Following an acclaimed first season as Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Susanna Mälkki returns for the orchestra’s centennial season. Her upcoming concerts feature six world premieres and a staged performance of Sibelius’s The Tempest in collaboration with The Old Globe.
She kicks off her return with four performances beginning November 1-4 at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. These performances mark the world premiere of American composer Steve Reich’s new work, Music for Ensemble and Orchestra, in celebration of the company’s centennial. Also on the program, is Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, a transformative work which he encoded a musical love letter to his beloved fiancée Alma Schindler in the famous Adagietto section of the forth movement. Steve Reich describes his new work for orchestra:
“Music for Ensemble and Orchestra is an extension of the Baroque Concerto Grosso where there is more than one soloist. Here there are 20 soloists—all regular members of the orchestra, including the first stand strings and winds, as well as two vibraphones and two pianos. The piece is in five movements, though the tempo never changes, only the note value of the constant pulse in the pianos. Thus, an arch form: sixteenths, eighths, a Ghanaian bell pattern, eighths, and sixteenths.”