“The Los Angeles Philharmonic created a pair of programs in [conductor/composer Oliver Knussen’s] memory at Walt Disney Concert Hall—an orchestral salute that occupied the first half of the LA Phil subscription program Dec. 7 and a Green Umbrella concert Dec. 10 featuring music by Knussen and four of his British colleagues,” writes Richard Ginell in Sunday’s (12/15) Classical Voice North America. “Knussen’s Flourish with Fireworks (1988) [is] a smashing curtain-raiser that ought to be done everywhere, and on Dec. 7, Susanna Mälkki, the LA Phil’s principal guest conductor, led a direct, splashy rendition in which the details were beautifully lit. Leila Josefowicz then knocked out Knussen’s Violin Concerto, a relatively late work (2001-02)…. Josefowicz has become the foremost advocate of the piece…. Mälkki and Josefowicz co-curated the Green Umbrella concert … opening with Knussen’s celebratory Two Organa as Mälkki reveled in the glistening orchestrations for 21 diverse instruments, with a Nord synthesizer simulating the missing harmonium.” Also on the December 10 program were Huw Watkins’ Piano Quartet, Knussen’s Ophelia Dances Book I, Helen Grime’s A Cold Spring, Jonathan Harvey’s Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco, Knussen’s Reflection for violin and piano, and Colin Matthews’ Hidden Variables for 15 players.
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