Making Case for Rachmaninoff’s Symphony

Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony is a piece that many sophisticated listeners hate. A great deal of 20th century music history can be seen as a reaction against the 1907 score and pieces like it. Its goo factor is off the meter.

Thursday at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion the Los Angeles Philharmonic and guest conductor Mark Wigglesworth made about as strong a case for it as is likely to be made. The audience loved it.

And therein lies the Rachmaninoff rub. Most listeners don’t care that Rachmaninoff’s symphony gushes with enough sentiment for a dozen Hollywood tear-jerkers. They do not notice its overreliance on musical sequences, when a musical phrase, heard once, is heard several more times with different harmonies. They don’t mind that it goes on too long, that melodies like the clarinet’s in the Adagio appear to lose their way and can’t figure out how to end.

No, most listeners relish everything that Wigglesworth, music director of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, so obviously relishes. Conducting from memory, he paced the hourlong work beautifully, riding its waves of power and emotion, relaxing into its sensuous ebbs. Though the music is thickly and luxuriantly scored, he unflaggingly devoted himself to detailing. There wasn’t a violin line that he didn’t shape elegantly or pointedly. The Philharmonic responded like gangbusters, with a great show of snazzy prowess and verve. It was difficult not to like.

The first half of the evening seemed unrelated, with Lars Vogt performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto, K. 271. His was a finely honed reading, meticulous in its little nuances and in its attention to where the music was headed in the long run. It was well-projected, but not very exciting. Anyone who remembers how Rudolf Serkin used to whip up the finale could only admire Vogt’s perspicacity. Wigglesworth and the orchestra, a little unsettled at first, offered insightful support.