By Márcio Bezerra
This writer had not had to park on the top floor of the garage of the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts for at least the past 10 years!
After the big dip in attendance for classical music after the pandemic, it looks as audiences have come back to levels even higher than before the great recession. Thus, one should not feel annoyed, but rather thankful, for the long car lines experienced Saturday (March 1) for the London Symphony Orchestra concert at a packed Dreyfoos Hall.
Directed by one of the greats, Maestro Antonio Pappano, the celebrated orchestra offered one of the most fulfilling concerts of the season.
Featuring just two outstanding works connected by many threads, the program showcased the orchestra’s cohesion, attention to detail, and, above all, its exceptionally good brass section.
The first part consisted of Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade. One of the greatest conductors of the twentieth century, Bernstein has been known as a composer of a few pieces, most of the times related to musicals or film scores. So, one was thankful to Pappano and the London Symphony for performing a more substantial work that revealed a major composer waiting to be rediscovered.
The Serenade is, like his The Age of Anxiety, a concertante piece for orchestra and soloist, in this case, the violin. Written in 1954 for Isaac Stern, it features Bernstein at his best. In it, one admires his melodic gift, as well as the gentleness of sound that characterized most American music of that era. In fact, it is rather astounding to think that the Serenade was written at the same time Karlheinz Stockhausen was publishing his highly dissonant Klavierstücke, which nowadays have been relegated, thankfully, to music theory assignments of graduate schools.
The London Symphony Orchestra was joined by Dutch violinist Janine Jansen, who made a strong case for the work. Performing on a 1715 Stradivarius, Jansen displayed a polished technique, ample sound, and a willing to work as a team player that was really remarkable. Her reading was nothing short of revelatory, and one should be thankful to Pappano and to her for divulging such an extraordinary, yet little-known American jewel.
The second part consisted of a work by another great 20th-century conductor and a composer championed by Bernstein himself, Gustav Mahler. Although his Symphony no. 1 in D Major was written in the 19th century, it has all the hallmarks of early “modern” music.
A work that can easily disintegrate as a succession of disparate events thanks to its kaleidoscopic changes, it received a remarkable reading by Pappano and his orchestra. And it is not the case that he softened the sharp edges of the work, but that he kept the pace flowing, giving more importance to the overall arch of the work. The result was outstanding.
Under Pappano, LSO negotiated the many changes with ease. The brass section was particularly impressive not only because of its power, but also because of its technical precision. Additionally, one could not fail to mention double bassist Rodrigo Moro Martin for a most beautiful solo in the third movement.
With musicians more casually dressed than usual (no ties for men), the London Symphony Orchestra was certainly not the best dressed, but it was one of the best sounding large ensembles of this season.