The concert that Esa-Pekka Salonen conducted Saturday night at Walt Disney Concert Hall was enjoyable, in no small part, for what it didn’t have. There weren’t any familiar works on the program, a circumstance that has the tendency to keep a listener on his toes. There weren’t any masterpieces either, at least not of the certified variety, which was a sort of relief from the museum aura that so many programs have, where the listener sits in a pool of awe, admiring. No one talked about the music at concert time, explaining it and nudging our judgments. The only words that Salonen uttered were an introduction to a distinguished guest in the audience, Irina Shostakovich, the composer’s widow.
There is a kind of absence in Salonen’s conducting, too, that makes it enjoyable. He doesn’t put a lot of spin on the music, doesn’t grandstand with it, or milk it. One felt that the music was put first Saturday night, and Salonen stood out of the way. That is not to say he didn’t do anything, however. The performances maintained a remarkable energy throughout and, in the case of the second work on the program, a noticeably practiced hand was at work in the pacing. What’s more, the orchestra was in excellent fettle and played with that fine clarity of texture that Salonen has long been noted for.
The big news was the world premiere of “Orango,” an uncompleted opera by Shostakovich written in 1932, and only rediscovered in 2004. The composer finished the Prologue in piano/vocal score and Shostakovich scholar Gerard McBurney orchestrated it, basing his work on other Shostakovich works of the time and on the ballet “The Bolt,” two sections of which the composer reused here. The Prologue lasts around 40 minutes.
Classical Life 