Review: From Space I Saw Earth
by H. Murray, Nov. 11, 2019.
Last month was the centennial celebration of the LA Phil, and it was an extravagant birthday party for the orchestra. If there is one thing I have learned about Los Angeles, it is that this city knows how to pull out all the stops, and this event was no different. For this extraordinary 100th birthday, the orchestra invited Conductor Laureate, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Conductor Emeritus Zubin Mehta, and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel to share the stage in a once in a lifetime musical experience. The LA Phil commissioned a piece for three conductors by composer Daniel Bjarnason's titled, From Space I Saw Earth, especially for this event.
The gala weekend was full for the orchestra as they had four completely different programs scheduled for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Thursday featured all three conductors separately and then together for the Bjarnason. Friday was Mehta's moment conducting Mahler 1, Salonen conducted Sibelius 5 and a world premiere of his own music on Saturday, and Dudamel conducted Beethoven's 9th on Sunday.
The Composer:
Daníel Bjarnason is one of Iceland's foremost musical voices today, increasingly in demand as conductor, composer and programmer. This season he takes up the title of Principal Guest Conductor with Iceland Symphony Orchestra, leading the orchestra on tour to Munich, Salzburg and Berlin, as well as in Reykjavík. The appointment follows his tenure there as Artist in Residence. He keeps a busy composing schedule alongside his conducting commitments, with many of his works being taken up beyond their premieres and regularly programmed around the world.
As guest conductor he debuts this season with Gothenburg Symphony and Aalborg Symphony orchestras and Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife. Previous guest appearances include invitations from Los Angeles Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, Tokyo Symphony and Turku Philharmonic orchestras and Gävle Symfoniorkester.
Bjarnason maintains a close connection with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which commissioned him to write a work for Gustavo Dudamel, Zubin Mehta and Esa-Pekka Salonen to perform together this season at its Centennial Birthday Celebration Concert and Gala, titled From Space I Saw Earth. The orchestra is also part of a new song cycle commission by the Crash Ensemble, together with Musiekgebouw Frits Phillips Eindhoven, where Bjarnason has been Composer in Residence since 2016, and already requested from him a new concerto for piano and orchestra for a future season.
In 2017 the Los Angeles Philharmonic premiered Bjarnason's Violin Concerto at the Hollywood Bowl, in a co-commission with Iceland Symphony for Pekka Kuusisto, while he co-curated the orchestra's Reykjavík Festival, an eclectic and multi-disciplinary 17-day event, in which he featured as conductor and composer.
Violin Concerto became a success with audiences and orchestras and remains very popular. Kuusisto has performed it with Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, New York Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony and Finnish Radio Symphony orchestras. This season he plays it with Gothenburg Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony and National Arts Center orchestras, MDR Sinfonieorchester and NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester. Bjarnason will conduct the recording of the work with Kuusisto, as part of the final installment of a three-album recording project with Iceland Symphony for Sono Luminus focussing on Icelandic music and composers.
Future commissions include a new concerto for percussion and orchestra for Gothenburg Symphony, and recent works have been presented by Musiekgebouw Eindhoven and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, et al.
A recipient of numerous accolades, in 2018 he was awarded the Optimism prize by the President of Iceland, won the 8th Harpa Nordic Film Composers Award for the feature film Under the Tree, and was nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize. He also won Composer of the Year, Best Composer/Best Composition and Best Performer at the Icelandic Music Awards in recent years.
Bjarnason studied piano, composition and conducting in Reykjavík and pursued further studies in orchestral conducting at Hochschule für Musik Freiburg. He released several albums for the label Bedroom Community
Daníel Bjarnason is published by Peters Edition.
The performance
I was fortunate to take part in this event, even if it was not on the violin. I thought, "when am I ever going to have the opportunity to play with these three conductors onstage ever again in my life?!" So I took the opportunity to be part of something monumental and significant. I was also intrigued by how this piece would occur. Where would the conductors be onstage? Would they each get a pared-down version of an orchestra (as in a mix of strings, woodwind, and brass for each maestro)? Would there be an offstage orchestra? Where were they going to fit all of these people?
Bjarnason watches (with score) as the orchestra rehearses his piece.
Dudamel conducted the strings and one percussionist and remained at the front of the stage as the focal centerpiece. Mehta and Salonen each had a selection of woodwind, brass, and percussion and were positioned on the left and right of the stage towards the back. The visual effect was gorgeous – it appeared as if the former artistic directors were dependent on the current leader to keep their respective ensembles together. It was symbolic to see the esteemed leaders collaborate in a performance like this.
We started rehearsals for the Bjarnason on Wednesday (yes, the day before), and the composer was in Los Angeles for the entire process. It was fascinating to watch the conductors work and rehearse together. Mehta, with his age and command, seemed to play a dominant role in the process, and Bjarnason quietly guided and suggested changes based on his conception of the piece (dynamics, balance between instruments, the timing of significant chords, etc.) They were respectful and collaborative in their approach, and the orchestra seemed very willing to perfect their role in the piece. Each of the three ensembles had individual rehearsal time on the stage before coming together. We watched these rehearsals as well, observing the sense of camaraderie present and diligent music-making and focus needed to pull off a piece of this magnitude. Several YOLA teachers and students were asked to participate on crotales, which played a special part in the performance. We were scattered throughout the audience, dressed in black, and split between "team Mehta" and "team Salonen" based on who gave us our cue. Our part was significant and occurred at the very end of the piece. We had to walk through the aisles as we played quite softly and at random until we were given the final cue to stop. During the performance, it was truly magical, and several audience members gasped and "ahhhed" when we began playing. It created an ethereal effect like stars twinkling in the sky.
Mark Swed of the LA Times wrote;
"The Icelandic composer was inspired by space flight. The motto on the score is a quote from Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin: "I see Earth! It is so beautiful." Even though looking at Iceland from space now would reveal the disappearance of large glaciers, Bjarnason sticks with a misty, indescribable, beautiful Earth.
He might even be looking at the L.A. Phil from space, the sounds reaching the cosmos no longer organized but drifting in their own wondrous ways. The piece begins for a few seconds with murmurs and ringing even before the conductors are settled.
These may be three of the most rhythmically adept conductors anywhere and in any era, but they are seldom asked to synchronize. Each leads a kind of pleasingly atmospheric sonic soup that filled Disney in such a democratic way that it wasn't always apparent where the sounds were coming from, who was up to what. Now and then the score would pause, Mehta and Salonen turning to watch Dudamel, so that they would all start anew together and then go their own ways.
For 15 minutes, the L.A. Phil was no longer the orchestra of any one of them, but of something larger. The last word (or sound), moreover, belonged to neither the orchestra nor the conductors, to not a charmed past, but to the hope for a charmed future. "From Space," and the gala, ended with members of YOLA, Youth Orchestra Los Angeles, Dudamel's pride and joy, walking down aisles playing crotales, finger-size cymbals. It was magical."
Students and teachers of YOLA backstage before taking our positions for the Bjarnason
I couldn't sum it up better, and I am so happy that the impression from the audience's perspective was as magical as it was for us, the crotales players.
The performance ended with large pieces of confetti falling from the ceiling, each with the face of the maestros printed on it. It felt so special, like a Hollywood moment – that feeling of love and romance the film industry so brilliantly conjures onscreen was captured in the concert hall. And I was so honored to be there and be a (tiny) part of the magic.
Additional Sources:
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2019-10-25/zubin-mehta-esa-pekka-salonen-dudamel-la-phil-100th-birthday
https://www.laphil.com/events/performances/644/2019-10-24/opening-night-concert-gala-centennial-birthday-celebration/
https://danielbjarnason.net