A BUNCH OF SYMPHONIC STIMULI
As Marin Symphony Pursues Bold
Paths
By Paul Hertelendy
artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music
and dance
Week of Nov. 9-16, 2011
Vol. 14, No. 20
SAN RAFAEL---An
ingratiating new piano
concerto, an eloquent reading of Mahler, and an orchestra on a
less-than-perfect
night marked the Marin Symphony’s second concert set of the season.
Getting its
West Coast premiere, the Piano Concerto of New Yorker Kenji Bunch, 38,
reminds
me of a pet that you just bought, one that licks you and wants to hop
up into
your lap right away. The harmonies are as accessible as those of
Rachmaninoff
or Saint-Saëns, and the jazzy finale is Gershwinesque and
syncopated. Bunch’s
gift is in the shimmering sparks he brings to the orchestra, coming to
life
like some will-o’-the-wisp sprite, deftly perking up one’s ear, at
times with
nothing more than a feathery pitter-pat. I don’t for a minute see this
as music
for the ages, but rather as a bouquet that you welcome, inhale and
enjoy. In the
traditional repertory, the work standing closest to this one is
Prokofieff’s popular
Third Concerto, though Bunch’s is not as dependent on piano virtuosity.
In
fact, more than once the score (as heard Nov. 8) had us meandering
leisurely,
floating down rivers of sound, before the brass came to life and
quickened the
pulse.
This
well-crafted concerto fit piano soloist Monica Ohuchi hand-in-glove,
because of
(or despite) Bunch and Ohuchi being
husband and wife. She is uninhibited, with very good command of the
instrument,
bringing rhythmic freedom to the cadenza. I could see others doing this
opus
more assertively, but she is fluid and expressive, never just
percussive.
Attractive
solos were incorporated and played, on flute (Linda Lukas) and English
horn
(Laura Reynolds).
Music
Director Alasdair Neale plays the demanding, hour-long Mahler First
Symphony
without a score before him, and it was obvious that this is a work very
close
to his heart. Some thought him crazy essaying the First in the wake of
the S.F.
Symphony’s exemplary and informative video of it (on TV’s “Keeping
Score”
series) earlier this year. But Neale brings some unique qualities to
it, even
though the mildly cantankerous winds and percussion on occasion have
different
ideas of the beat than he. In the slow sections, like the Funeral March
(resembling “Three Blind Mice” played upside down), he does a
taffy-pull on
tempos, like the maestros of a century ago, probably much like Mahler
himself. The rubato was emotional enough
to make you
melt, tugging at your very soul. And his finale comes in on little cat
feet,
then cuts loose in explosions of brass and timpani that made the floor
vibrate
underfoot.
This is a work
laid out on a huge canvas---four trumpets,
partly playing offstage, and eight French horns. The Marinites had 51
string
players which, given the Mahler and the Marin Center Concert Hall, were
not
sufficient. Several fine-spun solos stood out, none better than the
contrabass
of Robert Ashley.
In
this
season of caution, deficits and conservative programming in performing
arts,
the Marin Symphony instead is a pioneer, with new or recent music by
Liebermann, Pärt and Kapilow yet to come in a season of five
concert sets
ending May 8. Now, despite its 59 years,
the Marin Symphony remains young, at times fallible, yet vibrant.
Marin
Symphony, concerts through Nov. 8 at the Marin Center Concert Hall, San Rafael. For
info: (415)
479-8100, or go online.
©Paul Hertelendy 2011
#
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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