Music Reviews : Mauceri, Graffman at Hollywood Bowl

Hollywood Bowl was the place to go for R&R; Tuesday evening. A crowd of 12,260 clicked through the turnstiles to hear a program of Ravel and Rachmaninoff, unevenly delivered by John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.

Mauceri demonstrated a penchant for a dark, thick sound that worked much more effectively for the Russian expatriate than for the Frenchman. Sound system vagaries may have played a role in the odd aural production, which seemed to boost a muddy bass end of the range at the expense of everything else. Only the brass and percussion cut through consistently.

The conductor almost made virtues of these liabilities in Rachmaninoff’s “Symphonic Dances.” He urged the drama with concentrated vigor and acknowledged the kinetic impulses with flexibility as well as direct-drive power, while stressing the smooth, lush facets of his orchestra’s heavy sound.

The Bowl Orchestra delivered fluent energy, notably supple in the macabre waltzes of the middle movement. Those solos that emerged clearly from the moody murk did so with bold grace.

Ravel’s “Alborada del gracioso” fared less well, appearing under-rehearsed even by Bowl standards. Mauceri emphasized muscularity rather than magic in his fevered reading, to which his orchestra offered blunt responses.

In remarks introducing “Bolero,” Mauceri unfortunately focused on the mechanical aspects of the score and then turned around and launched a strictly wind-up performance. Principal trombonist William Booth put a sexy spin on the tune, but as a whole the offering only came to life at the key change. Mauceri enforced odd balances in duet statements of the theme, and an extraneous buzzing marred the first saxophone solo.

Pianist Gary Graffman’s grappling with the Concerto for the Left Hand had a measure of nuance, but it grew increasingly tentative. By the end he sounded tired, and Mauceri was cuing him closely at every entrance. Mauceri’s accompaniment proved deft, and he and the orchestra found much more cause for alert and affecting music-making in ostinato mode here than they had in “Bolero.”