A little traveling music

The idea of the grand tour goes back to the 17th century, when wealthy Europeans toured the Continent’s cultural capitals to soak up art, manners and fashion.

These days, though, as even the euro seems to buy less all the time, many people are thinking twice about broadening their horizons with European travel. But well heeled or not, classical music aficionados have the opportunity to take a “Grand Tour” with the Los Angeles Philharmonic this month at the Hollywood Bowl. Concerts there will focus on London on Tuesday, Venice on Thursday, Paris on Aug. 14 and Vienna on Aug. 16. They’ll all be led by early music specialist Nicholas McGegan, music director of San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and a familiar Southland visitor.

“Now that travel has become such a hassle, this is a way of doing it without actually having to deal with airport security,” says a typically impish McGegan. “The one person who is a thread through the whole thing is Mozart, who managed to be in all these places. There is a work of his on every single program. It really is the grand tour, but you might as well say ‘Traveling With Mozart.’ The main thing is, it’s all about having fun. It’s not like a summer course at university or anything like that. This is all with a very light touch.”

The idea for the series came from three members of the Philharmonic’s management: President Deborah Borda, Vice President of Artistic Planning Chad Smith and Artistic Administrator John Mangum.

“We all had dinner together, and things were gently cooked up,” says McGegan. “I can happily say that it’s their idea, and it’s absolutely great fun for me. Apart from London, these are all very good food cities. I mean now London is great. I’m not so sure it was so good then. I shall certainly be looking for theme restaurants during this.”

Apart from any culinary connections, some thematic connections will be obvious during the series, such as Mozart’s “Paris” Symphony on Aug. 14 or Mozart’s First Symphony, composed in London when he was 8, on Tuesday. Works by Handel and Thomas Arne will fill out the Tuesday program.

The Handel works will be “all fairly pop stuff that could be on that sort of ‘Handel Makes Babies Smarter’ CD,” says McGegan. “The bit that is going to be rather delicious is doing Arne’s ‘Rule Britannia’ at the end. To have 10,000 Americans at the Hollywood Bowl all singing ‘Rule Britannia,’ I think that will be very cheerful. I shall certainly wear my British flag or British cuff links or something. I don’t really qualify for any of the other cities, but that one I do.”

McGegan, 57, was born in Sawbridgeworth, England, which also has been home to soccer star David Beckham. He went to Nottingham High School, the same one D.H. Lawrence and conductor Christopher Hogwood attended. “The school is coming up on its 500th anniversary in 2013,” he says. “I’m sure they’ll touch me for money.”

After secondary school, McGegan continued his studies at Cambridge and Oxford universities, and while at Cambridge, he says, “narrowly avoided conducting Prince Charles. He was in the Cambridge Second Orchestra the year before I conducted it. So lucky for him, I would say.”

Having aimed for a career as a musicologist, McGegan changed direction after acoustics professor Nicholas Shackleton introduced him to the Baroque flute and also to the professor’s young lodger, future conductor Hogwood.

“I got to know Chris and we played chamber music together, and I joined his orchestra for the very first recording he’d ever made, which were some symphonies by Thomas Arne,” he says. “That’s what drew me to Baroque music.”

In the ‘70s, McGegan also performed in ensembles led by Roger Norrington and John Eliot Gardiner and taught at Cambridge and the Royal College of Music. He came to the U.S. in 1979 when another early-musiker, Trevor Pinnock, recommended him for a position at Washington University in St. Louis. He stayed there until 1985, when he became music director of the Philharmonia Baroque.

As much as he loves the American West, McGegan retains his British citizenship and maintains residences in Berkeley and Glasgow, Scotland.

“I have a green card, so I’m legal,” he says. “The big thing is, I don’t want to lose all my European work permits because it’s a devil to get them back. The only two things I can’t do are carry a gun and vote for the president, and I have no particular intention of doing either.”

‘My meat and drink’

McGegan has a healthy discography with the Philharmonia Baroque (see accompanying list), including CDs of music by Handel, Mozart and Vivaldi. Hence, although the Venice program on Thursday will include Vivaldi concertos that McGegan hasn’t conducted before, “I’ve done about 50 other ones, so it’s not such a stretch, I hope.

“That’s the period I live and work in. Well, I don’t quite live in the 18th century, but this is stuff that is my meat and drink.”

The Paris program will include an overture by Rameau, Haydn’s “La reine” (The Queen) Symphony (a favorite of Marie Antoinette’s) and a concerto based on themes from the French Revolution by the long-forgotten Jean-Baptiste Davaux.

“One of the things that these programs enable one to do,” says McGegan, “is to play music that wouldn’t normally get played, especially by a grand orchestra like the L.A. Phil because you give it this sort of umbrella title, ‘Music in Paris’ or ‘Music in London.’ ”

The Vienna program, by contrast, will be all Mozart, including the D-minor piano concerto (with Shai Wosner as soloist) and the “Jupiter” Symphony.

As an advance tour guide, however, McGegan draws some unexpected connections among the composers.

“Mozart came to London five years after Handel’s death,” he says. “There would be audiences who would have heard both of them. Even though we think of one as being quintessentially from the first part of the century and the other guy being quintessentially from the second part of the century, they do overlap.”

So do Haydn and Vivaldi. “Haydn probably sang at Vivaldi’s funeral, believe it or not. Vivaldi died in Vienna and, because he was a priest, he was entitled to a choral funeral at St. Stephen’s Cathedral. And one of the choirboys was Haydn.”

It seems that the Italian composer had traveled to Vienna in 1741 because his music had gone out of fashion in his native land. But he died within a month of arriving in the northern capital.

“He was following the money trail, as musicians always tend to do,” McGegan says. “We talk about this ‘grand tour.’ One mustn’t forget that in the 18th century, traveling was about as miserable an experience as it was possible to have. So the only people who traveled were either the extremely rich -- who could ignore all the hardships -- or the extremely poor, who had no choice because they had to chase whatever cash was around, and that of course included musicians going from employer to employer.”

Fortunately, the conductor observes, Mozart wrote a lot on his trips. “So we actually know what he was thinking about, whereas most composers’ letters before Mozart are not very revealing. A lot of them are about money. If they wanted to deal with feelings, they actually discussed that with the person concerned rather than write a letter. If you look at Bach’s letters, you’d think he was obsessed with cash. But that’s only because that’s just what he happened to write down.”

Mozart liked the crowd

One thing Mozart wrote about was how delighted he was that Parisians appreciated the special things he had put in the “Paris” Symphony to amuse them. Adapting his writing to suit French taste, for example, he had taken care to launch the new symphony with a spirited, unified attack and to incorporate clarinets for the first time in one of his symphonies, and he noted how the audience applauded those moments as they occurred rather than waiting for the music to end.

But Mozart “was also very perturbed that every single member of the orchestra was wearing a sword,” says McGegan, “which, I certainly must say, would affect my conducting technique if I found that. It would be a little like rehearsing in Texas and thinking that that bulge in everyone’s jacket pocket was a handgun. You couldn’t really say, ‘You’re not playing well,’ in case you got topped.”

Although the Philharmonia Baroque is a premier period-instrument ensemble, McGegan says he has no problem conducting a larger modern orchestra in this repertory. “The L.A. Phil, like every good orchestra, plays all music extremely well,” he says. “You don’t have to be a period specialist to play 18th century music any more than you have to be a Shakespeare scholar to enjoy ‘As You Like It.’ You know, it speaks on different levels. It speaks to us today.”

Besides, over the years, he’s seen changes in his own field.

“Generally the early music movement, if you want to call it that, always had two strings to its bow,” he says. “One was repertoire. We get stuff out of libraries and perform it. Some of it’s good, some of it’s great, and some of it maybe should go back to the library. But at least you can perform it.

“Then there’s the style stuff. I have to say that 25 years ago, period instrument orchestras were a bit priggish and prissy. You know: ‘We will produce and perform a “Messiah” as Handel did it in 1740-whatnot.’ Well, you can’t. It didn’t matter whether the performance was any good, but by Jove it was correct and it was a little bit in your face because there was a little bit of resistance. That resistance is not there anymore.

“What’s happened nowadays is that all that obsession with style has disappeared and all the energy has gone into giving good performances which move the audiences, and that’s what it’s really all about. Conversely, modern symphony orchestras have adopted some of the stylistic stuff that period instrument orchestras have. So there isn’t that sort of tug of war that there used to be between modern and period. It’s all just happy music-making.

“Having said that,” he adds, “it’s always a good idea when the odd firebrand comes along and tells you you’re doing it all wrong. It keeps us on our toes. We need a Martin Luther from time to time to keep us engaged and thinking about things and stop us all from getting smug.”

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chris.pasles@latimes.com

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A journey via CD

For those who can’t make it to “The Grand Tour” Hollywood Bowl concerts by the Los Angeles Philharmonic led by Nicholas McGegan, here are related McGegan recordings, including one on which he is the flute soloist. Except where noted, the ensemble is the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra:

Arne

“Alfred,” David Daniels, Christine Brandes, soloists (RCA)

Handel

“Arias,” Lorraine Hunt, mezzo-soprano (Harmonia Mundi); “Water Music” (Harmonia Mundi); “Messiah,” Lorraine Hunt, Janet Williams, soloists (Harmonia Mundi); “Theodora,” Lorraine Hunt, Drew Minter, soloists (Harmonia Mundi)

Mozart

“Horn Concertos,” Lowell Greer, soloist (Harmonia Mundi); “Piano Concertos,” Melvin Tan, soloist (Harmonia Mundi); “The Mozart Tenor,” Rockwell Blake, soloist, London Symphony (Arabesque)

Vivaldi

“Flute Concertos,” McGegan on flute, New London Consort, Academy of Ancient Instruments, Christopher Hogwood and Philip Pickett, conductors (Decca); “Concertos for Diverse Instruments,” Elizabeth Blumenstock on violin (Reference Recordings); “The Four Seasons,” Anthony Marwood on violin, Scottish Chamber Orchestra (BMG)

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Los Angeles Philharmonic

Where: Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday, Aug. 14 and 16

Price: $1 to $93

Contact: (323) 850-2000 or

www.hollywoodbowl.com/tix