Music Review : Bowl Erupts With Philharmonic’s Tour de Force

A bright and generous evening-long display of orchestral virtuosity reached a brilliant conclusion Tuesday night at the Hollywood Bowl, when the Los Angeles Philharmonic played the exuberant, percussion-heavy and orgiastic finale to Silvestre Revueltas’ “La Noche de los Mayas.” But that conclusion was only the final blast of strength in a program full of effective blasting and songful music from the Americas.

A relentlessly barking dog--his location a mystery, thanks to the acoustical ping-pong of the outdoor setting--seemed to be the only on-site critic complaining about the orchestra’s sound and fury during the final movement, “Noche de Encantamiento.” The large audience gave vigorous approval.

Revueltas’ rhythmically complex, harmonically accessible four-movement suite, part of a Revueltas CD released by the Philharmonic earlier this year, proved an appropriate ending to this program, which had begun with another colorful orchestral display piece, the Symphonic Dances from Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story” score. That opener was also handsomely performed under the tight guidance of Philharmonic Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Off the podium, Salonen presided over a brief ceremony after intermission in which he saluted and gave medals to 10 members of the orchestra--with a combined service of nearly 400 years in the Philharmonic--who are retiring from the ensemble at the end of this summer. They are Irving Geller, George Price, Donald Muggeridge, Byron Peebles, Donald Cole, Gabriel Jellen, Arni Heiderich, principal trumpet Thomas Stevens, Murray Schwartz and principal cello Ronald Leonard.

A non-retiring associate principal of the orchestra, cellist Daniel Rothmuller, then took the spotlight as the glowing toned and deeply expressive soloist in Bernstein’s Three Meditations from “Mass,” one of that composer’s most touching works. Rothmuller was sensitively assisted by Salonen and orchestra.

Earlier, a debutant pianist from Sweden, 36-year-old Roland Pontinen, ably played the piano solos in Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” Pontinen’s performance was sincere and direct, though in moments more heavily buttoned-down than one expects in this piece. Contributing stylish orchestral solos were clarinetist Lorin Levee and trumpeter Donald Green.