Los Angeles has such a diverse chamber music scene! We can only marvel at the breadth and depth of our local culture from the antiquities to the cutting edge, and it is so accessible. Here are a few of these great events sampled from every day of the week.
Open the week Monday with the Musica Angelica Benefit Concert of Renaissance and Baroque organ music with Martin Haselböck and soprano Mary Wilson. Musica Angelica is an important contribution to the Los Angeles arts world and worthy of your support through this benefit concert. Then later in the week there is another treat for early music enthusiasts from the Redondo Beach Baroque Festival that runs Friday and Saturday with four FREE concerts.
Shift gears on Tuesday with the Mojave Trio playing modern composer Kurt Rhode in the vein of Americana à la Charles Ives. The Takács Quartet comes to Ace Gallery Institute of Contemporary Art to a limited audience on Wednesday, and beginning Thursday conductor Charles Dutoit returns to LA with a fabulous concert of Stravinsky, Debussy and Prokofiev — some of my all-time favorite music. The Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra brings their early-20th-century German Bauhaus modernism to the Harold M. Williams Auditorium at the Getty Center on Saturday.
Where will I be this week? No doubt about it, I will be listening to Poulenc, Bax, and Fauré at Le Salon de Musiques Sunday afternoon upstairs at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Look for my review here.
Read more about these exciting events and their artists and programs below.
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MUSICA ANGELICA BENEFIT RECITAL
MUSICA ANGELICA presents an afternoon with Music Director and organist MARTIN HASELBÖCK and soprano MARY WILSON in a special concert of Baroque music. Musica Angelica is internationally acclaimed for their historically accurate performances of Renaissance and Baroque music, and this event will be hosted in a private home in the Brentwood area that has an impressive late-17th-century North German-style Baroque tracker organ.
Monday, Feb. 20, 3 p.m. Private residence in Brentwood. Call for information.
Tickets: $150. Call (310) 458-4504 for more information and to purchase tickets.
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MOJAVE TRIO
The Occidental Guest Artist Recital brings a free concert of the Mojave Trio with Grammy Award-winning artist SARA PARKINS violin, MARGARET PARKINS cello, and GENEVIEVE FEIWEN LEE piano. I particularly like this program, and the Americana aspect of the music will leave you feeling better.
Program
• Charles Ives: Piano Trio
• Kurt Rohde: Four Re-mixes, based on American popular songs from the last 20 years.
Tuesday, Feb. 21, 12:30 p.m. Bird Studio, Occidental College, Pasadena/Glendale
Free admission. For information, call (323) 259-2785.
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TAKÁCS QUARTET
The Ace Gallery Institute of Contemporary Art presents the TAKÁCS QUARTET with EDWARD DUSINBERRE violin, KÁROLY SCHRANZ violin, GERALDINE WALTHER viola, and ANDRÁS FEJÉR cello.
Curator ERIC WILSON has brought many of the most notable ensembles in the genre to the Gallery in this series. TAKÁCS’ recording of the Beethoven quartets received a Grammy and Gramophone Award for the Best Chamber Music Recording In 2002.
Wednesday, Feb. 22, 8 p.m. Ace Gallery Institute of Contemporary Art, 9430 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills
Admission: $60. Tickets for purchase are extremely limited. Contact the gallery at (323) 935-4411 for availability and purchase (unreserved general seating).
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DUTOIT CONDUCTS THE LA PHIL
Conductor CHARLES DUTOIT returns this weekend with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a great Program of Stravinsky, Debussy, and Prokoviev. Do you still have that Valentine buzz going, or maybe you never had it? It’s time for a little stimulation, from the Suite from Romeo and Juliet floating in La Mer!
Program
• Stravinsky: Symphonies of Wind Instruments
• Debussy: La Mer
• Prokofiev: Suite from Romeo and Juliet
Thursday, Feb. 23, 2012, 8 p.m.; Friday, Feb. 24, 11 a.m.; Saturday, Feb 25, 8 p.m. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., LA.
For ticket information, call (323) 850-2000.
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4th ANNUAL REDONDO BEACH BAROQUE FESTIVAL
Four Free concerts over two days celebrating the music, composers, and instruments of the Baroque era.
CONCERT SCHEDULE
• Friday, Feb. 24, 7:30 p.m. Selections by J.S. Bach. TISH ONEY soprano, RIK NOYCE flute, and PHILIP SMITH organ
• Saturday, Feb. 25, 1 p.m. Organ Recital with LYNETTE BALL McGEE. Selections by J.S. Bach, Scheidt, Walther, Stanley, and Clerambault
• Saturday, Feb. 25, 4 p.m. Los Angeles Recorder Orchestra
• Saturday, Feb. 25, 7:30 p.m. Purcell, J.S. Bach, and Vivaldi – Choral and Vocal Works with combined choirs from Riviera United Methodist Church, Redondo Beach First United Methodist Church, Soloists and Baroque Orchestra, conducted by DAWN BROOKS and LINDA WATERMAN.
Riviera United Methodist Church, 375 Palos Verdes Blvd., Redondo Beach
Freewill donation at the door for all concerts. Free childcare available for ages 0-3 with office reservation. For concert information, call (310) 378-9273.
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PHILADELPHIA VIRTUOSI CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
This Gordon Getty Concert brings the PHILADELPHIA VIRTUOSI CHAMBER ORCHESTRA, known internationally for its programming, repertoire and recordings since 1991. Conductor DANIEL SPALDING and the 17 members present a program of early-20th-century German Bauhaus modernism, including selections by Igor Stravinsky, Ernst Krenek, Ferruccio Busoni, Arnold Schoenberg, and George Antheil. The concert complements the exhibition of Lyonel Feininger photographs, 1928-1939.
Saturday, Feb. 25, 7:30 p.m. in the Harold M. Williams Auditorium, The Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Drive, LA
Tickets: $20 / $15 students and seniors. To reserve tickets, call (310) 440-7300 or use the “Get Tickets” button on the website announcement.
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LE SALON DE MUSIQUES
Le Salon de Musiques transforms the fifth-floor banquet room at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion into a wonderful intimate space for sharing the joy of music. The February concert is not to be missed — look for our review next week at Culture Spot LA.
The ensemble includes Steven Vanhauwaert on Piano, Marcia Dickstein on Harp, Pamela Vliek on Flute, Tereza Stanislav on Violin, Victoria Miskolczy on Viola and John Walz on Cello. The performance is accompanied in the style of Le Salon by Champagne, food by Patina and informal conversation introduced by musicologist Julius Reder Carlson.
Program
• Poulenc: Flute Sonata With Piano
• Arnold Bax: Elegiac Trio for Flute, Harp and Viola
• Fauré: Piano Quartet N.1 In C Minor Opus 15
Sunday, Feb. 26, 4 p.m. in the fifth-floor banquet room at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., LA
Tickets: $65/$45 students
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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.