This Week in Classical Music-October 11, 2009

October 11, 2009

Gustavo Dudamel

( Phoenix, AZ )
•Dudamania in LA
•China names 1st foreign MD
•The Debut of a New Ring Cycle!

This week in classical music 10/11/09

It’s This week in Classical Music, an update on what’s happening in the Classical Music world; I’m Randy Kinkel.

Dudamania reached it’s Apex in Los Angeles last Thursday night with the Gustavo Dudamel Gala--- the 28-year-old Venezuelan born music director taking the stage with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall; It was his first concert in the concert hall with the orchestra as it’s new music director, and it went off in glitzy Hollywood style; Movie stars attended, Cameras rolled, recording the concert for PBS and for broadcast throughout Europe, South America, and Africa. The opening night tradition of Sparkling confetti added a festive touch. Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times called the event “an embrace of a new generation and cultural point of view, which is no small thing.” as if to make the point, Dudamel started the concert with the world premiere of American Composer John Adams’ 35-minute piece “City Noir”, Adams describes “City Noir” in his program note as a work inspired by the mysteriously dark Los Angeles of the late ‘40s and ‘50s – Raymond Chandler’s town – and by the film noir of that period.

It’s a first for China—the first time in mainland china that an orchestra has named a foreign music director—the conductor in question in Frenchman Maurice Peress, who will join the China National Symphony orchestra for a year-long Contract. his salary is said to be paid by a private donor. the CNSO itself is funded by the Chinese Government.

As a regular bicycle commuter, I could not resist this story-- you could call it a kind of “ring cycle”—but it has nothing to do with Opera. it’s a two-minute piece by the late Argentinian Composer Mauricio Kagel titled “Eine Brise—Transient action for 111 Bicyclists”. the piece will have it’s L.A premiere February 22nd outdoors in the arts district on Grand Ave., and calls for 111 bicycle riders to ring their bells, whistle and emit vocalizations in unison, on command.

For more on these and other items and events, go to the website, kbaq.org; be listening each week at this time for another update; and join me every weekday at noon for “The Mozart Buffet”, an hour of music by Mozart and his contemporaries. I’m Randy Kinkel for “This Week in Classical Music” on 89.5 KBAQ Phoenix, a service of Rio Salado College and Arizona State University.