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concert review: San Francisco Symphony
Oct. 19th, 2006 07:46 pmSo Semyon Bychkov is this Russian conductor who came to town a decade or two ago and led a performance of Shostakovich's Eleventh so dazzling and memorable that I've remembered it ever since. (Having filched a tape of the later radio broadcast, which I still have, helped.) Naturally I was curious when he came back to conduct the Tenth. (Maybe he'll keep going backwards, slowly. I hope to live long enough to hear his Eighth.)
And it was ... big. Epic. A massive performance, perceptively starting slow in each of the outer movements and building up, while remaining piercingly intense. The evolution of the DSCH motif out of a little piccolo march theme in the third movement was especially clear. This was Shostakovich conducted the way MTT conducts Mahler: with the stops out, grand, wide, and passionate without being a bit flouncy. A symphony with scale to it.
To the sublime from the ... well, Saint-Saens's Second Piano Concerto isn't ridiculous, quite, but despite its serious, neo-Bachian first movement it leaves the impression of fluffiness. This comes, no doubt, from the never-ending fast chatter in the solo piano part. I especially like the passage in the finale where the winds play a slow chorale while the pianist chitters with little trills up and down and all over the keyboard.
The tireless Jean-Yves Thibaudet was the pianist, and one might not again hear such a strong, heavy performance of such fast, flashy music. Quite amazing.
The concert began with 15 minutes of string players standing up, demonstrating Osvaldo Golijov channeling Astor Piazzolla in a piece called Last Round. He's got the sound down, he's got the style. Argentine music has come a long way from Ginastera, and that's fine with me.
And it was ... big. Epic. A massive performance, perceptively starting slow in each of the outer movements and building up, while remaining piercingly intense. The evolution of the DSCH motif out of a little piccolo march theme in the third movement was especially clear. This was Shostakovich conducted the way MTT conducts Mahler: with the stops out, grand, wide, and passionate without being a bit flouncy. A symphony with scale to it.
To the sublime from the ... well, Saint-Saens's Second Piano Concerto isn't ridiculous, quite, but despite its serious, neo-Bachian first movement it leaves the impression of fluffiness. This comes, no doubt, from the never-ending fast chatter in the solo piano part. I especially like the passage in the finale where the winds play a slow chorale while the pianist chitters with little trills up and down and all over the keyboard.
The tireless Jean-Yves Thibaudet was the pianist, and one might not again hear such a strong, heavy performance of such fast, flashy music. Quite amazing.
The concert began with 15 minutes of string players standing up, demonstrating Osvaldo Golijov channeling Astor Piazzolla in a piece called Last Round. He's got the sound down, he's got the style. Argentine music has come a long way from Ginastera, and that's fine with me.
