Mauceri Leads Night of Genial Classical Pops

When Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Violin Concerto first reached the West Coast in January 1953, The Times’ music critic, Albert Goldberg, called the 8-year-old work “genial” and a “grateful parade of melodies and effects,” and wrote that it was “pleasant to hear music that makes no particular strivings for profundity.”

Pleasant, indeed, as heard at the concerto’s revival Thursday night at Hollywood Bowl, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Korngold’s birth. Performed by soloist Gil Shaham, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and conductor John Mauceri, the work stands as described. Korngold’s lush, well-wrought piece proved attractive and showy, but seldom compelling.

This piece was already old-fashioned in 1945, and except for its melody in the finale, not terribly memorable, though on Thursday its protagonist brought high polish to the project, and his associates stayed close to the action. Shaham’s practiced virtuosity and warm tone--filtered neatly through the sound system--gave the piece a Romantic glow.

The rest of this Classical pops program was also pleasant, though less polished. Mauceri’s and the orchestra’s game run-through of Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony displayed ragged and inconsistent ensemble and under-rehearsed patches. Only the desolate finale of this “Pathetique” met a strong level of preparation, if not dynamic breadth; the loud/soft extremes emerged compressed and limited.

At the top of the program, the performance of Wagner’s “Flying Dutchman” Overture delivered some of the excitement but few of the subtleties in this complex and wide-ranging piece.

As before, Mauceri’s spoken program notes, before the Korngold and Tchaikovsky works, brought welcome insights to the listener.