited concerts in Pasadena and Santa Monica this weekend.
Korol is a regular performer with Musica Angelica, and I anticipate a wonderful concert (see my Culture Spot review of a Musica Angelica concert last season). You will find that he has a very distinctive manner and that he is a consummate artist and master technician. He is mesmerizing on stage. I recommend the Sunday performance, as the Santa Monica venue may be the better of the two.
The core of the program is all-Beethoven with the Sonatas in E-flat Major (Op. 12 No. 3) and F Major (Op. 24), but the open and close are Schubert’s Sonatas in D Major (D384) and A Major (D574). Intoxicating program — no minors allowed?
Saturday, April 24, 8 p.m.
The Neighborhood Church, 301 N. Orange Grove Blvd., Pasadena
Sunday, April 25, 4 p.m.
First Presbyterian Church of Santa Monica, 1220 Second St. (1/2 block south of Wilshire), Santa Monica
Tickets: $39. For information, call (310) 458-4504.
Southwest Chamber Music
Southwest Chamber Music continues its Ascending Dragon Festival.
The Ascending Dragon Music Festival and Cultural Exchange continues fresh from its Vietnam tour where Jeff von der Schmidt and Southwest Chamber Music are flying even higher with concerts featuring new music of American and Vietnamese composers. I reviewed the opening and farewell concerts from the pre-tour programs, and read the reviews of LA Times music writer Mark Swed who travelled throughout Vietnam with the Festival, and it is obvious that this project has a brilliance that is unique and special.
The U.S. State Department grant that Southwest Chamber received for its share of the Festival is certainly an impressive professional honor. These events form the largest cultural exchange ever between the United States and Vietnam and include concerts and other events here and abroad in 2010. Try to hear one of these remaining programs at Zipper Hall at the Colburn School, one of the very finest chamber music venues in Los Angeles.
Remaining Programs:
Saturday, April 24
Kurt Rohde: Still Distant, Still Here (U.S. Premiere)
John Cage: Atlas Eclipticalis
Elliott Carter: On Conversing with Paradise (U.S. Premiere)
Aaron Copland: Appalachian Spring
Friday, April 30
Maurice Ravel: Ma mère l’oye
Pham Minh Thành: Thang Long (U.S. Premiere)
Alexandra du Bois: A Requiem for the Living (West Coast Premiere)
Kurt Rohde: Oculus
Monday, May 3
Claude Debussy: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
Tôn Thât Tiêt: Poèmes (U.S. Premiere)
Arnold Schoenberg: Five Orchestra Pieces Op. 16
Alexandra du Bois: I Wonder as I Wander (West Coast Premiere)
Tôn Thât Tiêt: Niem (U.S. Premiere)
Vu Nhat Tân: Ky Uc (U.S. Premiere)
Igor Stravinsky: Dumbarton Oaks
Zipper Concert Hall, The Colburn School, 200 S. Grand Ave., LA
Tickets: $38 / $28 seniors / $10 students. For tickets and information, where you can read program notes, download a podcast, and watch a video on the concert, click: https://www.swmusic.org/performances/calendar.html
Southwest Chamber Music is offering readers of the Clickable Chamber Music Newsletter complimentary concert tickets to the Colburn School concerts. Request for tickets should be e-mailed to mail@swmusic.org and reference “Clickable Chamber Music Newsletter and Culture Spot LA.”
These concerts were selected from among 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.