Post by erik on Aug 26, 2022 8:49:47 GMT -5
Three different works by three different composers were on the docket for my sixth trip to the Hollywood Bowl this summer.
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Courtney Lewis, conductor
Isata Kaneh-Mason, piano
Mendelssohn: HEBRIDES OVERTURE (FINGAL'S CAVE)
Clara Schumann: PIANO CONCERTO IN A MINOR, OP. 7
Dvorak: SYMPHONY NO. 7
Courtney Lewis, the English-born music director of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra in Florida, was on hand to replace original conductor Marta Gardolinska, who had come down with a mild case of COVID, for this particular concert. The night began with the much-beloved "Hebrides Overture" of Felix Mendelssohn, inspired by a trip he made to the northern coast of Scotland in 1829, including the Hebrides region and a dwelling in the coastal rocks known as "Fingal's Cave" (hence the work's sub-title). Mr. Lewis and the L.A. Phil accurately and vividly gave a picture of the chilly, overcast setting in this part of Scotland that Mendelssohn saw, including the crashing of the waves on the rocks, all in the haunted key of B Minor.
After a minor pause, the British-African pianist Isata Kaneh-Mason came out with Mr. Lewis to perform a work that she has been championing for the last ten years or so with great success, the Piano Concerto of Clara Schumann, the wife of the troubled but frequently brilliant German composer Robert Schumann, whose life was plagued by mental illness and ended by suicide in 1856 (Clara outlived her husband by forty years, passing away in 1896). Each of the three movements of this highly charged and dramatic work were played without pause; and in watching and hearing her play, it was very easy for me to see why Ms. Kaneh-Mason was such a staunch champion of this work in concerts (and in the recording she had made of it a few years ago with Holly Mathiessen and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra); it is a stunning virtuoso piece, requiring the utmost concentration, with orchestration similar to the concerto in the same A Minor key of her husband's (though trombones were also added). The crowd of 8,500 vociferously applauded both Mr. Lewis and Ms. Kaneh-Mason at the conclusion, knowing that this was a work that had been undeservedly obscured for close to 180 years simply because its creator was a woman, and the wife of a composer who struggled with inner demons. Ms. Kaneh-Mason had more than made the case for Clara Schumann's concerto, which was remarkably compact in size at just slightly over twenty minutes in length.
Following intermission, Mr. Lewis returned to conduct the L.A. Phil in the dark D Minor Symphony No. 7 of Antonin Dvorak, a work he composed in 1889, and in which he expressed his Bohemian heritage and the depth of the feelings he had for his mother, whom he had lost that year. The intensity of the work's first movement was then followed by the more pastoral idealism of the Adagio, which reflected the influence of his good friend Johannes Brahms. The third movement, marked as a Scherzo, was Dvorak incorporating the native Bohemian dance known as the Furiant, with a middle Trio section that recalled the slow movement's pastoral feelings. The turbulent final movement of this thirty eight minute work finally came to a triumphant conclusion (very much in the Beethoven/Brahms tradition) in the D Major key, resulting in a great amount of applause for Mr. Lewis and the orchestra.
A modest sea breeze rolled in after it got dark, cooling things off from the heat of the day, though the skies remained largely clear; and spite of five of the usual aerial interruptions that being in an outdoor venue like the Hollywood Bowl entails, it was yet another great night of concert-making.
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Courtney Lewis, conductor
Isata Kaneh-Mason, piano
Mendelssohn: HEBRIDES OVERTURE (FINGAL'S CAVE)
Clara Schumann: PIANO CONCERTO IN A MINOR, OP. 7
Dvorak: SYMPHONY NO. 7
Courtney Lewis, the English-born music director of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra in Florida, was on hand to replace original conductor Marta Gardolinska, who had come down with a mild case of COVID, for this particular concert. The night began with the much-beloved "Hebrides Overture" of Felix Mendelssohn, inspired by a trip he made to the northern coast of Scotland in 1829, including the Hebrides region and a dwelling in the coastal rocks known as "Fingal's Cave" (hence the work's sub-title). Mr. Lewis and the L.A. Phil accurately and vividly gave a picture of the chilly, overcast setting in this part of Scotland that Mendelssohn saw, including the crashing of the waves on the rocks, all in the haunted key of B Minor.
After a minor pause, the British-African pianist Isata Kaneh-Mason came out with Mr. Lewis to perform a work that she has been championing for the last ten years or so with great success, the Piano Concerto of Clara Schumann, the wife of the troubled but frequently brilliant German composer Robert Schumann, whose life was plagued by mental illness and ended by suicide in 1856 (Clara outlived her husband by forty years, passing away in 1896). Each of the three movements of this highly charged and dramatic work were played without pause; and in watching and hearing her play, it was very easy for me to see why Ms. Kaneh-Mason was such a staunch champion of this work in concerts (and in the recording she had made of it a few years ago with Holly Mathiessen and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra); it is a stunning virtuoso piece, requiring the utmost concentration, with orchestration similar to the concerto in the same A Minor key of her husband's (though trombones were also added). The crowd of 8,500 vociferously applauded both Mr. Lewis and Ms. Kaneh-Mason at the conclusion, knowing that this was a work that had been undeservedly obscured for close to 180 years simply because its creator was a woman, and the wife of a composer who struggled with inner demons. Ms. Kaneh-Mason had more than made the case for Clara Schumann's concerto, which was remarkably compact in size at just slightly over twenty minutes in length.
Following intermission, Mr. Lewis returned to conduct the L.A. Phil in the dark D Minor Symphony No. 7 of Antonin Dvorak, a work he composed in 1889, and in which he expressed his Bohemian heritage and the depth of the feelings he had for his mother, whom he had lost that year. The intensity of the work's first movement was then followed by the more pastoral idealism of the Adagio, which reflected the influence of his good friend Johannes Brahms. The third movement, marked as a Scherzo, was Dvorak incorporating the native Bohemian dance known as the Furiant, with a middle Trio section that recalled the slow movement's pastoral feelings. The turbulent final movement of this thirty eight minute work finally came to a triumphant conclusion (very much in the Beethoven/Brahms tradition) in the D Major key, resulting in a great amount of applause for Mr. Lewis and the orchestra.
A modest sea breeze rolled in after it got dark, cooling things off from the heat of the day, though the skies remained largely clear; and spite of five of the usual aerial interruptions that being in an outdoor venue like the Hollywood Bowl entails, it was yet another great night of concert-making.