From: le01167@portal.lasc.lockheed.com (Ron Nadel)
Subject: re: LA Phil
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Organization: Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Co. - Rye Canyon
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 92 03:05:20 GMT

In article <12OCT199210252439@eccles.caltech.edu>, inr@eccles.caltech.edu (I. Neill Reid) writes...

> Ron Nadel reported on Salonen's Sunday performance - I heard the
>Saturday night performance. I wouldn't give that performance the 
>same rave review. I felt that the first and second movements were
>far too episodic and piecemeal - isolated fragments with no real
>integration into an overall architecture of the movement as a whole.

That is a good description of the nature of this music, actually.  You can 
try as hard as you like, but you cannot really integrate that first movement,
Mahler has more than one moment where the direction the symphony is
going just stops, and after a pause, moves off in another direction.  
In fact the 1st movement has trouble getting "started" all together
after the great opening horn fanfare (which I have always recognized
as a direct rip-off from the 4th movement of Brahm's 1st symphony).
It's a terrific movement, one that shows the stride that Mahler made
away from more organic classical sonatas.

>The orchestra also almost never reached p - mf to fff seemed to be
>the preferred dynamic range. The later movements were much better in 
>these respects - especially the final adagio.

Not too much range to the first 2 movements anyways, but the third,
with the posthorn solo covered the pp - FF range very well!  And the
finale is where you'd expect the ppp.

>I find Salonen's dramatic conducting style rather distracting - and
>there were times when the orchestra appeared to be just as confused as
>I was as to where the downbeat was. 

Salonen is not the only conductor to broadcast his dynamic intentions
on the beat before the orchestra actually responds to it.

>The playing overall was pretty good -
>although there were some strange outbursts from a raucous oboe and a 
>couple of flubs in the off-stage trumpet.

I've been a subscriber to the philharmonic for over 10 years, and have
been a regular attendee for over 20, and they have rarely sounded better.
They were tight and breathtaking for the most part.  I heard no trumpet
problems all afternoon (I'm a brass player myself).  I've suffered through
Mehta years of sloppiness and blase' programs (and to think we could have had
Solti then instead if not for that pompous ass dictator son-of-a-bitch
Fleischmann), to the golden years of Giulini - where the orchestra sounded its 
best, and thru the Previn years when the programs were interesting, the
interpretations very good, but the musicianship was variable; and I have
rarely heard the orchestra sound as good, or enjoyed a concert more.  The
last concert that had me preoccupied all day was 10 years ago this month
when Giulini conducted a transcendental Deutches Requiem, and then 10 years
(or so) before that with Giulini guest conducting that wonderful Mahler 9th.

>(Admission of bias - I find the current radio/billboard advertising 
>campaign for Salonen & the LA Phil. massively overblown and silly, I
>am naturally prejudiced against a conductor who appears as the caped
>crusader on album covers, and I think Andre Previn was wasted on LA
>audiences.)

I agree on the ads and hooplah attendant on Salonen's arrival and debut.
The whole thing has too much of a carnival atmosphere.  But that was not
in the concert hall Sunday.  And I'm a big Previn fan, have many of his
recordings and liked him generally in the concert hall, but he did not always
get a great sound out of the orchestra, nor were they tight sounding on a
consistent basis.  I was disappointed when I heard that Salonen was chosen
or agreed or whatever.  I was hoping for a proven artist with a broad
repetoire.  Not only that, but I heard an interview with Salonen not long
after where he acknowledged his youth and inexperience in the face of the 
challenges of Mahler, Stravinsky, and Bartok.  And here in LA we have a very
talented young assistant conductor in David Alan Miller, a name you will all
be hearing more of, so I thought he would  have been a good choice too.
Although young (like Salonen), what I've heard him conduct has been 
consistantly great.  So I was dubious when I sat down Sunday.  What a 
surprise.

Ron
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