French conductor Marc Minkowski came to his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut Friday evening at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion with a distinguished reputation as a period instrument specialist. More to the point, however, he is a man of the theater, and he made freshly dramatic work of the staples at hand.
It is hard to imagine anything new in the familiar mania of Berlioz's "Symphonie fantastique," truly a been-there, done-that kind of piece. The Philharmonic has even entrusted it to another period authority, Roger Norrington, whose account had a more menacing wildness to it, but not the leaping grace of Minkowski's.
Like Norrington, Minkowski rearranged the Philharmonic seating, splitting the violin sections antiphonally, though not the timpani. He elicited his own unique sonic world from the set-up, a world of sharply defined foreground, spiked with glinting instrumental splashes--the weirdly clangorous chimes, for example, and the serpentine snarl of the bassoons and muted horns.
Minkowski is a bobber and a bouncer on the podium, working from memory and doffing his jacket for his Berlioz aerobics. The Philharmonic seemed unfazed and even inspired by his high-energy efforts, producing dashing, sensuous playing.
