L.A. Philharmonic Visits Orange County with Glowing Herrmann and Tchaikovsky

Timothy Mangan
17 hours ago
5 min read

REVIEW: Joseph Pereira’s new percussion concerto also gets an impressive airing.

Guest conductor Gustavo Gimeno, right, leads the L.A. Philharmonic at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall on May 30. He is accompanied by Matthew Howard, principal percussionist for the orchestra. Photo courtesy of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County

The Los Angeles Philharmonic made its annual trip to the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall on Thursday night (courtesy of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County). It is one of the more versatile orchestras at work today and, led by Spanish guest conductor Gustavo Gimeno, it played an interestingly varied program, with comfort, style and abandon, as well as commitment. In a Society season that featured major orchestras from Europe, the Angelenos gave every bit as much satisfaction.

A great deal of the programming offered by the other touring orchestras on the Society’s schedule this year has been hackneyed, so the L.A. Phil’s agenda was refreshing, at least in the first half, for not being so well traveled. It featured Bernard Herrmann’s Suite from “Vertigo,” the second performance of Joseph Pereira’s “Naru” (its premiere came Thursday in L.A.) and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in what proved to be a far from routine performance.

Guest conductor Gustavo Gimeno leads the L.A. Philharmonic at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall on May 30. Photo courtesy of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County

Herrmann’s music for Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” is, of course, famous and even celebrated but it is not often encountered in the concert hall. The short Suite, just 13 minutes long, is comprised of three excerpts from the film score: “Prelude,” music from the opening credits; “The Nightmare,” in which we see James Stewart’s tortured head amid roiling animation; and the “Scéne d’amour,” another dreamlike sequence in which Stewart and Kim Novak finally get together (it’s complicated).

This music is lavishly scored, including parts for two harps, Hammond organ, 2 bass clarinets, contrabassoon and vibraphone, and to hear it live is to newly appreciate its lavishness. The opening credit sequence, with its spiraling strings and brass chords heaving like a breaching whale, resounded like nothing else. “The Nightmare,” with the habanera rhythm turned ghoulish, threatened thrillingly. The “Scéne d’amour” was as sweet and voluptuous and exultant as peach cobbler with heavy cream. We’d say Herrmann overdid it, but the music isn’t straight Hollywood Romanticism. It is interlaced with the ironies and sickness in the plot.

The Suite served well as a concert opener and Gimeno and the orchestra gave it a super polished account, blooming in sound.

Pereira’s “Naru” is a percussion concerto. Pereira happens to be principal timpanist of the L.A. Phil. He wrote the work for his colleague Matthew Howard, principal percussionist of the group. Couched in a thoroughly Modernistic idiom (Xenakis, Ligeti and Penderecki come to mind in its 25 minutes), it is nevertheless an entertaining work as well. One doesn’t often see an Orange County audience give a standing ovation to such gritty and challenging music, but it did.

Part of the success of the piece is the set-up. Employing more percussion instruments than we can list here, Pereira smartly limits his soloist to nine or so (the rest being played by the orchestra’s percussion section). What’s more, the soloist’s instruments are placed in five stations around the conductor, each station with its own sound profile. The soloist, “in search of his identity” according to the program note, travels between them, stays there for a while, then moves on. The music is thus effectively compartmentalized, and the listener can visually and aurally make sense of the chaos.

PHOTO 1-3: Matthew Howard plays various percussion instruments for Pereira’s “Naru”: taiko drums, top left, Geary discs (amplified wood disks), and a waterphone on a bass drum. PHOTO 4: Percussion instruments set up in stations around conductor Gustavo Gimeno. Photos courtesy of Philharmonic Society of Orange County

“Naru” is quite violent at times, dissonant, slashing and mayhem making. It can also be quiet and contemplative, with electronic enhancements adding to the magic. Howard is half Japanese, so it begins with him attacking taiko drums, the woodwinds answering him with a Japanese style tune that melts like a watch in a Dali painting. A catalog of sound colors ensues, as well as banging, racing, slicing, thrumming and flying. Minimalism this is not. Urgency is the key throughout.

SIDEBAR: What are the featured instruments in ‘Naru’?

Howard laid into his task with the focus of a gladiator entering the arena and yet seemed at ease and capable in all his tasks. Gimeno and the Philharmonic musicians flailed away raucously. Pereira took a bow in jeans.

After intermission was Tchaikovsky’s Fifth, the concession to popular taste and yet somehow fitting with the rest of the program. Emotional intensity was the unifying element, and Tchaikovsky can keep up with anyone in that regard. And fortunately, the performance wasn’t phoned in.

The orchestra sounded different than it does in its home in Disney Hall (where the program was scheduled to repeat Saturday and Sunday) — richer and deeper toned, more strings-oriented, more relaxed. The musicians played the Fifth like they meant it and wanted to, but there was also a sense that they were enjoying it and not locked into a forced march.

Gimeno, music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and about to take over at the Teatro Real in Madrid, sustained rhythmic elan and songful lyricism throughout and everything flowed effortlessly without ever losing the sense of what the music is about. The finale was remarkably exciting.

It wasn’t as easy as it looked.