(Revised) OVERNIGHT REVIEW: L.A. Philharmonic offers two Requiems at Disney Hall

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News
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Los Angeles Philharmonic and Los Angeles Master Chorale; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor
Leila Josefowicz, violin; Christine Schäffer, soprano, Matthias Goerne, baritone
Mackey: Beautiful Passing; Brahms: Ein Deutsche Requiem (A German Requiem)
Thursday, May 12, 2011 • Walt Disney Concert Hall
Next concerts: tonight and Saturday at 8 p.m. Sunday at 2 p.m.
Info: www.laphil.com
NOTE: The revision is an additional hemidemisemiquaver at the end.
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Sometimes it’s the big things you remember about a concert performance. Other times it’s the little things. From last night’s performance of Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Master Chorale, soprano Christine Schäffer and baritone Matthias Goerne — all under the inspired leadership of Gustavo Dudamel — it’s the little things that remain etched in my memory.

Part of my reaction is because I know this piece inside out; I’ve sung it many times and even played first movement when I was a double bassist in high school. Thus, last night it wasn’t that the big things — e.g. the wonderfully expressive singing of the Master Chorale and the orchestra’s top-notch playing — weren’t noteworthy; they were, to be sure. It wasn’t even Dudamel’s exquisite control of this 75-minute, seven-movement work. It was the little things.

It was Principal Timpanist Joseph Pereira setting up the funeral-march dramatically at the opening of the second movement. It was way Goerne made eye contact with the audience on three sides — terraces included — during his two solos rather than singing just to those in front of him. It was Principal Oboist Ariana Ghez slipping elegantly into the hushed choral singing midway through the final movement. It was the graceful, understated way that Dudamel ended each of the movements, even the three mighty fugues. It was the fact that, even though the Brahms Requiem is a familiar piece, the audience held its collective breath for 15 seconds after the last note (a couple of sneezes notwithstanding) before bursting into sustained applause.

The performance was part of the Phil’s “Brahms Unbound” series that is concluding its 2010-2011 Disney Hall Season and, as was the case last week with the first symphony, Dudamel offered a compelling account of A German Requiem. The orchestra, which included three harps and the Disney Hall organ (which added impressive heft and resonance) played beautifully. The Master Chorale sang the German texts with great feeling, clean diction and burnished sound, sounding as fresh in the final movement as it did in the first (not an easy task for a work where the chorus sings over 90 percent of the time).

Dudamel, who conducted without a score, was in no hurry but almost all of the tempos felt spot on; moreover, he never lost the work’s tension. He took the fourth movement (How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place) as a lyrical dance and the Master Chorale responded with elegant grace. Dudamel began the sixth movement quite slowly but it was a perfect lead-in to Goerne’s solo, in which we really felt he was, as the text says, telling us a mystery. That led to the uplifting double fugue with its I Corinthians text (the first place, as program annotator John Henken noted, where the words “death” and “dead” appear in Brahms’ Requiem, and even then, as Henken writes, they are “triumphantly reversed: the dead shall be raised and death swallowed up in victory”).

Goerne sang his two solos powerfully and Schäffer’s fifth movement solo (You Who Are Sorrowful) was radiant. After the performance, both turned and led the thunderous, and well-deserved, applause for the Master Chorale (Dudamel stood to the side, allowing the soloists and LAMC Music Director Grant Gershon to share the applause with the orchestra).

Dudamel elected to pair A German Requiem with a very different kind of requiem: Steven’s Mackey’s Beautiful Passing, which he wrote in 2008 following the death of his mother (the title refers to her final words: “Please tell everyone I had a beautiful passing”). The work, a 22-minute violin concerto with two movements connected by a cadenza, was written for violinist Leila Josefowicz and she was hand last night as the stellar soloist.

In the preconcert lecture, Mackey explained that the piece juxtaposes the violin’s serenity with the jangling, clattery world, as represented by an orchestra that includes a large battery of percussion instruments plus the piano. Josefowicz, playing without a score, did have some serene moments, including the beginning and conclusion, but most of Mackey’s writing required all of her formidable technique. Interspersed in the orchestra’s “jangling” sections were moments of lush string beauty. Dudamel conducted and the orchestra handled the jagged rhythms seemingly with ease.
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Hemidemisemiquavers:
• The only time I looked at the projected supertitles was in the sixth movement where I was perplexed by two translations of verses from I Corinthians 15: (a) victory instead of death — oops; (b) in Goerne’s solo, one translation was, “I tell you a secret.” Several Biblical translations I own use the word “mystery;” theologically, there’s a big difference.
• In the preconcert lecture, Mackey — whose early background included playing electric guitar in rock bands — said it took nine months to write the concerto. He’s apparently a fastidious composer. “In a good year,” he said, I write an average of one minute per week.”
• In their reviews, Mark Swed in the Los Angeles Times (LINK) and Timothy Mangan in the Orange County Register (LINK) both noted that one of the orchestral themes in Beautiful Passing came from the tones made by a New Jersey Transit ticket machine. Mackey mentioned this cute point in the preconcert lecture; I wrote it down and forgot to look at the note. Good on them; my bad.
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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

Comments

[freedml]

The original biblical text may be better translated in modern English as 'mystery' but the German word Geheimnis means 'a secret.'

[Bob Thomas]

Thanks for the clarification.
— RDT

[freedml]

You'll have to be more specific about where 'victory' appeared incorrectly in the supertitles because the German word 'Sieg' which means 'victory' is there repeatedly in that movement. My argument would be with 'hoelle' being translated as 'grave' instead of 'hell.' As good as Thursday night was, Friday was even better.

[Bob Thomas]

Sorry, you're right about both points. As I said, it was just a quick glance — don't even know why I looked up. Anyway, it was somewhere in the seven measures right before the beginning of the double fugue — the text in the Schirmer English edition is "Where is thy sting?" and what I saw (I think) was "Lord, where is thy victory?").

Yes, "hoelle" is German for "hell." That the Schirmer translation uses the word "grave" was probably a nod to the cultural convention of the time the translation was made, although I do think that in the context of I Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul seemed to be talking more of rising from the grave rather than from hell.

Glad to read that you enjoyed Friday night. I often find that second performances are better than the first but it must have been special to top Thursday. Thanks for writing.
— RDT

[MattS]

Thank you for your very well-written review. I was thrilled by last night's (Friday) concert. Most amazing. And since my mom passed away just a few months ago (and actually had intended to go to this concert), the themes and powerful performances hit home with me in a big way. It was quite an emotional experience.

The 15 seconds of silence at the end of each piece was powerful. To watch the musicians sitting completely still, and then to see my fellow audience members (some of whom, like me, who were quite moved) was quite of moment. I am curious...was this silence a Dudamel addition to these pieces? Were they originally written into the pieces?

One other comment...I found Mark Swed's dismissive review of the Brahms piece (though he liked the performances) kind of odd. Sounded like he never liked this piece in the first place. Not sure why he would have been the one to review it, if he walked through the door with that perspective.

[freedml]

I think I have the translation they used for the supertitles. It says "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"

[Bob Thomas]

Thanks. Yes, that's what the translation is supposed to say. It's not what I remember I saw but, as I said in the note, what I saw was just a glance.
— RDT

[Bob Thomas]

Thanks for your kind words on what was clearly an emotional — and, I hope, cathartic — evening for you.

The silence at the end isn't written into the score; it was simply one of those special interactive moments between the audience and the performers.

RE: Mark Swed. The issue of reviewing a piece with which you don't particularly connect is something that vexes all critics from time to time (by the way, the reverse can be true, as well — you can so love a piece that you'll overlook any flaws that you might otherwise note). Although The Times uses several critics on a freelance basis, Mark is the paper's only staff critic and I'm sure he felt that it was important to review this concert. He did put aside his feelings about the Requiem to comment — albeit briefly — on the performances. Not every critic in a similar situation remembers to do even that.
— RDT

[freedml]

This 'holding thing' at the end of a movement or piece can be dramatic and effective, but it is now all too often overused and cliche. More often than not, the conductor doing this will diminish the audience reaction.

[Bob Thomas]

So far, I've never been anything but moved or impressed by the "holding thing," as you described it. Quite the contrary. Nonetheless, thanks for commenting ... and reading.
— RDT

[New Timberland]

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