Music I'm Listening to: Recent concerts

I attended the Friday, May 10 performance of the San Francisco Symphony at Davies Symphony Hall. Guest conductor Marta Gardlolinska had to cancel at the last minute. She was replaced by Gemma New (currently music director of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra and principal conductor of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra). I had heard of neither conductor, but I rather liked New. She was interesting to watch on the podium, her movements short and sharp, and slightly stiff, but she made the music flow. The concert opened with a piece called Overture, written in 1943 by Grazyna Bacewicz. It was not particularly memorable, but it was interesting to hear as I'm a fan of Bacewicz's chamber music. I have several recordings of her string quartets and other pieces for small ensembles. I was under the impression that she was a contemporary composer. I had no idea that the she was born in 1909 and died in 1969. Her music sounds more modern than her birth and death years might suggest. 

That was followed by Elgar's Cello Concerto in E Minor. The soloist was a Spanish cellist, Pablo Ferrandez. I had never heard of him either, but the San Francisco Symphony always brings in good guest conductors and soloists, and it was an excellent performance, although taken rather more slowly than I'm used to, particularly in the opening of the first movement. The Elgar was followed after intermission by Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3, also nicely done. Just as impressive as the conducting was the way Ms. New acknowledged various members of the orchestra during the applause at the close of the concert. Often orchestra members hesitate to stand up and take a bow when pointed at by the conductor after a performance, but usually it's not out of modesty but because they aren't always sure who the conductor is indicating for recognition. New, with precise hand gestures, had them standing and taking the applause quickly and efficiently in what amounted to an entirely independent conducting performance. I was quite impressed. 

Dinner at Monsieur Benjamin after the concert. I've abandoned Absinthe, which for more than a decade was my go-to after-concert restaurant. Absinthe has raised its wine-by-the-glass prices to absurd levels. It just ruins the whole experience. Monsieur Benjamin is not cheap, but it now seems a better value. New and Ferrandez came into the restaurant shortly after we settled in and they happened to be seated at the table next to us. I resisted the temptation to do anything more than to quickly say that I'd enjoyed the concert – until shortly before we were leaving. I leaned over  to ask the conductor about the tempo of the Elgar and she agreed that they had taken some parts comparatively slowly but pointed out that she had taken other parts quite quickly, which was true. "Rubato," I said. "Exactly" she answered. She's one I'll look out for in the future. 

The following day, I attended the Santa Rosa Symphony concert at the Green Music Center. The jazz-focused program comprised four pieces: George Gershwin's Catfish Row: Symphonic Suite from Porgy and Bess, Gershwin's well known Rhapsody in Blue for Piano and Orchestra (but in the original jazz band version), Conrad Tao's Flung Out for Piano and Orchestra (a world premiere) and Edward "Duke" Ellington's Black, Brown and Beige – Suite for Orchestra. Conrad Tao was the piano soloist in both the performance of Rhapsody in Blue (played from memory) and Flung Out (during which he used a score on an iPad), conceived as a companion piece to the Gershwin but it was rather more abstract. Rhapsody in Blue was the highlight of the evening. Tao was exciting to listen to – fast, precise, and expressive all at the same time.  

Music I'm Listening to: Joshua Bell with Vasily Petrenko Conducting the San Francisco Symphony (October 6, 2011)

Last night I attended a concert featuring Joshua Bell with Vasily Petrenko conducting the San Francisco Symphony. The concert opened with Shostakovich's Festival Overture. According to the program, that was to be followed by Tchaikovsky's Méditation from Souvenir d'un lieu cher, and then Glazunov's Violin Concerto in A minor, both featuring Joshua Bell on violin, but the order of these two pieces was reversed--which was a good thing given that the short, romantic Méditation probably would have sounded anti-climactic following the Glazunov. After intermission, the Symphony performed Elgar's Symphony No. 1.

Vasily Petrenko was new to me, but I very much enjoyed his readings of the Shostakovich and the Glazunov pieces. Tall, thin, and with very long, expressive arms and hands, Petrenko looked sometimes like a large ocean-going bird gesturing with wings. At other times, during slow or delicate passages, his indications became something quite the opposite--minimalist (a slight nod of the head, a subtle gesture with one finger, or simply a look), but the performers seemed highly engaged and in top form throughout the concert. Petrenko--young, confident (almost cocky) was a pleasure to watch. According to the program notes, Petrenko has studied with Mariss Jansons, Yuri Temirkanoff, and Esa-Pekka Salonen, among others. He will become the Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra starting in the 2013-2014 season, but is currently Principal Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orcehstra.

Shostakovich's Festival Overture is not one of my favorite pieces by that composer, but it's familiar and fun and rousing. It's not a bad way to open a concert, as it gets both the audience and the performers warmed up. Actually, it was a lot of fun to hear, even if it's not very challenging music to listen to (I'm not sure how the orchestra feels about playing it). The Tchaikovsky piece was not exactly my style either, but it was a lovely selection to show off the sound of Joshua Bell's violin, which is the 1713 Stradivarius known as "The Gibson."* This is the second time I've heard Bell play in person. It's almost enough just to listen to the tone of his instrument.... Also in the Glazunov, much of the pleasure was hearing the violin with the clarity of a live performance. I'm used to this concerto in the form of two rather old LPs in my collection, a Nathan Milstein record on Capitol, with William Steinberg conducting the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (Captiol SP8382) and an RCA Gold Seal Heifetz recording (RCA Gold Seal AGL1-4929). The latter is rather worn and fuzzy. Petrenko seemed particularly good at accentuating the various accents in the orchestral part, especially toward the end of the final movement. His reading gave the whole thing a very attractive sparkle. I recently happened to hear what seemed to me a rather idiosyncratic but highly persuasive  performance of this concerto on the radio, with Gil Shaham playing the violin (it appears to be a Deutsche Grammophon recording with Mikhail Pletnev conducting the Russian National Orchestra). I suppose it's time to acquire this concerto on CD. The Gil Shaham interpretation may be a good choice. Bell was given a warm standing ovation for both of his performances, but he wasn't sufficiently moved to play an encore.

After intermission, the Sympony played the Elgar piece, which I can't say I enjoyed a great deal. Petrenko succeeded in eliciting a crisp, energetic performance, but the music itself is rather repetitive and much longer than I'd say it needs to be to explore the ideas it presents. Simply put, it was dull and taxing. This is not Elgar at his best. I can't understand why the piece was chosen for a program of music that was otherwise Russian. Something Russian (and shorter) would have been more appropriate. Several people near me fell asleep. The audience was palpably restless by the end of the performance. That said, I very much enjoyed the evening just to hear Joshua Bell play the Glazunov concerto.

*For more about the violin, see my thoughts on one of Joshua Bell's 2010 performances with the San Francisco Symphony here.

[Update: I happened upon an online review of this concert today (November 26, 2011) by Jeff Dunn in "San Francisco Classical Voice." Dunn suggests the Elgar sounded so ponderous because of Petrenko's too-rigid tempos. While the work is undoubtedly rather long, it may have been unsuccessful in this case more because of the conducting than because of any fault in the music itself. I'll have to listen to this piece again....]

Photo of Vasily Petrenko by Mark McNulty, courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony.