Music Review : Salonen and Bach Make an Intriguing Pair

The music of Johann Sebastian Bach is fascinating in its diversity, not only in its original creation but also in the way it has been approached by musicians ever since. Thursday evening at the Hollywood Bowl, Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic surveyed a century’s worth of thoughts on Bach, with mixed but never less than intriguing results.

At the center of the second half was a rarely heard eccentricity, Mahler’s 1909 conflation of the Suites in B-minor and D, BWV 1067 and 1068. This endearingly goofy project effects a kind of coloristic modulation, from the darkling, flute-dominated B-minor movements through the shimmering string heaven of the famous Air, into the jovial, trumpet-dominated movements in D. Philharmonic principal Janet Ferguson took the featured flute lead with bobbing flair.

Surrounding this were two of Stokowski’s organ transcriptions, first the Toccata and Fugue in D minor and then the “Little Fugue” in G minor. Salonen and the Philharmonic plan to take the Toccata and Fugue to Mexico City later this month, and this flamboyant display piece revealed the thoughtful and practiced application of virtuoso muscle.

Even so, Salonen’s constant change of pace and phrasing occasionally took some of his players by surprise.

Not so long ago, all right-thinking progressive musicians scorned Stokowski’s arrangements. But one of the more liberating effects of the period practice movement, ironically, has been the objectification of interpretation. Style now seems selectable and personal rather than a cultural imperative.

Salonen’s choice for the “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 1 and the D-minor Concerto for Two Violins proved disappointingly bland, however. He opted for a midsized chamber orchestra and ran it on proficiently chugging motor energy right down the middle of the stylistic road.

Characterization and nuance he left to his capable soloists. Leading the list would have to be the sparkling horn playing of Jerry Folsom and Elizabeth Cook-Shen, who even gracefully embellished the Menuetto returns.

Their fluent Brandenburg partners were oboists David Weiss, Marion Arthur Kuszyk and Carolyn Hove, and principal concertmaster Martin Chalifour. Concertmaster Alexander Treger and associate concertmaster Bing Wang were the forceful, inequitably amplified protagonists of the D-minor Concerto.