Classical Concerts in Los Angeles

Program: Dmitri Shostakovich: Piano Trio No. 1 in C minor, Op. 8; Claude Debussy: Piano Trio in G major, L. 5; Antonín Dvořák: Piano Trio No. 3 in F minor, Op. 65 Performers: Lisa Batiashvili (violin); Gautier Capuçon (cello); Jean-Yves Thibaudet (piano) “Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s piano, Lisa Batiashvili’s violin and Gautier Capuçon’s cello [stitch] their individual strands of sound into a sumptuous fabric” ( The Arts Desk ) during a night of Russian, French, and Czech music. Join three of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s most beloved guest soloists as they come together for a selection of expressive chamber works. Shostakovich’s trio evokes the agitated yearning of teenage romance, while Debussy’s trio brings out the “sweet, sentimental and sugared” ( The New York Times ) aspects of youth. Thibaudet, Batiashvili, and Capuçon close out their recital with a dark, aggressive, and fast-paced Dvořák trio from the era critic Eduard Hanslick deemed “the pinnacle of his career.”

Program: Donghoon Shin: Dance Card; Franz Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major, S. 125; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Suite from Swan Lake , Op. 20 Performers: Los Angeles Philharmonic; Elim Chan (conductor); Yefim Bronfman (piano) Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake bursts with unflinching beauty, passion, and drama that is known the world over, but when Elim Chan performed a version of the suite in San Francisco last year she compiled herself and structured almost like a symphony, critics praised Chan’s ability to transform the familiar into something both new and timeless. With the ability to “bring out the best in a top-rank orchestra” and a presence that is “as communicative as a dancer,” the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that Chan shaped Tchaikovsky “as if she were born to conduct ballet,” making her performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic a can’t-miss occasion. Like Swan Lake , Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto exudes unapologetic Romantic indulgence—though with more of Liszt’s trademark showmanship and musical fireworks. Yefim Bronfman performed the concerto at age 15 in an audition that helped catapult his career. Since then, Bronfman has shown an uncommon attunement for the piece’s technical and artistic challenges, leading Bachtrack to say Liszt’s “manic, head-banging moments...were delivered with punch and flair, but it was the poetry [Bronfman] found in the concerto’s opening sections which made one listen with new ears.” The program begins with Dance Card , a new waltz-inspired piece by Donghoon Shin, the South Korean composer admired for his “taste for the esoteric—a love of labyrinths, literary puzzles, and contradictory aspects of the self” ( The Arts Desk ).

Bizet's immortal opera introduces Carmen: desirable, defiant, and dangerous. She thinks nothing of charming a soldier to escape a spot of trouble, never expecting that he would leave his childhood sweetheart and desert his post to follow. But Don José is a jealous lover, and as Carmen begins a new relationship with bullfighter Escamillo, his passion turns dark—and deadly.

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Orchestral Series.

Program: Donghoon Shin: Dance Card; Franz Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major, S. 125; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Suite from Swan Lake , Op. 20 Performers: Los Angeles Philharmonic; Elim Chan (conductor); Yefim Bronfman (piano) Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake bursts with unflinching beauty, passion, and drama that is known the world over, but when Elim Chan performed a version of the suite in San Francisco last year she compiled herself and structured almost like a symphony, critics praised Chan’s ability to transform the familiar into something both new and timeless. With the ability to “bring out the best in a top-rank orchestra” and a presence that is “as communicative as a dancer,” the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that Chan shaped Tchaikovsky “as if she were born to conduct ballet,” making her performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic a can’t-miss occasion. Like Swan Lake , Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto exudes unapologetic Romantic indulgence—though with more of Liszt’s trademark showmanship and musical fireworks. Yefim Bronfman performed the concerto at age 15 in an audition that helped catapult his career. Since then, Bronfman has shown an uncommon attunement for the piece’s technical and artistic challenges, leading Bachtrack to say Liszt’s “manic, head-banging moments...were delivered with punch and flair, but it was the poetry [Bronfman] found in the concerto’s opening sections which made one listen with new ears.” The program begins with Dance Card , a new waltz-inspired piece by Donghoon Shin, the South Korean composer admired for his “taste for the esoteric—a love of labyrinths, literary puzzles, and contradictory aspects of the self” ( The Arts Desk ).

Program: Donghoon Shin: Dance Card; Franz Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major, S. 125; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Suite from Swan Lake , Op. 20 Performers: Los Angeles Philharmonic; Elim Chan (conductor); Yefim Bronfman (piano) Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake bursts with unflinching beauty, passion, and drama that is known the world over, but when Elim Chan performed a version of the suite in San Francisco last year she compiled herself and structured almost like a symphony, critics praised Chan’s ability to transform the familiar into something both new and timeless. With the ability to “bring out the best in a top-rank orchestra” and a presence that is “as communicative as a dancer,” the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that Chan shaped Tchaikovsky “as if she were born to conduct ballet,” making her performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic a can’t-miss occasion. Like Swan Lake , Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto exudes unapologetic Romantic indulgence—though with more of Liszt’s trademark showmanship and musical fireworks. Yefim Bronfman performed the concerto at age 15 in an audition that helped catapult his career. Since then, Bronfman has shown an uncommon attunement for the piece’s technical and artistic challenges, leading Bachtrack to say Liszt’s “manic, head-banging moments...were delivered with punch and flair, but it was the poetry [Bronfman] found in the concerto’s opening sections which made one listen with new ears.” The program begins with Dance Card , a new waltz-inspired piece by Donghoon Shin, the South Korean composer admired for his “taste for the esoteric—a love of labyrinths, literary puzzles, and contradictory aspects of the self” ( The Arts Desk ).

Program: Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in D minor, Op. 42, Hob. III: 43; Felix Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op. 66; Johannes Brahms: String Sextet No. 2 in G major, Op. 36 Performers: Jin-Shan Dai (violin); Michelle Tseng (violin); Bing Wang (violin); Katherine Woo (violin); Ingrid Hutman (viola); Jenni Seo (viola); Robert deMaine (cello); Jason Lippmann (cello); Zachary Mowitz (cello); Jennie Jung (piano) Featuring restless arpeggios, furious tremolos, and a passage of warm, hymn-like chords, Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 2 is a challenge for its performers and a delight for its listeners. Even the composer admitted it’s “a trifle nasty to play!” Two violins, two violas, and two cellos combine for the second half of the evening. Brahms’ dark but beautiful String Sextet No. 2 was written in the years following a failed relationship and captures love’s moments of sunshine and sorrow. The composer later confided to a friend, “Here I have freed myself from my last love.” Also on the program is a dark, tense, and refined work by Haydn, the “Father of the String Quartet.” Come early and enjoy a complimentary glass of wine before the performance, starting at 6:30pm.

Program: Claude Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun , L. 86; Samuel Adams: Violin Concerto No. 2, “The Wheel”; Igor Stravinsky: Petrushka (1947) Performers: Los Angeles Philharmonic; Elim Chan (conductor); Karen Gomyo (violin) Elim Chan leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in two enchanting and colorful orchestral favorites. Debussy’s hues in Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun are otherworldly if hazy and in watercolor. The Impressionistic atmosphere Debussy conjures exudes a fragile beauty that set off a revolution, which Pierre Boulez said “breathed new air into the art of music.” By contrast, Stravinsky paints with bold, contrasting blocks of sound. Petrushka ’s Picasso-esque approach to musical color and movement sets the stage for the story of a mischievous puppet, packed with Russian folklore and misadventure. In between, Karen Gomyo—who has been described as “a first-rate artist of real musical command, vitality, brilliance, and intensity” by the Chicago Tribune —gives the world premiere of Samuel Adams’ Violin Concerto. The two combined for the premiere of Adams’ “mesmerizing, soulful” ( The Independent ) Chamber Concerto in 2018. The son of LA Phil Creative Chair John Adams, Samuel Adams writes in a musical style that combines his own background as a jazz bassist with his interest in European modernism and acoustic-digital sounds.