Weekend in Review - Hollywood, Mexican Film Music and Angela Gheorghiu
/By Truman C. Wang
10/28/2024
Violinist Akiko Suwanai, conductor brett mitchell
At 2pm Saturday, October 26, the Pasadena Symphony opened its 97th season at the Ambassador Auditorium. I have not attended their concerts since the merger with Pasadena Pops in 2007 into the Pasadena Symphony and POPS (a somewhat unwieldy name). For this classical concert, I shall refer to it simply as the good old ‘Pasadena Symphony’ that I recall with great fondness and nostalgia from their old venue, the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.
The Ambassador in Old Town is a fine hall with rich, detailed, vibrant sound, missing only a sense of intimacy and warmth that I held dear at the old hall. The opening concert, conducted by Brett Mitchell, the orchestra’s new music director, was a strong one: Mahler’s ‘titanic’ Symphony No. 1 and two works paying tribute to Hollywood’s Golden Age.
The first work, New Beginnings, by Pasadena-area composer/Hollywood orchestrator Peter Boyer, features a brass fanfare and folksy tunefulness (but no direct quoting of folksong) not unlike many works of Aaron Copland (his second symphony, for example). The musicians, many of whom also work in Hollywood recording studios, played with brilliance and great enthusiasm. Wolfgang Korngold’s Violin Concerto followed. The music contains echoes of many of Korngold’s Golden Age Hollywood film scores (Sea Hawk, Captain Blood, Robin Hood) but without directly quoting them. Under maestro Mitchell’s baton, the seafaring first-movement, the chivalric romance in the second, and the swashbuckling finale all came across brilliantly in lush, orchestral Technicolor. Akiko Suwanai, the violinist, commanded a rich singing tone and poised phrasing, but could also be fiery and mercurial when called for (in the cadenza and finale). Korngold said that he wrote the Concerto for a Caruso of the violin rather than a Paganini; he would have been pleased with having both rolled into one in the artist of Akiko Suwanai. With unfailing mastery, Mitchell conducted Mahler Symphony No. 1 (“Titan”) and took us into a bright, lyrical Wunderhorn world. The music flowed through him with all its emotion, excitement, precision and attention to passing details and the larger form. The orchestral playing was superb, notably in the expressive string portamento that is an essential part of Mahler’s music.
The Pasadena Symphony’s classical concert series continues on November 16 with Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Tickets may be ordered online or by phone (626) 793-7172.
Saturday evening, in Santa Monica, Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu gave a sold-out concert of arias, songs and duets. Joining her were Italian-British tenor Freddie De Tommaso and Italian-American pianist Vincenzo Scalera. At 59 years of age, Ms. Gheorghiu still commands vocal and physical glamour even with her diminished resources. In many respects, the first number by Gluck, “Che faro senza Euridice”, sums up her performance in the entire concert with the pros and cons: hollow chest tones, jarring high notes, instinctive phrasing, creamy cantabile line delivered with dramatic intensity. She sounded best when not pushing the vocal and dynamic boundaries in numbers like “Parigi o cara”, “Melanconia” (a newly-discovered song by Puccini), and “”L’altra note”. Her tenor partner, Freddie De Tommaso, got off to a bad start with a crude, bellowing “Recondita armonia”. He, too, sounded best when not pushing, in such numbers as “Ah, si ben mio”, “Sole e amore” (echoes of Mimi’s “Donde lieta” from Bohème) and Tosti’s “Ideale” (sung in half-voice with a beautifully floated soft high note). Befitting Gheorghiu’s prima donna status, each half of the concert ended with a major duet from Tosca (“Mario, Mario!”) and Adriana Lecouvreur (“Ma dunque, è vero?”) Gheorghiu and De Tommaso showed excellent vocal and stage chemistry in their many duets together. Vincenzo Scalera, a noted accompanist and teacher at Milan’s La Scala Opera House, was their perfect partner at the piano, thundering out orchestral tuttis and delicate instrumental parts, as well as playing several fine solos of his own. Bravissimi a tutti.
On Sunday, October 27, Gustavo Dudamel conducted the LA Phil in a musical tribute to the Golden Age of Hollywood and Mexican films. The decorations from previous weeks’ Día de Los Muerto still remained in the hall and in the terrace garden, in keeping with the Halloween spirit, although some people I talked to found them tacky and morbid. The first part of the program was dedicated to Mexican film music, featuring clips and montages from such classics as Redes (a great fishing scene), La noche de los Mayas (joined by a three-lady mariachi guitar band Las Colibri), and the Ranchera comedy genre (Mexican counterpart of the Hollywood romantic screwball comedy). Among the film composers represented were Silvestre Revueltas, Manuel Esperón and Luis Hernández Bretón. It concluded with a hilarious film montage of comedian Cantinflas (aka Mario Moreno, “the Charlie Chaplin of Mexico”), set to Ravel’s Boléro.
After intermission, Hollywood’s Golden Age was prominently showcased by an impressive montage of the classics, set to an equally impressive score of “Horray for Hollywood” by Richard A. Whiting (arranged brilliantly for L.A. Phil by John Williams). It was followed by a string of hit parades by Miklós Rózsa (Double Indemnity), Gershwin (ballet from An American in Paris), Maurice Jarre (Dr Zhivago), Leonard Rosenman (East of Eden and a James Dean montage), and Max Steiner (Casablanca finale, Now Voyager and a Bette Davis montage with a violin solo played with haunting beauty by Bing Wang, in a new arrangement by John Williams.) The synching of orchestral music to the film clips was perfectly judged and very entertaining. Dudamel obliged the enthusiastic audience with two surprise encores – a Mexican Halloween horror compilation, and the mambo from West Side Story. Filmmaker Robert Rodriguez was the uncredited narrator who gave a clear, concise introduction to each piece played. On the way out, the Dia de los Muerto deocrations suddenly didn’t seem too out of place.
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.