“Yo, wassup, Daniel?!”

And with those words apparently plastered on a larger-than-life homemade card, the students of Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) welcomed Daniel Harding back to Southern California last week. “No one in the [Los Angeles Philharmonic] has asked me that yet,” the English conductor playfully lamented in pre-concert remarks this past Saturday night.

Nonetheless, the YOLA sentiment — part greeting, part inquiry — perfectly captured what many wanted to know ahead of Mr. Harding’s initial performances in Walt Disney Concert Hall since last May’s announcement that he’ll be the orchestra’s next Music Director (or soon-to-be Music Director, just not Music Director Designate, if you please) at the start of the 2027-2028 season. I attended performances on both Saturday and Sunday, and judging by the combined results, conductor and orchestra are already getting along quite well.

Latest by Betsy Jolas, the Bernstein 1st Symphony (“Jeremiah”), and the Brahms 2nd Piano Concerto aren’t exactly the kind of blockbuster programming you’d expect from what amounted to a coronation of sorts. Mr. Harding himself admitted as much. As such, it provided a better window into his style and substance, and his tastes and sensibilities, than a collection of warhorses would have.

His approach to the Bernstein and Brahms in particular showed great promise for the budding relationship. The compact three-movement symphony and massive four-movement concerto offered a broad range of color and emotion for him and his new charges to explore. Throughout it all, nothing seemed splashy for the sake of it, and there was no firing for effect. Shifts in tempo felt organic, changes in dynamics were finely honed, and climaxes were earned.

Technical polish — ensemble, blend, intonation — was impeccable in ways the 2009 transition from Esa-Pekka Salonen’s tenure to Mr. Dudamel’s wasn’t. Moreover, the strings overall and the first violins specifically sounded phenomenal, regaining a rhythmic precision from the “Salonen glory days” while maintaining the warmth gained over the past decade-and-a-half — likely no coincidence that this weekend’s program also featured Vineta Sareika‘s official debut as the LA Phil’s new Concertmaster.

The second movement of the Bernstein symphony was particularly telling. Mr. Harding began it with only the briefest of pauses after the brooding, tension-filled first movement. At first, his tempo choice seemed startlingly slow, especially compared to Bernstein’s own 1961 recording with the New York Philharmonic and even Gustavo Dudamel’s 2011 live recording with the LA Phil. Yet midstream, all seemed as it should and then some.

I wasn’t really sure how or when the transition happened, and Mr. Harding’s slower start coinciding with his decision to go directly from the first movement into the second made it much more seamless where it could’ve been jarring. A second listening on Sunday confirmed that he continually made slight adjustments throughout, but nothing felt micromanaged. The powerful moments midway and at the end of the movement pinned you back to your seat with appropriate punch.

Mezzo-soprano Avery Amereau made an auspicious LA Phil debut with the 3rd movement vocal solos. She displayed rich tone, well-enunciated consonants, and more than enough power to not be swallowed up during full orchestral tutti. More importantly, she was able to convincingly convey the mix of rage and dismay inherent in the Hebrew lyrics. Let’s hope we see her again.

The solo pianist for the Brahms was Leif Ove Andsnes, a frequent visitor to WDCH. He brought a technical capability to the Brahms sprawl that was masterful. Stylistically, he favored minimal pedaling and crisp articulation, with power he could draw from at will, and just enough gentle rubato to keep things from sounding robotic. So if you prefer your Brahms aristocratic, played like a bigger-boned Mozart concerto, this was for you. If, on the other hand, you like his works plusher and with more push-and-pull in phrasing, you were likely to have been impressed yet uninspired.

Conductor and the orchestra gave a sympathetic foundation to Mr. Andsnes’s approach, ensuring each section shone through as needed while favoring a richer, creamier sound than the pianist. Principal Cello Robert deMaine’s velvety rendition of the third movement solos was ravishing and full of heart without ever becoming sappy, a highlight of the entire concerto. Principal Horn Andrew Bain played the concerto’s opening horn call with grace and authority. Woodwind principals Denis Bouriakov (flute), Ryan Roberts (oboe), Boris Allakhverdyan (clarinet), and Whitney Crockett (bassoon) added textural and timbral depth; they and their entire sections received well-deserved bows from the conductor.

Opening both concerts was Jolas’s Latest. The 2021 piece by the French-American composer and new centenarian was written when she was still in her mid-90s. It’s a purposely disjointed work, full of snippets of this and chunks of that, meant to represent her watching time whiz by her. Mr. Harding made it much more accessible in his remarks from the stage, inviting audience members to laugh when they found something funny, and on Saturday even having string players demonstrate a quiet phrase overlaid with their vocalizations. He proved to be an affable and approachable speaker, with a natural charisma quite different from Mr. Dudamel’s but apparent nonetheless. It also shows that the LA Phil’s impending new boss does not shy away from thorny music, a clear cultural requirement for this orchestra.

All in all, it was a promising beginning to this lead-up season to Mr. Harding’s music directorship. He returns in January with a banger of a concert: The Exterminating Angel Symphony by Thomas Adès (incoming Creative Chair for New Music), plus back-to-back Strauss featuring the 2nd Horn Concerto with Mr. Bain as soloist and Also Sprach Zarathustra. Judging by the packed and atypically early-arriving crowd and their strongly positive reaction this past weekend, seats will almost certainly be in higher demand.

Random other thoughts:

• Betsy Jolas’s Latest was omitted from the “Casual Friday” abridged-format concert on November 6th. When the season was originally announced, the Bernstein was to be omitted and the Jolas played all three nights. The change was made one or two weeks before the performances, and it makes so much more sense that way.
• In the audience for Sunday’s performance was Mr. Salonen himself. According to one concertgoer who’d definitely have awareness, the LA Phil’s Creative Director and Conductor Laureate is in town composing for a few weeks .
• Ms. Sareika’s Concertmaster chair had been one of many vacancies in the first violin section still needing to be filled. First Associate Concertmaster (2nd chair), Assistant Concertmaster (4th chair), and the permanent 6th chair are still open. Additionally, section first violin auditions held this week ended in no hire. More on that in a “Comings and Goings” post in the next day or two.
• As previously mentioned on these pages, Ms. Sareika’s position is directly equivalent to former Principal Concertmaster Martin Chalifour’s despite the change in title. The LA Phil decided to alter first violin titles early last decade, when the former 2nd chair, Concertmaster Alexander Treger, retired and the position became First Associate Concertmaster with Nathan Cole taking over the equivalent role. Now, the titles line up with most other major American orchestras.
• Speaking of changes in title, am I the only one who finds it odd that Daniel Harding was not given the title “Music Director Designate” when the orchestra announced him as their new leader? In fact, the LA Phil has used every other adjective it can think of to refer to him — next, soon-to-be, incoming, etc. — to avoid what is a traditional title that was given to both of Mr. Harding’s predecessors, and to Elim Chan at the San Francisco Symphony as well. In a world where titles are being handed out with the casualness of leftover Porto’s pastries at a corporate meeting, I can only surmise that this move saves the orchestra and CEO Kim Noltemy some money. Still, it’s curiouser and curiouser.
• Shoutout to guest 3rd horn in the Brahms, Jacob Wilder (Principal Horn of the Virginia Symphony), and both guests in the Bernstein, Associate Principal Bassoon Carin Miller (Principal Bassoon of the Oregon Symphony) and English horn Kaleb Zhu (Music Director of the Chromas Ensemble). All sounded solid.

Los Angeles Philharmonic: November 7 & 8, 2026; Walt Disney Concert Hall

Daniel Harding, conductor
Avery Amereau, mezzo-soprano
Leif Ove Andsnes, piano

Jolas: Latest
Bernstein: Symphony No. 1, “Jeremiah”
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 83

RELATED POSTS

• Vineta Sareika will be next LA Phil Concertmaster (June 11, 2026)
• BREAKING: LA Phil names Daniel Harding next Music Director (May 26, 2026)
• Who’ll be the next LA Phil Music Director? Handicapping 10 potential candidates (May 2026 edition) (May 22, 2026)

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Photo credits: Elizabeth Asher and Timothy Norris, courtesy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association