Post by erik on Jul 26, 2023 8:35:31 GMT -5
Last night's Hollywood Bowl concert was one in which we heard three works that explored America's past, present, and future
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Leonard Slatkin, conductor
Makoto Ozone, piano
Cindy McTee: TIMEPIECE
Gershwin: RHAPSODY IN BLUE
Dvorak: SYMPHONY NO. 9 (NEW WORLD)
Leonard Slatkin, the Los Angeles-born conductor who has held prime music directorship roles with the St. Louis Symphony, the National Symphony (in Washington), and the Detroit Symphony, was on hand for three works that explored a wide range of sounds. The night began with a work from 2000 entitled "Timepiece" by his wife, the composer Cindy McTee, which was written in 2000 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (it was premiered on February 17th of that year, with Andrew Litton conducting). Various percussion instruments in the orchestra (wood block; xylophone) and piano simulated many clocks ticking away after the piece emerged from some infinite space in the ether. The influences of jazz were very much in evidence during this eight and a half-minute single-movement work; and at the end, one of the Bowl spotlights caught a glimpse of the composer, who was in the audience, taking in the applause of the crowd of 9,000 people.
Next up was one of the premier works that identifies the American Sound--namely the 1924 "Rhapsody In Blue" by George Gershwin. The Japanese-born pianist Makoto Ozone was on hand for this work; and while I had heard this work three times before at the Bowl, I had never heard it done quite like it was done by Mr. Ozone. He often indulged in a lot of jazzy riffs and cadenzas in-between the places where both piano and orchestra were required to be together. This resulted in "Rhapsody In Blue" being greatly, and I do mean greatly, extended, from the usual seventeen minutes it usually takes to perform when done straight, to a mind-busting twenty five and a half minutes. As an encore, Mr. Ozone did his own jazzy solo piano riff, but the title of the piece he played was unknown to me.
Following intermission, Slatkin returned to conduct the L.A. Phil in a work that is known by every American orchestra, even though its composer was only a visitor to America: the New World Symphony (#9) of the great Czech composer Antonin Dvorak. As maestro Slatkin pointed out before the night's concert began, there really isn't anything so strictly "American" per se about the work, but that Dvorak's Czech musical instincts combined with what he heard among Native American and African- American populations as far west as Iowa during his visit in 1892-93. The work's second movement contained an English horn solo passage that would give rise to the African-American spiritual song "Goin' Home", while the familiar Scherzo and triumphant finale combined both Dvorak's nationalist feel of Bohemian dance rhythms with what he had seen in the American landscape.
It remained very warm that evening, as it had been for much of this month; and there were admittedly a few noisy distractions in the skies immediately above the darkened Bowl amphitheater, but none were sufficient to drown out the music being performed, on another great night in the hills above L.A.
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Leonard Slatkin, conductor
Makoto Ozone, piano
Cindy McTee: TIMEPIECE
Gershwin: RHAPSODY IN BLUE
Dvorak: SYMPHONY NO. 9 (NEW WORLD)
Leonard Slatkin, the Los Angeles-born conductor who has held prime music directorship roles with the St. Louis Symphony, the National Symphony (in Washington), and the Detroit Symphony, was on hand for three works that explored a wide range of sounds. The night began with a work from 2000 entitled "Timepiece" by his wife, the composer Cindy McTee, which was written in 2000 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (it was premiered on February 17th of that year, with Andrew Litton conducting). Various percussion instruments in the orchestra (wood block; xylophone) and piano simulated many clocks ticking away after the piece emerged from some infinite space in the ether. The influences of jazz were very much in evidence during this eight and a half-minute single-movement work; and at the end, one of the Bowl spotlights caught a glimpse of the composer, who was in the audience, taking in the applause of the crowd of 9,000 people.
Next up was one of the premier works that identifies the American Sound--namely the 1924 "Rhapsody In Blue" by George Gershwin. The Japanese-born pianist Makoto Ozone was on hand for this work; and while I had heard this work three times before at the Bowl, I had never heard it done quite like it was done by Mr. Ozone. He often indulged in a lot of jazzy riffs and cadenzas in-between the places where both piano and orchestra were required to be together. This resulted in "Rhapsody In Blue" being greatly, and I do mean greatly, extended, from the usual seventeen minutes it usually takes to perform when done straight, to a mind-busting twenty five and a half minutes. As an encore, Mr. Ozone did his own jazzy solo piano riff, but the title of the piece he played was unknown to me.
Following intermission, Slatkin returned to conduct the L.A. Phil in a work that is known by every American orchestra, even though its composer was only a visitor to America: the New World Symphony (#9) of the great Czech composer Antonin Dvorak. As maestro Slatkin pointed out before the night's concert began, there really isn't anything so strictly "American" per se about the work, but that Dvorak's Czech musical instincts combined with what he heard among Native American and African- American populations as far west as Iowa during his visit in 1892-93. The work's second movement contained an English horn solo passage that would give rise to the African-American spiritual song "Goin' Home", while the familiar Scherzo and triumphant finale combined both Dvorak's nationalist feel of Bohemian dance rhythms with what he had seen in the American landscape.
It remained very warm that evening, as it had been for much of this month; and there were admittedly a few noisy distractions in the skies immediately above the darkened Bowl amphitheater, but none were sufficient to drown out the music being performed, on another great night in the hills above L.A.