Music I'm Listening to: James Ehnes with the San Francisco Symphony

I attended the January 13 San Francisco Symphony concert at Davies Symphony Hall. On the program were a new piece called Moondog by composer Elizabeth Ogonek, which introduced the piece from the stage. This was the world premiere. That was followed by Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 63 and, after intermission, Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, OP. 17. James Ehnes was the soloist in the concerto. Elim Chan led the orchestra. 

I had never heard of Hong Kong native Chan – a tiny woman brimming over with energy – but she studied with the likes of Valery Gergiev and Bernard Haitink, according to the program. Overall, I very much liked her interpretations, which struck me as disciplined and precise, but fluid and musical at the same time. Ehnes offered a solid, if not exciting, rendition of the Prokofiev. He pleased the audience with two encores, the first one of the Paganini caprices, the second a movement from one of the Bach solo sonatas for violin. 

Music I'm Listening to: Charles Dutoit Conducts the San Francisco Symphony, with James Ehnes

On Thursday, January 31, I attended my second San Francisco Symphony concert at the new Green Music Center. Charles Dutoit was the guest conductor. On the program were Ravel's Rhapsodie Espagnole, Lalo's Symphony Espangole, and Elgar's Enigma Variations.

Dutoit never really disappoints. The entire concert was clean and enjoyable and enhanced by the beautiful clarity of sound in the new hall (apparent particularly in a passage in the Enigma Variations that involves extended low notes in the violas; and it's worth mentioning that the solo work by the principal viola elsewhere in the variations was notably fine).

James Ehnes was soloist in the Lalo. He gave a precise, energetic performance that was hard to fault except that it came across as rather too tame. The Symphony Espagnole, it seems to me, requires a bit of fire to be really successful, and that was lacking. The violin Ehnes plays (according to the program notes) is the 1715 "Ex-Marsick" Stradivarius, lent by the Fulton Collection. It's a rather delicate, sweet-sounding instrument with little throatiness in the low range, and I suspect that added to the impression. It's always a pleasure to hear the fine musicians of the San Francisco symphony, but, on the whole, this concert lacked excitement.

Photos of Charles Dutoit and James Ehnes courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony.