Hollywood Bowl in Summer 8/3/14
August 3, 2014
Hollywood Bowl in LA summer is something Angelenos don’t want to miss. It is very relaxing with a nice breeze while listening the great music. I visited there for twice in the last week, one for Beethoven program with 5th Symphony and Triple Concerto, and the opera night. Both concerts were conducted by LA Phil’s music director Gustavo Dudamel.
I played Triple Concerto with the school orchestra for a long time ago, and my recollection from that experience is not all positive, as you imagine. Renaud and Gautier Capucon and jean-Yves Thibaudet performed together a refined Triple Concerto. From the beginning to the end, I was involved into the music, their technique and musicality. And the concert concluded with 5th symphony. After the first 4 notes (ones of most famous notes in the music world!) the Hollywood Bowl audience cheered as if a Rock Concert, and I heard the audience screamed “I Love It!”. That is the beauty of an out-door concert. The audience expresses themselves openly. It is so wonderful to see the audience gets so excited listening classical music, which was written almost 200 years ago,.
The opera concert included 2 super melodramas, Mascagli: Cavalleria rusticana and Leoncavallo: Pagliacci. Those operas are often played as a pair. Both operas tell the triangle love stories with comedy elements. After Cavalleria rusticana, my friends and I looked each other because of the super melodrama-tude! Then one friend said “you need this” offering me a glass of wine. The music is fantastic, and I was wondering how those composers were inspired by the cheating stories.. But the light-touch operas are perfect in Hollywood Bowl, and of course LA Phi/Dudamel and solo singers/LA Master Chorale did a memorable performance. Viva Hollywood Bowl!