Subdued ‘Eroica’ Mutes Its Triumph

What heady prospects. What challenging choices. Two renowned German orchestras are playing in the Southland at the same time.

More than that, both are playing the same work, Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony. The Berlin Philharmonic was in Costa Mesa and the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig was in Cerritos.

Unfortunately, the Leipzigers, under the direction of Herbert Blomstedt, presented Beethoven as a museum piece Tuesday in the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.

The virtues of the performance were clarity, balance and proportion. The deficits were lack of drive, electricity and conflict, elements that warrant the work’s subtitle and the notion that in this piece of music, Beethoven broke through to a new world and, incidentally, transformed the classical symphony.

The size of the hall may have played a part in muting the effect. The Cerritos Center places an orchestra so close to the audience that it may prompt restraint from a conductor.

Tempos and momentum shouldn’t be particularly affected, but this might account for the impression, from a seat about eight rows from the stage, that this was a work mostly for string orchestra.

Some conductors favor brass more than others. But there are key moments that were buried here: the final triumphant ascent of the first movement theme and the two outbursts--one in pain, the other in heroic determination--in the funeral march.

On the other hand, this may have worked to the advantage of Nielsen’s bucolic and sometimes folk-like Violin Concerto, which opened the two-part program.

Nielsen uses an orchestra in chamber music fashion, with the most delicate effects at times, and often sets the soloist in intimate dialogue with another musician or part of a section. He saves the full resources for special moments.

Nikolaj Znaider, who took the first prize at the 1997 Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels, was a fervent, committed soloist able to maintain a full, rich tone even in the many pianissimos the composer requires.

It’s a marathon workout; Znaider, Blomstedt and the musicians played it with the most refined sense of taste.