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concert review: San Francisco Symphony
Apr. 30th, 2009 07:30 amEverybody in the orchestra got the week off except a small group of string players. (The largest configuration in this concert was the perhaps overbalanced 8-6-4-4-2.) Principal concertmaster Alexander Barantschik led with his violin, not from the podium. His appearances in this role tend to be highly cherished, but on the evidence of this one I'd say the record is mixed.
The first half consisted of The Four Seasons, treated as one giant violin concerto in twelve movements. Charming as usual, but somewhat routine. As soloist, Barantschik swallowed some phrases (brief abrupt drops in volume) and missed some notes, but it was a marathon.
For the second half he sat down and played concertmaster. Mozart's K. 137, one of the Salzburg Divertimentos, the one that was written inside out with the slow middle movement first. (Yes, I've heard of church sonatas. But this really isn't one.) And Tchaikovsky's Serenade. The sound of the orchestra was wonderful: rich without being lush, it didn't come across as gaudy after the Mozart, and there was a fine sheen on top, particularly notable in the violins at the start of the slow movement. Exposed passages for the inner and lower voices - and there's a lot of them in this work - were in perfect intonation. One expects no less from the SFS since Blomstedt, of course, but many of the ensembles I've been listening to recently would have difficulty there.
The problems here were in interpretation. Tchaikovsky is prone to repeating passages verbatim, two or even three or four times, but Barantschik rarely gave him a compelling reason to do so. The work came out as repetitious rather than intensifying or kaleidoscopic.
The first half consisted of The Four Seasons, treated as one giant violin concerto in twelve movements. Charming as usual, but somewhat routine. As soloist, Barantschik swallowed some phrases (brief abrupt drops in volume) and missed some notes, but it was a marathon.
For the second half he sat down and played concertmaster. Mozart's K. 137, one of the Salzburg Divertimentos, the one that was written inside out with the slow middle movement first. (Yes, I've heard of church sonatas. But this really isn't one.) And Tchaikovsky's Serenade. The sound of the orchestra was wonderful: rich without being lush, it didn't come across as gaudy after the Mozart, and there was a fine sheen on top, particularly notable in the violins at the start of the slow movement. Exposed passages for the inner and lower voices - and there's a lot of them in this work - were in perfect intonation. One expects no less from the SFS since Blomstedt, of course, but many of the ensembles I've been listening to recently would have difficulty there.
The problems here were in interpretation. Tchaikovsky is prone to repeating passages verbatim, two or even three or four times, but Barantschik rarely gave him a compelling reason to do so. The work came out as repetitious rather than intensifying or kaleidoscopic.
