On March 7, 2019, pianist Yuja Wang premiered the LA Phil commission of John Adam's new work Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? We'll hear that performance on the Oct 2nd broadcast.
Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? is John Adams’ third piano concerto, following Century Rolls (1996) and Eros Piano(1989). He explains that the title “came from an article about Dorothy Day in a very old copy of The New Yorker. In the same way that I first encountered the name ‘Hallelujah Junction’ and knew that I had to write a piece with that title, when I saw the phrase ‘Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes?’ I thought to myself, ‘that’s a good title just waiting for a piece.’” Learn more.
10/2 John Adams: Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? Mahler: Symphony No. 1 (Yuja Wang, p; Gustavo Dudamel, cond)
10/9 Gershwin: Cuban Overture Ravel: Piano Concerto, Valses nobles et sentimentales Gershwin: An American in Paris (Hélène Grimaud, p; Lionel Bringuier, cond)
10/16 Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto Unsuk Chin: SPIRA – A Concerto for Orchestra Debussy: La Mer (Patricia Kopatchinskaja, v; Mirga Gražinyt?-Tyla, cond)
10/23 Stravinsky: Funeral Song, Agon, Rite of Spring (Esa-Pekka Salonen, cond)
10/30 Thomas Adès: Inferno Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 1, Symphony No. 41, Jupiter (Michael Barenboim, v; Gustavo Dudamel, cond)
