Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s (LACO) three-program In Focus series explores during the 2019-20 season Beethoven’s great chamber works and also includes works by Strauss, Mendelssohn and Schumann, as well as a LACO-commissioned world premiere by composer/pianist Sarah Gibson, “a serious talent to watch” (Atlanta Journal Constitution), which features the composer on piano and was inspired by Clara Schumann on the 200th anniversary of her birthday. Curated by Concertmaster Margaret Batjer and highlighting an array of LACO artists plus, this season, special guests pianist Andrew von Oeyen and the Miró Quartet, In Focus provides insights into the quintessence of some of the great chamber music repertoire through the lens of LACO artists in an intimate setting with each program presented in back-to-back performances on Thursdays at First Presbyterian of Santa Monica and Fridays at San Marino’s The Huntington, at 7:30 pm. Batjer leads Strauss’ Metamorphosen for String Septet and Beethoven’s Septet for Winds and Strings on February 20 and 21, 2020; von Oeyen, a pianist lauded for his “indisputable gifts and an extravagantly thorough and effortless technique” (Los Angeles Times), is featured on Beethoven’s Piano Trio and Schumann’s Piano Quintet on a program that also includes the Gibson world premiere on April 2 and 3, 2020; and the Miró Quartet, “a marvel of single-minded phrasing and airtight ensemble” (Washington Post), performs Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 12 and Mendelssohn’s String Octet on April 30 and May 1, 2020.
Beethoven + Strauss February 20/21, 2020
In Focus, curated by LACO Concertmaster Margaret Batjer, opens with Strauss’s memorial elegy Metamorphosen for String Septet, composed during the final months of World War II, and Beethoven’s popular Septet for Winds and Strings, considered among his most successful works, on Thursday, February 20, 7:30 pm, at First Presbyterian of Santa Monica, and Friday, February 21, 2020, 7:30 pm, at San Marino’s The Huntington. The program features 10 of LACO’s virtuosic artists: Carrie Kennedy and Joel Pargman, violin; Erik Rynearson and Sharon Wei, viola; Andrew Shulman, Trevor Handy and Giovanna Moraga Clayton, cello; Peter Lloyd, bass; Kenneth Munday, bassoon; and Dylan Hart, horn.
Tickets, starting at $49, are available online at laco.org, or by calling LACO at 213 622 7001 x1. Single tickets can also be purchased at the venue box office on the night of the concert, if tickets remain. Discounted tickets are available by phone for groups of 12 or more. College students with valid student ID may purchase tickets for $8, subject to availability.