“When Gidon Kremer has a farsighted cause, it is wise to pay close attention,” writes Mark Swed in Saturday’s (10/21) Los Angeles Times. “Over an uncompromising half-century career, the Latvian violinist … has been single-handedly responsible for bringing attention in the West to Arvo Pärt, Alfred Schnittke and Sofia Gubaidulina.… After more than a decade’s absence from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Kremer returned to Walt Disney Concert Hall on Thursday night … to promote two of his latest and most worthy causes: the neglected Soviet composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg, whose music has begun to enjoy a revelatory revival, and … conductor Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla. Angelenos have been … watching her rapid rise through the ranks of the L.A. Phil, from Dudamel fellow to associate conductor. At 30, she is now starting her second season as music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.… Thursday’s concert … offered the orchestra’s first performance of Weinberg’s 1959 Violin Concerto, a score as fine as any concerto by Shostakovich, who was a mentor of Weinberg.… The highly prolific composer (26 symphonies, 65 film scores, plus operas, scads of chamber music, etc.) fled Nazi-occupied Poland at 20 to study in Moscow.” The concert also included Messiaen’s “Un Sourire” and Mahler’s Fourth Symphony.
Posted October 25, 2017
