The Enduring Lure of Strauss With a Fitting Korean Soprano

In Vienna, the annual New Year’s Day Strauss concert is permanently sold-out--they hold a lottery to determine the lucky ticket holders--and the most heavily touted CD in Viennese shops is the latest recording of the event. Even half a world away in Los Angeles, about 15,000 customers crowded into the Hollywood Bowl for an evening with two unrelated Strausses, an astonishing total for a Thursday night. Call a Strauss concert anywhere and people will come; the appeal of good tunes and a whipped-cream ambience is nearly universal.

Admittedly, the Bowl debut of high-flying Korean soprano Sumi Jo was the other big drawing card, with the Korean community turning out en masse to cheer her on. There was ample reason to cheer, too, for Jo’s delectably light, fluttery tone, precise enunciation and easy, flexible negotiation of all the trills, runs and rubatos were tailor-made for things like the vocal version of Johann Strauss Jr.’s “Voices of Spring,” “Where the Lemon Trees Bloom” and the “Laughing Song” from “Die Fledermaus.” The actual power of Jo’s voice outdoors could only be guessed, of course, but the microphone caught her tone most attractively.

The Viennese lilt did not come quite as naturally to conductor Stefan Sanderling; he tried to enforce all kinds of leisurely, expressive tempo fluctuations but they did not flow cohesively--at least under these short rehearsal-time conditions. He opened with a gracious, if tame, performance of the Suite from Richard Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier”--which does have an unbilled connection with the Strauss dynasty since one memorable tune is lifted from a Josef Strauss waltz! Johann Strauss Jr.’s “Thunder and Lightning” Polka fared best, thanks to the fire of the Los Angeles Philharmonic percussion section; the Overtures to “Fledermaus” and “The Gypsy Baron” were less than electrifying.

For encores, Jo turned to other worlds--a grandiosely orchestrated Korean song, “Longing,” some gushing treacle from “Jekyll and Hyde” (“Once Upon a Dream”), Victor Herbert’s “Italian Street Song,” and an a cappella benediction, “Amazing Grace.”