“Southern California is a land of symphony orchestras,” writes Mark Swed in Wednesday’s (21/13) Los Angeles Times. “So the first weekend of the new year seemed a good time to check on a few. The Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, Pasadena Symphony and San Diego Symphony opened for business with their first concerts of 2016…. The Orange County Youth Symphony and the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra performed together in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Passchendaele, Ives’s The Unanswered Question, and Nielsen’s ‘Inextinguishable’ Symphony…. Violinist Cho-Liang Lin was soloist and conductor for the Pacific Symphony [concert that] opened and closed with Mozart—the Fourth Violin Concerto and the ‘Haffner’ Symphony.… Daniel Harding … the L.A. Phil’s guest [conductor] … began with an exciting, tart account of Berlioz’s ‘Le Corsaire’ Overture…. After intermission, Harding offered Pierre Boulez’s five-minute ‘Memoriale.’… At the Pasadena Symphony … principal guest conductor Nicholas McGegan [led] Prokofiev’s ‘Classical’ Symphony, Schubert’s ‘Unfinished’ Symphony and Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Concerto…. Karina Canellakis was the guest conductor … to usher in the San Diego Symphony’s ‘Upright & Grand,’ a citywide piano festival” with soloist Marc-André Hamelin. “What colors [Canellakis] got from the orchestra. And what rhythmic alertness she had. The orchestra was immense for Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody [in Blue],’ yet she worked it like a combo.”
Posted January 13, 2016
