LA Philharmonic offered three programs of Berlioz this month, one month
after the composer's birth bicentennial.  The first featured Anne Sofie-von
Otter in "Nuits d"ete," where her lovely voice failed to project enough
to have maximum impact.  The second half of that program featured two
songs at the piano with Miss Otter, and then major excerpts from "Romeo
and Juliet." Here Salonen didn't seem in the music, and I wondered how
much I would enjoy the next two programs.

Salonen came through.  Last week he led a fine "Harold in Italy," with
the stunning (looking and playing) young soloist, Nokuthula Ngwenyama.
I heard someone grumble behind me after the performance, "Now you know
why you didn't know the piece." Which I took to mean, "it's boring."
Well, I remember not caring at all for "Harold" the first time I heard
it.  Berlioz takes a couple listens, I suppose.  But knowing and loving
the piece as I do, the concert performance really thrilled, with exquisite
delicacy in the second movement and Salonen's trademark energy in the
livelier sections.  That program opened with the rare "Tristia," also
well-perfomed.

Yesterday (1/31), I attended the "Symphonie Fantastique" program.  This
one was "special." A modern "theatrical" group, Complicite, led by a
Simon McBurney, put together a multi-media program.  LA Phil under Disney
has tried to "modernize" the concert-going experience with film before,
but this took the effort to another level.

High in Disney's "billowing" wooden rafters was a mast and furled sail
right out of "Master and Commander." It slowly lowered until it hit the
floor as a mesh-like scrim, in FRONT of the orchestra.  There was another
smaller screen behind the orchestra, and smaller projections to the side
for Disney Hall's side sections, which were bisected (is that a word?!)
by the main screen.

The images that appeared on the screen were often illustrative during
"Leilo," the opening piece.  "Leilo" has a narration which Berlioz
prepared (according to the program - I only have two "Leilo" sections
on CD, in Davis's Philips box).  The projections moslty served to
illustrate the obvious - paintings of severed heads, for example,
underlined Berlioz's decision not to be a doctor.

I can't identify with confidence the name of the actor who delivered the
narration, but he was a little over-ripe from me, and with the distancing
effect of the scrim, I found the "Leilo" experience unimpressive.  The
highlights were the sung sections.  Tenor Eric Cutler and baritone Kyle
Ketelson had delighted me the previous week in Costa Mesa, where they
sang the lover boys in "Cosi" for Opera Pacific.  They stayed in town
for this program and both sang well.

Then, without pause, the orchestra slipped into "Symphonie Fantastique."
I have to admit, it took me a minute or two to realize this had happened,
what is partly because the first (and third, as well) movement of
"Fantastique" never really seem to stay in my head.

The front scrim remained down during the first movement, and then
thankfully went up before the second.  For most of the "Symphonie," all
we saw projected was a man's head with his eyes closed.  A man in the
row behind me seemed to take this as his cue to close HIS eyes and snore.
He woke up for the fourth movement, believe me.

It is probably an optical/auditory illusion, but I thought with the
lfiting of the scrim, a little clarity to the sound appeared.  The reason
for the scrim's raising was so we could see the 'theatrical" side of the
program - positioned amid the orchestra were 6 or 7 Complicite performers,
who did such malarkey as stand up and take off their jackets, cover their
faces with their hands, turn slowly around, and at one poiint, lift
instruments which were then pulled up through the air to the ceiling on
wires.  None of that did much for me.

However, the orchestra was somehow convinced to "perform" as well,
and this I loved.  First I noticed chorogreaphed, dramatic "bow" sweeps
from the strings.  Then the string players truned toward the audience
and played, which may not sound like much but had a stunning effect.
Then some instrumentalists stood to perform their brief solo sections.

I can't express how these simple actions brought the performance to life.
Does a little showmanship really hurt?  Usually orchestral players look
dour when playing and downright bored when not.  Perhaps being asked to
"perform" in another sense also helped the orchestra to deliver a
spectacular "Fantastique," because that's what really counts, and I
thought Salonen and his players rocked the house.  Even that long third
movement, which frankly I have been bored by in recorded performance
often, held my attention with fine detail and taut delivery.  And the
last two movements - well, that's Salonen's home territory - climaxes
and tension.

The audience roared its approval, and sincerely - this wasn't one of
the standing ovations from the beginning of the season which were as
much for the hall as for the performance.  I left after five minutes
of whistling and stomping and three stage calls for the performers -
the yelling and clapping was still going on as I made it through the
maze of hallways and down to the main lobby (which was crowded with
tourists on this lovely Saturday afternoon, watching the applause on
large TV screens).

Anyway, bravo Salonen and Phil, and to Complicite, at least my thanks
for convincing the players to get in on the action.  As for the projections
- those I could do without.  They always seem like a good idea, but has
anyone seen a program where they actually added to the performance and
didn't distract or annoy?

Maybe the Pixar people will come up with something - wait, they're not
Disney any more, are they?  Oh, well...

In June, one more Berlioz program - the "Requiem," with Eric Cutler as
soloist.

Next for me at Disney - Carmignola and Vivaldi.

C Mullins
Los Angeles