Out West Arts: Performance at the end of the world

Time for a big hug - Conlon and Repin with the LA Phil
Photo: mine 2008

...is James Conlon. Or at least he’s the title holder in the LA classical music scene this weekend. Like some American Gergiev, JC headed up 3 performances by the LA Philharmonic as well as two performances for LA Opera (Otello and Der Zwerg) all in the course of three days. The man is a machine and perhaps the most remarkable part is how good it all was. The Philharmonic shows included Tchaikovsky’s 5th symphony and the 1st Shostakovich violin concerto. Vadim Repin was the soloist and he wowed a very appreciative crowd on Sunday with blazing virtuosity and real passion for Shostakovich’s maniacal masterpiece. Like a Pinter play, Shostakovich should always be equal parts fun and menace and Repin and Conlon proved to be kindred spirits. The Tchaikovsky was lively and Conlon left nary a pause between any of the movements. This may have not been the most detail oriented or piercing interpretation but it had real momentum and purpose throughout. (I’ll talk more about the Otello performance later).

The really unexpected part is this – in this town that Salonen built where anxiety is widespread over his pending departure despite all the big promises of a Dudamel-filled future, Conlon has stepped in and quietly become the next major driving force in the musical life of this community. In less than two years he has developed a beloved following from both local audiences and (I’m told) the musicians playing under his leadership. He has laid out an agenda that he has so far delivered on with fairly good results across the board programming both more Wagner and overlooked German repertory for LAO. He is truly excited about what he is doing and is eager to share it with audiences here personally. For example, he’s been doing most of the pre-opera talks of the projects he’s involved with himself and he’s as likely as not to make comments from the stage before his Philharmonic appearances. He is fully involved in community outreach and has already led two free semi-staged performances of large scale works from Britten and Handel at Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral downtown. He attacks everything with gusto and I for one am thrilled about what he’s done so far. We are lucky to have Conlon here right now. So while his LA Phil appearances are done for this year, there are still several performances of both Otello and Der Zwerg to be seen through the middle of March after which JC will be off from LA until the Fall. Don’t miss out.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 07/08, Music Reviews 07/08

Sarah Chang and Leonard Slatkin with members of the L.A. Philharmonic. Photo: mine 2010

Tuesday brought a whole evening’s worth of orchestral music from Dimitri Shostakovich, which was sufficient reason to brave the numerous obstacles to enjoying music at the Hollywood Bowl. Our beloved Los Angeles Philharmonic was paired up with two names that don’t immediately leap to mind when you think of Shostakovich - violinist Sarah Chang and conductor for the evening, Leonard Slatkin. (Though to be fair, both have recorded the major works on Tuesday’s program in their substantial catalogs and are not at all strangers to Shotakovich's works.) To start was one of those brief reminders that for all of the heavy baggage associated with Shotakovich, he composed more than his fair share of easy-access film and theater music. Tahiti Trot was written on a dare to demonstrate the composer could set Vincent Youmans’ “Tea for Two” from the musical No, No Nanette in under an hour. He did and these few minutes proved a light-hearted kick-off to some much more serious business at hand.

Chang arrived for the First Violin Concerto last heard quite spectacularly with the L.A. Phil, if my recollection is right, in February 2008 with soloist Vadim Repin under James Conlon. Chang has a tendency towards physical histrionics like stomping that I’ve noticed in prior outings here. And even though details may have been blunted by my distance from the stage, they seemed blissfully absent on Tuesday. Chang is no slouch and readily dispatched the requisite furious finger-work, but I found the opening lament of the Nocturne a little dry and uninvolved even if her playing lacked any hesitation. As things got more fast and furious, she seemed to rise to the occasion with a little more abandon and a little less control that brought things around with a little more excitement. The only other issue was the typical loss of much of the gorgeous bass sound that permeates the concerto in the dead Bowl acoustics.

This thinning of the bass sound also plagued the performance of the Symphony No. 5 that followed the intermission. Slatkin knows his way around 20th-century music and has been giving solid performances everywhere following the now largely forgotten scandale of last season’s La Traviata debacle at the Met Opera. Here he was as assured as he was this summer in Santa Fe. Slatkin and the orchestra compensated as much as possible for the muffled bass by making the most of the work’s many other charms. Things did go a little awry in the Largo, with an overly muddy sound. But it was an enjoyable performance that showed off the brass nicely and could be fleet when it needed to. No, not shabby at all for a Tuesday at the Hollywood Bowl.

Labels: Hollywood Bowl 10

Members of the LA Philharmonic
with Sir Neville Marriner
Photo: mine 2007

After the sizable disappointment of the LA Opera 07/08 Season announcement a few weeks back, it was heartening to get the LA Philharmonic 07/08 mailing this week. Although not as overall immediately exciting as last two seasons, there are a number of what promises to be must-see events. Clearly there are some details yet to be hammered out in this schedule that was sent out to renewing subscribers early this year; more so than normal. But already, there will be plenty of new and recent music and other challenging programming to look forward to.

The season starts out with “Sibelius Unbound”- a series of programs conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen that will feature all of Sibelius’ symphonies paired with other works. The other works in these programs will include a new piece from Steven Stucky, Salonen’s own Wing on Wing and other works from Sibelius including songs to be performed by Ben Heppner. Salonen will also lead local premieres of Saariaho’s La Passion de Simone with Dawn Upshaw and his own Piano Concerto with Yefim Bronfman as well as the world premiere of Oliver Knussen’s Cello Concerto with Anssi Karttunen. In the new music “Green Umbrella” series there will be programs dedicated to works by Saariaho, Salonen, Stucky and a new commission from Thomas Adès with video artist Tal Rosner.

One of the two other major programming concepts next season is “Concrete Frequency”- three programs conducted by David Robertson that are described as an examination of “the elements that define cities [their italics] and how those qualities are affected by, and reflected in, music.” While this seems a rather spurious concept, it does include some rather interesting and unusual works like Feldman’s The Turfan Fragments, Benjamin’s Palimpsest I and II, Boulez’ ”…explosante-fixe…”, Frank Zappa’s Dupree’s Paradise, Crumb’s A Haunted Landscape, and a new music/video work from Michael Gordon and Bill Morrison. At the other pole programming-wise is the International Youth Orchestra Festival, which will feature performances of much more standard fare, including Beethoven and Mahler’s 5th symphonies as performed by the Sibelius Academy Symphony Orchestra under Salonen’s direction and two shows from the Simòn Bolivar National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela with Gustavo Dudamel conducting.

Dudamel will also head up a star-studded list of visiting conductors including Iván Fischer, Jonathan Nott, Edo de Waart, Zubin Mehta, Nicholas McGegan, Charles Dutoit, James Conlon, Christoph von Dohnányi, Christoph Eschenbach, and even Lorin Maazel who will lead a performance of Britten’s War Requiem. Of course there is no shortage of celebrity instrumentalists and vocalists either. Renée Fleming will help kick off the season at the opening gala concert and other visiting vocalists will include Anthony Dean Griffey and Lilli Paasikivi in a Salonen-led performance of Das Lied von der Erde. András Schiff will give four solo recitals as part of a two-year cycle of all the Beethoven piano sonatas and the WDCH stage will also be graced by old-stand-bys Lang Lang and Midori as well as Leif Ove Andsnes, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Christian Tetzlaff, Olivier Latry, Vadim Repin, Leila Josefowicz, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet. All and all not too shabby.