MUSIC REVIEW : Yakov Kreizberg Conducts Shostakovich Fifth at Bowl

As an emotionally kaleidoscopic work which demands a huge dynamic and coloristic range from a full symphonic complement, Shostakovich’s popular Fifth Symphony may be one of the ideal outdoor pieces.

With its musical breadth, deep contrasts and accumulative climaxes, it certainly proved so again when revived at Hollywood Bowl this week, courtesy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and guest conductor Yakov Kreizberg.

On a climatically benign, if far from atmospherically noiseless, Thursday evening, Kreizberg and the Philharmonic gave the 56-year-old work, still serious, potent and accessible at this point in musical history, its expressive due. They accomplished this through brilliant instrumentalism, a thorough command of the composition’s linear continuity and a canny delineation of its high points.

In both solo contributions and integrity of choirs, the Philharmonic’s comprehensive virtuosity coincidentally achieved a high plateau of display--by its own standards--at this performance. Kreizberg, closing a two-concert visit (he certainly must return to the orchestra’s indoor winter series), let it happen. And 9,904 attending listeners ought to have been pleased with the results.

The first half of the Thursday event--devoted to music of Mozart--went less smoothly. The ever-exposing “Nozze di Figaro” Overture emerged uncharacteristically raw, rough and overstated in the Philharmonic’s reading.

At mid-point, the American musician, Pamela Frank, was the apparently over-polished soloist in the A-major Violin Concerto, wherein layers of over-interpretation seemed to cover the work’s pristine and emotionally direct contours. Frank’s solid technique and good taste could not be faulted, yet genuine spontaneity and new-found joy, qualities always lurking in this paragon of concertos, were lacking throughout.