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  • LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC MUSIC DIRECTOR ESA-PEKKA SALONEN RETURNS TO THE BOWL
  • Aug. 6, 2002
  • Pianist Yefim Bronfman, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and Vocal Soloists Complete the Program

    TUESDAY AND THURSDAY, AUGUST 6 & 8 AT 8 PM

    Aug. 6: Media Sponsors: NEWS 980, K-MOZART 105.1 FM

    Aug. 8: United's Thursday; Media Sponsor: K-MOZART 105.1 FM

    Los Angeles Philharmonic Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen returns to the Hollywood Bowl for his first Tuesday and Thursday classical subscription concerts of the summer to conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic on Tuesday, August 6, and Thursday, August 8, at 8 p.m. Backbeat Live pre-concert events take place at the Patio, one hour prior to the Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday concerts; free to all ticket holders. The August 8 session features Alan Chapman interviewing a member of the orchestra.

    On August 6, joined by pianist Yefim Bronfman, the Philharmonic plays Bartók's First Piano Concerto. The concert also includes Ibéria by Debussy and Prokofiev's beloved Romeo and Juliet Suite.

    Then on August 8, Salonen conducts two symphonies with the Los Angeles Master Chorale: the stirring Symphony No. 2 of Shostakovich and Beethoven's monumental Ninth Symphony. Vocal soloists include soprano Jessica Jones, mezzo-soprano Jill Grove, and baritone Nathan Berg in their Bowl debuts; tenor Gordan Gietz returns.

    Pianist YEFIM BRONFMAN has performed solo and orchestral engagements with the world's great orchestras. In celebration of Lorin Maazel's 70th birthday, Bronfman joined him for the 2000/01 season on a worldwide tour performing the complete Violin Sonatas of Brahms at Carnegie Hall and in Berlin, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris, and Vienna. In 1999, Bronfman joined James Levine and the
    Philharmonia Orchestra of London for a special tour to premiere Disney's Fantasia 2000, on whose soundtrack Bronfman performs the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2. An artist with Sony Classical, Bronfman has won widespread praise for his solo, chamber, and orchestral recordings including a Grammy award in 1997 for his recording of the three Bartók concertos with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Bronfman last played at the Hollywood Bowl in 1999.

    Canadian bass-baritone NATHAN BERG performed Rinaldo at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich and Colline in La bohème at the Bastille in Paris this year. He will also sing Leporello in Don Giovanni for New York City Opera and Aix-en-Provence. Berg performs Mozart's Requiem and Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass with Les Violons du Roy in Montreal and at Alice Tully Hall and makes debuts with the Montreal Symphony (Beethoven's Ninth Symphony) and the New York Philharmonic (Mozart's Requiem). Most recently, he sang Leporello and Masetto in the new Peter Brook production of Don Giovanni in Aix, Lyon, Milan, Brussels, and Tokyo, as well as Les Indes Galantes at the Bastille. He makes his Bowl debut with this concert.

    This season, tenor GORDON GIETZ makes his debut with the San Francisco Opera in their production of Arshak II. He creates the role of Camille Raquin in Tobias Picker's new opera of Thérèse Raquin in his debut with Dallas Opera, and reprises the role with the Opéra de Montréal. Future seasons find him making debuts at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden in the role of Stingo in the new opera Sophie's Choice and at Théâtre du Châtelet as Steva in a new production of Jenufa. This year, he performs in Schumann's Faustszenen with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa in Boston and at Carnegie Hall. He has also appeared with the New York Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, and the Winnipeg Symphony. Gietz last appeared at the Bowl in 2001.

    This season, mezzo-soprano JILL GROVE returns to the Metropolitan Opera for her first Magdalene in Die Meistersinger opposite Karita Mattila and Ben Heppner, makes her Dallas Opera debut as First Norn in Götterdämmerung, and will sing her first Azucena in Il Trovatore with Tulsa Opera. Grove made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Pantalis in the new Robert Carsen production of Boito's Mefistofele, opposite Samuel Ramey, and she subsequently performed Emilia in Otello and Rossweise in Die Walküre there. She made her Los Angeles Opera debut in the world premiere of Tobias Picker's The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Grove makes her debut at the Bowl in this concert.

    American soprano JESSICA JONES recently completed her third season with the Houston Grand Opera Studio, where she appeared as Micaëla in Carmen and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte in 2000-2001. She made her debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony under the baton of John Mauceri in concerts of opera arias. Jones has appeared with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra conducted by Nicholas McGegan in excerpts from Beethoven's Leonore and performed Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder with the Houston Ballet. This season, Jones makes her debuts with the Baltimore and Detroit symphonies, the New York Philharmonic, and the Atlanta Symphony. She also makes her Carnegie Hall debut with the New York Youth Symphony, in music by Mozart and Richard Strauss. She makes her Hollywood Bowl debut in this performance.

    The award-winning LOS ANGELES MASTER CHORALE just completed its 37th year and its first under the baton of Maestro Grant Gershon. The acclaimed 120-voice Chorale was awarded the top national prize in the professional chorus category from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and Chorus America, and received a Grammy nomination in January for the CD Lux Aeterna, released May 1998. As an independent and flexible ensemble, it is the largest choral organization of its kind in the United States. Founded in 1964 by the late Roger Wagner, the Chorale presented its first concert in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion that year, and it continues to present a yearly concert series. The Chorale has appeared with many of the world's leading orchestras while touring the United States and the former Soviet Union, and often serves as a chorus for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.

    ESA-PEKKA SALONEN, the tenth conductor to head the Los Angeles Philharmonic, began his tenure as Music Director in October 1992. Salonen made his American debut conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic in November 1984, and he has conducted the orchestra every season since. Among the many highlights of Salonen's activities with the Philharmonic have been world premieres of new works by composers John Adams, Bernard Rands, Rodion Shchedrin, Steven Stucky, and Salonen himself, well-received Ligeti and Stravinsky Festivals, appearances at the Ojai Festival, seven critically acclaimed international tours since 1992, and his extensive discography with the Orchestra for Sony Classical. Salonen was born in Helsinki, Finland in 1958. He made his conducting debut with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1979, and he has been one of the world's most sought-after conductors since his debut in London with the Philharmonia Orchestra in September 1983. He served as principal guest conductor of the Philharmonia from 1985 to 1994 and as principal conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1985 to 1995.

    EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:

    Tuesday, August 6 at 8 PM

    HOLLYWOOD BOWL

    LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC

    ESA-PEKKA SALONEN, conductor

    YEFIM BRONFMAN, pianist

    Debussy: Ibéria

    Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 1

    Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet Suite

    Media Sponsors: NEWS 980, K-MOZART 105.1 FM

    Thursday, August 8 at 8 PM

    HOLLYWOOD BOWL

    LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC

    ESA-PEKKA SALONEN, conductor

    JESSICA JONES, soprano

    JILL GROVE, mezzo-soprano

    GORDON GIETZ, tenor

    NATHAN BERG, bass-baritone

    LOS ANGELES MASTER CHORALE

    Shostakovich: Symphony No. 2, "To October"

    Beethoven: Symphony No. 9, "Choral"

    United Thursdays; Media Sponsor: K-MOZART 105.1 FM

    Backbeat Live pre-concert events take place at the Patio, one hour prior to the Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday concerts; free to all ticket holders. The August 8 session features Alan Chapman interviewing a member of the orchestra.

    Tickets ($1 - $76) are on sale now at the Hollywood Bowl box office, by calling Ticketmaster at 213.480.3232, at all Ticketmaster outlets (Robinsons May, Tower Records and Ritmo Latino locations), or online at hollywoodbowl.com. Groups of 12 or more may be eligible for a 20% discount, subject to availability; call 323.850-2050 for further details. For general information or to request a brochure, call 323.850.2000.

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  • Contact:

    Elizabeth Hinckley, (323) 850-2047; Rachelle Roe, (323) 850-2032