Alpesh Chauhan, Principal Guest Conductor of the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker and Music Director of Birmingham Opera Company, came to Walt Disney Concert Hall for a curiously insubstantial Los Angeles Philharmonic program. It was headlined by Hilary Hahn, but mostly enlivened by Saad Haddad's cinematic Aysheen in which the composer stretches conventional Western harmonies with a gentle, masterful hand leavened with Eastern influences.
Composed in 2023, the ten-minute piece employs the system of melodic modes used to recite the Quran called maqamat; starting in silence, it grew more intense in a sheen of strings. Double basses made strange growling sounds then ghostly harmonics, and were joined by woodwinds for colour and brass for fine deep chords, with the bass drum providing the ritual heartbeats. As the music exposed itself in a kaleidoscope of color, Chauhan skilfully guided the orchestra through its various layers to a radiant passage featuring three brilliant trumpets. Superbly paced and brilliantly played, the music gathered briefly before what seems like a false ending unintentionally but understandably elicited a short burst of applause. As the music resumed, the heart finally stopped beating, and the silence returned. After which the audience were doubly ready to stand and cheer.
Hilary Hahn was greeted like an old friend when she came out to play Sibelius. She sang the opening tune with direct, even plain phrasing, the fast passages surmounted majestically although she was covered by the orchestra in their loudest outbursts. She broke dramatically out of character and slowed down the tempo for the big tunes, then recovered her energy level to keep the music from bogging down. She toyed affectionately with the fragments of the different themes in the cadenza, often at a glacial pace, signifying some depth of feeling while laying down the groundwork for the climax to come.
After an Adagio which seemed preoccupied, Hahn plunged furiously into the finale. As the musical excitement mounted and the musical forces scrambled towards the end, there was a sense of anticipation in the hall for more and when the Sibelius was over she returned with the Sarabande from Bach's D minor Partita. Not having to compete with an orchestra this time, she was able to unleash her complete inner self of pure, straightforward violin playing, from the heart.
After intermission the orchestra went through their Swan Lake paces with workmanlike playing but never completely had their hearts in it. Ironically, the orchestra's concertmaster Martin Chalifour had the weight and soaring beauty in his big solos that Hahn had lacked.
