Music review: Gustavo Dudamel and the L.A. Phil on the big screen

"Amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing …"

So exclaimed a woman at a Century City cinema Sunday afternoon as the credits rolled by. Maybe the Los Angeles Philharmonic has a hit on its hands with LA Phil Live.

Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe … .

Paying the same $23 as a bench seat behind the orchestra in Walt Disney Concert Hall 10 miles away, enough people turned up at this AMC 15 to require the use of two screens. Even the smaller runoff theater, in which I found a seat online, was nearly full for a live theater-cast of Gustavo Dudamel conducting this week’s L.A. Phil program of symphonies by Beethoven and Leonard Bernstein, along with John Adams’ “Slonimsky’s Earbox.”

Clearly there is an attraction to going to a movie theater for a concert and seeing a charismatic conductor as a proper matinee idol on the big screen. In this, Dudamel did not disappoint. He was enjoyably unscripted in his mugging for the camera and a definitely scripted host, Vanessa Williams. Best of all, he explained aspects of Bernstein and Beethoven that, along with terrific rehearsal footage, provided genuine added value.

You don’t, of course, have to dress for a Century City shopping center (although the L.A. Phil did, wearing its stuffy evening tails rather than the usual matinee business attire). Popcorn is permitted (the theater has to maximize profits).

But you do have to listen, and this is where everything becomes complicated. I thought the sound ineffective, the concert experience dulled. Others around me seemed pleased. That may have something to do with how you feel about movie theaters.

Norman Mailer once pointed out that film in a darkened cinema is, like reading, private, whereas live theater is public. The movies today are less live than ever, with their special effects, their digital projection and their amped-up sound.

Thankfully, the AMC didn’t turn the volume up to the ear-threatening levels that it prefers. But the dynamic range was not nearly as great as it is in a live concert in a great acoustic space. There was little sense of dimensionality. Instruments were not as individualized as they are in real life.

I surreptitiously checked a decibel meter app on my cellphone during this same program at Disney Thursday night and at Century City Sunday. The high readings were about the same, but those quick, loud peaks were instantaneous in Disney.  With cinema sound, they lasted much longer. Perhaps that accounted for the sense of aural fatigue I felt after a while from the electronic amplification.

Many factors affect how one hears. With the musicians so big on the screen, they sound bigger. With the camera in constant motion, the ear tends to follow the eye. That proved effective when, at the beginning of “Slonimsky’s Earbox,” you could follow the musical line around the orchestra.

In Bernstein’s “Jeremiah” Symphony, which ended with a “Lamentation” sung by Kelley O’Connor, the mezzo-soprano was placed amid the orchestra. On screen, she was highlighted, as she was in the audio mix. That meant her Hebrew was more intelligible (there were subtitles in English) and her facial expressions were deeply moving. This wasn’t necessarily a better way to hear the symphony but an interesting alternate one.

Still, the camera angles and close-ups quickly became tiresome. Disney looked dark and dreary (natural light was not allowed in, as it normally is for matinees). Wind players are not flattered by close-ups blown up on a movie screen.  A violist’s bow, shot from an odd angle, made it look like it was going to poke Dudamel in the eye, which served as curious distraction to the end of "Jeremiah."

Nothing better sells a performance in Disney than when the timpani and basses vibrate your seat. For that, the only solution I can think of would be to revive “Percepto!” -- the buzzers that movie theaters installed to make seats tingle for the 1959 horror film “The Tingler.”

But many in Century City applauded the Beethoven. A knockout performance is apparently a knockout anywhere.

RELATED:

LA Phil Live beams, sets audiences beaming

 Music review: Gustavo Dudamel starts off the L.A. Phil year with new beginnings

L.A. Phil to transmit performances to HD-equipped movie theaters

-- Mark Swed

Photo: Gustavo Dudamel walks on stage at Walt Disney Concerto Hall Sunday. Credit: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times. Click on the photos above or click here for more photos of LA Phil Live

 

Comments

[w1n5t0n]

I saw/heard the concert in the exact same theater as Mr. Swed (smaller theater AMC Century City) and had the exact same reaction. They have a long way to go in the orchestral-sound-reproduction-in-a-movie-theater department, but then nothing beats hearing an orchestra live in the concert hall. And I too thought the accompanying interviews and footage were interesting (more so than about 90% of the Upbeat Live talks I hear at Disney Hall!) and added to the overall experience. And it's beyond interesting to be able to see our Maestro from the front while he's conducting, since most seats at Disney Hall do not give you that pleasure.

And I thought the sold-out status of the two theaters at AMC says too many good things about this approach to broadening the reach of so-called classical music to not proceed full-speed ahead. I only hope that AMC realizes they could sell a lot more tickets to these LA Phil event showings if they scheduled them in one (or two) of the largest auditoriums in the complex. I suspect they'd sell out also. (I hear the same was true for the Met's Opera showings there.)

[bbny]

I drove to Ottawa,ON from northern NY to see this event. The theater was about 3/4 full and the audience had huge smiles as they were leaving the event. I'm not a classical music fan and not a sound expert but loved this presentation. My fears were that it would be "tarted" up with stiff interviews but it wasn't. I loved the documentary, unpolished feel of the presentation and I'll probably lose interest if it starts to feel overproduced. The orchestra is a beautiful group of people and I enjoyed all the shots of them. Kudos to the LA Phil for a bold move that brought me back to a theater!

[Allison]

I watched/listened from Boulder, CO. It was a diferent experience from attending a live performance but still immensly enjoyable. I used to have season tickets to the LA Phil but had to move and I miss it terribly. The cultural events available here are not of the same caliber so I'm grateful to have this alternative. I can't imagine watching/listening from as close as the valley, though. For what it's worth, the 150+ crowd applauded long and enthusiastically as if the conductor and orchestra might be able to hear us accross the Rockies and Sierras.

I didn't think Vanessa Williams was interesting. Why do we need a spokesmodel? I would have preferred a music professor from USC or UCLA. And please, stop encouraging the audience to turn on their phones. Instead, ask them to turn their phones off.

[AlexxGrr]

I attended it at an AMC theater in Irvine. It was very enjoyable, and the sound was excellent. But I wish they used 4K equipment which has twice the resolution than your HDTV. Standard 1920 by 1080 resolution is lacking for the big screen. Also, tell the projectionists to turn off the digital sharpening, which makes those ridges along the sharp edges on the image.