Soy un ganador — this was likely the sentiment of everyone who caught Beck ‘s performance with the LA Phil Saturday night. It represented an apotheosis of the kind of pop-star-at-the-pops event that the Hollywood Bowl was veritably made for, with Beck going mostly off-brand as a live artist to emphasize the most languid parts of his catalog for maximal symphonic synergy. You might be tempted to call it an “only in L.
A.” night if you didn’t know that the show is one of seven Beck is doing with resident orchestras across the country this month, which effectively made the Philharmonic a pickup band for the occasion. Sharing is OK; other cities and other coasts deserve a piece of this big a musical win, too.
Seeing Beck with an orchestra seems more inevitable than it would be with almost anyone else, even though he hasn’t previously indulged in it much as a concert performer. His father, David Campbell, is one of the more famous orchestral arrangers in rock circles, well beyond his work with his son. (A quick search of the Variety review archives reminds us Campbell did the arrangements for the Who orchestral tour that passed through the Bowl five years ago, and conducted strings at a Dave Matthews Band concert at the venue the year before that, just for starters, on top of all the recorded work he’s done).
Campbell did not conduct on Saturday night — that honor belonged to Steven Reineke — but his presence was felt in arrangements Beck said were largely lifted .
