Musical Destinations
Derek Guthrie celebrates the LA Phil’s centenary
Whistling is back. Above the cacophony of street parties, Shakespearean drama and newly commissioned symphonies written to celebrate the centenary of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the clear tone of Andrew Bird’s whistling swoops like Pliny the Elder’s Nightingale.
The aptly named Bird, a skinny-suited West Coast singer-songwriter known as much for TED Talks as music, is part of LA Fest, a week of new music collaborations with the Philharmonic to stretch the boundaries of classical music. Momentarily forsaking his violin and guitar to whistle alongside the 110-piece orchestra, apprehension gives way to applause soon enough. He’s astoundingly good.
On subsequent nights, dance music wunderkind Moby followed by jazz piano legend Herbie Hancock are guest collaborators, their elaborate performances enhanced demonstrably by the extraordinary acoustics of the Walt Disney Concert Hall – home to the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 2003. Every note has clarity, each instrument is distinct, despite the challenges set by the arena seating. Aesthetically handsome hardwoods, Douglas fir and oak, are the base plates for the audio engineering of worldrenowned acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota, making for a warm sound that comfortably envelops the audience.
Outside, architect Frank Gehry’s shiny stainless steel shards of creativity shoot skywards: this is far and away California’s
boldest iconic building, a forwardthinking adventure in design which hasn’t dated one iota in 15 years. And beneath its famously Instagrammable facade lies a softer intimacy, open air nooks and crannies for avant-garde performance or small choirs on warm southern Californian evenings: an amuse bouche before the main event.
LA Fest is emblematic of the orchestra’s versatility, but the main season isn’t by any means flirtatious. Mahler, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Brahms feature in forthcoming programmes, resolutely safe under the musical direction of Gustavo Dudamel. Once dismissed as the West Coast kissin’ cousin to America’s ‘Big Five’ orchestras (Boston, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Cleveland) the Los Angeles Philharmonic has mushroomed in stature since its prescient opening performance of Dvo ák’s New World Symphony in 1919. Its recent music directors have included Carlo Maria Giulini, André Previn (who has a new work premiered by the ensemble in 2019), Esa-pekka Salonen and now Dudamel, who arrived a decade ago. 18,000 people turned out to witness his opening concert at the Hollywood Bowl, LA Phil’s hugely popular summer home.
The most significant leap forward has been the physical move from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion next door, a mid-century modern masterpiece ostentatiously dripping with chandeliers, now home to LA Opera and for many years the venue for the Oscars. A classic 1960s auditorium, it is regarded fondly due to
‘LA County Holiday’, an open day of free
admission every Christmas, which was actually part of the deal over planning permission negotiated by the redoubtable Chandler, the city’s most influential arts philanthropist and widow to the publisher of the Los Angeles Times.
Come 1987, Chandler’s equally munificent successor was Lillian Disney, who put up the initial $50m for the new concert hall in memory of her late husband, the revered Walt. Today, a new $500m endowment is nearing its target. ‘There are some very generous people in Los Angeles,’ says Simon Woods, the man in charge, enabling a foundation of solid performance from which green shoots of a more diverse nature grow. An innovative community outreach programme YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles) is a bravura after-school project of free music tuition, soon to have its own permanent base out in the city of Inglewood, designed pro bono by Frank Gehry.
And that’s the thing, as they say out on the streets: LA Phil has connected. The surrounding district is being transformed from redundant inner city to DTLA, Downtown Los Angeles’s acronym for a regenerated future, thanks in part to the cultural hub centred on the LA Philharmonic’s presence, not to say its vibrant energy. Music, opera and theatre have taken root, now joined by big ticket art (The Broad and Museum of Contemporary Art) which augurs well.
There’s a way to go with fixing downtown. Rebranding the original Skid Row to SKIDZ hasn’t stopped an outbreak of typhus among the homeless, but those kids on electric bikes whooshing from coffee shops to their newly converted bank loft apartments are the progenitors of gentrification. The Los Angeles Philharmonic is a landmark – not just a West Coast beacon of creative muscle, but of integrity and progress. Nobody’s whistling in the wind.
Further information:
Full details of the LA 100 concert season can be found at www.laphil.com
The LA Philharmonic has mushroomed in stature since its opening in 1919