MUSIC REVIEW : Kurt Sanderling Surveys Brahms With Philharmonic

The center of Kurt Sanderling’s three-week Brahms survey with the Los Angeles Philharmonic is the Second and Third symphonies. As heard Thursday evening at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, it is a center of reflective nobility, ponderable and more than a little ponderous.

Sanderling treated the pairing for its complementary aspects, rather than its contrasts. There would be no rustic dancing here, and the characteristic struggles--though undeniably fierce and pointed at times--would be played out on an abstracted spiritual level.

The opening theme of the Third, for example, carried from the beginning a sense of its bittersweet destiny, almost inert at points, with little feeling of syncopation and physicality. Then at the end of the symphony, Sanderling allowed its rustling recollection in the strings to be nearly buried under the sustained winds.

Given this apparent approach, Sanderling not surprisingly placed the emphasis in the Second Symphony on its subtle and tragic Adagio. This was a marvel of concentrated thought and haunted orchestral chiaroscuro.

In the Third Symphony, it was the soulful Allegretto that proved the emotional fulcrum. It led to a finale of great contemplative forbearance, delivered as one long, resigned exhalation.

Though eminently poetic, all this could sound underenergized at times. Sanderling’s pliable tempos were within conventional norms, but the effect was invariably expansive and even placid. Nor was he much concerned with architectural markers, large or small, creating an organic unity through the strength and uncompromising commitment of his vision.

The orchestra gave him an alert, sympathetic performance, filled with glowing individual and sectional solos. Textures were clear--no fuzzy Brahms here--and the sound generally lean and gleaming, though there was some odd buzzing in both finales.