MUSIC REVIEWS : Institute Orchestra Gives Premiere of Knight’s ‘Island’

It was a busy agenda Sunday night at Hollywood Bowl: the first performance of a prize-winning work by a young composer was scheduled, three Los Angeles Philhamonic Institute conducting fellows were slated to lead the Institute Orchestra in music technically challenging to instrumentalists and baton-wielders alike, and, to wrap it up, Schubert’s Ninth Symphony. What more could one ask for?

That the results turned out mixed only proved that it was quite a lot to ask for. The program would have taxed more seasoned musicians than the enthusiastic, capable members of the Institute. But if those involved bit off more than they could chew, it was only a little more.

The chief item on the first half of the program was the premiere of Edward Knight’s “Granite Island,” winner of the 1990 L.A. Composers Project and commissioned to celebrate the Institute’s tenth season. It is typical of much American orchestral music today in that it uses the orchestra to make big, splashy sounds, with shimmering stringwork, brassy outbursts, thumping percussion and woodwind shrieks and moans.

Its originality stems from the composer’s canny combination of steady meter with atonal lyricism, a waltz-like lilt with expressionist angst; as such, it sounds like Schoenberg’s “La Valse.” Its 12 minutes pass quickly and, on first hearing, seem tightly unified, suave and sinister, confidently orchestrated and worth another hearing.

Conducting fellow William Eddins led a solid performance, separating the work’s bustling textures effectively and relishing its percussiveness.

After intermission, Marek Janowski, in his third Bowl appearance this week, took the podium for Schubert’s Ninth Symphony. Most of the time the Polish conductor seemed satisfied with mere efficiency. He delineated the work’s arguments clearly, attended to balances and dynamic details and never allowed a melodic line to sag. He uncovered the charms of the andante con moto with elegant articulations and gently curved phrases.

The three allegros, however, he dashed off in steady tempos and low-key expression, his left hand usually just mirroring the beat of his right. The orchestra played solidly, with time out here and there for scrappy ensemble and spotty intonation, and definitely gave more when Janowski gave more. Trouble is, he only did sometimes.

Conducting fellow Susan Davenny Wyner offered an evocative and at times cluttered reading of the Second Suite from Ravel’s “Daphnis et Chloe” But while many details of this most intricate of scores went unexplored, its big moments were undeniably grand and assured.

A third conducting fellow, Arthur Post, opened the concert with a properly raucous reading of Bernstein’s “Candide” Overture--heavy-handed perhaps, but infused with enthusiasm.