The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra with composer Jeff Beal at the piano. Photo by Brian Feinzimer/Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.
In Wednesday’s (9/3) San Francisco Classical Voice, Richard S. Ginnell writes that on September 1, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra “gave a free, full-length concert … that concluded a community micro-festival called ‘Music + The Body’ produced in partnership with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society…. LACO snagged the services of a marquee conductor, Leonard Slatkin, who happened to be celebrating his 81st birthday. They devoted the entire program to concert works by Jeff Beal, most noted as a composer for television and film [who also is] living with MS. For three hours prior to the concert, there was a swarm of family activities like a sound bath session, an instrument petting zoo, informational sessions on MS, a jazz band … and a drum circle … Beal … is an engaging and resourceful composer of concert music. His best work was a splendid violin concerto, ‘Body in Motion’ … The soloist Kelly Hall-Tompkins … possesses a tone that shone like a polished silver wire as she sailed through the piece … Beal [wrote] a symphony for Slatkin’s 80th birthday … The clever title for Slatkin’s birthday symphony is Four Score … and the individual movements are named after qualities that Beal sees in Slatkin … This performance was the work’s world premiere, and the LACO played with unified brilliance.”
