Tonight's Hollywood Bowl concert had a nice mix of classics. The highlights included Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, performed by Renaud Capuçon, violin. He began the first movement a bit off (intonation is always a problem at the bowl with cold instruments), but by the time he got to the cadenza, he owned the piece. His tone was gorgeous, especially in the high register. The third movement in particular was great; the conductor, Andris Nelsons, took a ridiculously fast tempo, and Capuçon played it fluidly and flawlessly. Nelsons, on the other hand, made some of the most ridiculous faces I've seen on a conductor. He looked "special" at times.
The Dvoràk Symphony #7 was also well played by the ork, with a broad emotional range, and pulsing rhythms.
2 comments:
I agree with you on Nelsons. He became Martin Short. I was trying to follow his conducting and could not figure out where the downbeat was. I was amazed that the orchestra could follow him.
It was even worse last night with the Lang Lang concert. The conductor stared at his shoes most of the time. I'm not sure if there's a Chinese cultural thing that eye contact is bad, but between Lang Lang's insane tempos and sloppy playing, the orchestra was all over the place.
Funny thing is, when they slowed down, Lang Lang was phenomenal in his playing.
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