LA Philharmonic gives West Coast premiere of Louis Andriessen’s De Materie at Disney Hall, performs Philip Glass’s the CIVIL warS ... Devendra Banhart, Iron and Wine, Dr. John all tour Australia in and around Byron Bay Bluesfest ... Bombino plays Tulsa, returns to Coachella ... Jeremy Denk joins Nashville Symphony Orchestra for Beethoven ... Brad Mehldau Trio is in Chicago and Kansas City ... Nickel Creek gives two sold-out shows in Nashville ... and more ...
This Good Friday and Easter holiday weekend, composer Louis Andriessen’s 1988 stagework De Materie receives its the US West Coast premiere by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and guest ensemble The Crossing at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles tonight, as part of the Minimalist Jukebox festival that began on March 16 and runs through May 4.
Dutch conductor Reinbert de Leeuw—who led the world premiere performance of the piece in Amsterdam in 1989 and the 1994 recording of the piece for Nonesuch Records—leads the performers in a one-night-only program, titled An Evening with Andriessen, comprising the evening-length piece, whcih draws from diverse musical genres and sonic styles. Despite the sudden and tragic death of the Crossing’s co-founder and tenor, Jeff Dinsmore, earlier this week, members of the choral group “have chosen to go on with the show and dedicate the performance to his memory,” says LA Philharmonic president Deborah Borda.
Andriessen, who turns 75 this June, was given an early birthday celebration with a week-long festival of his works in Washington, DC, last week. The composer has “a knack for keeping listeners engaged through unexpected twists that might include a violinist singing, an electric guitar lurking near the woodwinds or a brass chorale morphing into a bebop band,” writes the New York Times’ Corinna de Fonseca-Wollheim in a review of the festivities. “But the accessibility of Mr. Andriessen’s work is very neatly balanced by the weightiness of his subjects, which range from reflections on Dutch colonial history to Plato’s Republic.” Read the full article at nytimes.com.
Also at Disney Hall this weekend for the Minimalist Jukebox festival is a performance of Philip Glass’s the CIVIL warS, The Rome Section, by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Los Angeles Master Chorale led by conductor Grant Gershon. Glass wrote the music to the Rome Section of Robert Wilson’s the CIVIL warS—inspired by Matthew Brady’s Civil War photographs—for the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival in Los Angeles. Nonesuch released the first recording of the piece in 1999.
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Devendra Banhart makes his debut at the Byron Bay Bluesfest in Byron Bay, Australia, on Saturday, performing on the Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm’s Mojo stage. He offers an encore set on the same stage on Monday, which closes out his four-concert Australian tour. Also performing at Bluesfest this weekend is Iron and Wine.
The Guardian gives four stars to Banhart's Melbourne show from earlier this week. "Accompanied by a tight and effusive four-piece band and with a lengthy back catalogue to draw from, from the outset Banhart created an elated kind of intimacy," writes the Guardian's James Norman. "Moving from his most recent and perhaps strongest album Mala, right back to early anthemic gems ... Banhart mostly delighted with his body-angling, multilingual, genre-hopping repertoire and cheeky, boyish rapport." Norman concludes: "It felt like we were all just hanging in Devendra's lower east side loft— and it was a delight to be invited in."
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Also Down Under is Dr. John, who performed at Byron Bay Bluesfest last night and offers a set at the Deni Blues and Roots Festival in Deniliquin, New South Wales, on Saturday. Performing selections from his Dan Auerbach-produced Nonesuch album, Locked Down, and songs from throughout his career, he joins fellow New Orleans native son Aaron Neville for dates in Melbourne, Sydney, and Perth, in the days ahead.
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Bombino continues his North American tour with a free set on the Tulsa Roots Music Bash’s Guthrie Green in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday afternoon, followed by the second of two consecutive-weekend sets at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California, on Sunday. He offers a two-night run at Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas next week before kicking off the Southern leg of his tour.
The Tuareg guitarist’s style is “rhythmic, moving, passionate,” says the Phoenix New Times in a review of Bombino’s recent show in Arizona. “It was easy to close the eyes to feel the warm desert wind and relish in the slower rhythm of life that takes place in the Sahara, only to find that energy gradually build from light to dark, increasing in intensity as each song ended with a final flourish—like the end of a chase.”
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Jeremy Denk joins the Nashville Symphony Orchestra for a performance at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville tonight and on Saturday, as part of Aegis Sciences Classical Series. The program, led by conductor Giancarlo Guerrero, features Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1, bookended by Berlioz’s Le Corsaire Overture, Op. 21, and Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben.
The New York Times music critic Anthony Tommasini, reviewing Denk’s solo piano recital in New York City last weekend, notes the pianist’s “trademark vitality and elegance.” Read the full article at nytimes.com.
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The Brad Mehldau Trio rounds out the Midwestern leg of its North American tour at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago tonight and the Folly Theater in Kansas City, Missouri, on Saturday. The Trio heads east for performances in Washington, DC, and Pittsburgh before closing out the month with two dates in Canada.
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Nickel Creek, who kicked off their first US tour since 2007 earlier this week, perform two sold-out shows at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville tonight and Saturday. With many more sold-out shows to come, the trio continues the Southern leg of its tour with additional dates in Tennessee and performances in Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia.
The band—Chris Thile, Sara Watkins, and Sean Watkins—released its new album, A Dotted Line, on Nonesuch Records earlier this month, debuting at #7 on the Billboard 200.
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