Music I'm Listening to: Santa Rosa and San Francisco

Some odd and ends. I've been lazy about posting comments on recent concerts I've attended – which I do mostly so that I can look back and remember what performers I heard and where. So, just for the record, The Santa Rosa Symphony just finished three performances of Mahler's Symphony No. 3, which is one of my favorites. I applaud the music director for attempting such a long and challenging piece. I attended the February 23 performance. The orchestra is huge for the Mahler. There were nine French horns!

In January, at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, I heard Emanuel Ax with the San Francisco Symphony, Jaap van Sweden conducting.  Ax played Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25 and afterward played an encore, something familiar by Schubert, but I can't remember now what it was. Jaap van Zweden is a fierce-looking man on the podium. Ax gives the impression of being a gentle, kind man, but these are just impressions from the gallery. I attended the January 30 performance. Also on the program was Bruckner's Symphony No. 7. 

On February 27, at Davies Symphony Hall again, the Symphony, conducted by Manfred Honeck, performed Beethoven's Coriolan Overture – one of those Beethoven overtures I used to use in college as a musical pep talk. I'd play one, loud, before heading out for final exams. Somehow, the music ringing in my head convinced me I'd do well. Haydn's Symphony No. 93 followed. After intermission, Honeck led an unusual performance of Mozarts Requiem with additions and subtractions from the versions we usually hear – those filled out after Mozart died leaving the piece unfinished. Honeck played only the portions actually written by Mozart but interspersed with Gregorian chant and readings by an onstage performer of portions of a letter by Mozart to his father, by Bible excerpts, and some modern poetry. The performances were dedicated to the late Joshua Robinson, MTT's partner, who died a few days before concert I heard. 

Music I'm Listening To: Leif Ove Andsnes Plays Mozart with the San Francisco Symphony

Conductor and soloist after the Mozart

I attended the November 22 San Francisco Symphony concert at Davies Symphony Hall, which featured guest conductor Manfred Honeck and soloist Leif Ove Andsnes playing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22, and, after intermission, Bruckner's Symphony No. 4.

Mozart's piano sonatas, particularly the later ones, are fairly familiar to me, but No. 22 is one I don't know well at all. Looking through my LPs and CDs, I see that I don't own a single recording of it, so, it was interesting to gain a little familiarity. What stood out to me were the several sections of "group solos," to use an oxymoron—in particular, sections played mostly by the woodwinds. The program notes point out that this was the first of the Mozart piano sonatas scored to include clarinets, and, listening to the piece, you get the feeling the composer was having fun seeing what the clarinet might do in a piano concerto. The San Francisco woodwind section is always very strong and they stood out again here. In another section, only the principal cello, principal viola, the concertmaster, and the principal second violin seemed to be accompanying the piano, as if a mini piano quintet had been inserted into the middle of things. As an encore, Andsnes played what he described as some "Norwegian country dances," I think it was, without revealing anything more (probably Grieg). Not my kind of thing, but pleasant enough.

Honeck's reading of the Bruckner seemed a little uneven to me, with the first movement somehow lacking coherence, but everything came together after that. This performance was marked particularly by an unusual emphasis on the dynamics. The loudest parts were very loud indeed, the softest parts very, very soft. Again, very enjoyable ,and the horns deserve high praise, but the best performance I've ever heard of this remains the only other I've ever heard live—same place, same orchestra, but led by Herbert Blomstedt in a concert of April 11, 2014.

Music I'm Listening To: Garrick Ohlsson with the San Francisco Symphony (April 11, 2014)

I attended the April 11 performance of the San Francisco Symphony at Davies Symphony Hall with Herbert Blomstedt conducting. There were two pieces on the program--Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 before intermission, with Garrick Ohlsson at the piano, and Bruckner's Symphony No. 4 after the break.

The Mozart concerto is probably his best loved, his best known. How many times have I heard it on the radio or on recordings I own? I have no idea, but I'd never heard it performed live before. And what a pleasure to hear Ohlsson play it with such precision--every note articulated, every note in its place--played without fuss, without idiosyncratic imposition of self. This was perhaps the purest Mozart I've ever heard. Ohlsson seemed transparent. By none of this do I mean to suggest Ohlsson's playing was mechanical, lacking emotion, or sterile: Quite the contrary. Ohlsson's genius was very much evident. By communicating the writing so simply and clearly, he achieved far greater emotional impact than many who try much harder. Ohlsson appeared concentrated and involved, entirely confident and content, engaged in a restrained dialog with the orchestra, focused on his fingers and the keyboard with no extraneous movement. It was simple. It was beautiful. It was simply a beautiful performance. The audience was very appreciative, bringing Ohlsson back on stage several times (although the hoped-for encore did not materialize). I noticed in the program  that Ohlsson uses cadenzas by Radu Lupu, one of my favorite pianists.

During my freshman year of college--when I first started exploring classical music seriously--I listened to Bruckner  quite a lot, but moved on to other things fairly quickly (there was so much new to hear). Doubtless I've heard snippets of Bruckner on the radio since then, but I can't recall sitting down and listening to a recording of a Bruckner piece since that time--for several decades, in other words--and last night was the first time I'd ever heard anything by Bruckner live. Although, I do vaguely remember that the Symphony No. 4 was my favorite of the symphonies, the familiarity of the piece was something of a surprise--at one time, I must have known it well--but I've never heard it before like last night.

While the Mozart performance was superlative, the Bruckner was even better--one of those concert hall experiences that make you inwardly (sometimes outwardly) giggle with joy, one of those experiences that give you goose bumps. I don't know what to say except that the orchestra--always very fine--seemed in top form, every performer in synch with the rest of the players and with the conductor, who must know this piece very well, as he conducted with no score.

The tempos seemed perfect throughout. The challenging horn entrances were handled beautifully. Blomstedt elicited wonderful performances especially from the darker sections of the orchestra--notably the double basses, the bassoons, the low end of the brass section, and the violas. Easily the best performance of the Bruckner Symphony No. 4 I've ever heard--and am ever likely to hear. While it is a very long piece and it gets a bit repetitious (especially in the third movement), it's full of melodic invention and textures and it has quite a few hooks that satisfy. My thanks to the conductor and all the performers for giving me a renewed appreciation of the piece.

The rest of the audience seems to have felt much as I did. A sustained standing ovation began immediately after the maestro lowered his hands. Blomstedt, looking a bit frail but very lively nevertheless, delighted in acknowledging the various sections of the orchestra. I think the French horns and the violas got the biggest surges of applause. I'm happy especially for the violas, who always seem to get less attention than they deserve. A memorable evening.

Photo of Herbert Blomstedt courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony (uncredited). Photo of Garrick Ohlsson by Philip Jones Griffiths, courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony.