Bringing Beethoven’s Fourth to Life

The nine great Beethoven symphonies are performed and recorded so well so often that they seem to require extreme measures in order to sound fresh.

For instance, on a startling new recording, Jordi Savall leads a furiously fast period-instrument version of the “Eroica” meant to reveal Beethoven as reflecting a raucous and revolutionary moment in history. Or we can turn to the retro-thinking of Christian Thielemann with his reclaiming of the German spiritual authority of conductors like Furtwangler or Karajan in weighty, golden performances of the Fifth and Seventh symphonies.

But challenging and thrilling as it may be to dream up new special effects to recover lost worlds, it may be even harder to be true to our own time and place, to make Beethoven come alive as naturally as the Fourth Symphony did Friday night, when Paul Daniel conducted it with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra at Veterans Wadsworth Theater.

This was an important West Coast debut that seemed to catch the orchestra--its management in shake-up and its attention focused on next season, when Jeffrey Kahane becomes music director--unawares. But Daniel happens to be the young British conductor poised to take over the musical direction of English National Opera in the fall.

It was not, however, an easy debut. Daniel, thanks to a rare coincidence, had competition. The Los Angeles Philharmonic also had the Beethoven Fourth on its program over the weekend, and it was even possible to hear Esa-Pekka Salonen conduct it at a Friday matinee downtown a few hours before Daniel walked up to his Westside podium.

There were similarities and differences. Both are modern conductors, and both favored a sleek, non-fussy approach: Performance times were within a minute of each other. The Philharmonic was larger (around 50) and seated in historic fashion (second violins on right); the chamber orchestra had about a dozen fewer players and kept the cellos in their seats on the right.

The Philharmonic is a big, brilliant machine, and Salonen steers it as if he were at the wheel of an agile but powerful BMW. Daniel, however, seemed less driver than tour guide. Convinced that the players knew the road, he could enthuse over the sights. Rhythms or small melodic details seemed to just pop out of the air.

Daniel brought a similar flair for making music three-dimensional to a splendid performance of Haydn’s last symphony, No. 104. Beethoven clearly learned how to integrate his love for the surprise effect into a meaningful symphonic structure from Haydn. And Daniel, with a comedian’s sense of timing, relished the theater that is implied in such music.

A sense of humor also helped with Haydn’s Concerto for Flute and Oboe. A creaky concerto, it was originally written for an obsolete instrument that resembled a hurdy-gurdy and later transferred to modern flute and oboe playing as one. It is flashy, slight music, but it’s also a delightful Siamese twin circus act for a couple of the orchestra’s good-natured virtuosos, David Shostac and Allan Vogel, principal flute and oboe.

The performance was smooth and elegant and represented the fluency of the orchestra under Daniel as well. The chamber orchestra may not have the sheer horsepower of the Philharmonic or its luxurious appointments but, sure in its ensemble playing under Daniel, it could take the top down and smell the roses.