Music Review : Haefliger Gives Expressive Performance at Bowl

Stanislaw Skrowaczewski presided over another rising young star Thursday in his second concert leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic this week at Hollywood Bowl. This time, the soloist was Andreas Haefliger, son of the eminent Swiss tenor Ernst Haefliger.

Andreas Haefliger, who is 32 or 33 depending on which source you believe, gave a probing, lyric and occasionally problematic interpretation of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 in his Bowl debut. It was, however, a personal and distinctive interpretation that communicated with an uncommon authenticity to the 7,134 people in the vast expanse of the outdoor amphitheater.

Haefliger took risks in the manner of an earlier generation of soloists. He went his own flexible way in matters of tempo, phrasing and dynamics. He minimized virtuosity for its own sake, but showed no lack in meeting such demands either.

He operated from a center of quiet and calm, to which he constantly returned, after taming, for instance, the orchestral storm that opens the concerto, or out of which he spun the adagio at a dangerously slow and drawn-out tempo. Not surprisingly, he provided less fire than poetry in the final movement.

Skrowaczewski was no slack accompanist in all of this, but rather a sensitive collaborator.

Earlier, he had opened the program with an electric account of the Overture to Wagner’s “Der Fliegende Hollander,” capturing the emotional turbulence more effectively than the contrasting calm--until the ending, where he comforted with an expansive, “Tristan”-like balm.

He closed the program with a coolly attentive reading of Debussy’s “La Mer.” Although some of the composer’s nuances went down to defeat against a chorus of crickets, the amplification system generally worked well here and throughout the program to provide clear balances and apprehension of inner, secondary voices and their importance to the whole.