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Even a well-worn symphony can shock, in a concert hall.
If youve never heard Shostakovichs Symphony No.
Its always new to someone.
And even if you do know the work, epiphanies can be repeated.
The promise of every performance is that youve never heard it likethis.
Gustavo Dudamel intends to electrify his listeners, and he wants them to know it.
But music goes deeper than mere amazement.
Buffeted by white-water rapids of sound, I missed the shades of Stalin-era gloom.
I was electrified, the way a fence is: constantly, and not always rewardingly.
ButPolluxindulges in moderation, too.
A slow ground bass, like a giants trudge, undergirds wisps of playful murk.
Not everything is obvious, snapping, or loud.
Either the piece is more tentative than Salonens music usually is, or Dudamel doesnt quite have its measure.
In any case, the result was oddly diffuse.
Dudamels riskiest move was to offer as an encore a passage from Wagner that demands a supremely delicate touch.
