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California Philharmonic Orchestra presents “Beethoven Meets the Beatles” to open its summer season at Walt Disney Concert Hall on June 30.
Cal Phil Founder and Music Director Dr. Victor Vener will conduct Beethoven’s monumental Symphony No. 5, as well as a set of Beatles hits featuring special guests The Fab Four, the nation’s leading Beatles tribute band (and frequent Cal Phil guests) as they recreate the Beatles’ legendary original studio arrangements live on stage.
The concert begins at 2 p.m., Sunday, June 30, at Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90012. The orchestra’s ever popular “Talks With the Maestro” chats with Victor Vener take place at 1 p.m. in BP Hall. Tickets range from $37.50 to $140 with subscriptions ranging from $33 to $122.50, all available at www.calphil.com and (323) 850-2000. Groups of 10 or more may call (323) 850-2050. Box office hours are Tuesday-Friday, 12 noon to 5 p.m. and 2 hours prior to performance.
Beethoven’s 5th Symphony is probably the best-known piece of Western music in the world. It took Beethoven four years to write and had only been rehearsed once before its premiere in an icy auditorium on December 22, 1808. Groundbreaking in terms of both its technical and its emotional impact, the Fifth has had a large influence on composers, inspired work by Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Bruckner, Mahler and Berlioz. The symphony’s first movement, as performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra, was featured on the Voyager Golden Record, a phonograph record containing a broad sample of the images, common sounds, languages, and music of Earth sent into outer space aboard the Voyager probes in 1977, both of which have now left the solar system.
More than 150 years after the 5th debuted, The Beatles exploded on the music scene with songs of such staggering popularity. Beethoven was no slouch when it came to songwriting, having composed over 150 works of music. The Beatles wrote more than 250 songs and concertgoers will hear “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “All You Need Is Love,” “Eleanor Rigby,” “Got to Get You into My Life,” “Imagine,” “Hey Jude” and others.
Cal Phil’s summer concert season continues June 14 with “Bastille Day!” featuring excerpts from “Les Misérables,” with Les Miz’ Broadway star Randal Keith, Anne Martinez, and the Cal Phil Chorale, plus Berlioz’ “Symphonie Fantastique” and Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Organ” Symphony featuring the world-famous Walt Disney organ played by organist Philip Smith.
“Space: A Giant Leap” on July 28 celebrates the 50th anniversary of mankind’s first steps on the moon with the title tracks from “Apollo 13,” “Star Wars,” “Star Trek,” “Mars” and “Jupiter” from Gustav Holst’s “The Planets,” and Mahler’s “Symphony No. 1, Titan” with projections of newly released images from NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“Carmen Goes To The Movies” on Aug. 11 features Audrey Babcock, Cedric Berry, Annalise Staudt and the Cal Phil Chorale performing excerpts from Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen alongside works of composer Ennio Morricone, known as “the Mozart of movies” from “The Mission,” “Cinema Paradiso” and more.
“The Emperor’s Roundup” on Aug. 18 features pianist Daniel Lessner playing Beethoven’s “Emperor” Piano Concerto No. 5. The concert roundup continues with Elmer Bernstein’s “The Magnificent Seven,” Aaron Copland’s “Billy the Kid, and Ferde Grofé’s “Grand Canyon Suite” and Jerome Moross’ “The Big Country.”
For more information, visit www.caScholastic Artslphil.com or call (323) 850-2000.
