After an ambitious month with conductor Gustavo Dudamel on the podium, the time for guest conductors at Disney Hall has arrived. Interestingly, the Los Angeles Philharmonic looked no further than across the street for the first visiting maestro, Los Angeles Opera Music Director James Conlon. He led the group in a strong performance Saturday night that began in grief but ended in optimism and hope.
Benjamin Britten’s “Sinfonia da Requiem” was a commission from the Japanese government in 1940 to celebrate the 2,600th year of Emperor Hirohito’s ruling dynasty. What Britten submitted was a three-movement requiem that, due to its title and named sections, was deemed too Christian, not to mention it was anything but celebratory. It was premiered by John Barbirolli and the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall in 1941.
The three parts are the “Lacrymosa” (a slow, lamenting march), “Dies Irae” (“day of wrath”) and “Requiem Aeternam” (“eternal rest”). An incredible orchestrator, the piece has an epic sonic landscape that goes from solemnity to horror to a prayer of hope. Conlon treated the piece less like a memorial and more like an in-the-moment soundtrack of turmoil. We weren’t attending a service for abstract victims, but rather, the music followed them along as terrible events occurred and left us with the promise of something better to come. It was a tense and potent performance.
No stranger to war, Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev wrote his third piano concerto before the strife in Russia began, at a time when he was living abroad and a major participant of the European avant-garde. This piece is quirky and fascinating (Prokofiev himself was the soloist when it was first performed in Los Angeles in 1930). It requires a pianist with indestructible fingers who can understand its wry character.
Yuja Wang, a 24-year-old piano virtuoso, was in complete command of this absurdly difficult concerto. Beyond her abundance of technical ability and poise, she gave an informed interpretation, exposing all of the music’s personality. Conlon’s dynamic accompaniment egged her on and the interplay was fantastic. Her encore was pianist Georges Cziffra’s showy arrangement of Strauss’ “Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka,” which left most of us slack-jawed.
Conlon brought an immense amount of drama to Antonín Dvo?ák’s seventh symphony, one of his greatest achievements in composing. His vast experience as an operatic conductor here and in Europe brought to bear on how skillfully he built and released tension in the music, whether the moment was turbulent or tender. He provides a constant edge, a sense that listeners should be on their toes for something unexpected. The evening showed that he knows audience expectations all too well. He certainly met them.
Ebner Sobalvarro is a Los Angeles-based classical music and jazz aficionado. Having studied English at Boston College, he shares his passions for music at his blog cornerbooth.tumblr.com. Email him at ebner.sobalvarro@gmail.com.
