For those lucky enough to have had a ticket to the Los Angeles Philharmonic concert on May 10th at Walt Disney Concert Hall, they got to hear the first part of a new work by composer Thomas Adés entitled Inferno. This world premiere was just a precursor for the main attraction:  Adés & McGregor: A Dance Collaboration at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Friday and Saturday.

Adés & McGregor team up for two performances this weekend in Los Angeles
Composer/Conductor Thomas Adés (Photo by Brian Voce)

What I heard of Inferno on that May morning was music that felt like the physical and emotional equivalent of a roller coaster. I literally felt my heartbeat change in response to this exhilarating music.

The music was written for this ballet. Now that music will be married to the dance as the main attraction of these two performances.

Wayne McGregor, who choreographed the piece, has teamed his company with The Royal Ballet for these performances.

The first piece on the program is a West Coast Premiere called Outlier. This 22-minute work had its world premiere in 2010 in New York. Concentric Paths, a 2005 violin concerto by Adés is the music used in Outlier.

The second piece on the program is another world premiere. LIVING ARCHIVE: AN AI PERFORMANCE EXPERIMENT is the name of this work. (The all caps is part of the naming.) This production’s website describes Living Archive as a tool for choreography developed between Google Arts and Culture Lab and Studio Wayne McGregor.

Adés & McGregor team up for two performances at the Music Center
Wayne McGregor (Photo by Pal Hansen)

Then there’s the main attraction. Adés will lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic through the entire program, but it will be of greatest interest to hear how he leads the orchestra in Inferno. There are two soloists:  Leila Josefowicz on violin and Kirill Gerstein on piano.

This is easily one of the most exciting offerings in the performing arts in Los Angeles all summer. I honestly believe if I had to pick only one thing to see this would be the one. You’ll want to be in the room where it happened.

Main photo by Ravi Deepres. All images courtesy of the Music Center.

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