In last Monday’s (11/24) San Francisco Classical Voice, Richard Ginell writes, “The Los Angeles Philharmonic often plays host to interesting combinations of headliners. This past weekend, it was the celebrated British cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and a less well-known Spanish conductor, Roberto González-Monjas. Their concert, on Friday, Nov. 21, sandwiched the world premiere of a new cello concerto written for Kanneh-Mason by British composer Edmund Finnis between two examples of theme-and-variations … Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Theme and Variations, Op. 42, was the Austrian composer’s last original work, written in Los Angeles in 1953…. González-Monjas gave the score a lean, fast, and almost neoclassical treatment…. The [Edward] Elgar work was, of course, the Enigma Variations … It was a chance for González-Monjas, 37, who worked without a score, to leave a big physical impression—as well as a musical one—with his wide circular conducting motions and impulsive energy…. Against the spectacular Enigma Variations, Finnis’s concerto was overmatched. The composer, 41, has an impressive resumé of work in classical and electronic music in England … The piece itself low-key and dark, in a broad tempo, until the orchestra rouses itself to a brief burst of near cacophony before falling back into torpor…. The tempo … gratefully picks up in the finale as the harmonies grow denser…. Kudos to Kanneh-Mason for venturing into new territory.”
