Los Angeles Philharmonic
Herbert Bloomstedt, conductor
Garrick Ohlson, piano
Mendelsson: Piano Concerto No. 1
Bruckner: Symphony No. 4
It was a warm, blustery day today - somewhat uncharacteristic of the past few weeks, with its rain and what not. Perfect day for a concert.
This was a nice program that started out with a 20-minute appetizer in the form of Mendelssohn's immensely pleasing, lush, and melodic piano concerto. Completely fun and tuneful, and blatantly virtuosic for its pianist, the piece was a great uplifter. Garrick Ohlson was simply brilliant in the piano part: everything was clearly articulated as fine crystal, and yet completely musical and flowing as well. It went from the melodramatic but stirringly georgeous depths of the adagio second movement to the hammering, quick moving notes of the third movement with apparent ease and skill. Great stuff.
The Bruckner was, well, long. My musical listening ear hasn't developed far enough to follow a piece for 65 minutes yet, with its purported establishment of theme and development of ideas. I liked the sound coming from the orchestra, and loved the contrast between the big orchestra booms and such, but I can't react very much more than that for you. I found myself spending the time sorting out the day's thoughts in my head... I wasn't bored, just casually engaged. Which is, I suppose, the point when getting toknow classical music. I liked it. Enough said.
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