United States ‘Turning Points: Faust + Sousa + Mendelssohn’: Isabelle Faust (violin), Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra / Dinis Sousa (conductor). The Wallis, Beverly Hills, 14.3.2026. (LV)
Huang Ruo – Tipping Point: A Climate-Crisis Symphony (for full orchestra)
Robert Schumann – Violin Concerto in D minor, WoO 23
Mendelssohn – Symphony No.4 in A major, ‘Italian’
Isabelle Faust, one of those rare violinists whose technique and soul arrive in equal measure, played to a warmly receptive but disappointingly modest Saturday night crowd at the Wallis in Beverly Hills. She anchored a LACO program loosely tied together under the ‘Turning Points’ theme that conductor Dinis Sousa – young, Portuguese, Principal Conductor of the Royal Northern Sinfonia in Gateshead – gamely tried to explain.
The Robert Schumann Violin Concerto, written by a composer already sliding into psychosis and suppressed by his wife Clara, Brahms and Joachim for decades, is not easy listening. Relentlessly difficult and borderline harrowing, it is miraculous in its best moments – which, in Faust’s hands, were many. From the first note, she dug in with fierce conviction and tenacity and the orchestra rose with her. The synchrony between her and the French horn in the first movement’s second theme alone was worth the price of admission – precise, mind-melding, unforgettable. The second movement’s theme came to Schumann from his idol, Schubert, in a dream – and Faust floated it over solo cellos with a hypnotic, otherworldly stillness. The last movement’s virtuosic display had an almost insane manic energy, and Faust and Sousa rode it all the way to the edge.
Faust is simply wonderful to watch: all spontaneous gestures, flashing smiles and total physical commitment, and nothing affected, nothing choreographed. When she nailed a cadence or a key pivot point, it was with her whole body. Sousa was with her every step of the way, and the orchestra nailed every key entrance.
Mendelssohn’s ‘Italian’ Symphony after the intermission went fast – very fast – but was suavely paced in the inner movements, the Trio glowing warmly. The last movement built a hypnotic cumulative effect accelerated by the differences between saltarello and tarantella that left you wondering how fast they could play without missing a step. They didn’t miss one. The finale’s fugue was exhilarating fun, a reminder of what a crack chamber orchestra can do that nobody else can.
The evening opened with the first LACO performance of Tipping Point, a climate-crisis symphony by Huang Ruo, the orchestra’s Composer-in-Residence, co-commissioned with orchestras in Baltimore, Singapore, Hawaii and Beijing. A woodblock ticked off the seconds; a scratchy political recording explained why climate change was a hoax; divided strings droned; brass chords piled up; Stravinskyan rhythms exploded into something straight out of a Technicolor western, trumpet fanfares blazing. Then, eventually, the gramophone crackle returned – or was it acid rain? Noble intentions, enthusiastic applause, modest turnout. Their loss.
Laurence Vittes
Featured Image: Isabelle Faust playing Robert Schumann’s Violin Concerto with the LACO © Elizabeth Asher/LA Phil