Gershwin and Rachmaninoff at Walt Disney Concert Hall

Coincident Dances was inspired by a walk Jessie Montgomery took through the streets of New York, hearing everything from Ghanaian dance music and Latin Jazz to techno and English consort music. She asks the orchestra to play the role of a “DJ of a multicultural dance track,” setting a theme of blending musical languages and influences that’s picked up by Igor Levit in George Gershwin’s Concerto in F, which offers its own notes of dance hall jazz, blues, classical, and more than a hint of New York City life. Elim Chan leads the LA Phil in Symphonic Dances, a thrilling, rhythmic orchestral showpiece and Rachmaninoff’s final work that draws from ancient sacred chant, Modernist harmony, and a bit of everything in between.