OLD-NEW FORMS IN STRAVINSKY, HURDLING RIGHT OVER THE ROMANTICS
Charging out of the symphony starting gates was a tumultuous burlesque-theater from Stravinsky. Fasten seat belts NOW!
The SF Symphony spotlighted a pair of composing bedfellows, separated by a canyon of musical evolution and comportment. Stravinsky, OK. But it was the veteran German soloist Julia Fischer in the great Brahms Violin Concerto that brought about the sold-out house. Our misfortune it is that she rarely ventures this far west from her home bailiwick.
Stravinsky’s complete “Pulcinella” (1920), also rarely heard around Davies, looked ahead in harmony while looking back at Neapolitan baroque music in pieces thought erroneously to stem from Pergolesi.
Stravinsky once again was the master in scooping up old music and dressing it up in his orchestral-musical togs, his way. Result: Serving up his lagniappe for his fashionable (but fickle) French audiences. Never strong in inventing memorable themes, he sensed that his grasp of theater, variety and rhythm were in a class by themselves, much like van Gogh giving his new look to familiar landscapes.
The one form of “Pulcinella” having limited appeal is the one shown off by the S.F. Symphony: The complete opus in a concert version of 21 sections. Its short, punchy suite is a popular impact piece. But best of all would be staging the original theater piece, a joyous and irreverent ballet pastiche with revelers, dancers, and madcap scoundrels up to cavorting in urban mischief, at best in the original Picasso designs for impresario Sergei Diaghilev a century ago. Too bad Peter Sellars, master of staging, was currently unavailable.
In contrast to the sprightly, insane, frothy visuals we get the three vocalists rendering the Italian—home tongue to the visuals of commedia dell’arte—sounding like the choir preaching at the offensive visual frivolities. Performing smartly here were mezzo Sasha Cooke, tenor Nicholas Phan and bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni, in solo works and in trios. Played straight-faced, the hyperspeed satire fairly glows, but always beyond the horizon.
Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen thrives in these highly rhythmic, even jagged, exercises. He was helped by the SFS’ strong woodwind section, which gave the January newcomer, principal flutist Yubeen Kim, a chance to shine.
Violinist Fischer (pronounce it Yool-ih-ah, the German way) was in top form, carrying off the Brahms masterpiece with color, flair and panache, unafraid to play pianissimos into inaudibility, then fearlessly launching the hard bow strokes notable in this highly emphatic work. Responding to ovations at Davies, she appended the Paganini Caprice No.13 by way of encore.
Given all the mid-concert musicians’ rotation, the immense scene-stealing duet of oboe with the solo violin in the slow movement fell to Associate Oboe Principal James Button. Perhaps inspired by the golden full moon outside, the unshakeable Button wafted both soloist and us all onto another sublime planet where tranquility reigned. Poetic bliss.
MUSIC NOTES—The violin cadenzas (solo display portions) were largely the work of collaborator Joseph Joachim….For decades after the composition, this masterful 1878 opus was so negatively critiqued in Germany and elsewhere, Brahms never unveiled his second violin concerto, destroying it before even a note was heard. Once again, contrarian critics managed to shoot down a vital part of a composer’s creative energies to our perpetual musical loss.
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY, Salonen conducting, works of Stravinsky and Brahms, Feb. 23-25, Davies Hall, S.F. For SFS info: (415) 864-6000, or go online, www.sfsymphony.org.
