Music Reviews : Schwarz Programs Lively Philharmonic

Brilliant programming, like brilliant performances, is no accident. Otherwise, our concert halls would be more interesting places than they are.

In addition to his well-documented accomplishments as conductor, Gerard Schwarz has long since proved his astuteness at putting together programs that wake up the ears and titillate the mind.

Schwarz demonstrated that again over the weekend, in a provocative agenda for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s subscription audiences.

Three unfamiliar and demanding pieces, subtly contrasting and complementary, preceded the finale, Mendelssohn’s well-worn “Italian” Symphony. Those pieces not only gave pleasure to jaded sensibilities, they also broadened sophisticated perspectives. And they were brilliantly performed.

It is easy to see why David Diamond’s unspectacular but perfectly beauteous, exquisitely crafted Fourth Symphony has been neglected in the 46 years since its creation.

It does not make a mighty noise, its aesthetic operates without Angst , and its exterior gorgeousness disguises a musical scenario of inner contrasts and usually quiet rhetoric. Most damaging to its worldly success is its use-- command is the better word--of conservative harmonies greatly disparaged by tastemakers of the late 1940s.

Yet, it deserves the kind of loving revival Schwarz and our Philharmonic gave it Saturday night, and the broadcast of its virtues to a wider audience. To put its neglect in perspective, one need only mention that the Philharmonic last played the work, under Alfred Wallenstein, in 1949.

The bonus this week was that the composer, now 76, was in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion audience to receive an enthusiastic reception for the work.

The U.S. premiere of a three-year old piece, Lukas Foss’ Clarinet Concerto, also saw the composer present.

Played here by the ever-resourceful Richard Stoltzman, the new work lives up to Foss’ reputation as writer of serious and witty music, music of substance, humor, grace and pungency.

Dedicated to Stoltzman--but up to now not played by him--the concerto uses the instrument’s myriad faces to express a wide range of emotions, from playful to songful to pensive and back to playful again. The performance, by Stoltzman, Schwarz and the orchestra, reflected an easy confidence.

After these thrills, the second half of the performance did not sag. Schwarz’s own arrangement of Anton von Webern’s “Langsamer Satz,” written in his innocent, pre-Schoenberg days, showed off the Philharmonic strings handsomely.

The “Italian” Symphony then provided a brilliant showcase for the entire orchestra, one accomplished with transparency of texture, virtuosic ensemble values and tight balances. It doesn’t get much better than this.