The LA Phil is winding down its season on a comfortable note. But when the hits are this good who can complain!
There is a lot of change in the air at the LA Phil. The much publicized departure of Gustavo Dudamel, the less publicized departure of two principal players, and the recent hiring of a new president are all things causing uncertainty around the orchestra. It’s perhaps nice then, amidst all the change and uncertainty, that the end of the season LA Phil concerts air on the side of comfort a little more than usual. Friday morning’s concert featuring Dvorak 9th symphony, Gabriella Ortiz’s big violin concerto Altar De Cuerda, and the John Williams Olympic fanfare felt like an orchestra and conductor playing the hits. Adventurous? Maybe not. But when the hits are played as well as they were Friday morning it’s almost impossible to complain.
Now this is still the LA Phil so of course one of the hits is a violin concerto that was written just three years ago. Gabriella Ortiz’s violin concerto Altar De Cuerda appears to be the centerpiece of their upcoming European tour, and based on Friday morning’s performance it’s a fantastic choice. This is not the first time I have heard this piece, I saw it near the end of 2022 during its second run of performances, so I have some familiarity with the work. In 2022 I wasn’t as high on it as others were, and while I thought the work’s second movement was extraordinary, I had a little bit more reservation on the movements surrounding it. When I heard it again on Friday my opinion of the work changed significantly. Friday’s performance unlocked the concerto everyone had been raving about for me.
It helps perhaps that I am more familiar now with Ortiz’s work than I was in 2022. I had the pleasure of hearing more of her work during the LA Phil’s California festival programs, including her incredible ballet Revolution Diamantina whose world premiere remains one of the best things I have seen live. Hearing more of her work has allowed me to connect some of the pieces of Altar De Cuerda a little bit easier. The first movement’s rhythmic looping melodies, weaving and changing subtly as they developed, felt more structurally obvious than they did to me two years ago, and very much in line with Ortiz’s creative rhythmic ideas. The second movement, which I always thought was extraordinary, played out even better this time especially getting to listen to the sheer intricacy of Ortiz’s spectacular percussion writing (no modern composer writes better for percussion than Ortiz). No other violin concerto I have heard new or old has been able to match the kind of haunting atmosphere that makes the second movement special. The finale, a ripping fast romp, didn’t feel aimless like it did to me a year and half ago and I even left humming some of the orchestral themes this time.
It could also be that this was just a better performance than last time. The orchestra now has quite a few performances of Altar De Cuerda under their belt, even in comparison to October 2022, and has likely benefited from it. As has Maria Duenas who, unlike the last time I saw the concerto, felt like she had more of a grasp on how to add herself into the concerto. Sometimes with a modern concerto it feels like the soloist has time to get the work through their fingers and little more. Duenas has had a lot of time and performances to dive into the work now and it shows. She seemed to have much more of a connection to the work Friday than I remember in 2022. I felt more energy in the outer movements, especially her intensity in the finale, and more melancholic loneliness in the central movement. All these observations could just amount to me being more attuned to the concerto and Ortiz’s work in general than I was a year and a half ago, but either way Friday afternoon I finally felt like I got the full scale of Altar De Cuerdo that was missing the first time.
The warhorse that accompanied the concerto Friday afternoon was Dvorak’s 9th symphony, my childhood favorite. The New World symphony has been programmed to death in Vancouver (Otto Tausk will have conducted the work 3 times on main subscription programs in his 7 seasons in Vancouver when it arrives again next season) so despite my long standing love and nostalgia for the work it really takes a great performance to get me going nowadays. Luckily this was a spectacular performance. Dudamel and the LA Phil felt fully locked in from the jump. This wasn’t a run of the mill performance of a work that this orchestra can surely play in their sleep. Everyone involved felt motivated and boy did it ever show.
Dudamel for his part took more risks here than in his pre-pandemic live recording with the orchestra. There was almost a mahlerian quality to the first movement, the main Allegro molto section moved a little less briskly than usual, and the orchestra hit the breaks often to put a lot of contrast between the quicker driven sections and the quieter melodic ones. The movement lost none of its intensity though and built perfectly to its dramatic close. The second movement hit all the right notes taking its time to let the music sing without ever losing its flow. The perfectly balanced brass chorales and the beautiful section where the front row string players take over the melody were highlights here. The scherzo had that same push and pull quality of the first movement especially when the orchestra slammed on the brakes not only for the trio section, but for the whole second theme as well giving both a beautiful song like quality. The finale by contrast was played at a breakneck speed almost the whole way through and was delivered with an intensity that is rare even in the best performances. This was easily the best version of the finale I have seen live, and it blew their recorded version out of the water in both virtuosity and intensity. Of course the orchestral playing was all top notch, this is music the LA Phil knows like the back of their hand, and when motivated like on Friday afternoon they sound as good or better than any orchestra anywhere. Fantastic stuff all around.
It’s rare on a “serious subscription program” to feature John Williams in any capacity so it was a treat to get to hear serious performances of both his Olympic fanfare in the overture slot and a surprise Raiders March as an encore. The Olympic Fanfare was perfectly judged and very well played but it was strangely the Raiders March encore that got me. It seems almost corny to say it but this was a really thrilling performance of the Raiders March. In a time when John Williams’ tempos really start to sag (he’s in his 90s hard to blame him) and every regional orchestra play a mediocre version at pops concerts it’s almost a revelation and to hear the Raiders March played as well as it was Friday. This was a performance with vigor in its steps that really captured the sense of wonder and excitement that has made Williams music so popular for so long. This wasn’t a token “let’s play Williams because he is popular” type performance but one that felt like everyone involved loved the music they were playing. Rarely do performances of John Williams’ music do anything for me, this one made me feel like a kid again.
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