LOS ANGELES CHAMBER ORCHESTRA’S 2022-23 CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES, CURATED BY CONCERTMASTER AND DIRECTOR OF CHAMBER MUSIC MARGARET BATJER, ANNOUNCED
Series Features Three Programs, Including Echoes of Austria: Ligeti at 100, Baroque Concerti, and Masterworks for String Orchestra
(Los Angeles, CA, June 17, 2022) Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) will present three programs in its 2022-23 chamber music series curated by Concertmaster and Director of Chamber Music Margaret Batjer. Each program, presented at various Westside and/or Eastside venues, highlights a different facet of the diverse chamber repertoire, including Echoes of Austria: Ligeti at 100, Baroque Concerti, and Masterworks for String Orchestra. The chamber music series, which is independent from LACO’s Orchestral Series announced in April, showcases smaller groups of musicians on chamber works from the 12th century and early Baroque schools through the 20th century.
The performance venues include The Huntington’s Rothenberg Hall in San Marino, the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, and Zipper Hall in downtown Los Angeles.
Echoes of Austria: Ligeti at 100, which opens the chamber music series, spotlights LACO’s stellar solo winds and acclaimed guest pianist Fabio Bidini, the Carol Colburn Grigor Piano Chair at Colburn School (Sunday, November 6, 2022, 7:00 pm, at Zipper Hall in Downtown Los Angeles). Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Ligeti’s birth in 1923, the program includes two wind quintets considered among the wind repertoire’s most important 20th century additions – Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles, arranged for wind quintet from his noted piano cycle Musica ricercata, and Barber’s Summer Music, evocative of the sounds and feel of summer. Also featured are Schubert’s early piano quartet Adagio and Rondo in F major, D. 487, and Brahms’ exquisite and powerful Piano Quintet in F minor, Op.34.
The series continues with Baroque Concerti, a program of virtuosic chamber performances (Saturday, January 28, 7:30 pm, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills; Sunday, January 29, 2023, 7:00 pm, at The Huntington’s Rothenberg Hall in San Marino). Newly appointed LACO Principal Viola Yura Lee is featured on one of the earliest known viola concertos, Telemann’s Concerto in G major, and Principal Trumpet David Washburn performs the pre-classical Concerto for Trumpet in E flat, a hidden gem by little-known Czech composer Johann Baptist Georg Neruda. The program also features Corelli’s festive Concerto Grosso in D major, Op. 6 No. 4; Geminiani’s charming Concerto Grosso in D major; and Handel’s A major Concerto, one of the most celebrated works for strings from the Baroque era. The program is dedicated to the memory of Warner W. Henry, LACO Board Director Emeritus and a champion of chamber and Baroque music.
Masterworks for String Orchestra caps LACO’s chamber series with a selection of rich and varied compositions for string orchestra spanning more than 800 years (Tuesday, May 2, 7:30 pm, at The Huntington’s Rothenberg Hall; Saturday, May 6, 2023, 7:30 pm, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.) LACO presents 12th century German Saint Hildegard Von Bingen’s “O Virtus Sapientiae”; Britten’s enchanting Simple Symphony, rife with sophisticated orchestration; the compact and lively 10th Symphony in B minor composed by a teenaged Mendelssohn; Hindemith’s compelling Five Pieces for Strings; and Grieg’s popular Holberg Suite, which blends baroque-style dance with melodic Nordic harmonies.
LACO recognizes the generous support of the Colburn Foundation and the Mellon Foundation. The Orchestra also receives public funding via grants from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts. LACO gratefully acknowledges Hogan Lovells US LLP for generous pro bono support.
Steinway is the official piano of Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.
For information and tickets to Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s 2022-23 chamber music series, please visit www.laco.org or call 213 622 7001 x1.
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