Beethoven & Falla at the LA Phil with Master Chorale

I attended a concert at Disney Hall Thursday that was full of fire and might.  Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, the Spanish conductor led the Phil in performing Beethoven's 8th Symphony I especially enjoyed the Bassoon solos played by Whitney Crockett.

After the intermission, the 64 member L.A. Master Chorale filed in and many percussionists took their places (anvils, bass drum, bells, castanets, cymbals, snare drum, glock-enspiel, tam-tam and triangle), along with the opera singers and later a dancer and guitarist.  The stage was full with additional horns, a tuba, woods, two harpists and a celesta player.  They performed a 65 minute opera "La vida breve" by Manuel de Falla written in 1905.  The brief life is about a young gypsy girl, Salud, who falls in love with Paco who seduces her but plans to marry an nice middle class girl.  He pledges his devotion to Salud but plans to get married the next day.  Salud is distraught and after much anguish and singing, she falls dead at Paco's feet at his wedding.  It was a amazing performance made most special by the beautiful Spanish dancer, Nuria Pomares whose picture is seen below.

"Escape Fire" The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare

On Friday I attended a viewing of the documentary film "Escape Fire" sponsored  by the California Endowment.  This powerful movie vividly shows the plight of America's health care system and lays out some solutions.  The movie lists the disturbing facts such as our system is the most expensive per capita of any country but has relatively poor results.  It showed a discouraged health care provider quiting her job in a clinic where productivity was more important than quality and out comes.  It also followed some sick people who were not being helped by the multiple procedures that cost thousands of dollars. 

One soldier coming home from Afghanistan was physically handicapped and an emotional wreck suffering PTSD and more taking dozens of pills per day leading to pain medication addiction.  It also showed the problem with obesity leading to diabetes and heart problems in other patients.

The problems were identified as a system that encourages procedures but not good care.  For doctors to make a living they need to order multiple tests and procedures.  They are not paid adequately for spending time with patients and managing their care well.  Another problem is that care is not coordinated and many errors are made when various doctors order procedures, surgeries, and medications.  "When medicine became a business, we lost our moral compus."

Without good primary health care, patients end up in the emergency room where more procedures and medications are prescribed with poor followup.

The federal government does not reward farmers for producing health food.  We have corn price supports but none for carrots or broccoli.  Also, the advertisement of medications on television and print media has led to over subscription of costly and dangerous medications.  The F.D.A. is not doing a good job of monitoring these drugs.  They are pressured by lobbyists.

Some progress has been made in the passing of the Patients' Bill of Rights" and reforms in the new health care laws, however, insurance and drug companies will be working to undermine these changes.

The film said that the military health system is a disaster.  Soldiers are coming home with enormous problems that the system is not prepared to manage effectively.

Dean Ornish, M.D., and his work is highlighted in the film.  He and others are promoting paying more for good primary health care providers to effectively manage health care to insure a coordinated and holistic approach including diet, exercise, yoga, acupuncture, and other approaches to encourage healthy life styles:  More Touch, Less Tech.

Election Night: Four More Years

Zen of Bennett

I enjoyed a documentary on Tony Bennett making a Duets album. It was made by his son Danny along with most of the rest of the family. The 85 year old singer sounded good. Some of the singers in the movie are Natalie Cole, Michael Buble, Andrea Bocelli, Aretha Franklin, Norah Jones, Lady Gaga, Amy Winehouse and others.

The recording of "Body and Soul" with Winehouse was her last before she died at age 27.

The story is about his life and how he lives it. Whether singing or painting he is a wonder.

Roaming on Grand Avenue

Friday was a day to appreciate just a few of the special offerings of Grand Avenue on Bunker Hill in L.A.  The morning started with a L.A. Phil rehearsal at the Disney Hall.  Marin Alsop was the guest conductor.  She is the music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.  I was impressed how she directed the orchestra to achieve the exact sounds she wanted.  She first led the orchestra in Barber's Second Essay for Orchestra.  This is the first time I heard this and was deeply moved. The notes state that Samuel Barber was born into a musical family in 1910 in West Chester Pennsylvania.  His first writing was of an opera at age 10.  The Second Essay was composed in 1942 and is 10 minutes long comprised of several themes with contrasting moods ending in a bold triumphal coda. Barber died in 1981 in New York.

The second piece was Azul composed by Osvaldo Golijov a 52 year old genius from Argentina.  This cello concerto is 27 minutes long and includes interesting percussion:  bells, bottle shaker, cajon, caxixi, conga, cricket, 2 djembe, dumbek....  Joshua Roman played the cello.  The almost 29 year old from Oklahoma studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music.  In addition to playing cello solos with orchestras, he plays jazz, rock and bluegrass.  Azul is played in six parts with the final called "Shooting Stars."  The program describes how Golijov has blended Argentinean music, traditional Jewish idioms, and modern sounds into a distinctive style.

After the break, Marin Alsop led the orchestra in Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, "Pathetique."  Tchaikovsky dedicated this symphony to "Bob" Davidov, the nephew with whom he was in love in his final decade.  "Pathetique" suggests "impassioned suffering" in its Russian context.  He died a sudden death a week after the world premier in 1893 at the age of 53 due to an "accidental" drink of cholera-contaminated water.  Tchaikovsky had declared that "he had put his whole soul into this work."
The emotion felt was very powerful.

Afterwards, I strolled across the street and South one block to the Omni Hotel where I had a delightful lunch with my friend Paul overlooking the fountain and the Museum of Modern Art.  Afterwards I visited MOCA to view the new exhibit "Destroy the Picture:  Painting the Void, 1949-1962.  The artists painted and sometimes destroyed their canvases seemingly expressing the war and terror around them.  The assaulting process they used in creation including puncturing, ripping cutting and burning.  Others used layering, relief, and assemblage to emphasise three dimensions.  The works are from artists from Europe, Japan and the United States.  Kazuo Shiraga, from Japan painted with his feet.  He would lay sheets of paper or canvas on the floor of his studio, cover his feet with paint, usually red symbolizing blood,  suspend himself over the surface from a rope and slide over it to apply paint.

Shozo Shimamoto is picture in the act of his creation.  He shot cylinders of paint from a cannon, bombarding the surface.  Most of these works were destroyed as they were created.  He them moved to hurling glass bottles filled with paint onto canvases laid on the floor using reds, oranges and blacks that alluded the firestorms that swept through Japan during WW II.

A work by Lee Bontecou, 1962 with welded steel and wire on a canvas.

Deterrence and North Korea at RAND

Tuesday night, I attended a lecture by Bruce W. Bennett on Deterrence and North Korea at the Rand Corporation in Santa Monica.  He is a senior defense analyst at RAND with expertise in strategy, force planning and counterproliferation.  He is an expert in Northeast Asian military issues.

He talked about the dilemma of North Korea.  They have anywhere from 6 to 20 nuclear bombs and are developing missiles to send them anywhere.  Our talks, threats, and sanctions haven't worked.  Their leader Kim Jong-Un is an unknown.  Until October of 2010, his public profile had been non-existent without even a photo of him since his teens.  He is associated with the disastrous currency revaluation in 2009.  This perhaps led to "saber rattling" such as the sinking of a South Korean warship and the shelling of a S. Korean island.  But with nuclear bombs, they have the attention of the world and a defense against possible invasion and take over from an outside source.  This is what Iran is wanting as well as perhaps other countries.

Bennett says that this is a time to maximize deterrence of North Korea such as posturing defenses to meet any North Korean aggression.  The concern is that a nuclear test would be seen as an act of desperation rather than strength.  He says a civil war would be disastrous for both Koreas.  He suggest that South Korea should encourage scientist to defect...dropping leaflets offering millions of dollars as a reward. 

Jazz at the Beach

Temeka Reid with a Jazz Trio performed at the Annenberg Beach House in Santa Monica on Monday evening. Temeka plays cello, Devin Hoff on bass, Najite Agindotan on drums, and Jared Mattson on guitar.
This is the site of the former Marion Davis estate designed by Julia Morgan. She designed a number of prominent buildings including W. R. Hearst's castle at San Simeon.
The jazz concert was enjoyable and mellowing. The fog crept in and we lifted into the mist.