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The Usher Hall
Second LA Phil night of the festival, back at Usher Hall, and I went in with expectations shaped entirely by the night before. Beethoven as the reliable crowd pleaser, then something newer in the second half that I’d nod along to and quietly forget by the time we hit Princes Street. That is not what happened.
The Pastoral Symphony was lovely, genuinely. Beethoven’s ode to nature came through with all the birdsong and babbling brook charm you’d want, building to that thunderstorm and the warm hymn of thanks at the end. Dudamel and the LA Phil clearly know exactly what they’re doing with it. Solid, joyous, exactly as advertised.
Then the second half happened and completely rearranged my evening.
Adès’s Inferno took the Pastoral’s cosy nature walk and set it on fire. This was sound painting in the most literal sense. Stinging wasps buzzing through the strings, water flowing, souls being devoured, and that final vision of Satan frozen into an icy lake. Every single image was right there in the music, nothing abstract about it, you could practically watch it happen in front of you. It was terrifying and funny in the same breath and completely immersive from start to finish.
I went in expecting Beethoven to be the headline act and walked out thinking about Adès. Genuinely overjoyed by the end of it.
Five stars out of five. Go if you can.