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concert review: Brahms Festival
May. 16th, 2008 11:03 pmSome people don't like Brahms. Tchaikovsky called him "a giftless bastard." Benjamin Britten would make dismissive remarks about Brahms (and Beethoven) when he thought nobody was writing it down. A mid-20C music critic named B.H. Haggin considered Brahms a sort of charlatan whom he'd finally seen through.
But those of us who do like Brahms were at the San Francisco Symphony's Brahms festival the last two weeks. (And it's continuing next week with the German Requiem, but I won't be here.) We've gotten the Variations On A Theme (Not) By Haydn, the Serenade No. 2, the Fourth Symphony, and both piano concertos, no. 1 from the storming Yefim Bronfman (with a couple unwarranted blats from the orchestra) and no. 2 in a curiously detached performance by Leif Ove Andsnes. Andsnes played strongly and firmly, but it felt as if he was rendering a different piece from the orchestra. He'd do a little of his and then they'd do a little of theirs, and they were both good but never did the twain quite meet.
MTT's conducting throughout was designed to bring out the sonorities. Brahms writes thickly; he's the pot roast of composers. But here were bright floating wind chords, little soundscape pictures in stately succession. I noticed this particularly in the finale of the Fourth, which was presented as an essay in pure sound, with no emphasis on either side of its distinctive structure (a passacaglia with sonata-form overlay). Same with the variation structure in the Haydn Variations. Some lovely contemplative stuff.
Most intriguing for sound was the Serenade, rarely heard because it's for winds and lower strings with no violins. But the winds chirp mightily so the work lacks the darkness of, say, the Brandenburg Sixth. MTT told the audience that it's possible to get lost in the serenade's five movements, so listen for the piccolo which only enters in the finale to know when it's almost done. Well, that little piccolo shrieked its way through the movement. Couldn't miss it.
But those of us who do like Brahms were at the San Francisco Symphony's Brahms festival the last two weeks. (And it's continuing next week with the German Requiem, but I won't be here.) We've gotten the Variations On A Theme (Not) By Haydn, the Serenade No. 2, the Fourth Symphony, and both piano concertos, no. 1 from the storming Yefim Bronfman (with a couple unwarranted blats from the orchestra) and no. 2 in a curiously detached performance by Leif Ove Andsnes. Andsnes played strongly and firmly, but it felt as if he was rendering a different piece from the orchestra. He'd do a little of his and then they'd do a little of theirs, and they were both good but never did the twain quite meet.
MTT's conducting throughout was designed to bring out the sonorities. Brahms writes thickly; he's the pot roast of composers. But here were bright floating wind chords, little soundscape pictures in stately succession. I noticed this particularly in the finale of the Fourth, which was presented as an essay in pure sound, with no emphasis on either side of its distinctive structure (a passacaglia with sonata-form overlay). Same with the variation structure in the Haydn Variations. Some lovely contemplative stuff.
Most intriguing for sound was the Serenade, rarely heard because it's for winds and lower strings with no violins. But the winds chirp mightily so the work lacks the darkness of, say, the Brandenburg Sixth. MTT told the audience that it's possible to get lost in the serenade's five movements, so listen for the piccolo which only enters in the finale to know when it's almost done. Well, that little piccolo shrieked its way through the movement. Couldn't miss it.
