into the atmosphere
by Douglas Messserli
Claude
Debussy Nocturnes, Magnus Lindberg Cello Concerto No. 2, Béla Bartok Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta,
performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen / the
performance I saw was on October 20, 2013 at the Walt Disney Concert Hall
On
Sunday, October 20, my companion Howard and I attended a concert at the Los
Angeles Philharmonic at the Walt Disney Concert Hall which was part of the
ongoing celebration of the Hall’s 10th anniversary.
Conducted by the Finnish composer and
conductor, Esa-Pekka Salonen, former music director of the Los Angeles
Philharmonic for 17 years from 1992-2009, the works performed were by composers
Salonen championed throughout his tenure.
Beginning with Claude Debussy’s
atmospheric tone-poem, composed in response to paintings by the American artist
James McNeill Whistler—which together were titled, “Nocturnes.” Debussy’s Nocturnes, in general are characterized
by the titles of the work’s three sections, “Nuages” (Clouds), “Fétes”
(Festivals), and “Sirénes” (Sirens). Like the slow motion of passing clouds,
the first section begins with a solemn and shifting movement of chords, which
in the “Festivals” section is transformed into a celebratory, dazzlingly series
of rhythms. “Sirens,” which features the sighing-like cries of a woman chorus
(in this case the women of Los Angeles Master Chorale, which regularly performs
with the LA Philharmonic) reminds one, inevitably, of the rhythmic sea waves
combined with the entrancing sounds of mythical temptresses. Indeed, the entire
work has a feeling of a fluid temptation of the listener, luring him or her
into the work. The Debussy piece, in nearly any well-performed version, is a
beautiful composition, but in the hands of Salonen it seemed crisper and a bit
more muted than more romantically conceived renditions, permitting us to more
clearly hear the tonal interchanges between oboes, English horn, clarinets,
bassoons, trumpets, trombones, percussion instruments and, most importantly in
this piece, strings.
Orchestral interchange might also be a
key word in describing the world premiere of Salonen’s friend and colleague,
Magnus Lindberg’s Cello Concerto No. 2. Although
some might describe the work by the contemporary composer as being a bit
retrograde in its highly melodic score, it worked quite brilliantly, with its
antiphonal relationship between the cello and orchestra, with the other works
on the program. Bringing out the deep tones august tones of the work, cellist,
Anssi Karttunen, who has regularly worked the composer as well as with the
conductor, performed with the abbreviated orchestra (with only 2 flutes, 2
oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, trumpet, trombone and strings) impeccably
unflappable.
So too might the third and final piece,
Béla Bartok’s Music for Strings,
Percussion, and Celesta be described as both atmospheric and, and several
points, antiphonal. But here, even more than in the “Festivals” section of
Debussy’s work and in certain passages of Lindberg’s composition, the startling
rhythms of Bartok’s Hungarian and Bulgarian influenced dances dominate, at
moments deliriously rising only to collapse into the calm interchanges of the
piano and celesta before all war breaks out again between oppositional strings.
All of these works seem at moments, quite
episodic, even though clearly the Bartok work is encased in near mathematically-created
structures. But Salonen’s calm and firm conducting elicits from the various
“parts” of these works a stunning sense of a rich unity.
The substantially-filled hall applauded
enthusiastically for several returns of the director and bows of the orchestral
players.
Los Angeles,
October 23, 2013
