Bowing Up a Sweat

Comments (0) By Mary Beth Crain Thursday, Mar 29 2012

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Walt Disney Concert Hall

111 S. Grand Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Category: Music Venues

Region: Out of Town

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The best advice for any violinist who's thinking of attempting John Adams' Violin Concerto is: start training now! Rev up that heart rate and beef up that upper body because this dandy little workout doesn't let up for one second. It's 35 minutes of non-stop, show-stopping virtuosity -- something like the musical equivalent of a mini Boston Marathon -- with a frenzied finale of notes and chords both harmonious and harsh that ends in a feverish dash across the finish line. Of his Graewmeyer Award-winning work, Adams says: "The violin spins one long phrase after another without stop, and in the final Chaconne, titled ‘Body Through Which the Dream Flows,'...it is as if the violin is the ‘dream' that flows through the slow, regular heartbeat of the orchestral ‘body.'" It sure would have been nice to witness Adams conducting his Violin Concerto -- along with Arvo Part's Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten and Philip Glass's Symphony No. 9 -- but alas, he had to cancel his appearances with the L.A. Phil due to scheduling conflicts. So, acclaimed American conductor Jeffrey Milarsky will be on the podium, with the brilliant Leila Josefowicz as violin soloist. At Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., dwntwn.; Thurs., April 5, 8pm; repeated Fri.-Sat., April 6-7, 8pm; Upbeat Live pre-concert lectures with Chad Smith, L.A. Philharmonic Vice President of Artistic Planning, 7pm. Note: Philip Glass appears at the April 6 Upbeat Live; $24-$178. (323) 850-2000, www.laphil.com.
Thu., April 5, 8 p.m.; Fri., April 6, 8 p.m.; Sat., April 7, 8 p.m., 2012