- Page One:News from the LA Phil
- Special Report:El Sistema
- The Orchestra:LA Phil on Tour/Europe 2007
- Philanthropy and the Arts:A Conversation with Board member Mark Dalzell
- Behind the Scenes:Gettin' in Tune
LA Phil on Tour/Europe 2007
The excitement of the Philharmonic's upcoming tour will begin quietly, out of the public eye, when some 22,000 lbs. of music, instruments, and wardrobe are assembled at Walt Disney Concert Hall and loaded aboard the Philharmonic's "Living Music" big-rig for the short trip to LAX.
"It isn't widely known," says Operations Manager Laura Dixon, who plans and coordinates the movements of the Philharmonic on tour, "but with a few precious exceptions, most of our instruments and equipment — basses and cellos, percussion, strings, winds, and brass — travel a day ahead of the orchestra."
It's a climactic time for Dixon, who over the last 18 months has planned everything from transportation and accommodations to meals and rehearsal times for the 17-day, 5-city tour that is right around the corner.
The tour, which calls for moving the orchestra and its complement of equipment seven times, is a massive and detailed undertaking, but as a musician and music-lover herself, Dixon seems every bit as energized by what the Philharmonic is going to do on the road as she is by the job of getting them there.
This season's tour, she points out, is the Philharmonic's first international trip since its 2005 concerts in Cologne, Germany. It will combine four-concert residencies (extended stays) in both London and Paris with a whirlwind tour of the Iberian peninsula — two concerts in Spain and one in Portugal.
Europe 2007 extends a 40-year Philharmonic tradition of concertizing for audiences around the world, from Hiroshima to Helsinki, from Belgrade to Bombay. It also breaks new ground by being the first project-based concert itinerary the LA Phil has ever taken overseas.
The spotlight is on Sibelius, and the concert programming will draw extensively on the Sibelius Unbound project to be presented at Walt Disney Concert Hall this month.
Like the project, the European tour will present the entire cycle of Sibelius' symphonies along with some of his symphonic poems and songs, augmented by contemporary works of Stucky and Salonen which relate to, or comment on, the work of the 20th-century Finnish master.
As the Philharmonic's VP for Artistic Planning Chad Smith notes, this is the first time that Esa-Pekka Salonen will be conducting a complete cycle of Sibelius symphonies — at home or abroad.
Salonen's affinity and cultural identification with the music of Sibelius, intensified by the "project" framework that has become a signature of LA Phil programming, is generating a great deal of interest from European audiences.
The tour's first stop is London and a residency at the 1,949-seat Barbican Hall, home to the London Symphony Orchestra. The largest multi-arts performance complex in Europe, London's new Barbican Centre for the Arts has strong artistic ties to Los Angeles, having recently hosted a Mozart festival created by L.A. stage director Peter Sellars, as well as works by composer John Adams, and an exhibition of video artist Bill Viola.
The tour's second residency will begin a few days later at Paris' famed Salle Pleyel, home of the Orchestre de Paris. The venerable theater, located near the Place de l'?toile, underwent a major architectural and acoustic renovation from 2004-2006, and will enjoy an international spotlight when the LA Phil arrives to present four nights of music.
The Philharmonic will then travel to Barcelona to perform a concert in the city's magical Palau de la M?sica, known throughout the world as a masterpiece of modernist architecture. In a fitting, if coincidental, tribute to the Palau's breathtaking stained-glass windows and skylight, the program will feature Steven Stucky's Radical Light, which receives its European premiere on this very tour.
From Barcelona, the orchestra will travel to Portugal for a single appearance at the Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon, then returns to Spain for the final concert of the tour at Madrid's famed Teatro de la Zarzuela.
Chad Smith speaks for the orchestra in looking forward to sharing a unique mix of interesting programming and wonderful repertoire with our friends in Europe. "We have a real sense of being artistic ambassadors for our community, and are thrilled to give the rest of the world the opportunity to hear some of the spectacular things that are happening in Los Angeles."
The Philharmonic's Europe 2007 tour begins in London on November 1 and concludes in Madrid on November 14.