MUSIC REVIEW : Zukerman Plays Beethoven at Bowl

Somehow, chamber music and rain just don’t seem to go together, but that is just one of the oxymoronic possibilities when your chamber is a 17,000-seat amphitheater like Hollywood Bowl. Drizzle and Beethoven were the environmental and repertory features again Wednesday, as violinist Pinchas Zukerman and pianist Marc Neikrug opened the Virtuoso Series with a sonata program for 7,041 hardy listeners.

The musicians played under the rehearsal awning, well back from the stage-edge puddles, and with a fan to alleviate some of the muggy atmospheric oppression. No such amenities were available to the audience, which at one point created what must have been the Bowl’s first wave, when a few spatters caused umbrellas to blossom left to right across the boxes.

Cheering dampened spirits was a potentially inspiring agenda of the Violin Sonatas Nos. 1, 6 and 9. The program not only continued the opening week emphasis on Beethoven, but had its own strong internal connections.

Alas, Zukerman sounded remote in both sound and spirit for much of the first half. Working from the scores, he plugged all the notes into mainstream readings that only hinted at unfulfilled characterizations. His tone frequently turned gruff, and his swaying--by no means extreme--before the microphones seemed the cause of scratchy, exaggeratedly explosive accents, some in unlikely places.

The violinist had the benefit, however, of the heartily interactive collaboration of his longtime pianist. In this age of often uninflected, mechanical accompaniment, Neikrug proved a very humanistic partner, responsive to textural demands and generally pertinent stylistically.

After intermission, Zukerman caught much of the “Kreutzer” Sonata’s fire, though seeming to flag at the end, and Neikrug made a Chopinesque tour de force of the variations. The ensemble playing remained at a lofty level.

Zukerman and Neikrug rewarded the faithful with a limber but rather dutiful account of the Scherzo from Sonata No. 7 in encore.