One Month in Review - 3 Conductors for 3 Pianists in LA
/By Truman C. Wang
2/14/2022
Emanuel Ax, Michael Tilson Thomas
Over a month-long period, the LA Phil passed the baton to a succession of conductors, each bent on outdoing the last. At the same time, three pianists took the Disney Hall stage by the storm, each bringing his own individual stamp to the work at hand.
On January 13, LA native Michael Tilson Thomas returned to conduct his favorite work: Berg’s Three Pieces for Orchestra. During MTT’s speech, he asked the orchestra to play musical ‘signposts’ from this enigmatic work which he likened to a life’s journey. It was an entertaining and enlightening talk as one would expect from a Bernstein protégé. Berg’s work received a trenchant and scintillating reading under MTT’s baton, sounding as modern today as when it was writtein over a hundred years ago. Mahler’s Blumine, a meditation on a different life’s journey, was given all its romantic radiance and made memorable by Thomas Hooten’s solo trumpet. Pianist Emanuel Ax is always a beloved and treasured presence in this hall, even on those nights when he seems to be merely sightreading through the score, as it was the case this evening with the Brahms D-minor Concerto. The whole concerto, particularly in the Adagio, was marred by excessive slurring and smudging of notes at the expense of clarity of line. The playing had great passion in the tuttis but wooden expression in the tender passages.
Igor Levit, Elim Chan
On January 29, it was conductor Elim Chan’s turn to shine. A former Assistant Conductor of LA Phil and a ‘Dudamel Fellow’, maestro Chan’s podium manner, like her former colleague Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla who had gone on to world fame and domination, was alert, energetic and athletic – all vital signs to keep afloat Elizabeth Ogonek’s dynamic new work Cloudline, but a distinct liability where softer shades of emotions are concerned, as in the long romantic spans of Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony (No. 4). Ms. Chan was joined by pianist Igor Levit (whose social media fame during the Covid lockdown had preceded his visit) in an excellent reading of the Beethoven C-minor Concerto (No. 3). Levit’s refined, elegant style, with clean lines and minimal pedaling, found an ideal partner in Chan, who supplied fluid and ever-responsive dialogs from the orchestra, with memorable playing from the winds.
Yefim Bronfman, Philippe Jordan
On February 5, saving the best for last, LA Phil went on to new heights with conductor Philippe Jordan, who gave a brilliant Russian program that would not soon be forgotten – a Prince Igor Overture full of alternating light and dark colors, a Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet Suite brimming with drama, lyricism and stunning feats of orchestral playing. The lush and rapturous tone painting in the Balcony Scene was one for the ages. Pianist Yefim Bronfman gave a death-defying performance of Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 as if his life depended on it, opting for the ossia cadenza of three minutes of sheer terror (while the mere mortals go for the regular minute-and-a-half cadenza). How did you top something like that? With a consoling encore of a Chopin Nocturne.
Truman C. Wang is Editor-in-Chief of Classical Voice, whose articles have appeared in the Pasadena Star-News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, other Southern California publications, as well as the Hawaiian Chinese Daily. He studied Integrative Biology and Music at U.C. Berkeley.