into the atmosphere
by Douglas Messerli
Claude Debussy Nocturnes, Magnus Lindberg Cello
Concerto No. 2, Béla Bartok Music
for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, performed by the Los Angeles
Philharmonic, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen / the performance I saw was on October
20, 2013 at the Walt Disney Concert Hall
On Sunday, October 20, my companion
Howard and I attended a concert at the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Walt
Disney Concert Hall which was part of the ongoing celebration of the Hall’s 10th anniversary.
Conducted by the Finnish composer and conductor, Esa-Pekka Salonen,
former music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for 17 years from
1992-2009, the works performed were by composers Salonen championed throughout
his tenure.
Beginning with Claude Debussy’s atmospheric tone-poem, composed in
response to paintings by the American artist James McNeill Whistler—which
together were titled, “Nocturnes.” Debussy’s Nocturnes, in general are characterized by the titles of the work’s
three sections, “Nuages” (Clouds), “Fétes” (Festivals), and “Sirénes” (Sirens).
Like the slow motion of passing clouds, the first section begins with a solemn
and shifting movement of chords, which in the “Festivals” section is
transformed into a celebratory, dazzlingly series of rhythms. “Sirens,” which
features the sighing-like cries of a woman chorus (in this case the women of
Los Angeles Master Chorale, which regularly performs with the LA Philharmonic)
reminds one, inevitably, of the rhythmic sea waves combined with the entrancing
sounds of mythical temptresses. Indeed, the entire work has a feeling of a
fluid temptation of the listener, luring him or her into the work. The Debussy
piece, in nearly any well-performed version, is a beautiful composition, but in
the hands of Salonen it seemed crisper and a bit more muted than more
romantically conceived renditions, permitting us to more clearly hear the tonal
interchanges between oboes, English horn, clarinets, bassoons, trumpets,
trombones, percussion instruments and, most importantly in this piece, strings.
Orchestral interchange might also be a key word in describing the world
premiere of Salonen’s friend and colleague, Magnus Lindberg’s Cello Concerto No. 2. Although some
might describe the work by the contemporary composer as being a bit retrograde
in its highly melodic score, it worked quite brilliantly, with its antiphonal
relationship between the cello and orchestra, with the other works on the
program. Bringing out the august tones of the work, cellist, Anssi Karttunen,
who has regularly worked the composer as well as with the conductor, performed
with the abbreviated orchestra (with only 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2
bassoons, 2 horns, trumpet, trombone and strings) impeccably unflappable.
So too might the third and final piece, Béla Bartok’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta
be described as both atmospheric and, and several points, antiphonal. But here,
even more than in the “Festivals” section of Debussy’s work and in certain
passages of Lindberg’s composition, the startling rhythms of Bartok’s Hungarian
and Bulgarian influenced dances dominate, at moments deliriously rising only to
collapse into the calm interchanges of the piano and celesta before all war
breaks out again between oppositional strings.
All of these works seem at moments, quite episodic, even though clearly
the Bartok work is encased in near mathematically-created structures. But
Salonen’s calm and firm conducting elicits from the various “parts” of these
works a stunning sense of a rich unity.
The substantially-filled hall applauded enthusiastically for several
returns of the director and bows of the orchestral players.
Los Angeles, October 23, 2013
Reprinted from Green Integer Blog (October 2013).
