FAST-TRACK PLAYERS IN AN ADES CONCERTO 
                                              By Paul Hertelendy 
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Week of April 2-9, 2009
                                                                  Vol. 11, No. 86
          While many a soloist cringes at the thought of a truly modern score, violinist Leila Josefowicz relishes it. She paired up once again with conductor James Gaffigan---can we call it the Joseffigan Duo?---to display the brief but fiendishly difficult Violin Concerto by Thomas Adès at the S.F. Symphony April 1. It was a stirring, unconventional program with these young fast-rising talents, in a modern  “sandwich” program of Haydn-Adès-Mozart featuring the SFS reduced to a chamber orchestra. To the credit of both ensemble and Gaffigan, they made it seem like a considerably grander experience.
            This was anything but an April-Fool joke. The transplanted Southern Californian Josefowicz, 31, took on the seemingly unplayable score, where the meter changes with every eye-blink, and carried it off radiantly. All that hieroglyphics on paper crystallized into phrases and structure in play, though she admitted to shelving it, then reconsidering it, before it all fell into place sonically. 
            The first movement (subtitled “Rings”) is especially challenging as the sparks fly from the solo instrument, the bow ranging all over the strings in a dazzling tour de force, and dwelling at length on the highest octaves, where the soloist blends in with the orchestra’s piccolo. An analogous interplay recurs in the slow movement (“Paths”), where the violin links, however improbably, with the hefty trombones. This movement is highly accessible  to the audience, with a very lyrical main theme that seems to be endless, sometimes interrupted by percussion blows, as if to remind the dreamer of reality.
            The finale (“Rounds”) is lightly jazzy and syncopated, bothersome only for the abrupt, unprepared ending with a sharp blow on a bass drum---as though you suddenly pressed EJECT on your CD player. Perhaps contemporary electronics is starting to color even 100%-orchestral works?
            This often spiky concerto from 2005, compressed into just 17 minutes,  is subtitled “Concentric Paths,” referring to musical structure. It is yet another major effort by Adès, one of the most highly regarded of the under-40 group of British composers, one who evokes comparisons to John Adams.
            Gaffigan also served up some of the most dynamic Haydn and Mozart you’ll encounter, devoid of the sedate spinning-wheel approach to 18th-century symphonies. Even with the small ensemble of less than three dozen players, the Haydn Symphony No. 52 resonated like a tragic opera, vibrant to the core, more suited to the modern audience than perhaps to the princely court at Esterhazy (today, a palace in Hungary), where the Austrian conductor-composer Haydn spent most of his career. Curious, that a dramatic symphony like this in C minor (rare in the Haydn-Mozart oeuvre) has never been performed before by the SFS, but credit Gaffigan for fleshing it out.
            The concluding Mozart Symphony No. 39 could have been a palliative, but was still energetic and quasi-theatrical, adding up to a rousing experience. Its Trio section, built on an ingratiating  laendler folkloric rhythm, offers a considerable clarinet solo part, suggesting that Mozart had anticipated the participation of his virtuoso Anton Stadler.  Here, it gave principal Carey Bell a chance to shine.
            The Orchestra was razor-sharp.
            Gaffigan made a colossal impression this week as he concluded the second season as SFS associate conductor. One would fervently hope he might be back next year (nobody on the inside is talking), but the reality is that Gaffigan, about to turn 30, is on the fast track up toward the most exalted podia. 
            FALLING OFF THE PODIUM??---No, none recorded thus far. “Off the Podium” is the stimulating post-concert Q-and-A with the conductor offered on occasional evenings, this time with the whole “Joseffigan Duo”---an engaging, informative pair---holding forth for 25 minutes before some 100 people. The two had also collaborated on the Adès at the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

          These San Francisco Symphony concerts continue through April 4 at 8 p.m. For info: (415) 864-6000, or go  online. Broadcasts on KDFC-FM (102.1) at 8 p.m. on the second Tuesday following.

        ©Paul Hertelendy 2009
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           Paul Hertelendy has been covering the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with relish -- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
    These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly) will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local artists as well.
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