Though I was enormously skeptical, I think we’re all relieved that there will indeed by a Hollywood Bowl 2021 season. After a series of free concerts for front-line workers, a sense of normalcy returns with this weekend’s July 4th Fireworks Spectacular with Kool & the Gang.
There are other concerts that are going to be familiar to those who frequent the Bowl. The annual Tchaikovsky Spectacular is back as is a salute to the music of film composer John Williams.
I’ve combed through the schedule and here are the shows that stand out to me as the best bets this summer for fans of the performing arts. They are listed chronologically.
CLASSICAL MUSIC: July 15th: Peter and the Wolf
Gustavo Dudamel leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a concert that will feature Oscar and Tony Award-winning actress Viola Davis narrating Peter and the Wolf (with music, of course, by Sergei Prokofiev). The composer’s Symphony No. 1 “Classical” opens the program. Margaret Bonds wrote the Montgomery Variations in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Selections from the work will be performed to conclude the first half of the concert.
JAZZ: July 18th: Kamasi Washington
If you watched the LA Phil’s Sound/Stage series you know how exciting a performer/composer Kamasi Washington is. (And if you haven’t, you should do so immediately.) Between the richness of his writing and the freedom he gives his very large band to improvise and contribute to the musical dialogue on stage, you will see very quickly why Washington is so highly-acclaimed.
As of press time, this is the only concert on his schedule. Opening is hip-hop artist Earl Sweatshirt. Both artists are from Los Angeles.
JAZZ: July 24th: Ledisi Sings Nina Simone
Singer/actress Ledisi is releasing an album of songs made famous by Nina Simone the night before this concert at The Hollywood Bowl. Ledisi Sings Nina includes such classic songs as Feeling Good, My Baby Just Cares for Me and Wild Is the Wind.
For this concert she will be joined by Thomas Wilkins leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
One week later she will be performing at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 31st and she’ll be at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park in San Diego on August 17th. Wilkins will lead the San Diego Symphony Orchestra in that show.
I fully anticipate that Ledisi will put a spell on you at this concert.
BROADWAY/VOCALS: July 30th: Cynthia Erivo
Also releasing an album, her first solo recording, is the destined-to-be-an-EGOT Cynthia Erivo. (She’s only missing an Academy Award and that is certainly in her future.) That record, Ch. 1 Vs. 1, will be released on September 17th. The first single, The Good, came out last month.
The star of The Color Purple on Broadway and the recent Genius: Aretha Franklin will probably include songs from both her stage and screen career. She’ll be joined by Wilkins and the LA Philharmonic for this concert. At press time this was her only solo concert on her schedule.
I saw her in her Tony Award-winning role as Celie. She blew the roof off the Jacobs Theatre in New York every night. If anyone can make the shell of the Bowl levitate, it’s going to be Erivo.
CLASSICAL MUSIC: August 5th: Schumann & Beethoven UPDATED
Gemma New leads the LA Phil in this concert that opens with warp & weft by Sarah Gibson. She is a Los Angeles-based composer and pianist who also performs as a member of HOCKET.
warp & weft was given its world premiere performance in 2019 by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.
Pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason was scheduled to perform Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A Minor. However visa issues got in the way. She is being replaced by pianist Behzod Abduraimov. He will be performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15.
The second half of the program will feature the Rhenish Symphony No. 3 by Robert Schumann.
CLASSICAL MUSIC: August 10th: Dudamel Conducts Gershwin
What could be a better line-up of music for the summer than Cuban Overture, Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris and songs by George Gershwin? Obviously for fans of this composer (count me in) this is pure heaven.
Gustavo Dudamel will lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic for this concert.
Joining them will be pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and counter-tenor John Holiday.
As part of the Sound/Stage series, Thibaudet joined the LA Phil to perform the jazz band arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue. Perhaps this will be the full orchestra version. I hope so!
CLASSICAL MUSIC: August 17th: Dudamel Leads Elgar and Grieg
Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason joins the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conductor Gustavo Dudamel for a concert featuring the works of British composer Edward Elgar and Norwegian composer Edvard Greig.
Opening the program is Grieg’s immensely popular Peer Gynt Suite No. 1. From the opening notes of this work, you’ll immediately recognize it.
Kanneh-Mason joins for the chamber version of Elgar’s Cello Concerto. This was the composer’s last major work for orchestra. Kanneh-Mason’s 2020 recording with the London Symphony Orchestra and Simon Rattle received glowing reviews. Rob Cowan, writing for Gramophone, said of the performance:
“It really is a remarkable performance, one that has already given me enormous pleasure.”
The performance concludes with Elgar’s Enigma Variations.
CLASSICAL MUSIC: September 9th: Beethoven and Schumann
One month earlier you had the chance to hear what a piano concerto in A minor written by Clara Schumann sounds like. With this concert you can hear what Robert Schumann did with his Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 54. What makes this concert so appealing is the soloist, Hélène Grimaud.
Long a fan of Schumann’s work, Grimaud made her US concert debut with a performance of this work with the Cleveland Orchestra in 1990. Twelve years later she performed the concerto as part of her debut at Carnegie Hall. In other words, this piece has a special and substantial place in her heart.
The concert, lead by conductor Marta Gardolińska, will open with Overture by Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz. After the intermission, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 will conclude the evening’s performance.
CLASSICAL MUSIC: September 14th: Yo-Yo Ma’s Bach Project
Bach’s Six Cello Suites will be performed by Yo-Yo Ma alone on the massive Hollywood Bowl stage. Almost exactly four years prior to this concert, he did exactly the same concert. The quiet, emotional and intimate music of Johann Sebastian Bach performed on a single instrument for two-and-a-half hours to an enraptured audience.
I know what you’re thinking, did this really work?
Here are some excerpts from Mark Swed‘s review for the Los Angeles Times:
“…the concert proved an unquestionably great, memorable Bowl occasion. …This audience sat in nearly unbelievable rapt attention focused on Ma as each musically complex and austere six-movement suite followed suite. …Extraordinarily, this had the effect of a kind of visual and aural intimacy you could never reproduce in a concert hall while at the same time producing a sense of awe being in a large outdoor arena where attention-deficit is normally taken for granted. With the Bowl doing everything right — the lighting, the mood, the outstanding sound system — Ma made the astonishing an argument against dumbing down.”
I certainly hope to experience this performance. If you do, don’t hesitate to get tickets. The previous performance was sold out.
JAZZ: September 26th: Herbie Hancock
He’s a legend. He always puts on a massively entertaining show. And I’d venture a guess by saying no two performances by keyboardist/composer Herbie Hancock are the same.
With a career that spans from Miles Davis to The Headhunters to his Oscar-winning score for Round Midnight, Hancock is always trying something new and pushing the definition of jazz into new areas. His support of young artists is also powerfully important.
There are no guests announced yet for this concert, but there will undoubtedly be many. He’ll be performing with his band (though wouldn’t a solo concert be amazing?).
I’ve seen Hancock several times and can strongly recommend seeing this concert.
Those are my selections as the best bets for the Hollywood Bowl 2021 season. If, like me, you enjoy a wide range of music, I recommend checking out the full schedule.
Coming soon will be my selection of the Best Bets at The Ford.
Leave a message in the comments section and let me know what you’re looking forward to seeing most this summer at the Hollywood Bowl.
Update: This post has been updated to reflect the change of soloists and material being performed on August 5th. Isata Kanneh-Mason was unable to get a visa.
Photo: Hollywood Bowl with Fireworks (Photo by Adam Latham/Courtesy Los Angeles Philharmonic)