L.A. Philharmonic Fans Deserve Better Fare

Baghdad wasn’t the only city that got bombed last week. The Los Angeles Philharmonic was blasting away at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion as well.

After softening up the audience with a standard classic, they sent in their stealth team and dropped a big one. This blast, composed by Olivier Messiaen, reverberated through the Pavilion and caused many to wonder aloud what was going on with the Philharmonic.

I think that I am beginning to spot a pattern this season. The orchestra lures in a crowd with a known winner for the first half of the concert. Then the music morphs into something quite different. It’s the musical equivalent of “bait and switch.”

The first half of the program was a dazzling performance of Beethoven’s beloved “Pastoral” Symphony. The second half, unfortunately, featured Messiaen’s “Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum” series of guttural groans, squeaks, blips, bleats and other assorted clangs punctuated by an occasional ear-piercing gong.

What is it with the Philharmonic? Hardly a concert goes by without their sneaking in this sort of banal fare. To see the stage filled with some of the most gifted and accomplished musicians in Los Angeles playing such insipid nonsense is tragic. Maybe “silly” is a better word.

Orchestras are fragile entities. Even in good times, they survive on a budgetary thread, which is why they need to consider the tastes of their audiences. Repeatedly disenfranchised and scorned patrons eventually lose heart and slowly ebb away. The half-empty halls that I have witnessed may be an indication that the erosion of the Philharmonic’s base has already begun.

The Philharmonic needs to reevaluate its programming and stop attacking the intelligence of its audiences. It should do what all celebrated orchestras do best: Play great classical music.

ROBERT C. HAMILTON

Santa Monica