Review: LA Phil's Triumphant 'Organ Symphony'

By Laurie Niles: Walt Disney Concert Hall's magnificent, one-of-a-kind, 6,134-pipe organ looms large at any performance in that venue, but last weekend it was truly the hero of the show. The instrument - which locals affectionately call the "French fry organ" - even received its own special round of applause. That applause was for the "Organ Symphony" - Camille Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 in C minor - performed Friday night by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, led by conductor Louis Langrée. It was one of three performances of a mostly French-themed program that also featured Maurice Ravel's "Tzigane," played by Principal Concertmaster Martin Chalifour; Ravel's gorgeous "Mother Goose Suite"; and the world premiere of "Assemble" by American composer Jonathan Bailey Holland. This is not the first time that Saint-Saens' organ-centered symphony has been performed during Disney Hall's 20-year existence, but it was the first time I had heard it here. While sometimes this piece gets played on an organ that was originally meant for a movie theater or a church, Disney Hall's organ was made for the symphony hall, made for the LA Phil. Its creation was a joint effort by two internationally known pipe organ builders: Casper von Glatter-Götz in Germany and Rosales Organ Builders in Los Angeles. The tuning of the instrument - back in 2003 - is the stuff of legend - it took Rosales as long as 30 minutes to tune just one note. It's not every concert that one gets a taste of those tantalizing "French fries," so I was excited about this. Maestro Langrée, a native of France who has been Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra since 2013, conducted the Saint-Saëns without a score. I'd say he knew it by memory but it seems more accurate to say he knew it "by heart" - this was clearly a person enjoying the endeavor, and getting full energy from the orchestra in return. The first movement "Allegro" sounds more straightforward than it is, with underlying fast notes always feeling unsettled, offset as they are by just a 16th note, as other voices float and glide on the bigger beats. With clarity from Langrée, this simmered with excitement. For much of this symphony, the organ is like a sleeping giant in the back of the room. I found that I kept looking at the organ, to see if it was stirring yet, and at LA Phil's longtime keyboard player Joanne Pearce Martin, sitting at the console near the back of the stage. Its first entrance comes fully 10 minutes into the piece, during a moment of calm, when everything has settled into held notes over quiet and meandering pizzicati - just one low note from the organ, joined by another, then moving into slow chords. Listening to a recording, you might not even notice it. Live, you certainly do. The way the organ blended with the orchestra was smooth and seamless - and as soon as that first organ note sounded, the audience grew very quiet and still - organ sound moving in front of orchestra sound like the moon in front of the sun - there was some palpable awe in this moment. But it wasn't just the organ bringing this live performance into the present moment - a gentle exchange between the first and second violins felt especially alive, with the sections seated across from one another. This symphony officially has only two movements - and the second brings back the restless energy of the beginning, but now a little more decisive and direct, with strings scrubbing away, punching out downbeats. As it was all settling down again, seeming to resolve happily (on a nice G major chord), I noticed the organist - Martin - was in place, and she was smiling - smiling big. BOOM! C major. In one chord from the organ, the sleeping giant that had been stirring in the back of the room was suddenly wide awake. I almost laughed, it was so awesome. I could feel that chord in my chest, and I also could feel it vibrating the wooden arm of my chair. In other words, this organ was shaking the entire hall, down to the bones of every person in the room. Add to that - this entrance is a total keyboard-palooza: at the grand piano, two pianists - four hands - were pumping out a mad riot of colors to fill it all in. Again, you might not notice on a recording, that there are actually two people at the piano here, but what a scene it makes, watching it live! And from there it's all fun - fast, loud, intense, soaring - everyone playing the heck out of their part, Langrée smiling ear-to-ear. After the last note, the entire hall leapt to their feet, clapping and cheering for fully six minutes as Langrée actually walked all the way to the organ console in the back to stand next to Martin to recognize her. Then he recognized every soloist and section - ending with all the musicians turning around and gesturing to the organ. What a night at the symphony! To back up - the evening began with the world premiere of "Assemble" by Jonathan Bailey Holland, who is dean of the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University (my alma mater). As promised, the piece explores the building blocks of music, starting with rhythms, then moving into harmony and melody. The piece began with just two large drums interacting across the stage, then growing much fuller, with other sections joining in. Helping the effect was that it remained harmonically static while exploring "rhythm," then there was a neat effect - repetitious strings that somehow sounded like the "wah-wah-wah" vibrations of a struck bell, or ofsound waves. Harmony was introduced and expanded - rich, high-calorie chords, then moving into melody. The composer was in the room to accept robust applause from the audience. Next LA Phil Principal Concertmaster Martin Chalifour performed Ravel's Tzigane. (It was musical chairs for all the concertmasters - Chalifour as soloist, Bing Wang for Tzigane and Nathan Cole the rest of the concert!) The piece begins with an extended solo, way up on the G string, and I was impressed with Chalifour's intonation on those highest of sul G notes. Also, harpist Emmanuel Ceysson's precision playing was impressive in this piece. For Ravel's "Mother Goose Suite," Langrée performed without a score, and without a baton (he used the baton everywhere else). For the other pieces that night he had a strong "icktus" with his baton, so it was interesting to see the way he worked without it, sculpting with his arms, hands and even fingers. The piece featured beautiful solos from Cole (what a vibrato). The piece ended in a satisfying build-up - majestic and ecstatic. You might also like:

• Review: Mahler 6 with Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil
• A History of Walt Disney Concert Hall: One City's Successful Commitment to Music
• Review: Nathan Cole Performs Vivaldi's Four Seasons with the LA Phil

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