By Ted AYALA

Pacific Serenades, one of Southern California’s finest chamber music ensembles, opened its 26th season last week with four concerts devoted to the music of Ravel, Beethoven and local composer Laura Karpman. One of the most appealing facets of Pacific Serenades’ concerts – something that has surely ensured this organization’s continued good health – is its organizers’ understanding of Los Angeles’ multi-polar orientation.

Whereas most musical organizations are tethered to a single area or hall, the Pacific Serenaders find a home for their music-making all across the city: from the shores of the South Bay to the foothills of Altadena.

Their concert on Sunday at Pasadena’s Neighborhood Church – the second of this season’s four inaugural concerts – proved to be a sheer delight, providing another vibrant testament to the richness of the musical culture in Los Angeles.

Violinist Movses Pogossian and cellist David Speltz led the proceedings with a revelatory account of Maurice Ravel’s thorny “Sonata for Violin and Cello” from 1920-1922. To those reared on “Daphnis et Chloë” and the “Pavane for a Dead Princess,” Ravel’s sonata may come as an acidulous surprise. Often harshly dissonant and peppered throughout with Hungarian folk scales and a dash of Schoenberg for flavor, the work represents an important transition from the opulence of his earlier work to the austerity of his final pieces. A tough musical nut for the listener to crack, to be sure, but an unreservedly delightful one in the hands of Pogossian and Speltz.

Unfurling with wild-eyed freedom and abandon, Pogossian and Speltz succeeded by digging into every dissonance, relishing the sonata’s alternating meters, refusing to constrain it or reign in its often savage beauty.

And beauty most certainly abounded here, most memorably in the desolate third movement, which in its climax finds Ravel prefiguring by 20 years the Shostakovich of the “Piano Trio No. 2.” A joyful revelation; had the recital consisted of this performance alone it would still have been worth the price of admission. It’s moments like these that one lives for as a concert listener.

Fortunately for the audience, Pacific Serenades didn’t stop there.

Closing the first half of the program was the world premiere of a piece commissioned by Pacific Serenades – “Different Lanes” – from local composer Laura Karpman.

“Part of Pacific Serenades’ mission is to examine life in Southern California,” said Karpman in a brief speech that prefaced the playing of her piece. To that end she mined two of Los Angeles’ most iconic symbols for inspiration: its sprawling web of freeways and the legacy of its classic Hollywood era.

Composed for string quartet (violinist Connie Kupka and violist Brian Dembow joined Pogossian and Speltz here), “Different Lanes” also incorporated the use of pre-recorded traffic sounds, and in a particularly contemporary touch, an array of iPhones and iPads, all of them displaying to the audience a panoply of moving images of traffic and freeways.

“I wanted to create a multimedia experience no bigger than the quartet,” she explained. “I didn’t want it to overwhelm.”

It was a curiosity, but one not altogether successful, as the use of such small devices made it difficult for members of the audience seated farther away to view them without resorting to squinting or wishing for a stronger prescription for their glasses. Nonetheless, the music is the thing here and it was there where Karpman succeeded.

Conjuring up a frenetic nighttime car chase down the winding and narrow stretches of the northern 110 Freeway, Karpman’s suite begins with the driving (no pun intended), fandango rhythm of Bernard Herrmann’s music for Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest.” Homages to the 105, 90, 405 and even to the recent “Carmageddon” weekend jostled past each other – all with a deep tip of the hat to Herrmann. Not profound music, but all of it very enjoyable. About as fun as taking a summer evening drive down PCH in a convertible with the top down – and without having to worry whether there’s a CHP officer lurking nearby just itching to pounce on you with a speeding ticket.

Seriousness came with a capital “S” at the program’s close. Or rather with a capital “B” – as in for Beethoven. Pacific Serenades played the third of his “Opus 18” string quartets, one of his initial volleys into a genre that he would eventually leave as deep an imprint as he did with the genre of symphony and piano sonata.

“Musicians are trained to make beautiful sounds and left to their own devices that’s all they’ll do,” opined Ian MacDonald. It certainly is true of the way Beethoven (and much music in general) seems to be approached today. Cosmetically immaculate while leaving the listener curiously unmoved, a lot of contemporary performances of music appear to be more concerned with exterior gloss at the expense of spiritual depth. Not so with this performance.

The Pacific Serenaders played with a fire and sinew that would have surely pleased the Master himself. Lovingly molded one moment, laying full force into Beethoven’s ham-fisted wit, with its heavy downbeats and jabbing sforzandi, the next. In short, a world-class demonstration of brilliant technique and intelligent musicianship.

In case you needed further confirmation, Pacific Serenades is further proof that local classical music lovers enjoy a spoil of riches in Los Angeles.

By Ted AYALA

Above the main streets of Hollywood, where cars driven by Friday night club and bar hoppers crowded the streets, stereo systems thumping top 40 radio, music of another sort lured music lovers up the wending streets looming over the Hollywood skyline. A program of new music from local composers was held last Friday night at the Russian Hall on Argyle Street.

Three of the Los Angeles area’s most dynamic classical music groups – the young Los Angeles composers’ collective, Synchromy; the Symbiosis Chamber Orchestra and Music on Argyle – met up in a musical collaboration that celebrated the dynamism and diversity of the region’s new music scene.

How diverse? Try the works that bookended the program’s first half for starters.

Vera Ivanova’s “Four Variations for Two” led the evening with music that explored the extreme registers of the flute, weaving a delicate interplay with a small battery of percussion that accompanied and paired it. Or them, rather, as Ivanova instructed her flautist to switch from the standard flute to piccolo and alto flute by turns. The sonorities coaxed were at once refined and primitive, glimmering like broken shards of glass in sunlight. Long held tones, flutter-tonguing and pitch bending were just some of the weapons in Ivanova’s arsenal, one which flautist Johanna Borenstein and percussionist Yuri Inoo dispatched with sureness and control.

On the other end you had the first movement of George N. Gianopoulos’ “String Quintet,” an affectionate and wryly witty homage to the Viennese waltz. Bubbling away with a disarming amiability, the music’s likeability belies the sophistication of Gianopoulos’ voice. This is a composer with an unerring ear for taking the old and refashioning it into something fresh and new, juggling musical tradition and contemporary sensibility with acrobatic finesse. The members of Symbiosis here – Stirling Trent (1st violin), Mishkar Nuñez-Mejia (2nd violin), Bryan Gonzales (viola), Lars Hoefs (1st cello) and Joo Lee (2nd cello) – clearly agreed, their delight palpable in every bar.

Sandwiched in between were works by Jason Barabba and a sly musical miniature – “Tiny Machine Designed to Make Altocumulus Clouds” – reminiscent of Josef Matthias Hauer by Nick Gordon. Too miniature, perhaps, because at barely over a minute, this tasty aperitif whets the appetite for a main course that never arrives. Can we hope for something more substantial at the next concert?

Barabba’s work, “a declarative sentence whose message is that we must try harder,” found its inspiration in the poetry of hipster icon Tao Lin, though the composer took pains to inform his audience that the work was merely an “impression” of Tao Lin’s poetry, not a straight setting.

Employing moments of controlled chance in the manner of Witold Lutoslawski’s music, Barabba’s work was a searching piece that took the seemingly bass heavy combination of viola, cello and double bass, and wrought from them beautifully prismatic colors. Alternating between serenity and severity, the piece duly impressed, emerging as some of Barabbas’ best work to date; an intriguingly moody work that stands in sharp contrast to the absurd humor that informs much of his music.

The second half of the program was also a superb study of contrasts and musical diversity, with the opening work as grim as the closing was jaunty.

Continuing the poetic inspiration was “Years” by Damjan Rakonjac, a setting for voice and small instrumental ensemble of an eponymous poem by Sylvia Plath. Though the instrumental music captured the ear’s attention, the setting for voice remained curiously sullen. Soprano Roksana Rakonjac acquitted herself admirably, though one wished for more body and firmness in her top register, which tended to hoot and thin out. The music seems to demand a bigger voice, so a future hearing with a heftier voiced singer may well reveal the true stature of this work.

Daniel Gall’s playful chamber suite landed the program back home by way of his “Songs of L. A. Life” for a quartet of flute, clarinet, viola and cello (played by Amy Tatum, Andy Leonard, Bryan Gonzalez, and Lars Hoefs respectively).

After the concert, Gall mentioned how the music, in particular the central “In My Dark Corner” movement, was an expression of his “dark side.”  If anything resembling existential anguish were lurking in this music, it bypassed these ears completely. This was radiant, life affirming music where the shadows of melancholy occasionally shadowed the landscape, but never pose a dire threat.

The influence of swing and cabaret music heavily marked the finale, “And The Stars Come Out To Play,” though the music ends with an unexpectedly poignant air of quiet resignation.

A triumph from this very gifted composer – one that intrepid chamber ensembles on the hunt for fresh repertoire should seize upon immediately.

By Charly SHELTON

Our little town has that quaint, hometown feel of Anytown, U.S.A. And because we are conveniently located only 15 minutes from the film and TV capital of the world, it is a lot easier to bring a production up to Montrose than to fly them out to the Midwest or Washington or, in this case, Louisiana.

HBO’s terrifyingly popular, “True Blood” did just that last week – the production was brought up to Images Day Spa in the 2200 block of Honolulu Avenue in Montrose to double for a Louisiana beauty parlor for scenes of the show in which vampires attack and come crashing through the front window.

Destiny Tedersen, who works at Images, was on set to help facilitate anything that may come up with the cast and crew.

“Here in the salon it was great because we got to be on the scene as they were filming it,” said Tedersen. “It was a great experience.”

The two day job at Images consisted of a prep day to decorate the set, change out the front door (to be used for an effect) and treat the windows to allow the proper amount of light in.

In addition to the filming in the salon, the production also shot in the nearby alleyway and across the street at Bella Boutique (between Black Cow and Billy’s Boardshop).

“It was a really enlightening experience,” said Tedersen. “The people were really friendly.”

So friendly, in fact, that after the production wrapped, Images got to keep the brand new door that the crew had brought in for the shoot.

With this experience being so pleasant, Tedersen said that Images would be open for filming in the future, to be sure.

Though “True Blood” has come and gone, the future guarantees more productions will be arriving in town to take advantage of all that the location offers.

“It’s what Montrose is all about, and hopefully we will be known as a very film- friendly community and the merchants will be favorably impacted,” said Steve Pierce, film liaison for the Montrose Shopping Park Association. “[‘True Blood’] was my first experience with filming, and I learned a lot. It went well. There were some parking issues that the merchants were concerned about, but as you’re well aware, the filming brings energy to the community and that’s the advantage.”

Next week, another production will be in Montrose, taking over some of the businesses and most of Honolulu Avenue filming scenes for an NBC show. There will be special effects as well, so don’t be surprised if you see a geyser in the middle of Honolulu. Pierce will, once again, be on hand at the set to make sure everything runs smoothly.

“My role is to work with the film companies and with the merchants and to make it work,” said Pierce. “I think more than anything else right now at this stage is just to be open about what they are wanting to do and make sure the merchants are taken care of at the same time.”

A lot of the filming comes from people in the industry who come up here for lunch or shop in the Shopping Park and fall in love with the community. That’s how “True Blood” wound up shooting here.

“It happened to be that one of the directors was in town having lunch and that’s how they came about us,” said Tedersen.

In fact, while working on a Brad Pitt movie in the early 1990s, my father came up to this town to film a few scenes. He did more than just shoot here – a few months later he, my mother and little 2-year-old Charly moved from the heart of Hollywood to a sweet little three-bedroom house at the top of Dunsmore Avenue where I spent my childhood.

This town draws people in with its small town charm, and some end up staying here for good.

By Charly SHELTON

Thats right folks, its Oscar time again.  The Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, Feb. 26 at 4 p.m., and before the red carpet is unfurled or the Kodak Theatre is decked out in all its regalia, you get to choose who you think will win.  For the past few years, since CVWeekly has been publishing, we have held an Oscar Ballot contest.  And while the awards are only a month away, it is still a little early to cast your votes.  So instead, you have a chance to catch up on some movies from awards season that you may have missed.  For example, “The Artist” is up for best picture.  Can a silent movie compete in a world of huge special effects films such as “Hugo” or against films that pull at the heartstrings like “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” which deals with the aftermath of 9/11?

Or consider that “The Artist” is up for best original score.  Being that it is a silent film, it has only a few lines at the very end of the film, the story is driven by visual performances and by score.  But up against heavyweights such as Howard Shore, for “Hugo,” and John Williams for both “War Horse” and “The Adventures of Tintin,” it will be interesting to see how this category plays out.

Scan the QR Code or visit our website to see the link to the official Oscar website, and to download the nominee list so you can catch up on some of these films before voting time comes around.

And check back at cvweekly.com and in the paper on the issue of  Thursday, Feb. 9 to get more details about the ballot contest and for instructions on downloading your ballot.

By Ted AYALA

There is a tendency among many young musicians – especially today – to make a needless show of their musical prowess. Or, worse, to mimic the outward manifestations of what they think “soulful” music-making looks like, turning what could have been a pleasant concert into a saccharine display of pretension and egoism. There’s the anguished look, the tousled hair, the moaning and groaning a la Glenn Gould – and I haven’t even touched upon their actual playing, which often seeks to “impress” by taking extreme tempos and by willfully distorting phrasing and rubato to the point of incoherence. In other words, far too many young soloists, seemingly unable to trust the music they play or the intelligence of the audience that is seated before them, instead resort to bringing in a whiff of the circus sideshow for their listeners.

So it’s very rare to hear a young musician with the consummate taste and intelligence that violinist Nigel Armstrong demonstrated at the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s (LACO) concert Saturday night at the Alex Theatre.

Armstrong’s playing in Mozart’s “Violin Concerto No. 3” was something to be treasured. Here was playing that was about as ideal as anything I’ve ever heard in this work, in concert or recordings. His tone was warm and rich, even cherubic. From the first bar all the way to the whimsical coda, Armstrong lovingly guided the listener through the concerto with all the enthusiasm of a new discovery. Songful and sweet he most certainly was, though his playing of the tasteful cadenzas by Robert Levin showed off his chops most winningly, leaving a taste for what he must sound like in more heavy-duty repertoire.

LACO, with principal cellist Andrew Shulman playing the part of conductor for the evening, accompanied Armstrong with seamless unity and obvious enjoyment of their guest’s musicianship.

Following several curtain calls after the concerto, Armstrong obliged his audience by playing John Corigliano’s “Stomp” as a solo encore. Here his playing bristled with an extrovert brilliance and assertiveness that was superior to Corigliano’s score itself, which wanly echoed Aaron Copland in cowboy mood. Not even the gimmicky foot-stomping that the score calls for could rouge up this pallid score, though its direction for the violinist to play certain passages while holding the violin behind his back was an amusing parlor trick that was executed with panache by Armstrong.

Opening the concert was a work composed by Mozart at the age of 16: his “Symphony No. 29.” Shulman, conducting without baton, led a performance that was shaped with aristocratic elegance, allowing the music to unfurl naturally without ever being pushed. The finale, taken at a comfortable pace, glimmered with pert articulation and sly wit.

From tender youth we were taken to the cryptic ruminations of the elderly via William Walton’s “Sonata for Strings.” The piece had the air of a homecoming for LACO as it was the second performance that the orchestra had given of the work since they played its American premiere in 1973.

Acting on a suggestion by British conductor and former LACO music director Sir Neville Marriner, Walton dusted off his A-minor String Quartet and reworked it for string orchestra. For listeners who know Walton best from the pomp and flash of his scores like the “Orb and Scepter March,” “Belshazzar’s Feast,” and his music for films, the “Sonata for Strings” may be a shock.

An austere and haunting work, the work shares a mood of melancholic bitterness similar to the late works of his Russian contemporary Dmitri Shostakovich. Fragmentary, strange and elusive, Walton’s score also hauntingly lingers in the mind. Stark counterpoint, telling use of the solo quartet, and attractive themes come together to form one of Walton’s finest musical utterances.

Fellow Briton Shulman was in his element here. The respect and affection he holds for this music was in fine display, with the LACO players giving their all.

Especially beautiful were the viola solos played by Roland Kato, emerging from the nocturnal whisperings of the third movement like a shaft of moonlight.

Click here to visit the official Oscar site, or Click Here to download their official Nominees list, also available on their website.

By Charly SHELTON

It’s a tale as old as time, and a movie as old as me. The classic Disney film, “Beauty and the Beast” has just been released in stunning 3D. This adds a whole new dimension to the classic love story about a beautiful girl who falls in love with a hideous monster who has a heart of gold.

For those of you who didn’t have a VHS machine in the ’90s, this classic movie is one that my generation grew up watching. Belle is the most beautiful girl in her small French village. She is sweet and kind and would rather bury her nose in a book than go out to the tavern with friends.

Pursuing her affections is Gaston, the most handsome man in the village. He is the man that every girl wants and every man wants to be. But all he wants is Belle because she is the prettiest and therefore the best. Gaston, being long on self-praise but short on intellect, is not Belle’s ideal husband.

Meanwhile, in a castle in the woods there lives a beast. He is hideous and monstrous made to outwardly reflect his inward ugliness after an enchantress casts a spell on him. He has until his 21st birthday to make someone fall in love with him and show that he is not all horrible. His enchanted castle is full of his servants who were changed into common household utilities and furnishings – Lumiere, a candlestick, Cogsworth, a clock, and Mrs. Potts, a teapot – to name just a few. They will all remain in this state forever if the master of the castle cannot show that he can be more than just a beast.

Belle’s father ends up as a prisoner of the beast and Belle offers to trade her freedom for her father’s. The beast forces her to live in his castle forever. But out of the sadness of being a prisoner comes a connection between the two that nobody thought was possible – the beauty and the beast fell in love.

This is a great movie, so much so that when it was originally released it was nominated for best picture, back before there were 10 nominees for best picture. Back when a best picture nomination for an animated film really meant something, this film was one of the best films of the year, animated or otherwise. The first animated film in the history of the Oscars, in fact, to ever receive such an honor.

With Alan Menken’s music and Paige O’Hara providing the voice for Belle, the soundtrack is one that has lasted through the years, with the songs still being played at Disneyland despite the noted lack of a Beauty and the Beast attraction. This film has left a lasting impact on society and now it is back in 3D.

After the success of “The Lion King” in 3D, Disney has a whole slate of classic films to be re-released in 3D, the first of which is this. While adding another dimension to the film can be great for realism or just enjoying a new effect, it can also make audiences realize some errors in the film that they never saw before.

For instance, a benefit is seeing the chorus of women behind Gaston singing, never noticing in 2D how voluptuous and bouncy they were. This is something specifically drawn by the animators to make these girls bounce all over the screen, but in the original
2D version, it is not drastic enough to really see how much movement there is.

Conversely, watching characters move through a 3D space throws into sharp relief the shoddy animation of some of the background characters. Many of the crowd scenes in town or in the tavern are populated either by basic characters (a little smile and dots for eyes instead of a detailed face) or in some cases just blobs of shadows with hats that are animated for a two second loop, so that as you watch them, they repeat the same two seconds of action over and over.

Despite the shortcomings of some shots, the overall product is great. If you are a fan of the movie, go see this in 3D. At upwards of $15 a ticket, though, you may want to consider how important that third dimension really is when you can get the DVD of the 2D film for roughly the same price of one ticket.

I give this movie 5 out of 5 stars, and the 3D version 4 out of 5 stars.

Casa 0101 Theater and American Latino Theatre Company, in association with CoActive Content, present a new co-production of the Ovation Award Recommended and critically acclaimed play, “The King of the Desert.”

“The King of the Desert” explores the way our cultural identity often informs our personal view of ourselves and in turn affects our children.  The play strives to present accurate Mexican American history that is often overlooked as seen through the eyes of one ordinary man surmounting extraordinary struggles.

During a time in which immigration issues and stereotypical images of Latinos are still prevalent in society today, this play focuses on a forgotten story, a true account of a Mexican-American experience.

The co-production will be presented on the main stage of Casa 0101 on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m., Jan. 27 through Feb. 12.

Opening night is Jan. 27, at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $20 for general admission; students and seniors are $17. Tickets for groups of six or more are $17. Tickets for Boyle Heights residents with identification are $15.

For reservations and further information call the box office at (323) 263-7684 or buy online at tickets@casa0101.org or at www.casa0101.org.

Casa 0101 is located at 2102 E. First St. in Los Angeles.

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