Conductor Stenz Ably Shifts Gears

The Los Angeles Philharmonic is taking advantage of Markus Stenz’s affinity for new music by having him lead the group both at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion over the past weekend and tonight at the Japan America Theatre, where he leads the New Music Group in the West Coast premiere of Pierre Boulez’s “Sur Incises.” He is a good advocate too, leading the West Coast premiere of Gyorgy Kurtag’s “Stele” Friday night with authority and a clear beat, as well as talking to the audience about the piece beforehand in an engaging manner.

Stenz spoke about the Zen-like aspects of the second section of Kurtag’s absorbing 12 1/2-minute symphonic poem, and the performance confirmed his vision, as the drifting, sustained textures were haunted by a steady pulse of soft chords. Unmentioned was the uncanny link that the Kurtag piece had with another composer on the program: The opening of “Stele” is a pure Beethoven chord that quickly destabilizes and starts vibrating, after which the music wanders around in a daze.

So far, so good. But then, the meditative mood withered into torpor in the Brahms Violin Concerto. For all of her immaculate technique and polish, violinist Viktoria Mullova’s playing sounded expressionless, uninvolved, with hardly any rhythmic impetus even in the Finale. Slackly phrased if neatly executed, from the opening bars, the whole performance had very little energy, emotion or point; it felt a lot slower than the actual timing indicated.

The Beethoven Symphony No. 4 was another story, for Stenz’s attempts to conjure extremely still, hushed playing in the first and second movements came off very well without upsetting the work’s overall direction. Elsewhere, he raced through the symphony at a breakneck pace and though one would have wanted Stenz to dig into the accents with more force, it was a pleasure to hear the Philharmonic strings play with such unanimity at these tempos.