Music Reviews : Husa Cello Concerto Complete at USC

Two years ago, Lynn Harrell and the USC Symphony under Daniel Lewis premiered the Cello Concerto written for them by Czech-born American composer Karel Husa. But it was in fact only four movements of a five-part work, the unplayed segment--a pizzicato workout for the soloist--requiring revision, information not generally divulged at the time. The missing movement was rumored to be “unplayable.”

The section under discussion, presumably tamed, still sounded unplayable at its unveiling on Thursday at Bovard Auditorium on the USC campus. So, for that matter, did the remainder of the now 28-minute-long work. Unplayable, that is, for a cellist other than Lynn Harrell, one of those treasurable artists who expands the boundaries of the possible.

The Husa Concerto was raucously impressive in ‘89: a batteringly atonal thriller, offering nary a nod to the sensibilities of the casual listener. But not without its fleeting subtleties, notably those in which the composer interweaves the solo with small, unusual groupings, such as one enlisting mallet percussion, harps and muted brass.

As a totality, Husa’s Concerto grips you as tenaciously as a good suspense story, but one whose construction is flawed. The ending, for one thing, is too precipitate, and there are times when the great, grinding orchestra, even with leadership as sensitive as Lewis’, swamps the solo.

Lewis and his charges supported Harrell’s prodigies of tone and technique masterfully, and while one could also enjoy their sonorous, energetic presentation of Copland’s Third Symphony, the same forces (in name, at any rate) presented it more tellingly only last year, when the second movement’s tricky rhythmic interplay disclosed none of the scrappiness apparent on Thursday.

The program opened with a lovely rarity, Josef Suk’s “Meditation on a Bohemian Chorale,” glowingly played by the massed orchestral strings.