EIF: LA Phil: Beethoven 6 and Adès
Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 15/8/2026
Los Angeles Philharmonic; Gustavo Dudamel (conductor)
This was the second concert of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s residency, under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel. The programme consisted of just two works, both programmatic. Beethoven’s 1808 Symphony No.6 extols the spirit-restoring pleasures of simple ‘Pastoral’ life in the countryside. By contrast, Thomas Adès’ ‘Inferno’ is the first part of ‘Dante’, his three-part 2019 ballet score, evoking all, from grotesque to comical, in the ‘Divina Commedia’.
The first movement of Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ is unusual: a sonata form without a trace of conflict or an ounce of dramatic tension. Any “building” is achieved by examining small thematic cells repeatedly from different timbral and harmonic angles during a slow crescendo, creating the sense of an extended sigh of contentment. Maestro Dudamel’s realisation went for comfortable familiarity, painting the picture rather than evoking the feeling. The string sound with 6 double basses in the mix was delicious and the winds delivered limpid clarity – a beautiful sound, but I wasn’t particularly moved. I felt that this approach worked better in the more overtly descriptive ‘Szene am Bach’ slow movement, where sound pictures come to the fore, though Beethoven’s molto mosso direction was perhaps over-enthusiastically interpreted. The scherzo’s rustic merrymaking, town band parody and rambunctious dance caught Beethoven’s mischievous whimsy delightfully (if a tad too polished for rustic realism). The ‘Sturm’ was excellent, with the brass, timpani and lower strings as fabulously graphic as I have heard. The ‘Hirtengesang’ finale delivered more, in terms of the warm glow of wellbeing, than the first movement had, though again I have been more moved by less illustrious ensembles displaying their love for the music and a need to persuade me of its worth. Dynamic balance was generally good, apart from occasional over-prominence of the 2+1 horns.
The Adès is scored for the full orchestra, which he uses to guide the listener through an overwhelming tour of Hell, in 13 dramatic scenes. The de facto overture ‘Abandon Hope’ used brutal percussion and brass to establish an initial mood of terror, segueing into ‘The Selfish – stung by wasps’, the same forces with spiky unpredictability evoking their hellish fate. ‘The Ferryman’ recalled the metre and grim scoring of Rachmaninov’s ‘Isle of the Dead’, evoking the grisly Charon transporting the damned souls across the Styx. ‘Pavan of the Souls in Limbo’ was disturbingly indeterminate in form and metre, with melodic fragments of pavane and lopsided waltz hovering at the edge of consciousness, simultaneously sad and beautiful. ‘The Gluttons – in slime’ was leadenly grotesque and as slow as treacle, but also as irresistibly and cloyingly sweet. It segued seamlessly into ‘The Miserly and the Prodigal’, the orchestration even more obviously lush as anything by Richard Strauss. ‘The Suicides – the bleeding trees’ brought us back to the brutal percussion of the opening, with outraged brass glissandi adding to the horror. A mood of unbearable sadness took over, with something empathetic and Rachmaninov-like in the use of the bells at the end. ‘The Deviants - on burning sand’ was surprising – they didn’t sound too unhappy, though hopping from one scorched foot to the other would probably look like a knees-up from a distance. I found the lopsided waltz grotesque but quite funny. ‘The Fortune-tellers – facing both ways’, their slippery vagueness rewarded with a shadowy existence of eternal insubstantial duality, agile but directionless. I was reminded of Poulenc at his most cheeky. ‘The Popes’ Adagio – heads first’ took us back to the brutal percussion, with rueful horns describing the fate of the venal popes buried face down being roasted from beneath – quite graphic and disturbing. ‘The Hypocrites – in coats of lead’ was leaden right enough, laden with oppressive melancholy, voiced by lower strings, horns and brass, while appeals for mercy from solo clarinet and cello went unanswered. No sympathy with hypocrites. But ‘The Thieves – devoured by snakes’ went much further, scored as part galop/part can-can, an absolute romp seeming to hoot with laughter at their fate. Icy deathly sobriety was restored in the final scene, ‘Satan – in the lake of ice’, an ultimate chill nihilistic denial of existence itself, fading to still and irrevocably final silence. What a superb work, awarded a committed and engaging performance, in stark contrast to the “take it or leave it” Beethoven, and surely the “real” LA Phil.
Weblink:https://www.eif.co.uk/events/beethoven-6-ad%C3%A8s