In OC, London Philharmonic Orchestra Plays All Russian in Sold-Out Concert
/By Truman C. Wang
10/15/2024
Photo credit: philharmonic society
The Philharmonic Society of Orange County, presenter of classical music ensembles from around the world, opened its 71st season last Friday, October 11. The London Philharmonic Orchestra – one of four major symphony orchestras in London – played a splendid all-Russian concert that set a very high bar for the entire season.
The Segerstrom Concert Hall was sold out for the opening night, compared to only 70% attendance at the OC’s own Pacific Symphony opening two weeks prior. Tania León’s Raices (Origins), a LPO commission, was the first work on the program. It’s a somber, ruminative mood piece dominated by strings with echoes of percussion and winds – a cross between Cuban urban cacophony and London fog. Conductor Edward Gardner’s style was precise, unfussy, and dynamic.
Patricia Kopatchinskaja was the soloist for the Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1. Her idiosyncratic, barefooted, neurotic manner of playing is by now familiar to her followers (and detractors). I cannot honestly think of a better piece that fits her style than the Shostakovich. It has hair-raising excitement, sardonic dialogs between the orchestra and soloist, and a long, naked cadenza fit for an exhibitionist like Patricia. Her wayward style does not work for classics like the Tchaikovsky Concerto (a spectacular fiasco at the LA Phil several seasons back), but suits the unorthodox music of Shostakovich like a tee. The Scherzo and Burlesque were fraught with desperation in the interplay of the soloist and the orchestral strings and winds. The Nocturne and Passacaglia heard some gorgeous string playing, invoking J.S. Bach in its contrapuntal rigor.
Photo credit: philharmonic society
photo by classical voice
For the Tchaikovsky Symphony No 4, I relocated from the hall’s main floor to an upper level seat. The improvement in sound quality, although not night and day, was very noticeable – all sections of the orchestra sounded fuller and rounder, and the balance across sections was ideal. Is there a hall in the world where “the higher you sit, the better the sound” does not apply? Good sound is particularly important in the Scherzo of the Tchaikovsky Fourth, where you want to hear every pp and pppp plucking of the pizzicato strings. Maestro Edward Gardner’s reading was vivid and eloquent; the orchestral playing teething with drama and passion. In the modern seating layout of the violins to the left and cellos to the right, the violins and cellos sang the waltz-like theme together in the first movement like an Italian operatic duet (The LPO also plays at the English countryside opera Glyndebourne every summer.) The Andantino flowed simply and beautifully with little fuss. The final movement packed a wallop and was absolutely thrilling, a fiery explosion of pent-up emotion from the preceding Scherzo of pizzicato strings.
Understandably, the capacity audience gave a standing ovation and clamored for more, and the orchestra happily obliged, playing the quintessentially British encore, “Nimrod”, from Elgar’s Enigma Variations, in a richly stirring rendition.
The Brits shall return in February, 2025, with the London Symphony Orchestra and pianist Yunchan Lim. Purchase tickets at the Philharmonic Society box office (949) 553-2422, or online at www.philharmonicsociety.org
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.