Music I'm Listening to: Beatrice Rana with the San Francisco Symphony

I belatedly note here that I attended the June 2 performance of the San Francisco Symphony at Davies Symphony Hall, the last concert of the season for me. On the program were a piece called Amazon, by Gloria Isabel Ramos Triano, Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and, after intermission, Schubert's Symphony in C ("The Great"). 

Beatrice Rana was the soloist in the Rachmaninoff. The guest conductor was Manfred Honeck. I enjoyed the whole program, but Rana was the highlight. She played with all the energy and precision she's recently gotten a great deal of notice for. My seat this time was somewhat further to the left than usual, which, in the end, was quite fun, as it afforded an excellent view of her fingers on the keyboard. She played an encore that I did not recognize and she didn't identify it. 

Music I'm Listening to: Grams Conducts the Santa Rosa Symphony, Stewart Goodyear Piano

Conductor candidate Andrew Grams, before going onstage

I attended the Sunday, December 3 performance of the Santa Rosa Symphony at the Green Music Center. Conductor candidate Andrew Grams led the Symphony in a program of Overture to King Lear by Berlioz, Ravel's Piano Concerto in G Major, Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, and Debussy's Clair de Lune. Stewart Goodyear was the piano soloist. I didn't get to hear that much of the concert as I was backstage the whole time and the soundproofing is surprisingly good, but it's interesting to watch the backstage goings on with musicians arriving and warming up, with the administrative and other staff handling announcements, lighting, and changes in stage configuration, and watching the conductor and soloist going on stage and coming off again and their rituals before stepping into the lights and applause. Grams is the third of the five conductor candidates being considered to become the new music director of the Santa Rosa Symphony when Bruno Ferrandis leaves the post.

Conductor Grams and soloist Stewart Goodyear backstage

Music I'm Listening To: Charles Dutoit Conducting the San Francisco Symphony, Nikolai Lugansky Soloist

Renowned Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit is serious and precise on the podium (I'm sure he accepts no nonsense) but behind the seriousness, he seems to have a healthy sense of humor. He usually has an impish half-smile on his face and an air of amiable unflappability before and after he works. He almost dances when he conducts, seeming not so much to coax as to command music from the performers, and, apparently, they can't help playing at their best when he's in charge. At Friday night's concert (March 11, 2016), he drew forth some of the best music I've heard in a long time anywhere. Dutoit is something of a magician. On the program were Ravel's Mother Goose, Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and, after intermission, Fauré's Pelléas et Mélisande Suite, and Stravinsky's Firebird Suite—a longer program than usual.

Mother Goose is rather amorphous, but it has a lot of color and interesting detail. It was well played and a good warm-up for the Rachmaninoff.

The  Rhapsody must be challenging. It frequently alternates long passages of notes that seem impossibly fast with strings of widely spaced single notes that mostly accent the orchestral part yet have to remain melodically coherent. Timing is critical to keep things together. Lugansky was nothing short of phenomenal, the orchestra behind him, equally superb. I can't imagine a better performance of this piece and have never heard a better one. Despite an enthusiastic standing ovation of several minutes, Lugansky declined to play an encore, suggesting with a gesture that his fingers weren't up to it. It was easy to forgive him. He had already done more than his duty.

Dutoit and the Symphony gave us more magic in the second half of the concert. I thought the Fauré particularly well done—lush and intense, but not overdone. Dutoit seems especially good at pushing boundaries of tempo and dynamics just enough to make familiar music exciting and fresh without going too far.

Photograph of Nikolai Lugansky by Marco Borggreve, courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony website. Photograph of Charles Dutoit, courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony Website.

Music I'm Listening To: Santa Rosa Symphony, Jeffrey Kahane Playing and Conducting Mozart, Rachmaninoff (January 22, 2012)

What a pleasure to see and hear Jeffrey Kahane with the Santa Rosa Symphony again. Kahane is making guest appearances in a series of three concerts playing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25 and Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 3, conducting both pieces as well. I attended yesterday's performance (Sunday, January 22).

Kahane gave a delightfully lively and crisp performance of the Mozart, I thought, adding to the fun by playing an expansive cadenza of his own composition. I thought the symphony players were in fine form, with the woodwinds a standout, particularly the flute and the bassoons. The audience was very appreciative. Some in the crowd waved enthusiastically to Kahane after the performance, as if to say "We've missed you."

The choice of a large 20th century symphony for the second half of the program following the Mozart concerto was not an obviously logical one, but I trust Kahane had his reasons. I just wish I could ask him what they were. I can't really say much about the piece as I'd never heard it before, and it's not music that immediately grabs you. It gave the impression of being rather too full of ideas not fully developed or linked, but I suspect that apparent fault is as much a reflection of my ignorance as it is of anything else. Having said that, it seemed to veer from the pastoral to the grandiose and back again, sounding here like something quite modern, there like something more traditional, and in one or two places rather like generic film score music. Nevertheless, there were some interesting textures and some unusual percussion effects, and the musicians showed the same concentration they exhibited playing the Mozart. Kahane seems always to get the best from the Santa Rosa players (although there were a lot of unfamiliar faces among the musicians this time). Again the reception was warm. Kahane and the orchestra received a second standing ovation. As the audience began to leave, the conductor hopped onto the podium and began an encore.

As if to provide an antidote to the unfamiliar Rachmaninoff piece, Kahane and the Santa Rosa Symphony began to play the overture to Die Fledermaus, by Johann Strauss II, a piece the audience was better able to warm up to. It was well played and enthusiastically played and the crowd left quite pleased. The concert was worth it just for the Mozart, but the Strauss was a fun and unexpected way to end the afternoon. I hope we see Mr. Kahane often in the new Green Music Center. We do miss him.

Photo of Jeffrey Kahane courtesy of the Santa Rosa Symphony.