We Speak Arts
LA Chamber Orchestra Performs Strauss, Ravel and Beethoven with Pianist Conrad Tao
Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra continued its 2026-27 season with STRAUSS, RAVEL, BEETHOVEN on Saturday, October 17, at Colburn’s Zipper Hall and Sunday, October 18, at The Wallis in Beverly Hills. Led by Music Director Jaime Martín and joined by guest pianist Conrad Tao, the program spanned more than a century of orchestral innovation.
Strauss’s monumental and mournful Metamorphosen opened the program. Scored in its original form for 23 individual solo strings — a work perfectly suited to LACO’s strengths, and last performed by the orchestra in 1999 — the piece is a memorial to the opera houses destroyed during World War II and the cultural life they represented. Martín has long wanted to share the work with LACO audiences.
Tao, an Avery Fisher Career Grant winner praised by The New York Times for his “probing intellect and open-hearted vision,” then joined the orchestra for Ravel’s lighthearted Piano Concerto in G Major, a jazz-inflected score modeled on Mozart and Saint-Saëns. The program culminated with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, “Eroica,” tracing an arc from struggle to renewal.
More from We Speak Media:
WQXR and Carnegie Hall have announced the lineup for the 2026–27 season of Carnegie Hall Live, the broadcast series that brings performances from the legendary New York venue to audiences nationwide and around the world. Now in its 16th season, the series airs live on WQXR-FM and streams at WQXR.org and CarnegieHall.org, with broadcasts also distributed to public radio stations across the country.
The season opened on October 9 with the Berliner Philharmoniker, conducted by Kirill Petrenko, joined by pianist Víkingur Ólafsson in a program of Brahms and Strauss — part of the orchestra’s four-concert Carnegie Hall residency that launched the Hall’s 2026–27 season.
Among the season’s highlights, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s performs an all-Berlioz program on November 5, 2026, led by Louis Langrée and starring tenor Benjamin Bernheim in a rare New York appearance, pairing Les nuits d’été with the Symphonie fantastique. On January 19, 2027, Franz Welser-Möst conducts The Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus in Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, with soloists Golda Schultz, Taylor Raven, Julian Prégardien, and Anthony Robin Schneider.
The series also carries performances by the Vienna Philharmonic and The Philadelphia Orchestra as part of Carnegie Hall’s season-long Mahler symphony cycle led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, alongside chamber music programs spotlighting Beethoven and Brahms.
Carnegie Hall Live is hosted by WNYC and WQXR’s John Schaefer, with guest hosts Elliott Forrest and Paul Cavalconte. The series is produced by WQXR in partnership with Carnegie Hall and American Public Media. For the full broadcast schedule, visit carnegiehall.org.
More from We Speak Media:
-
We Speak Dining & Drinks3 days agoOff The Rails Opens in Boston, Bringing Nashville-Inspired Dining, Live Music and High-Energy Entertainment Downtown
-
We Speak Music1 week agoFox De La Rose Refuses To Be Defined On ‘Nothing Is Written In Stone’
-
We Speak Jazz15 hours agoToronto Jazz Singer Ori Dagan Announces First Live Album ‘Live in the Market’ for October 23 Release
-
We Speak Boxing2 days agoMost Valuable Promotions Announces MVPW-07: Four World Title Fights Headlined by Baumgardner vs. Turhan in Arlington