Tonight I went to the Alex Theatre in Glendale to see Hilary Hahn perform with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in a program entitled "Hilary Hahn Plays Bach". She has a new album of the same title coming out next week, consisting of two violin sonatas and the sections from Partita # 1 that she did not cover on her 1997 debut album, which - for the trifecta - was also called "Hilary Hahn Plays Bach". So that makes two albums and one concert with the same title, and it's a good one because while HH can play anything, including uber-difficult pieces like the Schoenberg Concerto or the Bernstein, her specialty is Bach. Listen to her version of the Chaconne from Partita #1, recorded on her debut when she was 18 years old, and become an instant fan. It may still be the most perfect thing she's ever recorded.
The evening program began with a 15 minute piece played by about a dozen members of the chamber orchestra, conducted with flair by a young woman from New Zealand named Gemma New. Her name was appropriate because the piece was brand new, composed by LACO's artist-in-residence Andrew Norman. It was called "Try", and while I am up for basically anything in classical music, this one might have "Try"ed some of the concertgoers' patience. It was a composition of what you call Modern Classical, and it sounded like Frank Zappa cartoon music, but on steroids, with lots of percussive stops and starts of brief cacophonus flourishes. Really, it sounded like fifteen minutes worth of musical sound effects, though to be fair there were snippets of melody. The piece would have worked well as a soundtrack for a Buster Keaton film, and it was technically challenging, no doubt. You would have to have one hell of a group of musicians to pull it off, but it may be fair to ask the question, "Would you want to"? The piece did end with a very nice and solemn sequence of solo piano notes, playing a descending and beautiful melody. Composer Norman has talent, but except for the elegiac ending, his piece "Try" was a bit trying and just plain weird.
Then came Hilary's featured segment of the concert. She played two JSB violin concerti, the first being BMV 1043 for two violins. The other was played by LACO concertmaster Margaret Batjer, who held her own trading "riffs" with Hilary, though this is a whole different ballgame than twin rock guitars. Bach is like clockwork, but with the musical affektenlahre that we talked about in August. It's on another level from any other music, really, which is why Bach is considered by many to be the greatest composer of all time. He wrote in the early 18th century but his music sounds like the future. The second concerto was BMV 1042, which Hilary played alone with the orchestra. Both pieces are ones you would recognise, even if you don't listen to classical music. You cannot help but have heard the melodies in your lifetime.
I had not heard the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra before tonight, and really I don't think I've ever been to a full chamber music concert before (though I've seen a piece played here and there, mostly at CSUN I think). But anyway, man they are good, which is what you would expect nowdays and especially in a big city. The chamber orchestra has a more compact sound than the big, sweeping Los Angeles Philharmonic, which has 80 pieces and sometimes more. They have a smooth blanket of sound with a full range of dynamics, like you are riding waves in the ocean. Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra is smaller and punchier but no less proficient. Chamber music takes you back to the Baroque period; you feel as if you are listening in some King's palace. Bach transports you to the time in which the music was first heard. Hilary's playing is never less than perfect. I'm sure that some classical music critics, who like some movie critics utilize Thesaurus jargon that is intended to serve the twofold purpose of making his reviews seem brilliant to his peers, and beyond the comprehension of mere mortals, could find something to nit-pick, but really anyone doing so would be left in the cold. Hil is tops, the best violinist in a hundred years.
The orchestra finished with another new "modern" piece, almost as weird as "Try", and then finished up with a high energy half hour of Mendelssohn's "Italian" Symphony #4, written in 1833. Again, you would know the melody to this one, and like Bach, Mendelssohn was a musical genius.
The Alex Theatre is well known in Glendale, and has the same type of reputation as old Los Angeles theatres like The Orpheum or The Wiltern. It has great sound. The sightlines are good. My seat was in the mezzanine, third row so I was close.
The concert was awesome, the "getting there" part less so. The freeway wasn't too bad, but downtown Glendale is jam packed with traffic and the parking situation is horrible, one of the worst I've experienced. I don't think I would go back to the Alex Theatre for that reason, unless Hilary Hahn was playing Bach.
Then I would go for sure.
See you in the morn in church. Good singing will be expected. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
No comments:
Post a Comment