This Week in Classical Music-January 25, 2009

by: Randy Kinkel

January 25, 2009

Gustavo Dudamel

( Phoenix )
•Dudamel's first season in LA
•Adams named Artistic Director to LA Phil
•Williams inaugural piece

This week in classical music 1/25/09

It’s this week in classical music, an update on what’s happening in the classical music world; I’m Randy Kinkel.

This year marks the first season for Gustavo Dudamel as the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Music Director; the 28-year-old conductor will start his first season with Beethoven’s ninth Symphony at the Hollywood bowl; as a gift to his new adopted city, all 18,000 tickets to the daylong extravaganza on October 3rd culminating in the performance of Beethoven’s ninth will be free. Dudamel’s Disney Hall season begins October 8th with a gala that will be televised live on PBS. In a recent interview, Dudamel said he wanted to continue the tradition of Esa-Pekka Salonen in making the orchestra a center for innovation. “Here is a tradition of new things, not old things, and it is an example for orchestras all over the world.” He said.
American Composer John Adams has been appointed creative chair of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, joining the orchestra as artistic adviser. Among the planned projects are a festival of California music, “West Coast Left Coast”, which includes composer Terry Riley playing the Disney organ; the Premiere of a concerto for the Kronos Quartet by Thomas Newman, and music by Frank Zappa and Harry Partch.
You might have noticed some chamber music being played at the recent inauguration festivities; it was a piece by John Williams called “Air and Simple Gifts” with Clarinetist Anthony McGill, Pianist Gabriela Montero, Cellist Yo Yo Ma and Violinist Itzak Perlman. It turns out the performance was on tape, not live, because the extreme cold and wind would have caused broken Strings, cracked instruments, and strange intonations. The group recorded a version of the piece two days before at the Marine Barracks in Washington. Violinist Perlman said, “It would have been a disaster if we had done it any other way.”

For more on these and other items and events, go to the website, kbaq.org; be listening each week at this time for another update; and join me every weekday at noon for the Mozart Buffet, an hour of music by Mozart and his contemporaries; I’m Randy Kinkel for This week in Classical Music, on 89.5 KBAQ Phoenix, a service of Rio Salado college and Arizona State University.