Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

Last Night in LA--Sonic Spectacular

The Philharmonic concert was a bit of a stylistic catch-all, but the music all gloried in sound and effect. The first half of the concert seemed very young: music by young composers, with a young conductor. What the concert may have lacked in musical depth, it had in color. And in flash. It was all very enjoyable, and it was another good example of programming to build an audience.

Holding everything together as well as leading the sonic workout was a bright, young (30!) American conductor, Michael Christie. Salonen was one of the jurists when he was given a special prize for outstanding potential at the 1995 Sibelius Conductor�s Competition; this program was his first set of performances as a full-fledged conductor, well past the stages of assistant and associate. He becomes the music director of the Phoenix Symphony in September, and he is beginning to climb internationally. Watch for him.

The concert opened with Aaron Copland�s �Symphony for Organ and Orchestra� and closed with Ottorino Respighi�s �Pines of Rome�, both written in 1924. Christie led the Phil in taking full advantage of the acoustics of Disney Hall as well as of the great new organ. Written when Copland was 23, the organ symphony does not have the yet-to-be-developed Copland sound and style, and may sound a little like Stravinsky�s �Petrouchka� at times or like Ravel at others, but it�s still a pretty good piece. (Copland thought so, as well, since he re-orchestrated it and issued it as his First Symphony so that it could be played in halls without organs.) Since the sound of the orchestra is so clear in WDCH, an organist doesn�t need to hold back in fear of drowning out the other musicians, and the resulting sounds can be great. �Feel the vibrations� could be a good slogan for the Phil�s publicists to describe the real physical sensations of being in the audience when the organist and orchestra play fortissimo.

It somewhat dates me, but I can still remember hearing a recording of �Pines� early in the days of Hi-Fi Stereo. (It was an RCA 45 rpm recording of the Chicago, conducted by Reiner. I later bought the record myself.) A classmate�s parents had driven down his movable (not really portable) speakers and components and some of his music collection. Until then I had only heard Respighi�s music on AM radio, and had been to few concerts, but hearing �Pines of Rome� with a good sound system was an exciting thing. I hadn�t heard music sound like that. Hearing �Pines� yesterday, in Disney, with a real pipe organ rather than an electric substitute, was almost a recreation of that experience. The music sounded fresh.

The middle of the program was dominated by the popular, talented percussionist Evelyn Glennie. The major work was a concerto for percussion by the unfairly talented young (23) violinist and composer Marijn Simons. �Concerto Fabuleux� was written in 2002, when Simons was 20, and was already his Opus 21.

The concerto has three movements, each named for a fabled animal (dragon, werewolf, unicorn), and each movement focuses on a particular subset of percussion. This allowed Glennie to move to three locations around the stage. The Disney Hall electricians supported Glennie�s showmanship with more lighting adjustments and use of colored filters than I have seen in a Phil concert. The concerto may not present a distinctive musical voice, and Simons has written more major works since composing it, but it�s a good showpiece and a pleasure to hear (and watch). Glennie gave a programmed encore to open the second half of the concert: a Vivaldi concerto for piccolo recorder, transcribed for the vibraphone, accompanied by the Philharmonic strings and harpsichord. Suspend your disbelief and doubts; this was serious music, well performed, and Glennie�s musicianship was excellent.

posted by Jerry Zinser 5/09/2005