Bashmet and Moscow Soloists Import Russian Riches

There are Russian programs--we hear them regularly, winter and summer--and then there are really Russian programs. Yuri Bashmet and the Moscow Soloists arrived with the latter Monday for a Los Angeles Philharmonic-sponsored Celebrity Recital at the Music Center, bearing somber and lovely blessings from Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky.

Though echt-Russian to its core, this was a concert shaped by individual vision as much as national identity. As violist and ensemble leader--conductor may be a word both too small and too large for his podium ministrations--Bashmet is one of the most intensely reflective and personal of musicians, as he demonstrated again here.

This was particularly apparent in his Tchaikovsky. The Serenade in C has by now its own generic, cosmopolitan tradition, which Bashmet blew completely loose. He began quickly and then immediately revealed a penchant for expressive tapering in tempo and dynamics, as well as highly idiosyncratic ideas about texture and balance. His small chamber orchestra made it all seem thoroughly natural, playing with exquisite sensitivity to his shaping nuances.

The traditions for the Chamber Symphony arranged from Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8 are closer to the source, and Bashmet’s interpretation there was more clearly rooted. He pushed the dynamic envelope into barely audible mists, however, and encouraged utter fearlessness of tone and attack.

Not surprising in this context, Bashmet proved almost an anti-virtuoso with viola in hand. Of course, his solo vehicles called for expressivity over pyrotechnics. There was an arrangement of the Andante Cantabile from Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No. 1, played for maximum poignancy, and the adaptation of Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 13 featured on his first Sony recording.

This is an altogether more vulnerable work than the Chamber Symphony, its sorrows distilled virtually into ether. Bashmet integrated his clear-voiced ruminations into the expanded ensemble fabric with purpose and grace.

In encore Bashmet offered another display of soulful viola brooding in a concerto movement attributed to Johann Benda. Then he led an electrifying account of the Shostakovich Scherzo, his hand-picked band crackling with fiercely articulated energy.