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the times: from a contented life working on a ranch, the unsuspecting hero is pressganged into the ill-treated frontier militia; he deserts to find his home abandoned and his family lost, becomes an outlaw, and finally escapes across the frontier to try his luck living with the Indians. It is written in the words, images and proverbs of the gauchos— almost a sub-language of Spanish: humorous, contentious, and lyrical, in rhymed stanzas supposedly sung to the guitar, the gauchos’ traditional instrument.”

The plot of Ginastera’s ballet does not follow Fierro’s full poetic journey; rather, the composer incorporated lines that express the varied episodes in a gaucho’s life throughout a single day. The primary plot element concerns the romance between a city boy who falls in love with a country girl and overcomes her skepticism by proving his skills as a horseman and dancer. However, the deeper meaning is that of the day—an element that, for the composer, united human with landscape: “Whenever I have crossed the Pampas or have lived in it for a time, my spirit felt itself inundated by changing impressions, now joyful, now melancholy, some full of euphoria and others replete with a profound tranquility, produced by its limitless immensity and by the transformation that the countryside undergoes in the course of a day.”

The ballet’s dances reveal the variety of sources, social functions, and musical styles that capture the spectrum of experience over a day. “Los trabajadores agricolas” (The Land Workers) depicts the laborers who come into town. You can hear the heaviness and downward sweep of their steps as they alternate triple and duple rhythms of the malambo. Brass gestures capture the strength of motion before giving way to spiky woodwinds. The quieter “Danza del trigo” (Wheat dance) uses solo flute and violin to evoke the morning setting and a dance shaped by song. Modern listeners might well find the melodic shapes and timbres more cosmopolitan in nature. “Los peones de hacienda” (The Ranch Hands) entertain themselves and the townsfolk with playful woodwind footsteps, brass exclamations, and timpani flourishes. The “Danza final” (Final Dance) returns to the spirit and rhythm of the malambo. The highly syncopated patterns depict the sharp gestures involving hands and feet, building toward a frenetic conclusion. —Susan Key

THE RITE OF SPRING

Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)

Composed: 1913; 1947

Orchestration: piccolo, 3 flutes (3rd=2nd piccolo), alto flute, 4 oboes (4th=2nd English horn), English horn, 3 clarinets (3rd=2nd bass clarinet), E-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, 4 bassoons (4th=2nd contrabassoon), contrabassoon, 8 horns (7th and 8th=Wagner tuba), piccolo trumpet, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, bass trombone, 2 tubas, 2 sets of timpani, percussion (antique cymbals, bass, drum, cymbals, guiro, tam-tam, tambourine, and triangle), and strings

First LA Phil performance:

August 31, 1928, Eugene Goosens conducting

The glittering premiere of The Rite of Spring by Serge Diaghilev’s fashionable Ballets Russes on May 29, 1913, at the Théâtre des Champs Élysées in Paris, was a defining event of 20th-century cultural history. With this savage portrayal of pre-historic pagan ritual, presented on the eve of World War I, the 19th century officially expired. Many members of the sophisticated audience found the Rite’s violence, raw sexuality, brutal sonic force, aggressive

dissonance, tonal ambiguity, and pounding rhythmic irregularity so disturbing that they reacted with what amounted to a full-blown riot.

Stravinsky spent the evening in a distracted condition that prevented him from appreciating the full impact of what had transpired. When he heard the “derisive laughter” that greeted the prelude’s first bars, he took refuge backstage from the “terrific uproar” going on in the hall. Standing next to the shocked choreographer Vaclav Nijinsky, Stravinsky had to prevent him from running on stage to “create a scandal,” as he wrote later. The dancers could hardly hear the music over the din.

For The Rite of Spring, Stravinsky turned to one of his strongest memories of his Russian childhood: the much anticipated coming of spring. “The violent Russian spring seemed to begin in an hour and was like the whole earth cracking,” he told his amanuensis Robert Craft. “That was the most wonderful event of every year.” Spring’s arrival spawned all manner of rituals, both pagan and Christian. It was these the composer had in mind, aided by his friend, the artist Nicolas Roerich. The project combined several of Stravinsky’s favorite preoccupations: folklore, mythology, geology, and the seismic and cosmic forces of nature.

The score of The Rite boasts many innovations, but perhaps its most revolutionary feature is the prominence of rhythm as an organizing principle. Harmony, the central element in Western music since the 18th century, plays a much less important role. So does melody: the themes (some derived from folk sources) are strikingly short and do not carry either the main interest or the forward impetus. Instead, the various small sections of the action are structured around rhythmic ideas (or cells) repeated in complex and frequently asymmetrical patterns. What distinguished The Rite was not its pervasive harmonic dissonance—already extensively employed by Claude Debussy, Arnold Schoenberg, and Richard Strauss—but its fragmentary, dynamic structure, composed of small “irregularly formed” musical “objects” that collide, in the words of Stravinsky biographer Stephen Walsh, “like so many particles in an atomic accelerator.”

Since its 1913 premiere, The Rite has received treatments in many different media, including one in Walt Disney’s film Fantasia, where it serves as music for dinosaurs to roam by. Unlike many other ballet scores, however, whose conception is more closely tied to a narrative program, The Rite of Spring has become most popular as a separate concert piece. —Harlow Robinson

GUSTAVO CASTILLO

Born in Barquisimeto (Venezuela), baritone Gustavo Castillo started his studies under El Sistema, a revolutionary music education program in his home country, under the guidance of the tenor Ídwer Álvarez.

After his debut at the age of 25 in the role of Shaunard in La bohème, he has appeared as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, the Sacristan in Tosca, and Belcore in L’elisir d’amore. Other roles include Valentin in Diana Daniele’s Faust, and Dandini in La cenerentola for young audiences, adapted by Alexander Krampe from Rossini’s original.

His extensive international concert work includes the Requiem settings by Mozart, Faist, Duruflé, and Fauré, Mozart’s Coronation Mass, Bach’s Magnificat, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Orff’s Carmina Burana, and Antonio Estévez’ Cantata Criolla.

Since 2016, he has been a member of the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala in Milan, where he has recently appeared as Peter in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel and Figaro in The Barber of Seville for young audiences.

Future engagements include Figaro in The Barber of Seville at the Teatro alla Scala, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, Foscari in Il bravo at Wexford Festival Opera, and Cantata Criolla with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

primafila-artists.com

GUSTAVO DUDAMEL

For a biography of conductor Gustavo Dudamel, please turn to page 7.

Liz Phair: Don’t Holdyrbreath

Liz Phair

Special Guests:

Ben Gibbard Bethany Cosentino Remi Wolf Vagabon

TUESDAY

MAY 10, 2022 8PM

Programs and artists subject to change.

LIZ PHAIR

Grammy-nominated singer/ songwriter. Guitar playing virtuoso. Feminist trailblazer. Globally published author. Gamechanger. Composer. Disrupter. Visual Artist. Icon. These are some of the many words that could be used to describe Liz Phair— coming off the release of her latest album, Soberish, her first collection of new, original music in a decade.

But to get the basic narrative points out of the way, Liz Phair has been a recording artist and touring performer for 25 years; she has sold over five million records worldwide, with three U.S. gold albums and two Grammy nominations. She once sang “God Bless America” at the opening game of the 2005 White Sox World Series win in her hometown of Chicago. She’s appeared on television shows across the globe. Her deeply clever and often brutally candid songs have been garnering critical praise since she began her career in the early 1990s in Chicago by self-releasing audio cassettes under the name Girly-Sound. She signed a deal with acclaimed independent record label Matador Records, and, in 1993, Liz Phair put out an album called Exile In Guyville; to say it changed everything would be an understatement. Exile In Guyville—a collection of bold, lyrically and sexually frank songs, paired with equally as inventive and remarkable guitar playing by Phair—has been ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, by Pitchfork as one of the 100 Greatest albums of the ’90s, and is considered one of the most accomplished debut albums for any artist in any genre to date.

A rapturously received follow up, Whip-Smart, landed her on the cover of Rolling Stone in 1995; in 1998, she released her major label debut Whitechocolatespaceegg to continued critical acclaim. Never one to rest on her laurels, Phair took her sound in new directions on her selftitled record from 2003, which featured the mega hit “Why Can’t I,” as well as her album Somebody’s Miracle in 2005, both of which reconfirmed Phair’s sharp instincts for writing pop-centric, three-and-a-half-minute masterpieces. She pivoted again, this time towards hip-hop with 2010’s Funstyle. Then—she simply stopped.

“I’d gotten adrift from my artist self, I’d become my mom-self, or my middle-agedperson self,” she explained. She took the impulse to write songs and instead used the energy to start writing short stories from her life— her upbringing outside of Chicago; her world travels as a renowned artist; her romantic ups and downs; her experience raising a child. When she finally gave herself back to music, she did some work composing for television, in addition to occasionally writing her own Liz Phair songs again. She went in and out the studio, never quite hitting the inspiration for which she was hunting. In 2018, Matador released a fully expanded edition of Phair’s original Girly-Sound tapes onto digital service providers for the first time. Excitement from fans all over the world was palpable at finally having access to these

early tracks that established Phair’s original, iconic viewpoint in the first place.

And then, in 2019, two things happened concurrently: her memoir made up of short stories—entitled Horror Stories—was released, unveiling layers of Phair’s beautiful internal world into public consciousness. And, almost 30 years later, Phair reunited with Exile In Guyville and Whip-Smart’s producer Brad Wood to work on some music.

“I wasn’t coming from a place of big success; I was coming off of being silent for a while. But listening to Guyville again, and immersing myself in my Girly-Sound demos, and talking with everyone from that era made me want to work with Brad again,” she says. “Girly-Sound brought me back to that early part of my career and who I’d been then,” she continues. “What I wanted to achieve, what my style of working was. I connected again—in a much more healthy way—to the artist I was searching for at that point.”

Simultaneously, she felt energized by the new generation of female artists she saw continuing the work she had begun 25 years earlier—the lyrical frankness, the melding of rock and pop, women steering the course of their own careers. “Probably the most pivotal in bringing me back was seeing that this world that I’d always dreamed of had actually come to be,” she says. “What I was longing for back in the early part of my career had happened! Everywhere you looked on social media, there were women making their own music, fronting bands, it was their vision, they weren’t just women in a band, they weren’t just songwriters, they were the entire authors of the vision, head to toe. And it was so exciting!” She likens those early days as a female artist in a male-dominated industry to “speaking a foreign tongue in a country and being lonely because of that for a long time.” Now, she says, “It’s like going away for a while and coming back, and there are tons of people speaking your language. It feels like an entirely different landscape, one that I want to be part of and not miss out on.”

The astounding collection of songs Phair and Wood worked on became the album entitled Soberish. It is a nonconformist, genre-blurring, visionary record. “I said to Brad I don’t know how many times: ‘I want this record to have an identifiable sound, but I want it to be something different that you haven’t really heard before. I want it to sound exactly like this record,’” Phair explains. The pair worked hard, she says, to “reframe and re-contextualize” songs. “We deconstructed songs as much as we constructed them.”

The key to the Soberish sound was subtraction. “There’s a lot of subtraction on this album. Making a song, pulling it apart, and trying to get down to something surprising,” she says. “I’m always trying to reinvent pop. I’m always trying to make something fresh and different […] so it doesn’t really sound like anything I’ve done before but it’s very recognizably me.”

Phair is quite smitten with the album’s title, Soberish. “It’s about a frame of mind that has one foot out the door,” Phair says. “It’s anchoring yourself to the right thing but giving yourself enough anchor chain to sail around the cove and forget it for a while. Just hold to the center so you can swing around.”

If Phair’s career has had a governing philosophy, we might take it as this: hold to the center, swing around. This return, this new collection of songs, shows her at her finest: playful, inquisitive, uncompromising, but anchored. The center can still hold.

BEN GIBBARD

Ben Gibbard is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is the lead vocalist and guitarist of Death Cab for Cutie, with which he has recorded nine studio albums, and is one half of the electronic duo the Postal Service. Gibbard released his debut solo album Former Lives in 2012 and a collaborative studio album One Fast Move or I’m Gone with Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt’s Jay Farrar in 2009.

BETHANY COSENTINO

Bethany Cosentino is a musician and writer from Los Angeles. She is best known as the singer/ guitarist/frontperson of Best Coast and has written and released four full-length albums with the band since 2010. Bethany has written op-eds for publications such as Billboard, Lenny Letter, McSweeny’s, and The Independent. She is an outspoken advocate for women’s reproductive health and has worked alongside Planned Parenthood since 2011. She has also been a loud voice against sexism in the music industry and was a guest on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah in 2016 to talk about her experience as a woman in music.

REMI WOLF

It’s difficult for Remi Wolf to describe her sound. Within the span of three minutes, a Remi Wolf track will ricochet between funk, soul, indie, and emo with all the predictability of a pinball. Her vocals oscillate between screeching falsetto and melodyanchoring alto, pendulum-swinging the scales in little more than a breath. It’s a far cry from that which has become par for the course in pop music, but Remi Wolf has never been one to follow the rules.

It’s possible Wolf favors rebellion now because her early musical trajectory hits all the conventional mileposts of a well-rounded artist. There were the grade-school performances and open mics that wowed crowds in her Palo

Alto hometown; the self-taught songwriting, experimental recording and tertiary music education via USC. Perhaps the most pivotal moment was making $200 in two hours of soulful busking in high school, when Wolf realized people would happily pay to hear her perform.

Audiences’ immediate response to her talent instilled in Wolf a sense of confidence that carried her through music school and into a post-grad stint gracing local Los Angeles venues. Her college experience consisted of skipping class to jam with her 10 musical roommates, and soon she’d linked with co-producer Jared Soloman. Together, they compiled influences in the likes of Tool, Weezer, Ween and Erikah Badyu and committed an experimental artist project, throwing caution—and strategy— to the wind with the impulsive release of their first track, “Guy.”

“Guy” would mark a watershed moment for Remi Wolf, the artist. It secured her a spot opening on tour for indie-pop darling Still Woozy, a manager, and an entry point to consecutive critically acclaimed EPs You’re a Dog and I’m Allergic to Dogs—mostly created in makeshift studios with Soloman and limited gear. Apple would later recruit Wolf to soundtrack an iPhone commercial, and she’d receive major co-signs from the likes of Dominic Fike and Cautious Clay.

These achievements have served as both prelude and platform for her debut album, Juno, her postpandemic offering. The project is an exploration of the instability Wolf felt during lockdown, bouncing between houses all while attempting sobriety. The project is also the first time Remi Wolf has had the resources to outsource the more technical elements of the production process, as well as access to high quality equipment. For a DIY-minded artist who has bootstrapped her way into the industry, this has taken some adjustment.

Not only does her first full-length project articulate Wolf’s maturation, it also manages to maintain the genre-bending spontaneity and soul of her previous work. The singersongwriter’s improvisational sonic instincts best speak to her talent and bolster her longevity, but it’s her childlike charisma—on-stage and off—coupled with devil-maycare attitude that indicates her potential for profound impact.

Remi Wolf would rather rewrite the rules than play by them, and for that you can credit her rebel heart. “Sometimes I just feel like I want to be different and rebellious and a contrarian to what’s going on. It’s insane to think I can make the music I want to make and pay my bills and be validated for my labor, but I think mainly I want my music to be important to people. I want people to make memories with my songs.”

VAGABON

About Vagabon’s new self-titled album, Gabriela Tully Claymore writes, “Break the rules you think you are bound by.”

That’s the recurring sentiment Lætitia Tamko carried with her through the writing and recording of her second album under the Vagabon moniker. Her first, 2017’s Infinite Worlds, was an indie breakthrough that put her on the map, prompting Tamko to tour around the world and quit her job in electrical/ computer engineering to pursue a career in music full-time. Tamko’s self-titled Nonesuch Records debut finds her in a state of creative expansion, leaning fully into some of the experimental instincts she