Starting the new year off with a bang: Grubinger, Eschenbach, and LA Phil dazzle with Tan Dun’s new percussion concerto

January 11, 2013 Leave a comment

Martin Grubinger (photo by Felix Broede)

A new composition for a new year.  Seems rather poetic, doesn’t it?  Often such gestures work better in concept than in practice, but thanks to Martin Grubinger‘s virtuoso performance of The Tears of Nature, Tan Dun’s new percussion concerto receiving its U.S. Premiere last Friday night care of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, this one worked wonderfully.

Mr. Tan creates an eclectic yet accessible soundscape that ranges from melodic to clangorous and everything in between.  It begins simply enough:   Mr. Grubinger led the orchestral percussionists in ensemble, clicking together semi-tuned pairs of stones; muted harp played in the background.  As the soloist walked from the front of the stage to the back where a battery of seven timpani were set up, the score began to expand and grow increasingly complex.  The soloist’s pitch-bending timpani cadenza served as the high-point of the movement.

The second movement had a similar developmental arc:  a quiet, dreamy opening section, with atmospherics care of the orchestral percussionists bowing Tibetan singing bowls; later, an aggressive ending featured Mr. Grubinger with some amazingly fast fortississimo (yes, “fff”) four-mallet work on marimba.  The energetically cheery finale featured variations on a recurring 8-note melodic theme that made its way through the orchestra, not to mention being featured in another cadenza played by Mr. Grubinger, this time working on every part of the large array of tuned and non-tuned instruments set up at the front of the stage.

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Five concerts, four conductors at different stages of their relationship w/ the LA Phil (part 3 of 4): Esa-Pekka Salonen then and now

December 20, 2012 1 Comment

Esa-Pekka Salonen by SONJA WERNER When Esa-Pekka Salonen comes back to conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic, you expect finely polished performances of complex programs.  In two weekends of concerts earlier this month, that’s exactly what you got and then some.  E-P was in town to help the orchestra celebrate Lutosławski’s centenary, with both sets of programs featuring major works by the much-admired Polish composer.

The first weekend’s Friday performance was  probing, athletic, and rich in detail.  Lutosławski’s First Symphony, with its traditional four movement structure, sounded closer to works by Shostakovich or Bartók — or his own Concerto for Orchestra – than the Second Symphony that he would pen two decades later.  The LA Phil playing was as crisp and whip-crack precise as it could be, making it sound like old hat rather than a premiere for both orchestra and conductor.  In addition, the orchestra’s brass gave the brief but raucous Fanfare for Los Angeles Philharmonic a no-holds-barred reading that pinged brightly throughout Walt Disney Concert Hall.

That orchestra and conductor slayed the Lutosławski should shock no one.  Mr. Salonen’s relationship with the orchestra goes back almost three decades, and the chemistry between the LA Phil and its Conductor Laureate remains superb.  In fact, E-PS’s 1984 debut with the orchestra included Lutosławski’s much thornier Third Symphony, and it was on the strength of those performances that  the relationship was allowed to blossom and grow to ESP levels:   As Mr. Salonen tweeted:  ”Such a joy to be back with my old band in LA. They sound great and still somehow read my mind. Deeply touched & humbled by the experience.”

His evolving skill with Beethoven is an entirely different matter.

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Style and substance in equal measure: Wang joins Dudamel and the LA Phil for some Tchaikovsky

August 11, 2012 1 Comment

Tchaikovsky concerts at the Hollywood Bowl are common occurrences.  Thursday night’s Los Angeles Philharmonic concert was pretty typical, with a program featuring a pair of frequently heard warhorses:  the Piano Concerto No. 1 and the Symphony No. 4.

Then again, in some ways, this wasn’t all that typical.  There were no fireworks, no 1812 Overture, no USC Trojan Marching Band.  Instead, we got Gustavo Dudamel conducting and Yuja Wang playing the piano.  I’d say that’s more than a fair trade.

Some people may not agree, though.  Both Mr. Dudamel and Ms. Wang  benefit/suffer from marketing machines and media attention focusing on things not directly related to their music making.  This leads to claims that either or both are over-hyped, triumphs of fluff over stuff, all show and no go.

Sure, image is a big part of each of their personas.  But don’t believe the naysayers.  Whatever one may think of their style, there is at least as much substance, if not more. Both of them are musicians who already offer some exciting and probing interpretations of major works despite their relative youth.

Thursday night was the latest example of this.  While the performances were not flawless, they were compelling — they didn’t try too hard to make a big impression, nor were they content to settle for the ordinary or cliché.

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