Saturday I went to hear the Louisiana Philharmonic conducted by Uriel
Segal in a program of Noam Sherrif (pronounced Sher-REEF), Joan Tower,
C. M. von Weber, and Dvorak.  I had heard Segal in recording - an EMI
of Britten's Suites from Prince of the Pagodas and from Gloriana - that
appeared I believe in the 1980s.  The recording struck me as good, but
Segal wasn't the one who attracted me.  It was the opportunity to hear
two works and one composer completely new to me.  The Sherrif piece -
Akeda (accented on the last syllable), meaning Sacrifice - was a memorial
to Yitzakh Rabin.  In form, it was a free passacaglia, or, better, a
passacaglia interspersed with free sections.  It had some arresting ideas,
but one hearing wasn't enough to make much more of an impression.  In his
pre-concert talk, the conductor mentioned that Sherrif had written the
piece in Mahler's work shed on the lake.  Akeda was appropriately sombre,
with more than one memorable moment, but I need more hearings.

Ursula Oppens played Joan Tower's Rapids (Piano Concerto No. 2).  I've
always thought Tower a big voice in new American music, although she has
a tendency to become turgid, as in her Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman.
On the other hand, Rapids lived up to its name - filled with flashy
fingerwork for the pianist.  Oppens had asked the composer for a really
fast piece, and this is the result.  It lasts about thirteen minutes and
any slow contrast seems to come from the orchestra.  The piano writing
is bewitching.  Oppens, who gets hardly any rest, still finds the piece
"too slow." Perhaps she can try to get through it in 12 minutes, working
toward the 4-minute Rapids.  The orchestra writing is full of tricky and
split-second rhythmic trade-offs, and LA Phil bobbled these for about the
first third of the piece.  But the end was a wowser.  I hope for a
recording.

The second half was devoted to two fairly well-known works - the Weber
Konzertstueck in f and the Dvorak Symphony No. 8 in G.  I've never thought
the Weber anything much - full of simplistic virtuosity in the piano and
without a single musical idea some other 19th-century composer (Beethoven,
Mendelssohn) hadn't put to better advantage.  Oppens fluffed several
passages always involving the 4th and 5th fingers of the right hand, but
for me failed to ruin the work.  Weber had done that already.  On the
other hand, the Dvorak 8th is probably my favorite of his symphonies - it
practically defines musical radiance.  The performance was the best of the
evening.  LA Phil sang warmly, sensitively responsive to Segal's shaping
of each phrase.  This could have degenerated into mere fussiness, but
the entire work flowed and danced.  Segal shaped not only phrases, but
movements through an awesome control of crescendo and decrescendo.  Thank
goodness the orchestra was with him.

Steve Schwartz