There is always a lot to choose from when the Hollywood Bowl announces its summer season. This year is no exception. In an effort to help you make your decisions, we’re posting our choices for the best concerts in classical music, jazz and pop music/broadway. Today we’re showcasing our choices for the five best classical music concerts to see this season.
July 23rd: Dudamel Conducts Mahler’s 2nd
If there was any doubt that Gustavo Dudamel was a master of Gustav Mahler’s music, his final appearances of the 2018/2019 season at the Walt Disney Concert Hall erased all that. The performances of the composer’s Symphony of a Thousand in late May and early June were transcendent. Though he previously lead this massive work at the Shrine Auditorium with a much larger group of musicians, the smaller ensemble combined with the more intimate space (and significantly better acoustics) at Walt Disney Concert Hall made these concerts infinitely more emotional.
On Tuesday, July 23rd, Dudamel will lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 – also know as Resurrection. Mahler wrote this symphony over a period of six years. It had its world premiere in 1895. Like much of his work, this symphony examines afterlife and resurrection – thus the title.
The symphony typical runs about 85 minutes. Joining the LA philharmonic will be the Los Angeles Master Chorale and soloists Miah Persson and Anna Larsson. It should be noted that Larsson made her professional debut in 1997 with this work.
July 25th: Dudamel and Yuja Wang
You don’t have to wait very long for my second selection. This concert opens with Barber’s Adagio for Strings. If the name isn’t familiar, it’s the piece of music used by director Oliver Stone in Platoon. The concert concludes with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. But the main attraction here is the return of pianist Yuja Wang to play Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? This is the piano concerto by John Adams that had its world premiere at Walt Disney Concert Hall this season on March 7th. (In a rather ironic note, it was paired with Mahler’s Symphony No. 1)
Since the four performances in March, Wang and the LA Philharmonic have toured with this work. No doubt the multiple performances now completed will have created a greater familiarity with this very complicated work. Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? was amazing on first listen. I’m looking forward to hearing a more seasoned performance at the Bowl.
August 6th: Mozart Masterworks
In May of this year, the LA Philharmonic performed Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony (No. 41). Now conductor Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra have their turn with the piece. This was the last symphony Mozart completed.
What was uncompleted at the time of his death is the work that many consider to be his true masterwork: Requiem. There remain multiple questions about who ultimately commissioned this work and who completed it. But what isn’t in question is how absolutely powerful and moving it is. If you’ve seen the film Amadeus, it is the work Mozart is trying to finish on his deathbed.
Hearing the Requiem outdoors at the Hollywood Bowl, particularly on a warm night with no planes overhead (if we’re lucky), will be a transcendent experience.
August 20th: Peter and the Wolf
I know what you’re thinking – really? Peter and the Wolf? This all-Russian evening features two works by Tchaikovsky: Waltz from Sleeping Beauty and Orchestral Suite No. 4 “Mozartiana.” Also on the program is Borodin’s In the Steppes of Central Asia.
But the highlight is certain to be Prokofiev’s very familiar Peter and the Wolf. What makes this performance so appealing is the inclusion of Blind Summit Theatre, a London-based puppet-centric theatre.
Rather than paraphrase their approach to Peter and the Wolf, let me quote directly from their website. “A Socialist-Realist Puppet-Peter leads a cast of masked dancers in a semi-staging of one of the world’s most popular pieces of classical music. This simple, charming tale of a boy who captures a wolf, introduces young audiences to the instruments of the orchestra and teaches them how to be a good communist.”
In other words, this is not going to be Peter and the Wolf as you’ve known it. This will be a unique and challenging presentation of a work that is perhaps too familiar to us all.
Bramwell Tovey will be leading the LA Philharmonic in this concert.
August 27th and 29th: Beethoven’s Ninth
Now you’re probably asking yourself, why is he picking so many familiar works? As much as I love Beethoven’s majestic Symphony No. 9, that isn’t the reason I’ve picked this concert. Like Mozart’s Requiem, hearing this symphony outdoors at the Bowl should be a real treat.
However, I chose the concert because also on the program is the world premiere of a new work by composer Caroline Shaw. In 2013 Shaw became the youngest person to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music (for her work, Partita for 8 Voices). She recently appeared with composer Nico Muhly as part of his evening at the Theatre at the Ace Hotel.
Little information is available about this new composition except that it was commissioned by the LA Philharmonic. I don’t have a title, a run time, or any details. But it doesn’t matter. Shaw is so compelling a composer that I’d like to believe there are two performances of this program because of the overwhelming desire to hear her new work. But I know it’s the Beethoven. Though he never got to hear Shaw’s work, I’m sure he’d be thrilled to be her closing act.
Xian Zhang will conduct the LA Philharmonic. Soloists for the Beethoven include Anita Hartig – soprano; Jennifer Johnson Cano – mezzo-soprano; Toby Spencer – tenor and Michael Sumuel – bass. The LA Master Chorale will also join this performance.
For tickets to any of these concerts go here.
Main photograph: Gustavo Dudamel conducts at the Hollywood Bowl. (Photo by Adam Latham)
All images courtesy of the LA Philharmonic Association unless otherwise noted.