I did actually get the fever … so, sadly, I had to leave at intermission and missed the Mendelssohn. I did, however, get to hear the Mozart. (Do I even have to say it? I love me some Mozart!) I was also present for one of the most amusing performances I’ve seen so far at LACO: the Adam Schoenberg piece “Scatter” performed with guest ensemble PROJECT Trio.
Oh, and I must mention that the guest conductor, Alexandre Bloch, is a charmer. He was wearing a fantastic shiny black suit and the worst brown shoes in history, and I thought to myself, “How will I be able to listen to the music with those horrible shoes staring at me!?” I mean, they were all kinds of awful. Then, he proceeded to tell us how he’d been swimming at the beach and been stung by a stingray and his foot had swollen and turned weird colors and these horrid brown shoes were the only ones that still fit him. This little anecdote set the tone for the evening: personable, funny, festive, a delight. And if I’m being honest, I completely forgot about those hideous shoes until now.
The program started with Mozart’s Symphony No. 38 in D Major. The thing I really love about Mozart is his way of luring you in with his wonderfully lyric facility, inviting you to follow along blissfully as he exercises his creative virtuosity, spinning out more and more complex variations on a theme until you’re suddenly hit with just how deep in to the music he has taken you. In this, the “Prague” Symphony, you can hear the composer straining at the limits of what the Orchestra and the form can do. In particular, the opening movement’s main allegro is remarkable. This is the longest single symphony movement of the 18th century and stands out to me as Mozart’s biggest compositional challenge as a symphonist. He tasks himself with giving coherence to his creative invention and doesn’t quite manage it, but that in and of itself is thrilling. Of course, this magnificent chamber orchestra plays the heck out of it, and Bloch’s very kinetic conducting style drives them confidently through the lively Presto and home again.
The guest ensemble on the second piece, PROJECT Trio, is taking chamber music to a whole new level. Based in Brooklyn, beat-boxing flutist Greg Pattillo, Eric Stephenson on the steel cello and Peter Seymour on the double bass are an interesting group of guys. In addition to performing high energy, top-quality tunes, they are breaking apart traditional ideas of chamber music. On Sunday, we were treated to the West Coast premiere of Adam Schoenberg’s “Scatter,” which was written specifically for PROJECT Trio’s unique gifts. A single-movement, 18-minute score which, in addition to the traditional Orchestra, employs pop, funk and electronic sounds made by a computer played by a percussionist. PROJECT Trio’s website describes it thusly, “The overall architectural narrative is: slow/atmospheric-subtle groove-disjointed motion-high speed groove-epic bang”. I agree. They were wonderful and hilarious and perfect. These men pack an enormous amount of personality per cubic inch. They did an encore called The Bodega, which was such a treat that I’m going to link you to a video of it so you will know what I mean. I certainly hope to see more of them. Enjoy!