By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News
Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel, conductor; Wu Wei, soloist
Friday, October 9, 2009 • Walt Disney Concert Hall
Unsik Chin: Su; Mahler: Symphony No. 1
Remaining concerts: Tonight at 8; tomorrow at 2 p.m.
Info: www.laphil.com
By any method of accounting, it’s been quite a nine-day stretch for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Coming off a short vacation after ending their Hollywood Bowl summer duties, the orchestra has (a) welcomed its new music director, Gustavo Dudamel; (b) prepared three different programs including two lengthy premiere pieces; (c) played an outdoor concert at the Bowl; (d) played a major program at Thursday night’s season-opening gala concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall; and (e) performed the first of three concerts to open the Phil’s 2009-2010 indoor subscription season. If everyone is a mite tired, no one would blame them.
Nor would anyone be surprised if last night’s concert was a bit of a letdown from Thursday’s gala. Both performances ended with Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, but whereas Thursday’s concert began with the world premiere of John Adams City Noir, last night began with the U.S. premiere of Su, a concerto for scheng and orchestra by Korean-born composer Unsuk Chin. The contrast between the two pieces was dramatic. Adams’ 35-minute, three-movement work is immediately accessible to virtually every listener; moreover, Adams, whose ties with the Philharmonic stretch back 20 years, is part of the orchestra’s DNA. Neither case is true for Chin’s concerto.
In her erudite preconcert lecture, USC Thornton School of Music composer and professor Veronika Krausas noted that this 23-minute, single-movement piece was written by a Korean native for a Chinese soloist (Wu Wei) who, like Chin, now lives in Berlin and its being conducted by a Venezuelan native in one of the most diverse cultural cities in the world. Whew!
Unlike the seeming “familiarity” of City Noir, Chin’s concerto is not easily understood at a first hearing. The “sheng” is a kind of reed instrument (there are different versions in China, Korea and Japan, according to the composer). The pipes are perpendicular to the mouthpiece. The soloist makes sound by alternately blowing and sucking in air through the mouthpiece, and once during the performance, he blew into the top of the pipes.
The work’s almost imperceptible beginning worked wonderfully in Disney Hall’s marvelous acoustic. The soloist opens the work with a series of what amount to microtones and the orchestra gradually begins to fill the space, particularly with percussion explosions — in fact this could easily be called a concerto for sheng, percussion and orchestra. The piece unfolds in a long musical arc, dying away at the end and evaporating into thin air, with an offstage (back of the hall) string ensemble adding to the mysterious conclusion.
Wu Wei was energetic throughout most of the performance, matching Dudamel bounce for bounce in the jauntier sections. Dudamel displayed an impressive command of the piece and the orchestra seemed more comfortable with the work than the audience, which, nonetheless, accorded performers and the composer a warm ovation after the performance.
Whether from mental letdown or fatigue, Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 opened somewhat shakily but settled in quickly. In her preconcert remarks, Krausus described this youthful work, which took 15 years to reach maturity, as a long, lyrical love poem, and that’s how Dudamel approaches it, especially during the two inner movements. Tempos seemed a tad slower than Thursday night but, again, Dudamel persuasively argued the case for his concepts. Once again, I was struck by the superb quality of the orchestra’s principal players, most notably (last night) the new principal flute, Mathieu Dufour, oboist Ariana Ghez, bassoonist Shaun Mouser and principal bass Christopher Hanulik.
The audience was riveted, especially during the two inner movements, and the finale blazed to glory and yet another thunderous standing ovation. As always, Dudamel stood within the orchestra to take bows and, after singling out many individuals, both he and the ensemble turned in a complete circle to acknowledge those behind and to the sides of the orchestra. It’s just one of the many touches that make Dudamel special.
(c) Copyright 2009, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.
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