Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Goes to the Movies

Buster Keaton in "Our Hospitality" - film still courtesy of AMPAS

By Edwin Wendler

As part of their Silent Film Gala, now in its 24th year, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra had a comedic treat in store for a receptive and enthusiastic audience assembled at UCLA’s Royce Hall on June 8.  In his opening remarks, gala co-chairman Roger L. Mayer pointed to recent collaborations between the National Film Preservation Foundation and the New Zealand Film Archive in order to bring more silent movie masterpieces back to the public’s attention.

"Hungry Hobos" film still by Walt Disney Animation Studios

Mark Watters
Photo: Emily Abshere

Gala Executive Committee member Edward J. Nowak introduced the evening’s first movie: Walt Disney’s recently rediscovered, animated Hungry Hobos, featuring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.  Created in 1928, this absurdly funny short film underwent a meticulous restoration supervised by Walt Disney Animation Studios’ David A. Bossert.  Composer Mark Watters crafted a new, brassy score with roots in the popular music of the era, and honoring Walt Disney’s preferences regarding music for animation.  For instance, Watters’s score references tunes like Pop Goes the Weasel and perfectly syncs musical accents with the cartoon characters’ screen antics.  The accurate timings of the digital master, and the click track which the musicians heard in their ear pieces, allowed for an ultra-precise, vigorous performance by the orchestra, conducted by the composer with gusto, for this world première live performance.

Dustin Hoffman
Photo: Platon

Gala co-chair Hanna M. Kennedy and actor Dustin Hoffman, who serves as honorary chair, announced the evening’s centerpiece feature film: Buster Keaton’s Our Hospitality (1923; co-directed with John G. Blystone).  Hoffman provided some trivia about the film (Keaton casting several of his own relatives; re-creating the “Stephenson’s Rocket” steam locomotive) and shared a touching anecdote about Keaton’s surprise at being celebrated as a master filmmaker when all he had ever wanted to do was to make people laugh.  Timothy Brock conducted the orchestra in a beautiful performance of Carl Davis’s delightfully restrained score (composed in 1984).  Davis is certainly no stranger to silent films, having written new music for a substantial number of them over the years, most notably Intolerance, Napoléon, and the 1925 version of Ben-Hur.  Much of the comedy in Our Hospitality derives from Keaton’s stoicism in the face of freakishly dangerous situations.  Carl Davis knows when to stay out of the way and let Keaton’s comedic genius do its magic.

Carl Davis
Photo: Carl Davis Collection

Clarinet (performed by Chris Bleth) and “Americana” strings introduce the score’s main, lyrical theme over the main titles. Remarkably, other than a giggling baby (Buster Keaton, Jr.), nothing about the opening sequence would lead the audience to believe that they are watching a comedy.  Chilling, high piano arpeggios (performed to perfection by Bryan Pezzone) accompany the cold rain, and an ominous motif (reminiscent of Franz Schubert’s Der Erlkönig) for the lower registers of the orchestra introduce us to the main plot device: a family feud between the Canfields and the McKays (obviously inspired by the Hatfields and the McCoys).  The 5-note “feud theme” later returns in many variations (including a more dominant 4-note version), mostly underscoring the Canfield clan’s menacing presence and often deliciously performed by Steve Suminski on trombone.  The rain arpeggios also return later, though in a much altered context.

Keaton’s character, Willie McKay, learns that he has inherited an estate from his father.  Willie’s resulting train trip gets its own, 8-note theme and consists of numerous, hilarious episodes, one of which involves an unmovable mule.  The sequence makes great use of a double-bass solo (performed by Nico Abondolo).  The movie’s action centerpiece, the thrilling “rapids sequence,” involves some heart-stopping stunts and requires virtuoso playing from the orchestra, whose concert master for the evening was Tereza Stanislav.

"Our Hospitality", film stills courtesy of AMPAS

Hanna M. Kennedy originated the Silent Film Gala for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in 1990, combining seldom-seen cinematic gems with the musical skills from industry professionals who often perform on today’s movie scores.  I hope this series never ends.

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Photos above are used by permission of LACO, AMPAS, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and The Carl Davis Collection.

Death of a Boys Choir

By Douglas Neslund

There is no way to sugarcoat it: after 42 years of re-established life under the direction and guidance of John R. Barron, the Pasadena Boys Choir is closing its doors. Mr. Barron’s need to retire at the same time his more-than-able assistant, Bryon Espina’s need to leave the choir program after 30 years of service due to a job opportunity in his “real” career path (pharmaceuticals focused on defeating cancers), and the inability of the leadership of Mr. Barron, Mr. Espina and Mrs. Joanne Dickson to find a music director specialist in the art of Boychoir to take the reins, led to the decision to close up shop.

In Mr. Barron’s remarks to the audience, he cited changes in public school curriculum, the increasing diversification of children’s after-school interests that limit their availability for twice-a-week rehearsals, and the down economy of recent years as the primary causes for a shrinking membership.

Decades ago, the choir boasted a membership of 130 boys and a prominent place in Southern California performing life. Perhaps the highlight of all was the choir’s performance and recording of William Kraft’s Contextures II: The Final Beast with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of André Previn in 1989, recorded on Soundmark Records. 

A 1981 self-published recording of Civil War songs arranged by Alan Boehmer titled “The Union Forever” stands out as a musical highlight in the suite of memories to be found in the choir’s trophy case.

And so they gathered on a beautiful Saturday afternoon at St. Edmund’s Episcopal Church in San Marino, to hear the boys, bolstered by a dozen choir alumni sing again, to celebrate with friends, alumni and family, and to weep together a little bit.

The music selected by Mr. Espina, who also accompanied at the piano, was a potpourri of tunes performed by the choir over the years, including folksongs, Broadway hits, serious classical works (“Ave Maria” by Franz Biebl), and culminating with Ed Lojeski’s arrangement of Alan Menken and David Zippel’s “Go the Distance.” The single encore, with audience invited to sing-along, was Richard Rodger’s and Oscar Hammerstein’s immortal “Edelweiss.”

The singing will continue today, Sunday, June 9, 2013, for the final time. And for one last time, the boys and alums, and their families and friends, will gather after the music stops at the South Pasadena home of Mrs. Dickson, to relive old memories, to re-establish old friendships, to pay homage to those who enriched their lives, and to vow to hold a reunion someday …

A passing mention was made earlier during the concert expressing the hope that “someone” would pick up the pieces and again, re-establish the Pasadena Boys Choir as a rare and precious resource for the Southern California music scene. Mr. Barron will hold open the choir’s IRS non-profit 501(c)(3) status to keep that hope alive.

In the meanwhile, here are eight minutes of memories: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxzjUWmUaoU

Los Angeles Master Chorale sings American Songs & Spirituals

By Douglas Neslund

The late George Bragg taught his choristers, “When you perform, the audience must never see the struggle. Only the love must show.”

Showing nothing but love in choral performance is such a high bar that few organizations can achieve it with consistency. Choral perfection is also marked by an absence of ego in which the performer calls attention to him/herself, thereby distracting the audience from noticing musical or technical errors.

The ideal choral collective must love to sing, to create sound together, and willingly and joyfully to give themselves over to their director. They must have overcome vocal technical difficulties, and they must know their music and its style so that when given the downbeat, they can produce creative chords in ensemble. So in the end, it is love that brings a choir to that exalted place in which perfection may be accomplished.

Choral perfection was offered to an excited audience moved by wondrous music of composers from this country at Walt Disney Concert Hall by the Los Angeles Master Chorale and its veteran, iconic conductor of twelve seasons, Grant Gershon.

“American Songs & Spirituals” encompassed “Sure on this Shining Night” of Samuel Barber; “Songs of Smaller Creatures,” a clever work featuring bees, spiders/Souls and butterflies to lyrics by Walter de la Mare, Walt Whitman and Charles Swinburne, respectively, by Abbie Betinis; and “General William Booth Enters Into Heaven,” a satirical accounting of the founder of the Salvation Army’s arrival at the gates of Heaven by the inimitable insurance salesman, Charles Ives.

And then came a world premiere performance of a work not quite completed in time for this first hearing by the Chorale’s own Swan Family Composer in Residence, Shawn Kirchner, who took on the daunting challenges of poetry by the late Sylvia Plath.

Shawn Kirchner, center

 The entire seven movements (six of which were performed) are wide-ranging in subject matter: “Morning Song,” containing such language as “All night your moth-breath Flickers among the flat pink roses;” “Mirror,” that gives a realistic and humorous account of “the eye of the little god, four-cornered” but which takes a sudden dark turn in the form of a lake, into which a woman peers as she seeks to find forgiveness for having drowned a young girl; “Lady Lazarus,” a horrific account by a deceased Jewish woman in the wake of Nazi concentration camp dehumanization and murder, in which she says, “Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well;” “Poppies in October” contains a sentiment that triggered Mr. Kirchner’s interest in Ms. Plath’s writings: “Oh my God, what am I (t)hat these late mouths should cry open In a forest of frost, in a dawn of cornflowers;” “Child” that begins, “Your clear eye is the one absolutely beautiful thing;” and “Blackberrying” that depicts a stroll across grassy hills, finding an occasional bee-occupied blackberry bush, and continuing on toward the sea and its infinite view and crashing surf. (The yet-to-be completed “Tulips” will be included in future performances.) Mr. Kirchner’s exceptional arranging skills have been displayed frequently over the past 12 seasons of his association with the Chorale as a member of the tenor section. Most popular everywhere is his “Wana Baraka,” a Kenyan folksong. In the performance of “Plath Songs” Mr. Kirchner accompanied at the piano, with the excellent Theresa Dimond assisting on percussion.

After intermission, the 46 gentlemen of the Master Chorale took the stage to perform Elliott Carter’s “Tarantella” with sizzling tone in this paean of praise to the “Mother of Flowers” and bacchanal joys of Spring, accompanied by Mr. Kirchner and the wonderful Lisa Edwards. At a polar mood opposite, the Master Chorale performed Samuel Barber’s own choral version (“Agnus Dei”) of his well-known Adagio for Strings, over-conducted by associate conductor Lesley Leighton, with Karen Hogle Brown providing the stratospherics.

Arguably the most impressionable work of the evening was Eric Whitacre’s “Three Songs of Faith.” The three movements with lyrics by e.e. cummings, “i will wade out,” “hope, faith, life, love …” and “i thank you God for most this amazing day” are incredible choral works. The most magical moment comes on the last word of the first movement, “moon” in which the composer conjures a choral web of sound that both astounds and delights in kaleidoscopic wonder, brilliantly performed by the Master Chorale. It is no wonder that Mr. Whitacre’s compositions are widely performed and loved.

The concluding portion of the concert featured “Ain-a That Good News” arranged by William Dawson, “Hold On!” by Jester Hairston, “Keep Your Lamps!” arranged by André Thomas, and “The Battle of Jericho” arranged by Moses Hogan. This quartet of Spirituals got the audience really rocking with infectious rhythms and joyful singing that openly displayed the love that was reflected throughout Walt Disney Concert Hall. “Shenandoah” in the familiar beautiful arrangement by James Erb was the encore to the concert and the season.

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An annual rite of passage for the Chorale at the end of every season is the farewell “thank you” to departing choristers. In descending order of service, this year’s “good-byes and best wishes” are showered upon Holly Shaw Price for her outstanding 27 years of Master Chorale performances; Steven Fraider and Dominic MacAller for their 18 years; Mary Bailey for her 17; Susan Mills for her 15; Carrie Dike, 6 years; Drew Holt, 5 years; Ed Nepomuceno, 4 years; and Duke Rausavljevich, one year.

Photo credits: petersmusinews.com, Lee Salem

Pacific Boychoir premieres Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil

By Douglas Neslund

What, you might ask? The title above cannot be true. Didn’t the Los Angeles Master Chorale perform the All-Night Vigil just recently? As did the Pacific Chorale?

So what forms a claim of “premiere” performance, you ask. Sergei Rachmaninoff wrote the work in 1915 to be sung by the Moscow Synodal choir comprised of boys and men. Therein lies the premiere aspect brought to Los Angeles for the first time ever by the 56 young men of the Pacific Boychoir of Oakland, with 29 tenors and basses provided by local professionals and alumni of the choir. The unfortunately smallish audience at the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles heard the work as envisioned by the composer in 1915 and ultimately performed six times as its popularity in Moscow grew ever greater. Tragically, the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 brought an end to public performance of religious music of any kind, but equally sad, an end to the Synodal choir itself.

The All-Night Vigil (also sometimes called Vespers) is an amalgam of traditional modal Znamenny chant amplified by sections composed by Rachmaninoff in the same a cappella style. The result is a finely woven tapestry of sound that varies endlessly in its employment of treble and men’s voices, utilizing the widest possible distribution and range throughout. Such writing makes the many entrances a challenge for choirs of any age. The music itself is simply gorgeous and in an ecclesiastical setting, serves the purpose of giving life to the varying texts of the 15 separate sections, including Eastern Orthodox versions of Ave Maria, the Annunciation, Magnificat, Nunc dimittis, and various Psalm settings.

Daniel Babcock, with a passionate, ringing, legato delivery, was the exceptionally fine soloist on this occasion, with an incipit by bass Edward Levy. A trio of alto choirboys: Sam Siegel, Zachary Salsburg-Frank and William Lundquist sang with gorgeous, Catalunian-like rich tone in No. 2, "Bless the Lord, O My Soul." 

When the music demanded, fortissimos erupted in volcanic heat, but a moment later, delicate, crystalline pianissimos reflected the shifting textual requirements. The effect is stunning, and the blend of  bright boys’ voices with the men is so different and so “right” the listener cannot deny its appropriate impact, truly a “premiere” for Los Angeles.

Maestro Kevin Fox, the Founding Artistic Director, kept his large ensemble in tight focus and the result was a series of dynamically beautiful phrasing that in a work of this level of potential disaster at every turn makes the resulting musical value ever more memorable. In preparation for this concert, Maestro Fox was aided in no small part by Assistant Director Marcia Roy and others at the choir school in Oakland. The audience was given a program containing the texts with English translation provided by Vladimir Morosan of Musica Russica.

After the final phrase, the audience sprang to its collective feet for sustained applause and cries of “sláva!” were heard. It was that kind of performance.

The Pacific Boychoir and men in rehearsal for the All-Night Vigil in Los Angeles

Residents of Northern California have an opportunity to hear this choir sing the All-Night Vigil on Friday night, May 24, at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, and on Saturday night, May 25, at The Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland. Further information may be obtained at http://www.pacificboychoir.org