Magnificent Mozart
(Hollywood Bowl; 17,374 seats)

Presented by Los Angeles Philharmonic. Performers: Katia Labeque, Marielle Labeque, Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Nicholas McGegan. Reviewed July 20, 2010, closes July 22.

Though an all-Mozart concert would not be the most glamorous programming imaginable at the Hollywood Bowl, it's easy to make the case for the composer outdoors. He manages to satisfy everyone from the casual picnicker who needs little more than pleasant background sound to those who find in his work a bottomless well of joy and meaning.
Though generally heard in more flamboyant repertoire, pianists Katia and Marielle Labeque were still able to assert their personalities within the genteel, objective framework of Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos (numbered as No. 10 in the sequence of 27 piano concertos).

Katia, the live wire of the pair, tended to be crisper, more emphatic, lighter in tone, while Marielle sounded mellower and more straightforward in the first movement, and more flexible in the second.

Both traded lines with seamless mutual understanding, warmly supported by McGegan and a chamber-sized delegation from the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

By RICHARD S. GINELL