Violinist Fried, L.B. Symphony Offer an Evening of Spectacle

It is hard for some of us to believe that there are still people, many people, who have never heard Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. What’s more, those people actually go to symphony concerts, in large numbers.

And there they were Saturday night in Long Beach’s Terrace Theater, giving violinist Miriam Fried a standing ovation before she had even finished the piece. She had, in fact, two movements to go.

Fried eventually continued and received a standing ovation at the end, too. The virtuoso concerto always will be king with such audiences. They love the spectacle of an individual--a juggler, Tiddly-Winks champion or violinist--overcoming a substantial technical obstacle. Fried could have played a Paganini violin concerto, a much lesser work, and received the same response.

At any rate, under JoAnn Falletta’s baton and ably accompanied by the Long Beach Symphony, she gave the warhorse a solid and clean, if not wholly flammable rehashing. She tended to whiz through the virtuoso stuff, which was fun but which also skimmed over the surface of the musical content. Her Stradivarius sounded especially rich up high and at louder volumes.

Post-intermission, Scriabin’s “Poem of Ecstasy” had something of the spectacle about it as well. Artist Jim Stallings, whose work explores “the correlation between sound vibrations and expressive color,” set up shop onstage and painted a canvas while the piece was performed--a finished canvas in 22 minutes, for sale in the lobby afterward.

For her part, Falletta gave Scriabin’s gooey opus a beautifully paced and urgent reading. It doesn’t often sound this good. Trumpeter Andrew Ulyate was a standout. To open, the musicians offered Stravinsky’s “Le Baiser de la Fee” divertimento, played with easy fluency. Under Falletta, this orchestra remains in good state.