When the LA Philharmonic celebrated its 100th anniversary with a concert featuring conductors Zubin Mehta, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Gustavo Dudamel, they turned to composer Daníel Bjarnason to write a new work all three would conduct simultaneously. Now Bjarnason and pianist Víkingur Ólafsson have curated their own concert which will be performed by the LA Phil New Music Group on Tuesday night at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Bjarnason, who will conduct, has two of his works being performed. 5 Possibilities for piano, cello and clarinet opens the second half of the concert. There is also a “Post-Concert Set” that finds his Qui Tollis being performed.
The evening opens with Brent Sørensen’s The Weeping White Room. That is followed by Kaija Saariaho’s Sept Papillons for solo cello. Then comes the world premiere of The CV of a Butterfly by Thurídur Jónsdóttir. This work was commissioned by the LA Philharmonic.
Closing out the second half of the program is Sørensen’s Papillions for piano and strings. This marks the U.S. premiere of this work.
Additional musicians joining for the main concert are Eric Byers on cello and Boris Allakhverdyan on larinet.
If you are wondering if there is a theme to this, perhaps the use of the words butterfly and papillons in several titles is a clue. (Papillion is French for “butterfly.”)
Something unique for this concert is the addition of the post-concert set. Sarriaho’s Trois Rivieres follows Bjarnason’s work and the evening comes to a close with Rolf Wallin’s Stonewave.
The post-concert set is performed by Joseph Pereira (who conducts and plays percussion), Matthew Howard (percussion), Jeffrey Grant (percussion), Nick Terry (percussion), Tyler Stell (percussion), Andres Rosenthal Piccardo (percussion) and Eduardo Meneeses (percussion.)
For tickets go here.
Photo of Víkingur Ólafsson by Ari Magg (Courtesy of the LA Philharmonic)
