PASADENA,
CALIF – In the final concert of its 2001-2002 season, the Pasadena
Symphony pulled out all the stops and thrilled the near-capacity
audience with the youthful works of Britten, Bartok, and Beethoven.
The tremendous drive and polish of the playing hit a few rough
patches in the Bartok, but that was mainly the fault of the pianist,
not the orchestra.
Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem is,
despite its liturgical Latin titles, a highly dramatic work meant to
be heard in a concert hall, not a church. The dramatic nature
of the work is borne out by its rich scoring -- triple woodwind,
saxophone, six horns, piano, and a vast battery of percussion.
The focus and sheen of the orchestral playing were deeply moving, as
was the plaintive cry of the saxophone (played by James Rotter) in
the Dies Irae. The great searing climax at the end of Dies
Irae was served up with staggering power that would wake up the dead
(or the sonnambulant in the audience).
The percussive brilliance and intensity
continued with Bartok's First Piano Concerto. Here, pianist
Christopher O'Riley doggedly avoided any hint of percussiveness and
played the concerto in an unruffled, capricious manner. So, during
the headlong rush toward the climax, the orchestra easily
outstripped the hapless pianist and all sense of adrenaline
excitement was lost. Mr. O'Riley was more at home in the deep calm
of the Andante than in the nimble athleticism of the concerto's
outer movements.
Maestro Jorge Mester directed a straightforward,
unfussy account of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony that was
wholly enjoyable. One could have wished for more rubato in the
dotted rhythm of the Scherzo, or a more galloping flute in the
opening Vivace. But on the whole, the playing evinced great panache
with no wild idiocyncrasies of tempi or dynamics (unlike Esa-Pekka
Salonen's Beethoven with the L.A. Philharmonic, which is admittedly an
acquired taste.) The celebrated second-movement Allegretto was a
sprightly march that flowed eloquently and determinedly. The Presto
finale, dubbed "the apotheosis of the dance" by Wagner, had both
muscular agility and irrepressible joy in equal measure -- the
results were thrilling.
Three cheers for the Pasadena Symphony.
This concert can be heard on K-Mozart (105.1FM) on Sunday, June
30, 8:00pm.
Truman
C. Wang is editor of Classical Voice.
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