Fireworks Steal the Show at Tchaikovsky Spectacular

Music-making, like all art, achieves peaks and valleys; individual performances do not necessarily improve over previous ones. Technology, however, perhaps relying less on human fallibility and more on mechanical progress, does tend to exceed itself over time. Thus, one explanation why the fireworks show with the annual Tchaikovsky Spectacular has now reached, over these 29 years since the first one in 1969, such admirable heights as seen at the 30th edition, over the weekend in the Hollywood Bowl.

This latest pyrotechnical display thrilled, surprised and probably even frightened some of the nearly 17,000 observers gathered at the sold-out amphitheater Saturday night. The display was achieved with an air of mechanical perfection and specific timing that also had to take the breath away. Created under the special-effects consultancy of Gene Evans and with the precise, to-the-beat execution of the firm Pyro-Spectaculars, this was a show that added a splendid dimension to the music being heard simultaneously.

That was, of course, the “1812” Overture, played, after a sloppy beginning--the slovenliness coming from the podium occupied by Estonian conductor Eri Klas, not from the Los Angeles Philharmonic--neatly and bracingly fast. As usual, the assisting ensemble was the USC Trojan Marching Band, loudly amplified, as was the Philharmonic.

The rest of the performances, also accompanied by overamplification, emerged passable, if hardly immaculate. The “Eugene Onegin” Polonaise boom-boxed off the stage brightly but unrealistically. A suite from “Sleeping Beauty” had a few moments of unstressed quietude but too many of overplaying. Klas’ approach is nothing if not aggressive.

Russian pianist Natalia Troull made her Bowl debut in the First Piano Concerto most respectably, showing power, stamina and abundant virtuosity. Even so, she did not tie up the inner workings of the first movement through the inevitable release one expects in the climactic cadenza. And, even in producing contrasts of light and dark in the closing movements, she did not stamp much individuality on them.