A BRACING ENGLISH TOUCH ON THE LOS ANGELES PODIUM 
                                              By Paul Hertelendy 
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Week of April 12-19, 2010
                                                                  Vol. 12, No. 90
            LOS ANGELES---The triple-threat Englishman Thomas Adès is making waves in the new world, whether spotlighting his own compositions, giving piano recitals or conducting orchestras.
            He has the burly build of a football player, with a strong podium personality and a relish for conducting. Leading a mostly-Adès program with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, he had the musicians enjoying it almost as much as he, prompting me to wonder why he has yet to conduct in the Bay Area (even though San Francisco Performances has presented his piano recitals repeatedly).
            The 11 minutes of excerpts from his comic opera “Powder Her Face” are truly funny, satirizing an outrageous high-society figure. He punctuates his tango with musical “laughter," releases a few lightning bolts, adds a flighty waltz, and blends it all in a bumptious finale. Adès deals little in melody, or tonality-vs.-atonality; he’s about accents, swooshes and punctuation till you’re downright giddy.
            Equally diverting was his brief “The Premises are Alarmed,” a real ear-opener with sonic ultra-brightness, high-pitched winds, chirping, and scurrying themes, aslong with contrasting low trombone blasts, all of it a sort of sound test for the Disney Concert Hall where, from at least one of the 2,265 seats, I can attest that the acoustics were satisfying.
            The program (heard April 10) had one misfire, in its centerpiece, the Adès Violin Concerto, a work that is doggedly intense, severe, and overloaded with overlapping musical ideas. The fellow Briton Anthony Marwood, for whom it was written, came across the pond to play, and he seemed up to its great virtuosic demands, though his violin was often drowned out by the ensemble.
            Apart from a bloop-bleep or two in the brass, the Los Angeles Philharmonic acquitted itself very well in this highly demanding program of unfamiliar music. It was responsive to the podium, played nimbly, and produced a rich sound when needed. It also boasts an outstanding diversity in its personnel, with close to a half dozen African-Americans in the ranks of players.
            At one time a true West Coast mediocrity, the LAP has moved into elevated ranks, rated even ahead of the S.F. Symphony in an evaluation by Gramophone Magazine a couple of years ago that you will not see publicized by the SFS any time soon. 
            As for richness of sound, nothing exceeds that of Respighi’s orgiastic  blockbuster “Feste romane” concluding the program, with pipe organ, clarin trumpets, 11 percussionists, a tumultuous finale, in short, the works, producing a standing ovation. This was an ultimate test for a concert hall. Happily, I didn't see any cracks opening up in the structure.  
            They loved Adès (rhymes with goddess)  in L.A. When will he ever mount a Bay Area podium?
            Thomas Adès guest conductor of the  Los Angeles Philharmonic, Disney Hall, Los Angeles (April 10). For info: (323) 850-2000, or go online.

        ©Paul Hertelendy 2010
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           Paul Hertelendy has been covering the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with relish -- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
    These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly) will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local artists as well.
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