REVIEW: Newly appointed chief conductor sweated the details with Mahler; pianist Yunchan Lim balanced chops and restraint with Rachmaninoff.
There’s something a little odd, even disappointing, about a venerable foreign orchestra going on tour without bringing anything new to play or even some music from their own country, but instead bringing standard, well-known masterpiece fare.
It’s as if we, the audience, are there to admire the orchestra, conductor and soloist more than the music itself, because surely we already know the music itself and already admire it, case closed. What’s more, it puts the orchestra et al in the position of trying to impress us with how well, how much better, they play this music we’ve heard a hundred times before.
Not to say that it’s an unusual situation. Not to say that we’re not always grateful to hear the London Symphony Orchestra, which paraded its wares Thursday night in Segerstrom Concert Hall as part of a U.S. tour that winds up in Carnegie Hall in early March. Not to say that you can ever get enough of Rachmaninoff and Mahler. Who would dare say that?
A good many of the people in attendance Thursday (the concert was sold out) seemed to be there to hear Korean pianist Yunchan Lim play Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Lim was the youngest-ever winner of the Van Cliburn Competition in 2022 and is still only 20. A kid. A kid with a following who has already recorded Chopin’s Etudes and Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes.
A kid, in other words, with chops.
He certainly had a good time (if he was having a good time) with the Rachmaninoff. One wouldn’t say that it was an especially distinctive interpretation, but it was well put together and dashingly played. It proceeded confidently, easily. He showed a wonderful technique, the ability to make big, warm sounds at the keyboard without a loss of clarity. Rachmaninoff’s voluptuous figurations were heard by the note.
Lim gave himself time with his phrasing; it breathed. Overall, there was a roomy feel to it, but no excessive dawdling for effect. He knew when he was accompanying the orchestra rather than soloist (which happens quite a lot in this piece), but still allowed us to hear what he was playing. Those second movement arpeggios were lovely, dappled and never mechanical. He kicked into high gear in the finale, quick and clean, yet still picked out details and shaped lines.
Conductor (Sir) Antonio Pappano and the Londoners collaborated handily, giving full swell to Rachmaninoff’s swoons without overwhelming the soloist.
At the end, the audience erupted with especial vehemence and were rewarded with an encore, Liszt’s “Petrarch Sonnet” 104, dispatched with sensitivity, flexibility and a certain amount of gilding.
This is Pappano’s first U.S. tour with the LSO; he became its chief conductor at the start of the season. Before that, among his many credits, he was music director of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden from 2002-2024.
After intermission, he conducted Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, “Titan.” He conducted it without a baton, but with big and constant movements, and his feet never settled. A large score was laid out in front of him and he seemed to follow it closely for each of Mahler’s directions, of which there are famously many.
Which is to say that it was a luxuriously detailed account. If it didn’t exactly bog down, it did stop to smell an awful lot of flowers. Every phrase was tailored and tapered, every transition savored. (Too much? Just right? You decide.)
Antonio Pappano conducts the London Symphony at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. Photos courtesy of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County/Drew A. Kelley
He honored Mahler’s wishes and then some in the first movement: “The greatest delicacy throughout (except in the big climax).”
The second movement achieved an appropriately robust snap, with a gooey trio. In the third (based on “Frère Jacques,” but in the minor), he captured a sense of dreaminess, and in the finale an exceptional frenzy, all guided surely to the triumphant close.
His virtuoso orchestra proved up to his myriad ministrations (of course). The woodwinds had a mellow sound, the French horns were flawless and firm, the strings elegant, unified and never harsh, even at the highest volume. The orchestra plays together collegially, not competitively.
Watching Pappano occasionally became too much for this listener. Some of his signals — shushing the strings in a quiet passage, grandly pointing at the loudest section, resting his arm on the podium rails, jumping off the ground — seemed for the benefit of the crowd as much as the musicians. In which case, this listener closed his eyes.
The Philharmonic Society of Orange County presented the concert, part of its big year for orchestras. Already the London Philharmonic and London Symphony have appeared. Coming up, two nights of the Vienna Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Excellent.
Classical music coverage at Culture OC is supported in part by a grant from the Rubin Institute for Music Criticism. Culture OC makes all editorial decisions.
