STARTLING NEW SOUNDS IN SFS PREMIERE
Coaxed by Larcher out of Old
Instruments
By D. Rane Danubian
artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music
and dance
Week of April 9-16, 2011
Vol. 13, No. 86
CUPERTINO, CA---The amazing thing about the
Austrian composer Thomas Larcher is his dense assembly of orchestral
sounds in
new modes, as if playing instruments we had never heard before. The San
Francisco Symphony presented the world premiere of Larcher’s “Red and
Green,”
an 18-minute tone poem reminding me of an abstract-expressionist
painting full
of washes and broad strokes, devoid of clear outlines.
He has a
stunning gift, aurally as significant as were those
of Rimsky-Korsakov and Stravinsky in their day. Without bringing on
whole new
sets of instruments, he alters techniques and uses many individual
parts, even
within string sections, and the broadest possible sound spectrum. His music has an ebb and flow, much like the
tides, with interludes of great delicacy. After the initial eerie,
spooky
effects that might have been intended for a horror film, the
two-movement work
picks up the momentum. There is no tonality, just a sequences of
irresistible waves
of sound, at times mellow, at times
overwhelming. The SFS did well commissioning the 47-year-old Larcher,
whose
work as a contemporary pianist and composer has been virtually unknown
over
here except for recordings.
On the
traditional side, the SFS also hosted an epic
recollection. The performance of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto was
given on
exactly the same violin as used in the 1844 world premiere by virtuoso
Ferdinand
David. This priceless Guarneri violin is on longterm loan to the SFS
concertmaster Alexander Barantschik, who gave one of his habitual
impeccable
performances when hear April 7 at Flint Center.
His high sensitivity,
as well as his silky way with the broken chords of the cadenza, were
memorable.
There is a
more profound question with regard to Flint
Center,
where the SFS plays runouts several times a year
(but never with their music director, Michael Tilson Thomas, much to
the
chagrin of the Flint
subscribers). The diffuse acoustics of Flint
treat pianos much better than violins. For future Flint programs, the central concerto
would
ideally be with piano, never with violin, which leaves audiences
straining to
hear, regardless of performer.
Osmo
Vänskä of the Minnesota Orchestra was the returning
guest conductor, and a welcome return it was, despite all the elaborate
body English
he injects into his podium work. He produces some of the most exquisite
pianissimos, particularly prevalent in the romantic Vaughan Williams
“London”
Symphony (No. 2, written 1912-20), a work of which I never was a great
fan
until I heard his velvet-glove reading of it. How many times do we have
to
repeat those Big Ben bells of London, anyway? The orchestra played well
when heard here April 7,
especially
soloists like English hornist Russ deLuna and associate viola principal
Yun Jie
Liu.
LARCHER
NOTES---One advantage to Flint
is that the composer is present and
accessible downstairs during the concert, not tucked away in a distant
box…. Tracked
down and asked whether his musical roots lay in the Second Vienna
School of
Alban Berg et al, Larcher replied, “No, no---rather more roots from
Bartok.”
These
San Francisco Symphony concerts continue through April 9 at 8 p.m.,
Davies Hall, S.F. For
info: (415) 864-6000, or go online.
Broadcasts on KDFC-FM (9.3) at 8 p.m. on the second Tuesday following.
©D. Rane Danubian 2011
#
D. Rane Danubian 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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