Music Reviews : Dutoit, Montreal Symphony in Third Bowl Concert

Pellucid and powerful readings of works by Mozart, Beethoven and Shostakovich made up the third program by the visiting Montreal Symphony on Thursday night at Hollywood Bowl. Southern California is fortunate this week.

Music director Charles Dutoit elicits an unusually transparent sound from his orchestra, and that proved the case again on Thursday--the mid-point of the Montrealers’ local sojourn. In Mozart’s Overture to “La Clemenza di Tito,” individual voices emerged with razor-sharp clarity, which if anything heightened the energy level of an already electric reading.

In Shostakovich’s monumental Fifth Symphony one finds, as Carl Sagan might say, billions and billions of details. That Dutoit successfully unearthed them is noteworthy enough; more remarkable is the effectiveness with which he linked them together, so as to deliver a truly dramatic and altogether spellbinding performance.

In between, pianist Stephen Hough delivered an intelligent, communicative and extremely refined account of Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto. Rhythmically secure, technically accurate (not flawless, but nearly so) and very articulate, the young English-born musician favored eloquence over elan in this controlled but nonetheless exciting reading.

Attendance: 8,613.