CAMA Presents the L.A. Philharmonic

After the prolonged pandemic performance drought, CAMA brings a glorious downpour of the world’s best orchestral music to The Granada Theatre. The 2022 International Series continues on Friday, January 28, with an appearance by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Elim Chan. The program includes Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4 in A Major “Italian” Op. 90, a new work titled Cloudline by composer Elizabeth Ogonek, and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 37 featuring soloist Igor Levit.

Elizabeth Ogonek is one of the most exciting composers working today. Some of you will remember her from her residency at the Music Academy of the West in 2018. Ogonek wrote Cloudline during the pandemic as a tribute to “the most egalitarian of nature’s displays.” Classical trainspotters will recognize allusions to Purcell (the Lament from Dido and Aeneas) and Brahms’s Symphony No. 4 in this 13-minute work.

Pianist Igor Levit and conductor Elim Chan are taking an innovative approach to touring this season by teaming up for concerts with two of the world’s top orchestras. On Thursday, January 20, the duo appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. This weekend finds them working with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney Hall on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, with their performance at the Granada sandwiched between those dates on Friday, January 28. 

Levit may be the most in-demand pianist in the world at the moment. His January 13 solo recital and Carnegie Hall earned a rave review from Zachary Woolfe of the New York Times. His most recent recording, the three-CD set On DSCH for Sony Classical, offers a thrilling combination of music by Shostakovich and Scots composer Ronald Stevenson. Levit made a splash during the pandemic with a series of concerts streamed from his home. It will be a pleasure to hear him in the Granada with the musicians of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

This edition of ON Culture was originally emailed to subscribers on April 12, 2024. To receive Leslie Dinaberg’s arts newsletter in your inbox on Fridays, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.