S.F. SYMPHONY'S 100TH---THIS TIME,
DUTILLEUX AND ALAN GILBERT
With Meticulous French Craftsman's Virtuosic
Violin Concerto
By Paul Hertelendy
artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music
and dance
Week of Oct. 28-Nov. 6, 2011
Vol. 14, No. 18
You come away floored by the
meticulous craftsmanship of the master colorist Henri Dutilleux, 95.
But I come
away from his violin concerto still short of protein, still yearning
for a more
lasting impact.
The piece
subtitled “L’arbre
des songes” (Tree of Dreams, 1985) attests to the French composer's
great vitality, imagination
and seeming agelessness. It fits the needs of a modern concerto making
peak
demands of a young fire-eating soloist who sets the sparks flying
through those
nonstop virtuosic passages. But he leaves you with more admiration than
deep
impression after the 23-minute outpouring over four movements.
The writing of this neoclassical master is tonal,
using
a conventional orchestra apart from the eight (!) percussionists
producing
agreeable, ear-enticing sonorities in the back rows. The sounds recall
the
German terminology of the Klangfarbe,
or sound coloration, in vogue earlier in the 20th century.
The violin
soloist was the "other"
Capuçon, the youthful Renaud Capuçon, brother of Gautier
Capuçon, the cellist
who has been featured here before. All
together, this made for a welcome (but still too rare) foray into
French music
at the San Francisco Symphony, presenting
quite a brilliant artist shying before none of the challenges,
ranging
from the free, discoursive opening movement to the fast-flying 2nd
and
4th movements of high animation. In between comes a languid
slow
movement, all of it linked continuously by interlude
transitions---eventful but
not gripping. Clearly, it fits the requisites for a well-made violin
showpiece.
This epic 100th
year
of the SFS presents no end of visiting major orchestras (with the LA
Philharmonic
last weekend) and major podium figures----in this instance, Alan
Gilbert, the
music director of the NY Philharmonic, no less, giving polished
readings in
what may be his last guesting stint here for a long while (Music
directors of
top orchestras get heavily immersed in their own ensembles and rarely
are given
leeway for guest-conducting stints). He has made his impact at the NYP,
now in
his 3rd season, boldly launching a new-music series and
garnering
admirable notices. As a native-born New
Yorker of mixed Asian-American parentage, he represents several
significant
firsts at the NYP. At the Oct. 27
concert in Davies Hall, he brought off the Beethoven Symphony No. 8 in
a playful
fashion, without making it seem like warmed-over 18th-century
music.
(What if half of us only knew Beethoven’s charming even-numbered
symphonies,
and the other half only the forcefully dramatic odd numbered ones---two
different worlds, in totally contrasting languages, leaving us badly in
need of
translators and interpreters to converse with each other!).
The
concert concluded with
Haydn’s Symphony No. 99, played where a far more varied contrast to
Beethoven and Dutilleux would have served the half-filled hall far
better.
These
San Francisco Symphony concerts under guest conductor Alan Gilbert
continue through Oct. 29. 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 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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