OVERNIGHT REVIEW: Yuja Wang, Gustavo Dudamel and L.A. Phil light up Hollywood Bowl

By Robert D. Thomas

Music Critic

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

______________________

 

Los Angeles
Philharmonic; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 (Yuja Wang, pianist); Symphony No. 4

Thursday, August 12, 2012 Hollywood Bowl

______________________

 

Combining Gustavo Dudamel, Tchaikovsky, the Los Angeles
Philharmonic and two stellar soloists has made for boffo box office this week
at Hollywood Bowl. Tuesday night, with Yo-Yo Ma as soloist in the Schuman Cello
Concerto, was sold out in advance and there were very few empty seats at last
night’s concert, especially impressive since Tchaikovsky’s fourth symphony
concluded both concerts, which might have limited some repeat business.

 

Last summer at the Bowl, the daringly short “little orange
dress” that Yuja Wang wore overshadowed, for many people, her prodigious
performance in Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Last night’s floor-length
purple gown with a long slit elicited no gasps, as happened last summer, which
left people free to concentrate on her performance in Tchaikovsky’s Piano
Concerto No. 1.

 

This is the 25-year-old Chinese pianist’s third big Russian
concerto in a year with the Phil (she was soloist in Prokofiev’s third last
November) and all three performances have been breathtaking. Last night, she
blazed through the powerful octaves in the Tchaikovsky first but — as happened
in the other two performances — she balanced those pyrotechnics with elegant
introspective passages, at least in the first two movements.

 

Unfortunately, as was the case particularly in the
Prokofiev, she elected to take the third movement last night at an
extraordinarily fast tempo, as if to say, “I’m playing it this super fast just
to show I can do it.” Yuja, my dear, we know that by now. What would be more
exquisite would be to hear you deliver the same level of musicality that shined
forth in the first two movements. What Peter Ilyich wrote in the score — played
as well as you are obviously able — provided all the pyrotechnics needed. One
Lang Lang is enough for this generation.

 

Dudamel shaped the accompaniment lovingly and made effective
use of silence throughout the piece. Aside from some brass bobbles at the
beginning, the orchestra accompanied Wang splendidly. Catherine Ransom Karoly
on flute, Principal Cellist Tao Ni and Principal Oboist Ariana Ghez were
particularly noteworthy in their second-movement solos. The sound engineers,
who accentuated the bass throughout the evening, tended to make the Steinway piano
sound somewhat tubby from my spot at the back of the boxes.

 

Tchaikovsky’s symphonies have played a major role in
Dudamel’s young Los Angeles career so far. He made his Bowl debut in 2005 with
a “sit-up-and-take-notice” reading of the fifth symphony, and the sixth was on
his first tour as LAPO music director. The fourth last night had some of the
same characteristics as the other two but it also had a sense of maturity that
made it sound quite different.

 

Dudamel has something to say every time he tackles
Tchaikovsky; you may not always agree with it but you want to know where he
will go next. He was relaxed — almost introspective — with most of the first
movement last night. The second movement featured luxuriant strings, along with
melancholy solos from Ghez and Principal Bassoon Whitney Crockett. The third
movement was appropriately playful, and the finale was majestic without being
strident — all in all, a marvelous evening.

_______________________

 

Hemidemisemiquavers:

Whether or not the highly publicized hearings about
helicopter noise over the Bowl and San Fernando Valley residential areas were
the reason, this was as quiet as I can remember things for several years — just
two minor aerial incursions, one in the third movement of the concerto and the
other at the beginning of the symphony.

 

This was my first concert this summer at the Bowl so the
orchestra members’ dress may not be news for regulars but the men wore white
dress shirts (no coats or ties) while Dudamel wore a black dress shirt.
Casually elegant; I liked it.

 

Dudamel is in the midst of a six-concert stretch at the
Bowl.

— Sunday he leads a concert performance of Verdi’s Rigoletto (LINK).

Next week’s concerts feature another chapter in Dudamel’s “Americas
and Americans” series.

— Tuesday’s soloist is vocalist Juan Luis Guerra in a
program of Latino/Hispanic music (LINK).

— Thursday’s program includes Ginastera’s Piano Concerto
No. 1 (with Sergio Tiempo as soloist) and Copland’s Symphony No. 3 (LINK).

— On August 19, Dudamel joins Plcido Domingo in what is
being billed as an evening of songs and opera arias; it’s also a benefit for
the Phil musicians’ pension fund (LINK).

_______________________

 

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

Facebook Twitter Plusone Pinterest Reddit Tumblr Email