REVIEW: The performance, which also included Jewish-themed music by Bruch and Bernstein, was a mixed bag but proceeded without a hitch.
Protesters, lots of them, greeted the concertgoer Wednesday night in Costa Mesa. They held signs, waved banners, shouted angry slogans through megaphones. The concertgoer stood quietly among them for a minute or two, waiting for the light to change so that he could cross the busy intersection on the way to the venue.
The light changed, the slogans continued, the concertgoer passed through bands of protesters and he came to the last of them, a female in a mask who looked at him silently and brought her hands together in the shape of a heart.
Down the lane, no protesters, but flashing lights and armed guards. One had to go through a metal detector to get inside; this is standard procedure these days at Segerstrom Concert Hall but it seemed more meaningful now. Inside, a bomb-sniffing dog on a leash (not standard) strolled by. Do not pet, a sign advised.
Classical music is never like this, but the Israel Philharmonic, presented by the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, was in town to give its last concert of a U.S. tour. Protesters had interrupted the group’s recent performance in San Francisco. Ushers and patrons had subdued them. Wednesday’s concert went off without interruption, though we didn’t know it would until it was over.
Music director Lahav Shani took to the podium. Please stand for the national anthems, we were told. Both were played. Many in the audience sang along with the Israeli one. Then the printed program began.
The first half featured three short works with Jewish themes by Tzvi Avni, Max Bruch and Leonard Bernstein. These were welcome, especially since they are not performed often. The second half was devoted to a plug-in warhorse, in this case Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, “Pathétique.” All of it was fairly solemn.
Founded in 1936 by the violinist Bronislaw Huberman, the Israel Philharmonic has a rich history. Arturo Toscanini conducted its first concert. Jewish immigrants fleeing the Nazis and the Soviet Union were among its musicians (it was known, at least formerly, as an “orchestra of soloists”). Leonard Bernstein and Zubin Mehta are the two conductors most closely associated with it. Shani is just the second conductor to hold the title as music director.
Avni’s “Prayer,” written in the 1960s, opened the agenda. It’s a well crafted work of 9 minutes’ length in neoclassical style and palindromic form (sounding rather like Hindemith), by turns melodic and contrapuntal, agitated, eerie, and, well, prayerful. Shani and the strings gave a solid account of it.
Bruch’s “Kol Nidrei” followed. The work is a series of variations on two themes, the first based on the Yom Kippur evening service, the second an excerpt from the middle section of Isaac Nathan's arrangement of "O Weep for Those that Wept on Babel's Stream.” It is a lovely piece, songful and soulful, quiet, lush and beautiful, with plenty of harp. Principal cellist Haran Meltzer was the fine soloist, giving a steady account in lucid tone and eloquent feeling. Programmatically, the Bruch mined some of the same musical impulses as the Avni, so its placement second wasn’t ideal.
Bernstein’s “Halil,” written for this orchestra in 1981, closed the first half. Written for solo flute and orchestra with a large battery of percussion, it fascinatingly juxtaposes 12-tone sections with tonal ones, or rather intertwines them so expertly as to create a unified whole. The composer of “West Side Story” is heard in Webern dress.
Written in memory of a young flute student killed in the Yom Kippur War, it’s a troubled work, jagged, the flute and percussion at battle. But it’s also quite pretty at times, delicately and imaginatively orchestrated. Principal flutist Guy Eshed proved an ideal advocate, intense and virtuosic. The orchestra captured its contrasts and continuities smoothly.
Tchaikovsky’s Sixth requires a lot from an orchestra, one realized after hearing the Israelis play it. The performance lacked precision and momentum and point of view. Shani, who is also chief conductor in Rotterdam and designated chief conductor in Munich, led without a baton. And though he was able to smooth and taper lyrical phrases, there was a kind of generality and lack of specificity to them as well.
Rhythmic impetus sometimes sagged. Instrumental balances were blurred, transitions sloppy. The first movement sprawled. The Allegro con grazio was neither very allegro or very con grazio. The third movement achieved a certain excitement but wasn’t played with enough exactitude and pointedness to reach its peak.
The downer finale was probably the best, the strings generous with their sound and emotion, but it remained a downer all the same. Ah, Tchaikovsky.
A standing ovation ensued nonetheless and an encore offered: the “Nimrod” movement from Elgar’s “Enigma Variations,” the same encore the London Philharmonic gave earlier this season, here played lugubriously.
The concertgoer then walked back to his car in the cool night air through zero bands of protesters.
Israel Philharmonic
Lahav Shani, conductor; Haran Meltzer, cello; Guy Eshed, flute
Music by Avni, Bruch, Bernstein and Tchaikovsky.
Next: The Philharmonic Society presents the Chineke! Orchestra, at 8 p.m. April 4, at the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall.
Tickets: philharmonicsociety.org
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.
