concert review: San Francisco Symphony
Dec. 10th, 2009 07:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacOwing to vicissitudes that aren't mine to tell, I got to my seat barely in time to hear MTT conjure a gentle set of Schubert dances, D. 820, out of thin air. It was as if they'd been playing long before I arrived, just inaudibly.
These were orchestrated by Anton Webern, who had a sideline in such jobs. This must have been the reason the 1820s elegance was succeeded by a weird visitor from a century later, Webern's own Op. 21. The best thing about Webern's music is that it won't detain you for very long, but I must admit, through gritted teeth, that it was an excellent performance: flowing and graceful, words not usually associated with Webern.
Then jump back a century again for not one, but two, major utterances from Beethoven. The Piano Concerto No. 4 matches well the Schubert by being one of his gentlest large works, an effect magnified by soloist Emanuel Ax, who played with a softness of touch and wash of tone color as if the music were by Chopin. You wouldn't think the livelier finale could come across this way, but it did. Personally, I prefer it when Chopin's music is played as if it were by Beethoven, but this was effective and with a witty side: less pillowy and more elfin than, say, Garrick Ohlsson would be at it. Seated next to such playing, the orchestra seemed clumsy and almost leaden.
On to the Symphony No. 5, a no-nonsense, straight-ahead performance of a work that deserves its preeminence. (All the same, this was SFS's first performance of it in four years!) Aside from a fairly effective attempt to bring out the softer side of the hammering finale, there were no gimmicks here, no swells or dramatic holds. Sometimes a fermata is just a fermata.
These were orchestrated by Anton Webern, who had a sideline in such jobs. This must have been the reason the 1820s elegance was succeeded by a weird visitor from a century later, Webern's own Op. 21. The best thing about Webern's music is that it won't detain you for very long, but I must admit, through gritted teeth, that it was an excellent performance: flowing and graceful, words not usually associated with Webern.
Then jump back a century again for not one, but two, major utterances from Beethoven. The Piano Concerto No. 4 matches well the Schubert by being one of his gentlest large works, an effect magnified by soloist Emanuel Ax, who played with a softness of touch and wash of tone color as if the music were by Chopin. You wouldn't think the livelier finale could come across this way, but it did. Personally, I prefer it when Chopin's music is played as if it were by Beethoven, but this was effective and with a witty side: less pillowy and more elfin than, say, Garrick Ohlsson would be at it. Seated next to such playing, the orchestra seemed clumsy and almost leaden.
On to the Symphony No. 5, a no-nonsense, straight-ahead performance of a work that deserves its preeminence. (All the same, this was SFS's first performance of it in four years!) Aside from a fairly effective attempt to bring out the softer side of the hammering finale, there were no gimmicks here, no swells or dramatic holds. Sometimes a fermata is just a fermata.
