Playing musical chairs
Conductor Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos is no stranger to the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He made his Phil debut in 1969. Nor is he a stranger to Walt Disney Concert Hall. He conducted there in March 2005. So it’s a little hard to figure why the orchestra sounded so clotted when he led a three-part program at the hall on Thursday.
Maybe it had something to do with Fruhbeck’s rearranging of the orchestra back in the older, more traditional configuration with first and second violins on the conductor’s left and cellos and basses on his right. Music director Esa-Pekka Salonen had re-seated the orchestra at the start of the 2005 season, putting first violins and lower strings on his left and second violins on his right. Salonen was experimenting with getting a better sound, and his instincts were right.
Fruhbeck, according to an orchestra spokesman, however, wanted all the violins together because Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade,” the final work on the program, contains a lot of unison writing for the violins and seating them together would produce a more homogenous, fuller sound.
Maybe. But at the expense of the orchestra’s and the hall’s fabled transparency of texture.
The sense that something was amiss surfaced early, with Ravel’s “Pavane pour une infante defunte,” which opened the concert.
Although the strings sounded suave, the winds and brass seemed uncharacteristically rough and the ensemble more ragged. Perhaps the musicians were having a harder time hearing each other. Fruhbeck’s very slow tempo could have been a factor too.
Soloist Andre Watts’ magisterial playing in Saint-Saens’ Second Piano Concerto emerged intact, with his usual power, range of colors and formality fully on display.
But the orchestra behind him sounded heavy, sluggish and dense. Only oboist Marion Arthur Kuszyk managed to emerge as a single plaintive voice. Fruhbeck accompanied carefully, but the soloist and the orchestra seemed to occupy different worlds.
With “Scheherazade,” a score that launches a thousand images, a sense of mass without finesse prevailed. Fortunately, half a dozen or so soloists were able to make personal statements -- usually when the composer drew down the orchestration -- nevertheless.
Concertmaster Martin Chalifour, the “voice” of Scheherazade, made every appearance of the intoxicating tale-teller sound different and arresting. Cellist Peter Stumpf was lyrical in his endless arpeggios. Oboist Ariana Ghez sounded sexy and winsome. Clarinetist Michele Zukovsky made her rapid runs sound breathless and easy. Flutist Catherine Ransom Karoly floated lines effortlessly. Trumpeter James Wilt articulated his insanely fast rhythms precisely and cleanly. Principal horn William Lane spun out a diaphanous filigree in the heights. Harpist Lou Anne Neill was the indispensable mood setter.
Conducting without a score, Fruhbeck made the orchestra surge with power, but it was rather undifferentiated and the piece emerged sounding sectional and divided. Maybe he’ll make better use of the hall’s acoustics next time around.
*
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Where: Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., L.A.
When: 8 tonight, 2 p.m. Sunday
Price: $15 to $135
Contact: (323) 850-2000, www.laphil.com
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