This weekend the Los Angeles Master Chorale opens its 2019-2020 season with two performances at Walt Disney Concert. Topping the bill, at least for marketing purposes, is the first LA Master Chorale performance of Anton Bruckner’s Mass No. 3 in F Minor. What excites me is the Los Angeles premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s Oceana. The concerts take place on Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening.
Oceana is a 27-minute work written by Golijov in 1996. The text features the work of legendary poet Pablo Neruda. It is taken from his collection entitled Cantos Ceremoniales.
The orchestration calls for three guitars, harps, orchestra and voice. In addition to the LA Master Chorale members, Luciana Souza, who performed on the original recording of this work, will sing the same part at these concerts.
Argentinian composer Golijov is perhaps best known for his composition, Le Pasíon según San Marco.
Opening the program is the Bruckner Mass. Written around 1867-1868, the work did not have its first performance until 1872. The Mass runs about one hour and is broken up into six different parts: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei.
The work is written for vocal soloists, chorus and orchestra with the use of an organ as desired.
In the program notes for these concerts, Artistic Director Grant Gershon says of the two works:
“Each one is so specific in terms of its individual sound world and has such a clarity of vision and intent that I thought it would be exciting to put them together. To me, as a concertgoer, that kind of variety is something I really enjoy. I embrace how different they are.”
For tickets go here.
Photo of Osvaldo Golijov by Robson Fernandjes/Courtesy of the LA Master Chorale