Los Angeles Master Chorale

Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel & Los Angeles Master Chorale – Thomas Adès: Dante (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:31:49 minutes | 1,84 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Nonesuch

Thomas Adès’ Dante-a ballet score in three parts based on Dante Alighieri’s La Divina Commedia-was recorded by the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel at a concert performance last spring at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Nonesuch Records releases the album, the work’s premiere audio recording, on April 21, 2023. Dante was first performed at the Royal Opera House as part of Wayne McGregor’s The Dante Project for the Royal Ballet, with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and with designs by visual artist Tacita Dean. The piece’s three parts are “Inferno, ” “Purgatorio, ” and “Paradiso. “Dante is inspired by the alternately chilling and sunlit landscapes of La Divina Commedia. Written in the fourteenth century, this seminal Italian poem recounts an initiatory journey through hell, purgatory, and paradise. McGregor and Adès bring the medieval Christian fantasy to life with a narrative arc about a young woman named Beatrice who embodies a promise of love and hope. Opéra National de Paris, where Dudamel is Music Director, performs The Dante Project this April and May; the London Philharmonic features Dante’s first part performs “Inferno” performs on a February 22 concert program conducted by Adès.

(more…)

Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Gustavo Dudamel – J. Adams: The Gospel According To The Other Mary (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:13:03 minutes | 2,38 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary, first performed in 2012 in Los Angeles, is something of an expansion on the composer’s El Niño, a Passion story adorned with a variety of contemporary themes and musical materials. Like the earlier work, it features a libretto by longtime Adams collaborator Peter Sellars, and it may be sung on-stage as an oratorio or presented as an opera. Mary Magdalene is indeed a central figure in the work, but actually it is more than the trick perspective the title might imply; as with El Niño Sellars incorporates such devices as set pieces featuring poetry by other writers (this time poet Louise Erdrich plays the central role). Jesus seems to appear as through a prism, embodied by a trio of countertenors: a typical Adams masterstroke. Bach’s Passions are obvious antecedents, but Andrew Clements of the London Guardian has accurately pointed out a resemblance to a work by a composer not much mentioned in the same breath as Adams: Leonard Bernstein’s Mass. The music has similar ambitions and a similar way, although not so extreme, of veering off into contemporary vernacular materials according to the text. This doesn’t suit Adams perfectly, although he takes steps, including a recurring use of the cimbalom, to tie all his diverse materials together. At any rate, the work is never boring and often absorbing; the enthusiasm of conductor Gustavo Dudamel, the vocal performers, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra for the material is palpable; and this sprawling score is clearly recorded. Time will tell whether concert-music big events like this one will have staying power, but there’s a lot to chew on here for anyone with the slightest liking for Adams and his democratic, synoptic musical world.

(more…)