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concert review: San Francisco Symphony
Apr. 12th, 2007 11:45 pmMTT is running a little de facto Stravinsky festival in the regular subscription concerts. This week's is the only one I've gotten to, but it was a good one.
Three Stravinsky works from the 1920s, the height of his neoclassical period. One for winds and brass (Symphonies of Wind Instruments), one for strings (Apollo), and one choral work with a half-orchestra dominated by winds again (Symphony of Psalms). Plus, Toru Takemitsu's clarinet concerto, Fantasma/Cantos, with Richard Stolzman, its dedicatee, as soloist.
The two works with "symphony/ies" in the title (neither is a symphony by more traditional standards) are crisp, rhythmic works with surprisingly calm endings; Apollo and the Takemitsu are more quiet and contemplative, but what they all have in common is emotional detachment. None tries to pull the hearer's heartstrings; all aim to charm through complexity of motif and tone color. As the title of one of the works suggests, this is Apollonian art, at its Apollonianest.
I'm not a big Takemitsu fan - when I want that degree of contemplative stillness in music, I prefer Hovhaness - but the Stravinsky works were all interesting, and the Symphony of Psalms, which I think I'd never heard live before, was truly outstanding, especially the calm, repetitive ending. The chorus gently tossed motifs over and over, the winds held the chords, and the brass and timpani softly treaded an ostinato pattern underneath. The longer it lasted the longer I wanted it to last, and when I have that feeling I know I've reached the still point at the heart of the music.
Three Stravinsky works from the 1920s, the height of his neoclassical period. One for winds and brass (Symphonies of Wind Instruments), one for strings (Apollo), and one choral work with a half-orchestra dominated by winds again (Symphony of Psalms). Plus, Toru Takemitsu's clarinet concerto, Fantasma/Cantos, with Richard Stolzman, its dedicatee, as soloist.
The two works with "symphony/ies" in the title (neither is a symphony by more traditional standards) are crisp, rhythmic works with surprisingly calm endings; Apollo and the Takemitsu are more quiet and contemplative, but what they all have in common is emotional detachment. None tries to pull the hearer's heartstrings; all aim to charm through complexity of motif and tone color. As the title of one of the works suggests, this is Apollonian art, at its Apollonianest.
I'm not a big Takemitsu fan - when I want that degree of contemplative stillness in music, I prefer Hovhaness - but the Stravinsky works were all interesting, and the Symphony of Psalms, which I think I'd never heard live before, was truly outstanding, especially the calm, repetitive ending. The chorus gently tossed motifs over and over, the winds held the chords, and the brass and timpani softly treaded an ostinato pattern underneath. The longer it lasted the longer I wanted it to last, and when I have that feeling I know I've reached the still point at the heart of the music.
