Summer at Hollywood Bowl is Back in Full Swing with Dudamel, LA Phil, and Viola Davis Performance

As though it wasn’t enough to simply have Gustavo Dudamel and LA Phil back in true form post-COVID-19 isolation with full capacity this summer at the Hollywood Bowl, but we are now blessed with a pairing of pop culture icons. Some of our most beloved and distinguished actors and musicians have graced the stage beginning with the past week of performances including Viola Davis and Christina Aguilera. Upcoming performances include H.E.R and Cynthia Enrivo, plus so many more artists slated for some really genius and amazing collabs.

Along with the annual Sound of Music Sing-A-Long, comes Marvel Studios’ Black Panther in concert along with The Princess Bride in concert both with the LA Phil. Also on the calendar is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with the score performed by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. They even have a night of “Club Quarantine” with DJ D-Nice. 

Viola Davis took the stage this past Thursday, reciting “Peter and the Wolf” (1936) by Sergei Prokofiev alongside Gustavo Dudamel and LA Phil. The Soviet Union-derived piece is one of the most popular pieces of classical music in the world, which has been used as a tool to teach children about the instruments of the orchestra.

The first half of the night’s performance was dominated by Gustavo and LA Phil paying tributes to the civil rights movement and MLK. Gustavo pulled from the pioneering African-American composer Margaret Bonds’ work, “The Montgomery Variations,” which included  “Decision,” “March,” “Dawn in Dixie” and “Benediction.”

Before the performance, Dudamel shared a few words inspiring fans on the past year of COVID-19 and isolation and how grateful he was to be back sharing a night of music in full capacity; you can see why the chosen selections are so fitting. 

Bonds wrote “The Montgomery Variations” as a tribute to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. but never heard the work performed. The score was among Bonds’ estate items after her passing and was found among materials in the Bonds archives at Georgetown University Library.

Dudamel and the LA Phil also performed “Three Black Kings” by Duke Ellington (arr. Blanchard). The piece was Ellington’s final composition before he died in 1974, never finishing the score. Mercer, Ellington’s son, completed the work as his father customarily left his compositions for completion the day before the performance. Mercer described it as a “eulogy for Martin Luther King, Jr.,” which is apparent in its movements.

“Written in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. during the Selma-to-Montgomery marches, the Variations are a cycle of spirituals that were lost, restored, and finally performed for the first time in 2018.”

The first movement with percussion sounds depicts King Balthazar, then on to harps and upbeat swing pulling from Ellington’s Jazz Orchestra. The third and final movement pays homage to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with the sounds of gospel.

The evening opened with Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 “Classical,” his first numbered symphony. He began to compose it in 1916 and completed it in 1917. It was written as a modern reinterpretation of the classical style of Franz Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The evening ended with his “Peter and the Wolf” (1936) piece narrated by Viola’s iconic and smooth trifecta-winning voice. Prokofiev subtitled this piece “An Orchestral Fairy Tale for Children.” As Davis tells the whimsical story, each character comes alive by the instruments of the orchestra: the bird/flute, the duck/oboe, the cat/clarinet, the grandfather/bassoon, the wolf/three horns, Peter/the strings, the shooting of the hunters/timpani and bass drums.

The evening was soulful, elegant, and refreshing, and you could feel the energy and excitement from Viola, Dudamel, the LA Phil Orchestra, and the audience. The smells of gourmet picnic baskets, delicious wine and the site of fresh table linens and smiling maskless faces were a welcome sight.

It was an evening of healing and hope after a turbulent year and a half of the pandemic, with many simply looking forward to future performances under the stars. For more information and to view the full LA Phil and Hollywood Bowl calendar, visit their website here.