West Coast, Left Coast, the Los Angeles Philharmonic's festival curated by John Adams, continues tonight with the composer and Kronos Quartet performing California-inspired music at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Adams will lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group in performances of Ingram Marshall's Fog Tropes and selections from Frank Zappa's Yellow Shark; Kronos performs Harry Partch's U.S. Highball.
West Coast, Left Coast—the Los Angeles Philharmonic's festival of events curated by John Adams, as the festival's director and as creative chair of the Philharmonic—continues tonight with the composer and Kronos Quartet coming together for a concert of California-inspired music at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Adams will lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group in performances of Ingram Marshall's Fog Tropes and selections from Frank Zappa's Yellow Shark; Kronos performs Harry Partch's U.S. Highball.
Marshall wrote Fog Tropes in San Francisco in 1981 at Adams's request. In the piece, the live performers are paired with pre-recorded ambient sounds the composer captured in San Francisco Bay. It has since gone on to become one of Marshall's most well-known works. (Fog Tropes II, an updated version of the piece commissioned by Kronos in 1994, can be heard on the 2001 Nonesuch album Kingdom Come.)
The Yellow Shark is the title of the last Zappa album released while the musician was still alive. Its title comes from a fish sculpture made from a surfboard by Los Angeles artist Mark Beam, who gave it anonymously to Zappa as a Christmas present. The LA Phil's New Music Group will perform selections from the album.
Between these two works, Kronos, which helped kick off the West Coast, Left Coast series two weekends ago, performs an arrangement Ben Johnston made for the group of “Hobo composer” Harry Partch’s musical travelogue, U.S. Highball, recounting a 1941 rail-jumping journey across country. Kronos recorded the piece for a 2003 Nonesuch album.
Adams and Kronos share the Disney Hall stage again on Thursday and Friday for two performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Featured on the program is the world premiere of Thomas Newman's new piece, It Got Dark, by Kronos and the Philharmonic, in which Adams conducts.
Adams continues as conductor of the Philharmonic through the weekend in performances on Saturday and Sunday that include Leonard Rosenman's Suite from Rebel Without a Cause and Adams's own The Dharma at Big Sur, with Leila Josefowicz on violin.
For more information on these and other concerts in the West Coast, Left Coast festival, visit laphil.com.
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