Live: The Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Christoph von Dohnanyi
MUSIC REVIEW
The conductor is mighty formidable as he makes his last tour with the group.
The average age of the four conductors named on the masthead of the Philharmonia Orchestra, which made its Walt Disney Concert Hall debut Tuesday night, is 81. And four months. The 78-year-old Christoph von Dohnányi, who is leading his final tour with the London orchestra, is principal conductor. In the fall, he will become honorary conductor for life, and Esa-Pekka Salonen, who will be 50 at the time, will take over.
This will be a fascinating generational shift in the life of a relatively young orchestra with a history of associations with old-school maestros. Founded at the end of World War II as a recording ensemble, it hooked up early with Toscanini, Furtwängler and particularly Herbert von Karajan. It has flirted with audacious youth: Riccardo Muti and Giuseppe Sinopoli led it early in their careers. Salonen was principal guest conductor from 1985 to 1994. But the orchestra is still at least somewhat identified with the formidable Otto Klemperer, who served as music director from 1959 to 1972. Klemperer was music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for most of the 1930s. Now Salonen moves in the opposite direction.
Meanwhile, the Philharmonia is, at the moment, one weighty ensemble. Besides Dohnányi, the band boasts associations with Kurt Sanderling (conductor emeritus), Charles Mackerras (principal guest conductor) and Vladimir Ashkenazy (conductor laureate).
Dohnányi's tour is all meat and potatoes. For Tuesday's concert, he led Mendelssohn's Fourth ("Italian") Symphony and Mahler's First. Tonight at the Orange County Performing Artscenter, he is scheduled to repeat Wednesday's Disney program: Beethoven's "Egmont" Overture, Schumann's First Symphony and Beethoven's Fifth. If Tuesday was any indication, anyone planning to attend tonight's concert shouldn't expect an Elgar encore, or any encore. And no one should attend in a mood for frivolity. These concerts are serious business.
During his long career, and particularly during his tenure as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra in the '80s and '90s, Dohnányi admirably championed new and difficult music, American as well as European. These days, though, he is seen as one of the last of the great traditionalists. When the L.A. Philharmonic is looking for that Old World feeling, it brings in Dohnányi, as it did for a Brahms symphony cycle last season.
