Joel McNeely

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New Looks at Chamber Music

LA Chamber Orchestra at the Jazz Bakery was something quite different Saturday night. It was packed (and hot.) Gernot Wolfgang's duo for cello and bassoon, Common Ground, came off really well with excellent performances. My piano quartet, Pacific Dances received an outstanding performance (I thought) with Bryan Pezzone throwing down some unbelievable piano playing. The string trio was superb as well; really finding the rhythm of the piece and making it, well, dance. Many thanks to the performers for giving me the gift of hearing the piece played damn near perfectly. Time to record.

Uri Caine's chamber piece for 13 instruments, Mosaic, was a huge hit. Uri's piano playing is remarkable and totally unique. Mark Swed gives an insightful and precise review of the concert today in the LA Times. I think he captures well, the very complex thinking of Uri Caine. Once again the LA Chamber Orchestra musicians did a phenomenal job and made conducting the piece a joy.

http://www.calendarlive.com/music/jazz/cl-et-laco14may14,0,3504357.story

Comments (3)

Greta Brannan:

Uri Caine is indeed something special and I hope he records his Mosaic soon!

"Ravel shakes it up with Gershwin" and conducting props too. :) Two homeruns in the concert hall (as it were) this month!

Joel, congrats on the performance and a great review. Sounded like it was a blast.

-Greta

Greta Brannan:

Oops, "Ravel shakes it up with BERNSTEIN" I meant to type - even better!

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on May 14, 2007 10:41 AM.

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