New York Philharmonic/Gilbert – unleavened orchestral heft

Barbican, London
Pieces by John Adams and Esa-Pekka Salonen should have been gripping, but the relentlessly robust NY Phil left little room for subtletyIt would be an understatement to say that the New York Philharmonic’s weekend-long Barbican residency went out with a bang. The second half of this last outing was a brash, extrovert performance of John Adams’s Harmonielehre. From the opening shut-up-and-listen chordal stabs to the sonic warfare of its deafening final moments –