Music Reviews : Yuri Temirkanov Closes Four-Concert Visit to Bowl

As the first wave of prompt-leavers began to pour out of Hollywood Bowl, close to 11 on Thursday night, an unfamiliar fanfare could be heard coming off the Bowl stage.

It was a Tusch, that rare and spontaneous expression of approval--by brass players of the orchestra--sometimes bestowed on a conductor who has made a remarkable impression on the instrumentalists.

And it was not a surprise. Yuri Temirkanov, the 49-year-old conductor from the Soviet Union, who made his belated Southern California debut last week, was ending his four-concert visit to our Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Bowl.

Considering the wonders he wrought in this final concert, and especially in the closing work, Sibelius’ Second Symphony, the tribute seemed appropriate.

That performance of Sibelius’ most popular symphonic piece had emerged thrilling, an accumulation of exceptional orchestral moments climaxing in a peak of instrumental power, hair-raising but mellow, potent but controlled.

It capped a series of articulate musical statements uttered in a steady, connected flow of thought and tone. Each of Sibelius’ four movements seemed to lend emotional resonance to the others, as the structure of the total came clear in the unfolding. The orchestra as well as the audience (counted by management at 8,331) responded in rapt attention.

There were similar peaks in the first half of this program, though with less consistent mechanical achievement.

The splendid playing of the horns in Sibelius had been foreshadowed in the section’s beauteous and immaculate performance of Weber’s “Freischutz” Overture, at the beginning of the evening. Unfortunately, matters of ensemble, timing and attack--so clean and effortless later in the Sibelius piece--proved problematic in this part of the proceedings.

Stronger cohesion became operative in the subsequent, more solid reading of Brahms’ Violin Concerto, wherein Miriam Fried was the noble and accomplished, if not always commanding, soloist.

Fried and Temirkanov, individually so strong, should have produced more sparks than they did, together. Each seemed deferential to the other and, as a result, self-repressing.

The opening movement, perfectly acceptable mechanically, came out disjunct, unmotivated, flabby. More heat and focus emerged in the Adagio, but no closer collaboration between principals. The finale, though lacking both humor and humors, went well enough. A thorough, competent performance missing only the essential ingredient of passion.