Music I'm Listening to: Sayaka Shoji with the San Francisco Symphony

Last night (October 4) I attended a San Francisco Symphony concert at Davies Symphony Hall. On the program were, somewhat unusually, only two pieces (typically classical concerts open with a short piece to allow stragglers to be seated right afterward). Esa-Pekka Salonen conducted Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1 and, after intermission, Brahms's Symphony No. 4, both very familiar pieces. 

The soloist in the Shostakovich was Sayaka Shoji, a violinist I had never heard of before despite all my years in Japan. That said, according to the program, while she was born in Tokyo, her family moved to Italy when she was a small child and today she appears to be based in France. I looked her up. She's recorded a fair amount, mostly for Deutsche Gramophon, but online availability suggests most of what she's done hasn't been marketed much in the US.

I was a bit skeptical at first. In the opening movement, she seemed a bit tentative and I thought she overdid the vibrato a bit initially, but, by the end of the piece I was quite persuaded. Despite her small stature, she plays with real vigor and I noticed that her violin seems to have an inherently powerful voice. I'm no expert in violin acoustics, but clearly some instruments project more than others and this one seemed particularly muscular. According to the program, she plays the "Recamier" Stradivarius (c. 1729), on loan to her from Ueno Fine Chemicals Industry. These historical instruments have become so expensive that it's now quite common for corporate owners or foundations to own them but place them with deserving artists to use, as in this case.  I did a little Internet sleuthing and it appears that the Recamier was once owned by Napoleon Bonaparte and, before Shoji, played for many years by violinist Mischa Elman.

The audience was very appreciative. She received a long standing ovation and was finally persuaded to do an encore that featured rapid variations and some powerful left-handed pizzicato at the end. It was not familiar. Unfortunately, she didn't identify the piece.

It's always fun to hear a live performance of music familiar from recordings. I enjoy watching the way the music moves physically through the orchestra as different sections take up their cues. The Brahms Symphony No. 4 is particularly good for this as so much is going on simultaneously in different sections – in the strings, in particular. At the end of the performance, Salonen recognized various performers, including the triangle player, who gets quite a workout in this one, but also the entire cello and bass sections – which is quite unusual. It's rare for any of the string players to be acknowledged at the end unless there's been a prominent solo, but Salonen evidently wanted to recognize the heavy lifting the low strings do in the Brahms No. 4. Very enjoyable all around.