Los Angeles Philharmonic
David Zinman (conductor)
Joshua Bell (violin)
Thursday 6 December 2001
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles
Vaughan Williams:
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
Bernstein: Serenade (After Plato's Symposium)
Elgar: Symphony No. 1
The program presented by David Zinman and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at
Dorothy Chandler Hall on 6 December generally had a turn-of-the-century English
flavor. Both Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams were central to the
20th-century trend in English concert music of turning to historical sources to
find material and forms. The highlight of the concert, however, was Leonard
Bernstein's Serenade, which featured Joshua Bell as soloist. Bernstein,
of course, found apt expression through the more contemporary styles of popular
music, especially jazz. The result for Thursday night was a program as eclectic
as Bernstein's own music, and perhaps all the more revealing for that.
First on the program was Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, one of the most exemplary 20th-century pieces to be built upon the austere contrapuntal and cadential formulas of Renaissance music. The work is scored for a string quartet (often playing as soloists) and double string orchestra, and weaves a rich fabric of modal counterpoint from a theme written by the 16th-century English composer Thomas Tallis. From a performance standpoint, the work offers infinite potential for color shadings and for contrasts between the various ensembles within the orchestra. Zinman's choices were effective; in particular, he was able to craft a sensuous build to the climactic moments in the middle and later parts of the work. The immediate dynamic contrasts, too, were never flawed. The release from the final climax was gorgeous, giving way to the muted pale color of the smaller ensemble. Like Barber's Adagio for Strings, Vaughan Williams' work requires dramatic and full-bodied tone color to contrast with the hushed releases. Nevertheless, the players missed some opportunities to achieve still more effective contrasts of tone; in the opening sections of the work, for example, the musicians might have searched for an even paler quality with less vibrato. The overly rich string tone developed at the beginning detracted from the long build, although payback did come following the climax.
Any piece that flirts with popular styles while presuming to maintain a poetic seriousness runs the risk of compromising both. Bernstein's Serenade, which is divided into movements based on dialogues from Plato's Symposium, achieves a relative seamlessness of form: sometimes humorous, but never gratuitously so; sometimes beautifully touching, but never saccharine. In the loftier sections, such as the introductions to the first movement and the final movement, Joshua Bell played with expressive ease and accuracy. His aria-like dramatic projection was breathtaking and perfectly captured Bernstein's lyrical sensibilities. These weightier sections have an almost Russian fatalism that brings to mind Shostakovich, and seems wholly unexpected from Bernstein. Conveying this heaviness with sincerity, especially within the frame of lighter movements, is the test of a convincing performance of this work, and Bell succeeded. Particularly sensitive was his treatment of the cadenza in the fourth movement ("Agathon"): he dazzled with his tone-color palette, which extends beautifully into a hushed pianissimo without vibrato. The entire orchestra matched his paleness exquisitely in the rarefied textures of this movement.
The added challenge of contributing to the historical lineage of the "violin
concerto" — regardless of its title, Serenade is a violin
concerto in the classic sense — is in addressing the idiom of the
instrument in its virtuosic/technical capacity. Bell's navigation of the demonic
double-stopped passages in the presto and vivace movements was
excellent. The biting percussive dissonances that recall West Side Story
spice the violin part at times to a jazzy ecstasy. These sections of
Serenade fall within the lighter and more popular vein of Bernstein's
eclecticism, but that does not mean they are easy to play. To the contrary, the
rhythmic and articulative demands are heavy — and Bell maintained an
exciting and vivacious snap with apparent ease. And while Serenade
suggests a kind of Stravinskian Soldier's Tale at times, with Bernstein
it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing. This is precisely the
difficulty with successfully realizing Serenade's duality: can the
soloist who convincingly conveys the serious side of the work also capture the
jazzy flair demanded by the alternate side? Joshua Bell most definitely can.
Credit for the clear and lively performance of Serenade also goes to Zinman and the Philharmonic, whose rhythmic clarity, color and dynamic range — and just plain zing — made the work sound easy. Zinman, who earlier recorded the Serenade with Bell and the Philharmonia Orchestra for the Sony label, appears to have mastered Bernstein's style.
Filling the evening's obligatory retro-Romantic slot was Edward Elgar's
infrequently performed Symphony No. 1 in E-flat major. Elgar was aware of the
risks of composing in a form that his contemporaries generally dismissed as
outdated, but the symphony found great success following its premiere in 1908.
Its popular appeal at the time is no surprise: imbued with all of the Sturm
und Drang of late-Romantic idealism, with occasional ventures into pastoral
fields, it provides all of the ingredients conceived and developed in the
symphonic recipes of quintessential late Romantics Brahms, Bruckner, and Mahler.
Certain passages are a bit too reminiscent of Brahms, making one wonder
if Elgar dismissed originality as a criterion for the work. If unable to rise
fully to the challenge of matching the thematic timelessness of his great
predecessors, however, Elgar displays his command of both the orchestra and the
symphonic form through powerful and sentimental writing. No suggestion of
distaste for the work could be detected here: the musicians performed with gusto
and generous expression, and one had the sense they were playing a masterpiece
they loved.
