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Los Angeles Philharmonic Presents Focus on Peter Eötvös

Jan. 04, 2013

Los Angeles Philharmonic Presents <em>Focus on Peter Eötvös</em>

The venerable Los Angeles Philharmonic hosts a weeklong residency with Peter Eötvös, January 15-20, 2013. Dubbed Focus on Peter Eötvös, the residency is headlined by the world premiere of Eötvös’ new concerto for violin and orchestra DoReMi with Midori, and a Green Umbrella concert staging of his opera Angels in America.

On January 15, conductor Pablo Heras-Casado and Green Umbrella, the Philharmonic's contemporary music series, presents David Gately’s acclaimed concert-staging of Angels in America, a gripping depiction of the AIDS epidemic in the US based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Tony Kushner. Commissioned by the Théâtre du Châtelet and premiered in 2004, the opera has proven one of the most significant of the new millennium, with performances in Texas, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Amsterdam and Boston. David Gately’s concert staging, which debuted at the Barbican in London with the BBC Symphony Orchestra led by David Robertson in 2010, was dubbed “brilliantly executed” by The Financial Times and “superbly prepared” by The Times, UK. The New York Times writes of the opera:

Mr. Eötvös’ music augments traditional strings, winds and brass with saxophones, guitars, electronic keyboards, exotic percussion, ringing telephones and sirens. The vocal lines can ease into speech and usually operate against drifting clouds of sound. Mr. Eötvös’ success with prosody outstrips that of most American opera composers in his ability to fit music to the flow of American English. He has written truly theatrical music that advances texts rather than calling attention to itself.

Angels in America at the Los Angeles Philharmonic features baritone David Adam Moore, tenor Jonas Olofsson, baritone Omar Ebrahim, countertenor Brian Asawa, soprano Janice Hall, baritone Kelly Anderson, mezzo-soprano Julia Migenes and soprano Measha Brueggergosman. Conductor Pablo Heras-Casado is joined on stage by Midori for the premiere of Eötvös’ Violin Concerto No. 2, DoReMi, on January 18. The work is jointly commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus and BBC Proms. Eötvös writes:

After 60 years of experience as a composer, in my Violin Concerto No. 2 I liked the idea of returning to where I began as a youngster: putting voices above or next to each other like building blocks and finding pleasure in the variations of the successions.

Do-Re-Mi means the beginning of music: it is like 1, 2, 3 in the world of numbers. We've learned it from nursery rhymes and ancient melodies - how to create tunes with only these three notes - and we can hear how a hierarchal relationship comes into being between them. One of the sounds occurs more frequently and gets the main role, while the other two merely accompany it.

Visionary Los Angeles-based presenter Jacaranda has teamed up with the Philharmonic for the Focus on Peter Eötvös week, featuring a concert of music by Eötvös and György Ligeti on January 12. The program, entitled Fierce Beauty, features Eötvös’ Korrespondenz for string quartet, Ligeti’s Piano Concerto, Six Bagatelles for wind quintet, Sonata for solo cello, and the US premiere of Eötvös’ SCHILLER: energisches Schönheit, of which Jacaranda was a co-commissioner. Musicians include Gloria Cheng, the Calder Quartet, and the Jacaranda Chamber Ensemble, conducted by Peter Eötvös and Scott Dunn.

Details on the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Focus on Peter Eötvös series are located at www.laphil.com.

Learn more on the life and work of Peter Eötvös by visiting www.schott-music.com.

Peter Eötvös
Angels in America (2003/2004, rev. 2012)
opera in two parts
libretto (En) by Mari Mezei
based on the play by Tony Kushner
for two sopranos, mezzo-soprano, baritone, lyric baritone, tenor, countertenor (mezzo-soprano), bass-baritone
2(1.ca, 2.pic, afl).0.2(2.Eb cl).bcl.(cbcl).2sax.(1.ssax.,asax.,bsax.2.asax., tsax.).0-0.1(pic-tp).1(tbtn, btbn. with quartervalves).0-2perc-git-egtr.cel. Hammond Organ. (B4 with Lesley-Box)-str
180’

DoReMi (2011/2012)
Violin Concerto No. 2
for violin and orchestra
3(2.pic., 3.afl).2(2.ca).3(2.Eb cl., 3.bcl.).2(2.cbsn)-2.2.1.0-3perc-hp.cel-str
21’

SCHILLER: energisches Schönheit (2010)
for 8 voices, eight winds, 2 percussionists and accordion
text from Friedrich von Schiller’s On the Aesthetic Education of Man
17’

György Ligeti 
Piano Concerto (1985/1988)
for piano and orchestra
1(pic).1.1(alto okarina in G).1-1.1.1.0-1 or 2 perc-str
24’

Six Bagatelles (1953)
from Musica Ricercata
for wind quintet
13’

Sonata (1948, rev. 1953)
for solo cello
9’

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