Review: L.A. Phil’s ‘Noon to Midnight’ marathon evokes the sounds of our city, grumbles and all

As a seasoned concert-goer who has attended countless performances over the years, I must say that the “Noon to Midnight” event at the L.A. Phil was an unforgettable experience. It was a testament to the boundless creativity and collaborative spirit of the LA music scene, with artists pushing the boundaries of what music can be.

From Noon until Midnight, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s yearly event invites everyone – families, influencers in the arts scene, enthusiasts of new music, and the simply curious – to explore every corner of Walt Disney Concert Hall. For only $12, which is cheaper than many items from the food trucks outside or drinks in the beer garden, you’re paying just a dollar per hour.

On Saturdays, you could stroll through a local farmers market early in the morning, followed by an afternoon visit to Disney Hall at lunchtime – the transition seems effortless. The musicians performing there are innovative new music groups, much like local produce vendors. You’re free to browse and explore whatever is fresh and in season.

This year marked a distinct change. For the first time, the L.A. Phil chose a curator, composer Ellen Reid, whose music frequently reflects locations and who has a passion for creating sound walks. Her focus was on fresh compositions that in some manner utilize environmental field recordings or evoke our surroundings as they undergo transformation.

“Climate issues are too big for music to solve,” Reid admitted in one of the talks that were part of the event. But what composers can do in myriad ways is to document, through sounds, what the world is like today as well as to interact with or manipulate sounds that heighten our awareness of nature.

23 formal concerts, sometimes multiple at once, took place within Disney Hall as well as its exterior, featuring numerous world premieres. However, the event “Noon to Midnight” was hard to classify like nature itself. The boundaries between new and old were blurred. There were improvisations, installations, adaptations, unique collaborations among artists, musicians, and media, always with Mother Nature as a backdrop.

A notable benefit of this extensive model is its ability to counteract the excessive fear of missing out (FOMO). Regardless of whether you’re sampling and skimming through various musical options to get an overall view or meticulously planning to catch a few must-sees, considering food, drink, and rest as well, this model helps alleviate the stress and anxiety associated with potentially missing out on something.

Only the concerts in the main hall offered comfort. The chairs were removed in BP Hall for experimental work, which meant sitting on the floor or standing (ushers stopped us from leaning on the walls). Concerts in the chilly outdoor amphitheater meant bundling up. In this way, music becomes the environment, similar to a long day in the country. Highlights seemed less important than encounters that added up to an overall experience. It’s not what you heard or how much; it was how hearing and noticing can change your chemistry.

At the inaugural performance in BP Hall, Michael Pisaro-Liu crafted intricate, almost tantalizingly perilous electronic drones utilizing sine waves intertwined with field recordings he captured around Los Angeles. With each listen, the sound seems to penetrate deeper within you.

In simple terms, Andrew Norman’s “A Companion Guide to Rome,” a nine-movement string trio piece that evokes various churches, was played with great enthusiasm by different ensembles of Delirium Musicum in the main hall. This exceptional group also debuted Andrew Yee’s “Trees of Greenwood” in its complete orchestral arrangement for strings, featuring soprano Laurel Irene who sang the names of trees in a celestial voice, as if whispering from another realm, reminding us of the lost members of a forest.

At the Wild Up concert held in BP Hall, Andrew McIntosh’s “Learning” kicked off the event with a percussionist interacting fascinatingly with subtle sounds from forest field recordings. Meanwhile, outside in the Keck Amphitheater, John Eagle employed his fallible memory for “inside-outside,” transforming his field recordings into scratchy, deep, rumbling drones that evoked an enthusiastic reaction from the dynamic Isaura String Quartet. Later on, inside BP Hall once more, the Calder Quartet infused Missy Mazzoli’s “Death Valley Junction” with a captivating warmth, bringing to life its bright, slick melodies.

In a new and captivating way, “My Beloved Spectra” by Anne LeBaron blends NASA’s space recordings, artificially modified for an otherworldly feel, with the enchanting melodies of the RedKoral trio (violin, viola, harp). Meanwhile, environmental soundscape composer Annea Lockwood immerses listeners in the hypnotic, bubbling water sounds she’s electronically augmented, and gets the crowd moving with her dynamic piano-percussion duet “Jitterbug”, skillfully played by Vicki Ray and Wesley Sumpter.

A multitude of attendees patiently queued for Reid’s unique presentation titled “Oscillations: 100 Years and Forever,” initially composed for the L.A. Phil’s centennial celebration. The performance, featuring solo vocalists, a choir, and projections, transformed into an enchanting ode to Los Angeles, both past and present. For twenty minutes, Reid successfully instilled in his audience a sense of devotion towards a city worth preserving.

This brief glimpse revealed only a fraction of the extensive day-to-night sequence, culminating in the spectacular event, Doug Aitken’s “Lightscape,” which seemed destined to overshadow all others. Originally designed for a Green Umbrella concert by the L.A. Phil New Music Group, “Noon to Midnight” stands alone as the program that necessitates a separate admission fee.

In this case, a major collaboration between the orchestra and the L.A. Master Chorale accompanied Aitken’s 65-minute video. “Lightscape” seemed the hottest ticket. It had been long sold out. Many showed up just for “Lightscape.”

As a film enthusiast who’s attended Green Umbrella concerts for four decades, I’ve rarely encountered such dissatisfaction among the audience. One spectator after another approached me with concerns about what seemed to be a glossy advertisement featuring stunning people, a captivating mountain lion, luxurious homes, breathtaking landscapes. Even a run-down pickup truck was given an alluring makeover. A breakdancer transformed an Amazon factory into a lively, cheerful setting for filming.

The composition, featuring fragments of Philip Glass, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Meredith Monk, Beck, among others, as well as Aitken, was skillfully assembled by Grant Gershon, the artist and Master Chorale Artistic Director. During the live rendition, performers from the L.A. Phil New Music Group and the Master Chorale, under the baton of Gershon, impressively mimed both vocals and instruments to the movie in perfect synchronization.

Next month, “Lightscape” will fit perfectly as a stylish seven-screen display at the Marciano Art Foundation. In this live performance, musicians blended harmoniously with an overly amplified soundtrack that incorporated spoken voices and natural sounds. Despite the challenges posed by the environment, they created magic, utilizing every opportunity to infuse the space with beauty and substance, transforming what could have been an empty canvas into something extraordinary. No field recording could aspire to match this level of brilliance.

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2024-11-19 23:01