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Benavides’ Neruda Songs

Tue / Jan 14, 2025 - 8:00PM

LA Phil musicians perform Nicolás Lell Benavides’ new work for oboe, string quartet, and tenor Joshua Blue.

About this Performance

The Washington Post praises Nicolás Lell Benavides’ music for finding “a way to sketch complete characters in swift sure lines.” In his new work based on poems by Noble Prize-winner Pablo Neruda, tenor Joshua Blue becomes the piece’s protagonist, singing from beyond the grave about his undying affection for his lover and their closeness despite physical separation.

When composing Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout, Gabriela Lena Frank also leaned on South American literature. Peruvian novelist José María Arguedas’ belief that cultures can coexist without conflict inspired Frank’s bold, festive, and momentarily mournful vision of Andean folklore.

The last piece on the program is Brahms’ Second String Quintet, a swan song that he called a “farewell to my music.” While the 57-year-old composer believed his time in the limelight was over, his biographer Walter Niemann disagreed, calling the quintet “the most passionate, the freshest, and the most deeply inspired by nature” of Brahms’ entire catalog.

Experience big performances on a more intimate scale when musicians from the LA Phil perform chamber music in small ensembles. Come early and enjoy a complimentary glass of wine before the performance, starting at 6:30pm.

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