Music I'm Listening to: Joshua Bell with the San Francisco Symphony

I attended the Friday, April 28 San Francisco Symphony concert at Davies Symphony Hall. Featured was Joshua Bell performing the Sibelius violin concerto. On the whole, I've never been a particular fan of Bell's recordings (with the exception of his recording of Corigliano's 'The Red Violin Concerto'; he tends to pick more overtly romantic music than I like and he can sometimes use a bit more vibrato than I care for), but I've heard him live now four times in San Francisco, once with him leading the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and three times as a soloist, and I've been impressed every time. He made the very challenging Sibelius concerto seem effortless and clearly the guest conductor, Dalia Stasevska (currently chief conductor of Lahti Symphony Orchestra) really understands Sibelius.

The program began with a short, relentlessly dynamic composition by Anna Meredith called 'Nautilus' originally written as a piece of electronic music (here transcribed for orchestra), and finished, after the violin concerto and intermission, with Sibelius's 'Symphony No. 2'. After the concerto, Bell played a duet for two violins by Shostakovich, joined by the evening's concertmaster, Wyatt Underhill, as an encore. It was a very full house – the fullest I've seen at Davies Symphony Hall since the pandemic. Both the Sibelius pieces received unreserved, much deserved, standing ovations.
 

Music I'm Listening To: Recent Concerts (January-February 2020)

I recently (January 24) heard Armenian violinist Sergey Khachatryan perform the Sibelius Violin Concerto on a program that included Con brio, by Jörg Widmann, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7. On the podium was guest conductor Dima Slobodeniouk at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. The Widmann piece was unfamiliar, as were the conductor and the soloist in the concerto. At this remove, nearly a month ago now (I've been busy), I find it hard to remember the Widmann piece, so I'll not comment, but Khachatryan's performance of the Sibelius was memorable. It was memorable not for any idiosyncratic approach but for the sense of sincerity and deep engagement Khachatryan projected. Watching him and listening, I couldn't help feeling he was lost in the piece—in a good way.  I don't mean to suggest it was an overly romanticized interpretation, only that he seemed profoundly connected to the music. As an encore, Khachatryan played an Armenian folk tune.

I thought that I had never heard of him, but, on looking through my CD collection after returning home, I see that I own one recording him, recordings of the Shostakovich violin concertos with Kurt Masur conducting the Orchestre National de France (Naive V 5025). So, clearly I had heard of him, but didn't remember him.

On February 8, pianist Natasha Paremski joined the Santa Rosa Symphony for a performance of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3. That was preceded by Beethoven's Leonore Overture III and the world premiere of Matt Browne's first symphony, The Course of Empire, a piece commissioned by the Santa Rosa Symphony and the first in a series of concerts that will premiere commissioned first symphonies by a number of young composers in the next couple of years. As I do the backstage photography for the Santa Rosa Symphony, I don't always get to hear the music in a way that allows me to really concentrate on what I'm hearing; I'm moving around looking for opportunities to take interesting photographs, but I enjoyed Paremski's performance and heard enough of Matt Browne's piece to think that I'd like to hear it again, to give it its due. My impression of it is a bit fragmentary.

Music I'm Writing: String Quartet No. 7

I recently finished writing my seventh string quartet. I'm fairly happy with it, but I learn so much every time I write a something, that I quickly become dissatisfied and begin itching to start work on another piece--which I'm very likely to do.