concert review: San Francisco Symphony

[calimac]

Kurt Masur, once the greatest conductor in the 45-year lifespan of the nation of East Germany, came to lead the works of three German Romantics. (Uh-oh, am I being dismissive of their individual genius if I call them that? If so, so was the pre-concert lecturer.) We had Mendelssohn's Scotch Symphony, Max Bruch's G-Minor Violin Concerto (with Sarah Chang), and Richard Struass's Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks. In that order, which is chronological by composition, but is also longest-to-shortest and consequently the opposite of the usual symphony concert order. The advantage of the usual order was shown when a quarter of the audience conspicuously got up to leave at the end of the concerto, not wishing to endure 15 minutes of Strauss's best music.

Masur conducted with a minimum of gesture, often just standing there and letting his hands tremble slightly at his side, but got a maximum of effect from the orchestra. I've not been particularly fond of his recordings, but I've seen him conduct on television and his live performances can be excellent. So it was here, and the SFS was in fine "nobody outdoes us" mode, even with some of the lead musicians sitting out the Mendelssohn and second-chair people taking the solos.

Some of the slow parts, especially the introductions to both Mendelssohn and Strauss, were taken at unusually brisk tempos. I thought the Mendelssohn would run short, but I timed it and it was 40 minutes, long for this work even with the unusual step of repeating the first-movement exposition. Also unusual for this performance was the prominence of the cellos, even though I was sitting roughly behind them, where they'd be least expected to dominate the sound. They have interesting undercurrent lines that add to the richness of my favorite of mature Mendelssohn works. Despite the German program and conductor, it didn't sound any less Scottish than usual, the atmospherically misty side being all there.

The G-Minor is the Bruch violin concerto, despite the composer's continual reminders to performers that he'd written a number of other concertos for which he hadn't sold off all the rights as he had for this one. Bruch has gone down in history as a one-work composer, but even that one work doesn't get played very often anymore. This is one of the great screech-and-scraw concertos, encouraging the soloist to make as many ugly noises as possible in the name of virtuosity. There's a certain amount of suggestion of Gypsy and/or Hungarian influence in the solo part, but even in the lively finale this is not really a folk-inspired work.

Comments

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

I heard the Bruch on the radio today, and thought of my aunt, as usual. I wish I had located the LP of her playing the concerto with the Long Beach Philharmonic (the beginning is missing, for some reason), but it was not to be. I still have copies I taped from the LP years ago.

Of course, when I mentioned it to my aunt, she immediately told me what went wrong the day of the concert. I'm not sure she's satisfied with anything she's ever committed to a recording medium. My favorite recording by her is when she and Dad practiced the last movement of the Mendelssohn on a visit to our house just before she had my cousin. Right after the piece ends, she repeats the final run-up, slower, annoyed with how she did it. Then Dad plays a comedic non-cadence to finish it off. Just before he does, an infant's tiny "wah" is heard. By my calculations, I was the only infant in the house at the time.

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

Kurt Masur, once the greatest conductor in the 45-year lifespan of the nation of East Germany,

Well, so much for Klaus Tennstedt!

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Ah, the Bruch. I was working on it when I quit taking violin lessons, though I like to think that I got a bit more than screeches and scraws at the time.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Who would have been a greater conductor in the history of East Germany had he spent more of his career in East Germany. Was Beethoven a great 18th-century composer?

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

The catty remark would be that the Bruch is enough to make anyone quit taking violin lessons.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

No, I wasn't being catty. (Drat this limited medium! I quit due to the machinations of the nasty fellow in charge of the instrumental music programs at my high school.) I was trying to be self-effacing, to counteract any possibly boasting (you don't study the Bruch in year two).

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

One of my nicest music-making memories from the 1970s is that of accompanying a violinist friend in the slow movement of the Bruch VC #1 in a practice room. It fit my meager pianistic abilities, and her pretty good fiddling (she later joined some professional orchestra in Arizona) perfectly.