The Los Angeles Philharmonic, led by Dynamo Dudamel, kicks off its winter season with a creative program that's a study in contrasts: fun-filled John Adams, biblically tragic Leonard Bernstein and solemnly beatific Beethoven. First up is Adams' Slonimsky's Earbox, a tribute to the composer's friend and mentor Nicholas Slonimsky, who died in 1995 at the age of 101 and was a renowned composer, conductor, musical theorist and author. Inspired by both Slonimsky's Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns and Igor Stravinsky's The Song of the Nightingale, Adams deftly weaves strands of minimalism, contrapuntal complexity and early 20th-century Russian modalities into a quirky, lively tone poem that skips and frolics about, different instruments taking turns engaging in friendly and often humorous banter. On a literally different note is Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1, “Jeremiah.” Written when the composer was only 24, it's a major work of both musical and spiritual profundity that uses text from the Book of Lamentations to tell the story of the prophet Jeremiah, who warns of the destruction of Jerusalem. The Hebrew text is sung by Grammy-winning mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor. The program concludes with Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 — that heroic work that's most famous for its stately, gorgeous Allegretto.

Thu., Jan. 6, 8 p.m.; Fri., Jan. 7, 8 p.m.; Sat., Jan. 8, 8 p.m.; Sun., Jan. 9, 2 p.m., 2011

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