On a Sunday afternoon at the Walt Disney Concert Hall (WDCH), there was a surprising highlight in the program. Opening before the legendary works of George Gershwin and Richard Strauss, Caroline Shaw’s The Observatory, commissioned by the LA Phil, served as a beautiful introduction. With Gershwin’s jazz-soaked vitality and Strauss’ sweeping philosophical drama featured, one might have expected this new work to feel like a mere prelude. Instead, Shaw’s piece provided a profound opening, standing not in the shadows of the classics but proudly alongside them.
Inspired by her time at the Griffith Observatory, The Observatory unfolds slowly, like an eye adjusting to darkness. The music moves delicately, casting subtle patterns that evoke both the sprawl of Los Angeles below and the constellations above. Shaw captures both the sprawling magnificence of the cosmos and humanity’s valiant attempts to control the world through architecture and design. In other words, she perfectly mixes the macrocosm and the microcosm, showing how they inform and balance each other.
In the beautifully designed acoustics of the WDCH, the textured elements of the music stood out as meditations on the interplay between the mortal and the universal. The strings whispered a longing for immortality. A solitary note or phrase from a solo flute emerged like the plaintive voice of a human soul yearning for more. Supported by Teddy Abrams, who conducted with graceful control, the overall effect was mesmerizing.
After the debut of Shaw’s new work, George Gershwin’s Concerto in F transported us back in time with a burst of rhythm. Capturing the spirit of the Roaring Twenties, pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet filled the hall with Gershwin’s unmistakable swagger. As his fingers danced with precision, he played with the ease of someone recounting a favorite story while still discovering something new in the notes and the structure. In conversation with the orchestra and with Gershwin, his piano confidently and compassionately led the way. Teddy Abrams matched him step for step, allowing the orchestra space to breathe and respond.
After intermission, when the opening bars of Also sprach Zarathustra filled the hall, the first sonic moments of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey came to life. The opening of this piece has become iconic to an almost immeasurable degree. Under Abrams’ direction, the rest of the piece strove to transcend Germanic Romanticism and reveal the composer’s introspective core. Rather than emphasizing bombast, he explored the delicate philosophical shifts in Strauss’s tone poem. The piece transformed into a journey rather than a spectacle.
The LA Philharmonic delivered the dynamic range and precision that has become the trademark of the symphony. From the soaring strings to the brooding bassoons, each section contributed to the whole. Together, they turned the three works into a kind of musical triptych:
- Shaw’s Meditation on Humanity’s Dance with the Stars
- Gershwin’s Celebration of Modernity and Movement
- Strauss’s Expression of a Philosophical Journey
As opposed to being dwarfed by such towering works, The Observatory held its own with grace and quiet brilliance. Thanks to Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s impassioned performance, Teddy Abrams’ sensitive leadership, and the overall artistry of the LA Phil, the afternoon became more than just a concert. It served as a poignant reminder of the impressive extent to which music can convey emotion and express the human struggle with our consciousness of mortality.
