OVERNIGHT REVIEW: Musica Angelica at AT&T Center Theatre

By Robert D. Thomas

Music Critic

Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily
News

______________________

 

Musica Angelica;
Martin Hasselbck, conductor

Dame Emma Kirkby,
soprano; Daniel Taylor, counter tenor

Pergolesi/Bach: Stabat
Mater;
music by Handel

Saturday, January 28, 2012 AT&T Center Theatre

Next performance:
Today at 3 p.m. First Presbyterian Church, Santa Monica

Information: www.musicaangelica.org

______________________

 

During the past 19 years, Musica Angelica has gained
widespread renown as a period-instrument ensemble (i.e., its members play
Baroque and other early music on instruments that are either original to the
time or replicas of same). In addition to its own series, the group has made
national and international tours and recordings. On March 31 and April 1, the
full orchestra will accompany the Los Angeles Master Chorale in performances of
Bach’s St. John Passion at Walt Disney
Concert Hall.

 

Last night a sextet of MA musicians presented a stylishly
played program of music by Handel and Bach (the latter by the way of
Pergolesi). The evening also marked the MA debut of British soprano Dame Emma
Kirkby and at the same time introduced to Southern California a new performing
venue: the AT&T Center Theatre.

 

The 500-seat auditorium was once a VIP screening room for
films of United Artists when that company was owned by Transamerica Corporation
(the office tower in which it is housed was the home of Occidental Life and
other subsidiaries of the conglomerate better known for its pyramid-shaped
headquarters in San Francisco). Photos of old United Artist theaters are in the
performing hall’s entryway.

 

In the early 1980’s, recounts KUSC host Gail Eichenthal,
Sheila Tepper created the Dame Myra Hess Concerts in this hall, which aired
live on KUSC Wednesdays at noon. Topper showcased up and coming young
instrumentalists; the audience consisted largely of office workers.

 

In 2010, KUSC joined several USC departments that now occupy
the office and eventually convinced the building’s owners to make some
acoustical renovations (most importantly the addition of a shell) that would
turn the auditorium a viable concert hall. Last night was the first performance
since those alterations; KUSC hosted the evening.

 

From seats in the middle of the hall for the first half and
the back of the hall for the second, the sound carried well (carpet on the
floor does dampen the resonance). Kirkby, countertenor Daniel Taylor and six
accompanying instrumentalists were clearly heard throughout the performance.

 

Both Kirkby, who was made a Dame Commander of the Order of
the British Empire in 2007 and received the Queen’s Medal for Music last June,
and Taylor, who made his MA debut last year after a significant list of credits
in England, have long and distinguished careers in the field of early music and
they affirmed those credentials last night.

 

The first half featured arias and duets from Handel’s Alceste, Solomon and Judas Maccabeus. Kirkby delivered clean,
nicely oramented lines and Taylor blended skillfully during his contributions.
Music Director Martin Hasselbck on harpsichord led a sextet of
instrumentalists — Ila Korol and Cynthia Roberts, violins; Robert Diggins,
viola; Ezra Seltzer, violoncello; and Curtis Daily, bass — that accompanied the
singers sensitively and, on their own, offered spritely performances of
Handel’s Concerto Grosso in B-flat major, Op. 6, No. 7, HWV 325, and Trio
Sonata in G major, Op. 2, No. 6, HWB 391.

 

After intermission, the entire ensemble presented
Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater — except
that it wasn’t. Instead, Hasselbck used the version that Johann Sebastian Bach
refashioned near the end of his life. A Stabat
Mater
being a no-go at Bach’s German Lutheran church, he grafted a
paraphrase of Psalm 51 onto Pergolesi’s music, which Bach reordered to suit the
new text and added a new viola part to the score, among other changes.

 

The resulting work (37 minutes last night) maintained the Stabat Mater’s format of 20 couplets but
Bach placed them into several larger sections that were sumptuously sung by
Kirkby and Taylor. Each of the singers got two solo portions and the others
were duets. Having warmed up and discovered some of the intricacies of the new
hall, Kirkby and Taylor both conveyed the texts expressively and sang with
delicate point and florid ornamentation. The ensemble (with Hasselbck playing
a positiv organ), again accompanied sensitively.

 

The group encored with a poignant rendition of a duet from
the second act of Handel’s Theodora.

_______________________

 

Hemidemisemiquavers:

Although the singers projected adequately, I would have
welcomed printed texts for the Handel portions (the German texts for the Bach
were printed, along with translations).

The hall’s management created a welcoming atmosphere for
concertgoers. Signage was plentiful and security officers were polite and
helpful both coming and going. There was also plenty of inexpensive parking
available.

Musica Angelica will return to the AT&T Center Theatre
on Feb. 18 for a selection of Bach Wedding Cantatas. That program will repeat
the next afternoon at First Pres., Santa Monica. Information: www.musicaangelica.org

_______________________

 

(c) Copyright 2012, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved.
Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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OVERNIGHT REVIEW: Gustavo Dudamel and L.A. Philharmonic play Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 at Walt Disney Concert Hall

By Robert D. Thomas

Music Critic

Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily
News

______________________

 

Los Angeles
Philharmonic; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

Mahler: Symphony No. 6

Friday, January 27, 2012 Walt Disney Concert Hall

Next performances:
Tonight at 8, tomorrow at 2 p.m.

Information: www.laphil.com

______________________

 

Of all of Mahler’s 9.5 symphonies (10.5, if you count Das Lied von der Erde as a symphony),
No. 6 is probably the strangest (although some might vote for No. 7). At a
glance the 6th looks like a traditional format — four movements with
titles that read pretty much like standard symphonic fare — but when you hear
it there’s not much traditional about how it plays out. The contrasts are
formidable: lyrical one moment, then grotesque, then grandiose. It moves from
weird to wonderful and back over 87 minutes (last night).

 

In some ways, Symphony No. 6 looks backward towards the 19th
century of Brahms, Wagner and Richard Strauss; it also looks forward to what
would come, including the atonal music of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern, to the
20th and even the 21st centuries. During his preconcert
lecture, Asadour Santourian quoted Mahler as saying that to understand the
sixth symphony, you have to know the other five, so hearing it within the
context of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s “Mahler Project” certainly fulfilled
that requirement for many people. Nonetheless, I have never completely grasped
the piece and still don’t, even after a sweeping performance by Gustavo Dudamel
and the Los Angeles Philharmonic last night.

 

Among the work’s intriguing aspects:

Mahler began the piece in the summer of 1903, one of the
happiest times of his life personally and professionally. Yet in the fourth
movement he wrote of the downfall of his “hero” (and/or of himself) by
inserting three massive hammer blows that were, as he later wrote, “on whom [the
hero] falls three blows of fate, the last of which fells him as a tree is
felled.”

 

When he revised the work, Mahler omitted the third hammer
blow as being too agonizing — some conductors play the work with two hammer
blows, others with three (Dudamel reportedly rehearsed it with three yesterday
morning but in last night’s performance omitted the third).

 

Incidentally, Mahler’s hammer is not a stick beating on a
bass drum or timpani. The Phil’s mallet looks like it was pilfered from the
“ring the bell” game at a carnival and it was pounded on a wooden box that
measured about four feet long by four feet high and two feet deep — the
percussionist had to mount steps to whack the top of the box.

 

Mahler originally wrote the Scherzo as the second movement, then later reversed its order with
the Andante. Throughout the
subsequent century, conductors have performed the symphony following one order
or the other. Last night’s printed program called for the LAPO perform it with scherzo followed by andante, Dudamel reversed the order and management added a slip
sheet into the program to announce the change.

 

The hammer is just one of a large number of percussion
instruments that Mahler employs during the symphony. The list includes snare
drum, tam-tam, triangle, xylophone, glockenspiel, two sets of cowbells (one
onstage, the other offstage), offstage bells, two sets of timpani, and three
pair of giant cymbals that at one point are played together. The work is also
scored for two harps and two celestas.

 

As he has done throughout the cycle, Dudamel conducted
without a score, but unlike other performances, this one emphasized propulsive
energy rather than languid tempos. The Philharmonic was again in top form
throughout the evening. For all of the massive fortissimo outbursts, what stood
out for me was the Andante with
luscious string sounds interspersed with exquisite solo work from Ariana Ghez,
oboe; Carolyn Hove, English horn, Michelle Zukovsky, clarinet; and Andrew Bain,
French horn.

_______________________

 

Hemidemisemiquavers:

British author and columnist Normal Lebrech provides the
preconcert lecture tonight and tomorrow. If his crowds approach those at his
lectures on Tuesday and Thursday, plan on arriving early as those crowds in BP
Hall were overflowing.

The Simn Bolivr Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela
continues the Mahler cycle on Tuesday with Symphony No. 7. The Phil returns
next Friday and Sunday (Feb. 3 and 5) with Symphony No. 9 and both ensembles
join eight soloists and more than 800 choristers at the Shrine Auditorium on
Feb. 4 for Symphony No. 8 (Symphony of a
Thousand).

_______________________

 

(c) Copyright 2012, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved.
Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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OVERNIGHT REVIEW: Taking the 5th — Gustavo Dudamel and the SBOV at Walt Disney Concert Hall

By Robert D. Thomas

Music Critic

Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily
News

______________________

 

Simn Bolivr
Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

Mahler: Symphony No. 5

Thursday, January 26, 2012 Walt Disney Concert Hall

Next concerts:

Tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m.

Los Angeles Philharmonic; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

Mahler: Symphony No. 6

Information: www.laphil.com

______________________

 

As I was riding the Gold Line home from last night’s concert
at Walt Disney Concert Hall, I contemplated the difference in audience reaction
to the concerts of “The Mahler Project” played by the Los Angeles Philharmonic
as opposed to those played by the Simn Bolivr Symphony Orchestra of
Venezuela. Both ensembles have received standing ovations for their
performances, but there are LA Phil ovations and then there are those for the
Bolivr “kids.”

 

It’s not that the Bolivrs have played better than the Phil
— close, but not better. Moreover, Gustavo Dudamel (who celebrated his 31st
birthday last night) has conducted every program from memory. The hall has been
packed for each concert, although there were a few more empty seats last night
than for Sunday and Tuesday. Nonetheless, there’s an excitement level to the
reaction to the Bolivrs that palpably exceeds that accorded the Phil.

 

Part of the difference lies in the symphonies played. The
Phil opened two weeks ago with No. 4, the sunniest, shortest and least dramatic
of Mahler’s completed symphonic output. Last weekend, it came back with No. 1
and the Adagio from No. 10, and since
the Thursday and Saturday program concluded with the somber Adagio, that surely dampened the
audience’s enthusiasm. Although the “Casual Friday” concert was just Symphony
No. 1 and did receive a thunderous ovation, the excitement level was diluted
somewhat by the knowledge that a Q&A session (and/or drinks with the orchestra
members) was following.

 

By contrast, the Bolivrs have played three of the five
symphonies with the loudest, most pulsating endings. On Tuesday, they get No. 7
(also with a big finale) and they’ll be part of the combined orchestra that
plays No. 8, the other work that fits this description.

 

Another rationale for the difference in reaction is size.
The Bolivrs are putting about 175 players on stage each night, about 65 more
than the Phil for their performances (the LAPO will play Symphony No. 6 tonight,
tomorrow and Sunday and No. 9 on Feb. 3 and 5 to conclude the cycle). The 96
Bolivr string players equal what would be a large orchestra for almost
anything except Mahler. Size isn’t everything but when the Bolivrs are playing
full force, they can, indeed, make a mighty noise as we have heard to conclude
their three programs, and most in the audiences react.

 

Even with all the caveats, the excitement level for the
Bolivr concerts has been noticeably high than for the Phil. It was also that
way in 2007 when the “kids” made their Disney Hall debut in two concerts that
were among the most exciting I’ve ever attended. Excitement isn’t everything in
a concert, but once again this year it’s been noticeable.

 

Symphony No. 5 was the first symphony Mahler wrote without a
specific programmatic theme and the first since Symphony No. 1 to eschew
soloists or a chorus. The work was begun in 1901 shortly after Mahler nearly
died from an a hemorrhage that program annotator Herbert Glass called
“intestinal” and preconcert lecturer Norman Lebrecht placed slightly lower on
Mahler’s body. Like nearly all of Mahler’s symphonies, this one includes —
indeed, in this case, begins with — a funeral march but it also includes a love
poem to his bride, the famous Adagietto
for strings that Luchino Visconti would appropriate 70 years later as the theme
music for the movie Death in Venice.

 

Mahler 5 is also a piece with which Dudamel and the Bolivrs
are closely identified. They played it on their opening Disney Hall concert in
2007 (and on their subsequent cross-country tour) and later recorded it.

 

Last night was the most cohesive collaboration between
Dudamel and his youthful colleagues during this cycle and the orchestra’s
playing was exemplary. The entire brass section, led by the principal trumpet
and principal horn players, was stunning throughout the performance (the
Bolivrs don’t provide principals lists but since their listing in the program
isn’t alphabetical, I’ll take a guess that these two were Toms Medina and
Rafael Payare — they eminently deserve to be singled out). The strings played
with a rich, unified sound and amazing rhythmic precision (especially
considering their numbers); not only do these folks wield their bows in unison,
they also sway in unison.

 

As he has done in other performances during this cycle
Dudamel continues to emphasize luxuriant tempos. In both the third and fifth
movements, he occasionally got a little too cutesy in his moments of elasticity
but overall this was a smartly paced 74-minute performance that sustained
tension admirably. The Adagietto glided
along with effortless ease and the final movement was less frenetic than what
shows up on the recording or what I remember from the concert four-plus years
ago.

 

Untimately, that adds up to a level of increased maturity
that holds a great deal of promise for succeeding Dudamel years (presumably
many of them) in Los Angeles. At the same time, may he never lose the sense of
excitement that continues to pour out of all of these programs.

_______________________

 

Hemidemisemiquavers:

Although it’s not quite as noticeable as the Vienna
Philharmonic, a colleague seated next to me noted that the Bolivrs had just 24
women in the 175 players who were on stage last night, and most of those are in
the string sections. Just two of the 32 brass players were female and none of
the percussionists.

In his preconcert lecture before Symphony No. 1, Gilbert
Kaplan said that he has heard the Adagietto
played in as little as eight minutes and as long as 15. Dudamel was in the
middle: 11 minutes.

Lebrech’s lecture last night was again insightful. He’s on
tap for the lectures on tomorrow and Sunday — arrive early; the crowds have
been overflow. Asadour Santourian, Vice President for Artistic Administration
and Artistic Advisor for the Aspen Music Festival, is listed as giving the
lecture tonight.

_______________________

 

(c) Copyright 2012, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved.
Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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Five-Spot: What caught my eye on January 26, 2012

By Robert D. Thomas

Music Critic

Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily
News

______________________

 

Each Thursday morning, I list five events that pique my
interest, including (ideally) at least one with free admission (or, at a minimum,
inexpensive tickets). Here’s today’s grouping:

______________________

 

Tonight at 8 p.m. at
Walt Disney Concert Hall

Simn Bolivr
Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

Mahler: Symphony No.
5

This was one of the works with which Gustavo Dudamel
introduced Los Angeles to this dynamic orchestra in 2007. Thus, part of the
intrigue will be to see what changes have occurred in Dudamel’s interpretation
and in the orchestra’s playing. The Bolivrs conclude their individual portion
of the cycle on Tuesday with Symphony No. 7 Information: www.laphil.com

 

Tonight at 8 p.m.
at Zipper Hall (The Colburn School)

Los Angeles Chamber
Orchestra’s Baroque Conversations

LACO begins its season of baroque chamber-music programs
when Principal Oboist Alan Vogel leads five of his colleagues and soprano
Elissa Johnston in a program of music by J.S. Bach and Heinrich Ignaz Franz
Bieber. Information: www.laco.org

 

Friday and Saturday
at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m.

Los Angeles
Philharmonic; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

Mahler: Symphony No.
6

The Phil swings back into action with what is perhaps the
darkest of Mahler’s symphonies. Information:
www.laphil.com

 

Saturday at 8 p.m.
at AT&T Center Theatre, Los Angeles

Sunday at 3 p.m.,
First Presbyterian Church, Santa Monica

Musica Angelica:
Pergolesi/Bach: Stabat Mater

Although Giovanni Pergolesi set a version of Stabat Mater, the work is at least as
well known through its German edition when J.S. Bach put different German text
atop Pergolesi’s music (composers during that time were freer about “borrowing”
music both from themselves and others). Martin Hasselbck will lead his
top-notch period-instrument ensemble along with soloists Dame Emma Kirkby,
soprano, and countertenor Daniel Taylor. Sacred arias by Bach and Handel will
fill out the program.

 

The Saturday performance will be the group’s first time in
the AT&T Center Theater in downtown Los Angeles. Old-timers will recognize
this as the old Transamerica Life headquarters. Radio station KUSC 95.1 FM
recently moved to the AT&T Center. Originally used as a conference hall,
the performing space reportedly has been acoustically retrofitted by KUSC to
accommodate small- and medium-size musical groups.

 

Information: www.musicaangelica.org

 

Sunday at 4 p.m. at
Neighborhood Church, Pasadena

Pacific Serenades

For more than a quarter-century, Pacific Serenades has been
known for (a) beginning its season after the New Year holiday and (b)
commissioning new works. The inaugural concert of its 2012 season will feature
its 103rd commissioned work: the world premiere of Different Lanes for string quartet and
iPad by Los Angeles native and Emmy-award winning composer Laura Karpman (the
title refers to five L.A. freeways) The program will also include Beethoven’s
String Quartet in D Major, Op. 18, No. 3, and Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and
Cello (2001).

 

Information:
www.pacser.org

 

And the weekend’s
“free admission” program …

 

Friday at 8 p.m. at
First Church of the Nazarene, Pasadena

Pasadena Community
Orchestra; Alan Reinecke, conductor

PCO opens its 28th season with a program of
Smetna’s Sarka (from Ma Vlast), Mozart’s Symphony No. 39, and
Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2, with Joyce Pan as soloist. Pan is a member
of the orchestra’s violin section; in her “other” life, she’s a technical
director for Dreamworks Animation. Information:
www.pcomusic.org

  

OPERA NOTES

Both Long Beach Opera and San Diego Opera open their seasons
this weekend. Long Beach presents Maria
de Buenos Aires
by Astor Pizzola and Horacio Ferrer on Sunday at 2 p.m. and
Feb. 4 at 8 p.m. at The Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro. Information: www.longbeachopera.org

 

San Diego Opera begins with Richard Strauss’ Salome, which opens Saturday at 7 p.m.
and also plays Tuesday at 7 p.m., Feb. 3 at 8 p.m. and Feb. 5 at 2 p.m. Lise
Lindstrom sings the title role. Information:
www.sdopera.com

_______________________

 

(c) Copyright 2012, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved.
Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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OVERNIGHT REVIEW: 3rd and short: Dudamel and the Bolivars at Walt Disney Concert Hall

By Robert D. Thomas

Music Critic

Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily
News

______________________

 

Simn Bolivr
Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

Mahler: Symphony No. 3

Tuesday, January 24 13, 2012 Walt Disney Concert Hall

Next performance:

Mahler: Symphony No. 5; Dudamel and SBSOV

Tomorrow at 8 p.m.

Information: www.laphil.com

______________________

 

When I’m wearing my music critic hat, I try hard not to
compare performances. Some critics do — it’s just not my style. Inevitably, of
course, what I’ve heard in the past will influence my feelings about how a
piece should sound but when I’m reviewing a concert, I try not to think, “Gosh,
that doesn’t sound like how Giulini, Salonen, Bernstein, etc. conducted it.” Instead, I try to let each performance stand on its own.

 

However, there are a couple of works for which it’s very
hard to block out memory and one of those is Mahler’s Symphony No. 3. One of my
most indelible musical experiences in nearly 60 years of attending concerts was
the first time I heard Zubin Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic play
Mahler’s third in the late 1970s. For many years, I’ve said that if I had one
piece to listen to while I am dying, it would be Mehta and the Phil playing the
finale of this monumental work.

 

Last night at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Simn Bolivr
Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela came very, very close to matching that standard.
Gustavo Dudamel equaled it.

 

Symphony No. 3 is Mahler’s longest work: 104 minutes last
night — it seemed shorter — in six movements. Mahler originally planned seven
movements but later decided that enough was enough (even for him), and the
seventh section became the finale of Symphony No. 4, instead.

 

Nonetheless, No. 3 is an incredibly complex work. In his
program note, John Mangum quoted Mahler writing, “It’s not really appropriate
to call it a symphony, for it doesn’t stick to the traditional form at all. But
‘symphony’ means to me building a world with all the resources of the available
techniques.” Later he said to Jean Sibelius, “The symphony must be like the
world. It must embrace everything.” Mahler’s early descriptive titles (which he
later discarded) displayed the breadth of his thinking: Summer marches in, What the flowers in the meadow tell me, etc.

 

Mahler scored the symphony for an oversized orchestra and
the Bolivars surely exceeded those expectations. Mark Swed, in his Los Angeles Times review, said the
ensemble numbered about 175 on Sunday and it didn’t look any smaller last
night. There were also 39 women of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, 40 members
of the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotjn … and
the camera operator focusing on Dudamel for the off-stage flgelhorn player in
the third movement ((that must be quite a seat from a sound point of view).

 

As he has done throughout “The Mahler Project,” Dudamel
conducted without a score — as noted in my review of Sunday’s performance of
Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony,
that’s not unprecedented but that doesn’t make it any less amazing. He continues
to be a joy to watch, his exuberant face and expressive gestures communicating
volumes to his musicians. In nearly every concert, Dudamel always appears to be
throughly enjoying himself and last night was no exception, even though he
seemed to be suffering from a head cold. Any performance of Symphony No. 3 is
an endurance contest for all concerned: instrumentalists, singers, conductor
and audience. Last night was no different but was, nonetheless, spellbinding.

 

In conducting Symphonies 4, 1, 2 and the Adagio from No. 10, Dudamel has taken
quite broad tempos most of the time, but last night was different, at least in
the first two movements. The 96 string players (that number would equal the
entire L.A. Phil for most of its concerts) were remarkably precise in the
opening movement (which lasted 33 minutes last night) and the entire brass
section was at its burnished best. The second movement was a model of melding
propulsion and lyricism, while the third movement was the only time when tempos
seemed to flag a bit. However, the flugelhorn solo, paired with the first
trumpeter, was exemplary, a couple of bobbles notwithstanding (the Bolivars
don’t provide principal lists so I can’t tell you who each was).

 

Stotijn sang the fourth-movement text, O Mensch! Gib Acht! (O Man, Take Heed), poignantly, and her fifth
movement, Armer Kinder Bettlerlied (Poor
Children’s Begging Song),
with rich ardor. The Master Chorale women added
lustrous accompaniment and the L.A. Children’s Chorus bimm-bammed angelically.

 

All of that is prologue — in this case, 64 minutes worth —
for the final movement, which Mahler originally called What love tells me and eventually marked Langsam: Ruhevoli; Empfunden (Slow: Peaceful; With feeling). Among
the problems facing the conductor in this 40-minute finale are investing the
movement with the proper gravitas without letting it sink beneath its own
weight. Moreover, there are three climaxes to the movement, so the conductor
has to manage all of that and leave the most glorious measures to the end.

 

Dudamel let it all unfold unhurriedly. If the orchestra
seemed midway through the movement to be wearying a tad, it rallied beautifully
to finish on a majestically glorious fortissimo, those final timpani shots
ringing out like rifle shots, and Dudamel concluded the work not with a furious
cutoff but with a graceful Mehta-like upsweep.

 

Now all they have to do in less than 48 hours is come back
and play Symphony No. 5, which — at about 75 minutes or so — will seem like an
overture. I don’t know how you celebrate your birthdays but Dudamel will mark
his (No. 31) by conducting Mahler’s fifth.

_______________________

 

Hemidemisemiquavers:

An overflow crowd showed up for Norman Lebrecht’s
preconcert lecture; if you’re planning on coming to Thursday’s lecture (which,
at this point, is scheduled for BP Hall, not the main auditorium), arrive
early. Lebrecht’s concept of Mahler in this symphony as a pleader for social
justice was provocative, if a bit unwieldy in its presentation.

Mahler called for a long pause after the first movement;
Dudamel took the opportunity to duck offstage for a few seconds.

The weekend’s concerts bring back the L.A. Phil playing
Symphony No. 6.

_______________________

 

(c) Copyright 2012, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved.
Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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