OVERNIGHT REVIEW: A delectable feast for the L.A. Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News
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Los Angeles Philharmonic; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor; Richard Goode, pianist
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466. Richard Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra
Friday, October 28, 2011 • Walt Disney Concert Hall
Next concerts: Tonight at 8 p.m. and tomorrow at 2 p.m. (These programs add György Kurtág’s Grabstein für Stephan as the opening work).
Information: www.laphil.com
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Conductors love thematic contrasts but there was more on Gustavo Dudamel’s mind when he paired works by Mozart and Richard Strauss for last night’s “Casual Friday” concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the first of this weekend’s programs that mark Dudamel’s final appearances in Los Angeles for the year 2011.

Dudamel believes that Mozart is good for an orchestra’s health (“like eating a good salad,” he said during last night’s post-concert discussion). That’s particularly true when his orchestra has spent most of this month playing a steady diet of meaty pieces, including several premieres and, in this case, had just returned from a well-received, two-concert appearance in San Francisco.

The curly haired maestro balanced that high-protein intake last night by joining with pianist Richard Goode for a jewel-like rendition of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20, K. 466, to open the evening. The 68-year-old New York native has a well-known affinity for Mozart, and Dudamel and the orchestra were willing collaborators for a thoroughly enjoyable performance. “I was learning from Richard,” said Dudamel after the concert; he’s obviously a Goode student (sorry!).

Mozart’s K. 466 concerto is, itself, a study in contrasts. It made such an impression on Beethoven that the latter played it and wrote cadenzas for the piece (Mozart wrote none for this work). Its influence can be felt in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2, which — despite its number — was actually the first one that Beethoven wrote, just a couple of year after Mozart composed this piece.

Reflecting its D-minor key, the Mozart concerto’s outer movements have a brooding, edgy quality while the second movement becomes a lyrical, elegant bridge between the two, although it also has its own dramatic measures.

Throughout the performance, Goode often seemed more part of the ensemble than a soloist and his playing had an old-school charm, perhaps reflecting one of his teachers, the legendary Rudolf Serkin. He also asked Dudamel to move the winds forward to accentuate the back-and-forth weaving of melodies between soloist and winds. As a complement, the strings produced biting tones that provided the proper seasoning for this delectable salad.

Written in 1896, Also Sprach Zarathustra was the fourth of eight tone poems that Strauss composed, and it certainly makes a full-bodied main course, especially following Mozart (the tone poem is actually just three minutes longer than the concerto).

As has been the case for most of this fall, Dudamel had all the violins seated to his left with the violas on the far right; the contrasts throughout the piece were audible. The nine basses were clustered at the back right of the orchestra, giving added depth to their lines. The oversized orchestra included seven French horns and two harpists and, of course, the opening sections benefitted immensely from the Disney Hall organ.

Dudamel conducted the 33-minute work without a score and with a pulsating sense of energy, beginning with the iconic two-minute first movement, Sunrise, made famous as the theme music for Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 motion picture 2001: A Space Odyssey. The three-note trumpet fanfare set a majestic tone (I was struck throughout the evening by James Wilt’s sensitivity in achieving various dynamic levels while playing those same three notes), Joseph Pereira’s timpani strokes rang out gloriously, and Joanne Pearce Martin brought the movement to a thunderous close on the organ; eat your heart out, New York Philharmonic (Avery Fisher Hall gave up its pipe organ long ago).

There is, of course, 30 or so minutes of music beyond the opening movement and it proved to be a fascinating half hour. Dudamel — who said afterward that he had read the Nietzsche poem preparing for the performance — kept the pedal to the metal for most of the evening and the orchestra responded splendidly, with solo kudos going to Principal Concertmaster Martin Chalifour; Ariana Ghez, oboe; Carrie Dennis, viola; and Susan Babini, who served as principal cellist for the evening (presumably she’s another of those auditioning for the orchestra’s vacant associate principal position). At the pianissimo conclusion, Dudamel looked exhausted — no surprise given the high-octane energy level poured into the performance.
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Hemidemisemiquavers:
• Unlike most “Casual Friday” programs, an orchestra member didn’t introduce the evening, which began, instead, with the concerto. While the stage was being reset for the Strauss, violinist Mitchell Newman tried to fill the void but Disney Hall’s mediocre acoustics for spoken voice, the noise of chairs moving around, and players coming onstage rendered much of what he said unintelligible.
• In response to a question after the performance, Dudamel said of Nietzsche, “I’m not a philosopher and sometimes for me to think too much is dangerous.” While acknowledging that he thought it was important for a conductor to read the poem before conducting the piece, “sometimes when you read too many words it harms the music,” he noted.
• Hearing Also Sprach Zarathustra undergirded by the Disney Hall organ reminded me of what we’re going to miss by having Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 performed in the Shrine Auditorium. That hall has a large theater organ but a Shrine spokesperson didn’t think it was playable, so presumably the Phil will be using some sort of electronic instrument, instead.
• The first Los Angeles Philharmonic performance of this Mozart concerto was on January 24, 1926, with Walter Henry Rothwell conducting. The soloist was Elinor Remick Warren,who wrote the chimes tune that was used at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to call people to their seats before concerts and at intermission.
• While Dudamel heads to Europe after Sunday’s concert, in part to go on tour with his Simón Bolivár Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, guest conductors come to town. Los Angeles Opera Music Director James Conlon opens the parade, leading three concerts beginning next Friday morning. Pianist Yuja Wang will be the soloist in Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 (LINK). At the end of the month, LAPO Conductor Laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen returns for two weeks.
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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.