LA Phil: Green Umbrella Concert 12/9/14

December 12, 2014

The concert started with Stockhausen’s “Gesang der Junglinge” (1956), and I felt as if thousands kids speaking to me from everywhere. I don’t know how many speakers they were using, but surely I felt the voices coming from every place in Disney Concert Hall. It is a good piece to start an European avant-garde concert. The conductor was Mattias Pintscher, who is also a composer on this program, Songs from Solomon’s Garden, a West coast premiere. Romitelli’s West coast premiere on Amok Koma, and Furrer’s US Premiere on Linea dell’orizzonte were also on the program. I was sitting in front of a couple (who are not very young) with their friend, and I heard what the friend asked “how did you guys meet?” And the lady answered “We have seen each other for a while, but one day we discovered we share a deep passion in contemporary music. We never found anyone to talk about the contemporary music in that depth….” Green Umbrella is exactly for these people!!! I was so excited to hear their passion. An amazing singing by Evan Hughes and a powerful/thoughtful playing by LA Phil musicians. It was Mattias Pintscher ‘s debut with LA Phil, and I am sure he will come back to Los Angeles soon.