BFMI * Bernhard Fleischer Moving Images

20 Years Walt Disney Concert Hall

A Frank Gehry Celebration

The LA Phil honors the maverick architect and artistic collaborator, who designed the iconic downtown LA venue.

Preparations and rehearsals for the big event celebrating the 20th anniversary in the 2023-24 season.

Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Frank Gehry-designed home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic opened on October 23, 2003 after 16 years of planning and construction.

24 hours before the gala concert: the calm before the storm.

Pumping up.

Gustavo Dudamel has put many aspects of water into play in his curation of this gala program: Frank O. Gehry’s long-standing fascination with the sea is reflected in the choice of the evening’s repertoire.

The evening’s program journeys from Walt Disney Concert Hall’s storied beginnings to the architect’s oceanic inspirations, immortalized in the building’s steel sails and unprecedented sense of movement.

Lucinda Childs, performing her own original choreography to Esa-Pekka Salonen’s composition “Fog” which is a fantasy around that Bach Prelude, imagined through a dream.

The play of water has seldom been expressed more, well, fluidly than in Debussy’s “La mer.” Indeed, the second of these three symphonic sketches is titled “Play of the Waves.”

Frank Gehry, who turns 95 this year, attended the concert.

The main concert hall contains 2,265 vineyard-style seats placed close to the stage for an intimate experience. The hall features wooden walls and ceiling panels designed to optimize acoustics, developed by the master architect of the invisible: acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota.

Herbie Hancock performs “Maiden Voyage,” the title track from his 1965 album recorded for Blue Note Records, continuing the concert’s aquatic theme.

A new member the circle of artistic collaborators is H.E.R., the Grammy- and Oscar-winning Bay Area R&B singer-songwriter.

“Thank you Herbie Hancock for playing with me!”

“I’m so happy to be here and I wanna thank you, Gustavo, for letting me play with you once again, and for all of these amazing musicians. I cannot believe, I’m standing next to you again. It’s an honor!”

“Liquid architecture. It’s like jazz, you improvise, you work together, you play off each other, you make something, they make something.” – Frank Gehry

Herbie Hancock, the Phil’s Creative Chair for Jazz, superstar R&B singer H.E.R., together with Gustavo Dudamel.

Paul Jacobs, the first organist ever to win a Grammy Award, interpreted Poulenc's Allegro giocoso from the Organ Concerto in G minor in a fierce and virtuoso manner - befitting the occasion.

Projections of Frank O. Gehry’s first sketches envisioning “a living room for the city.” Gehry’s choice of steel over titanium was tied to his desire to have scenes of every concert projected onto the skin of the building in real time.

“The most important thing to do when you design a place like that, is to connect people. There’s nothing tricky about it, it’s just very obvious. The relationship between the audience and the orchestra is the most important thing.” – Frank Gehry

The Los Angeles Philharmonic marks the 20^th anniversary of Walt Disney Concert Hall at its annual gala concert by paying homage to Frank Gehry, a long-time friend of the LA Phil and architect behind the iconic downtown LA venue. Honoring Gehry’s iconoclasm with performances by iconoclasts in their own fields, the evening’s program will journey from Walt Disney Concert Hall’s storied beginnings to the architect’s oceanic inspirations, immortalized in the building’s steel sails and unprecedented sense of movement.

The prelude from Bach’s Partita, the first piece performed in the then-still-under-construction Hall, opens the program, followed by Esa-Pekka Salonen’s transformation of its melody into his piece FOG accompanied by Lucinda Childs, performing her own original choreography. Gehry’s love of the sea, orchestral music, and jazz then combines into offerings from LA Phil Creative Chair for Jazz Chair Herbie Hancock, GRAMMY Award-winning R&B singer H.E.R., and LA Phil Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, who concludes the program with Debussy’s “La mer.”

20 Years Walt Disney Concert Hall

LA Phil Gala Celebrating Frank Gehry

Jonas Kaufmann

The Sound of Movies

Shooting PR Clips with Jonas Kaufmann for his latest album “The Sound of Movies”

“As a cinephile, I have always loved going to the movie theater and listening to the music which heightens our experience of film. This inspired me to record some of my favorite pieces from the movies.”

One of the two pictured got a supporting role.

Jonas Kaufmann & Bernhard Fleischer

The album includes songs immortalized by their use in films.

Can you guess which film this could be?

The album includes "Nelle tue mani" from GLADIATOR

Per Hauber, Sony Classical International

Enjoy the impressions from the set – just like our film team did!

Album release: September 15 – recorded with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and Choir, conducted by Jochen Rieder and guitarist MILOŠ

croeso i gymru

Welcome to Wales!

Shooting SEA SONGS: Bryn Terfel & Bernhard Fleischer

Porthdinllaen on the Llŷn Peninsula

Fisherman Stewart Jones, Christopher Rowe, Bernhard Fleischer

The tide is out

Bernhard Fleischer, Christopher Rowe, Betsan Evans

The Llŷn Peninsula boasts almost 100 miles of coastline, made up of sweeping bays and cliffs

Bryn Terfel, Bernhard Fleischer, Christopher Rowe

Porthdinllaen on the Llŷn Peninsula

A gorgeous fishing village with a great history

View to the sheltered north-facing bay and the famed Ty Coch Inn

Overviewing a part of the Wales Coast Path

Jörg Theiss capturing atmo sounds in Morfa Nefyn

Pub in the former fishing hamlet of Swanbridge in Sully, Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales

Swansea Marina

Castell Caerdydd | Cardiff Castle

At the St Fagans National Museum of History, at the western outskirts of Cardiff

Acapela Studios in Heol y Pentre, Pentyrch

Rigging the Acapela Studios

Well-deserved, Iechyd da! Jörg Theiss, Bernhard Fleischer, Christopher Rowe

The Welsh bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel takes us to his home country Wales in his new project "Songs of the Sea". The wildly romantic coast is the starting point for a musical journey through Wales, England, Ireland, New Zealand and French Brittany.

We experience Bryn in authentic locations, such as in a historic church, in a pub and on the cliffs of the Atlantic. With friends and companions like the Welsh instrumental ensemble Calan and other guests, he sings and plays hits like "What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor", "Wellerman", but also very authentic songs from the life of sailors.

Sir Bryn Terfel and Friends

Songs of the Sea

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