Concert review: Symphony Silicon Valley
Oct. 10th, 2004 10:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacThe old San Jose Symphony dissolved in a financial and administrative meltdown three years ago. I attended its last-ever concert, which was preceded by an announcement by the chairman of the board, assuring us that the orchestra would carry on despite the financial crisis. Two days later the board shut the orchestra down and canceled the rest of the season. So much for their credibility. Too bad, because the orchestra itself was a good if sometimes erratic local ensemble.
The following year, most of the same musicians and an entirely new board (a wise decision in both cases) formed a new orchestra. Ignoring the old orchestra's music director (also a wise decision), they invited guest conductors to lead a few irregularly scheduled concerts, and a more regular schedule but a continuation of the guest-conductor policy has continued as their practice into the third season which began yesterday.
Not such a wise decision was to continue playing in the old orchestra's hall, a sub-Frank Lloyd Wright building with the acoustics of a barn. Still, despite some roughness in performance due to the orchestra's very part-time status, especially in the first year, they got in some good performances, in particular an absolutely stunning rendition of the Sibelius Second Symphony under Yasuo Shinozaki in their first year.
This year, however, they've changed venues. The continued renovation and yuppification of downtown San Jose, which has had both its good and bad sides, has reached the old California Theatre, a once-landmark film-and-stage theatre opened in 1927 that had become a dive by my childhood and has been closed for 30 years. After years of negotations, it was renovated this year for the local opera company, and then the symphony asked if they could use it too. The acoustic renovation design had been for opera and nobody knew how well an orchestra would work in it, but they decided to give it a shot.
Yesterday was the first concert, which celebrated the theatre's heritage by consisting entirely of film and stage music from the theatre's heyday: film music by Copland (The Red Pony) and Korngold (the Errol Flynn Robin Hood), and overtures and suites from three Gershwin stage shows, including Porgy and Bess. Pseudo-20s news reporters greeted concertgoers at the door; the bar served free Shirley Temples; an old-style theatre usher, complete with flashlight, guided guest conductor Sergiu Comissiona to the podium, and changed a signboard reading "Now Playing" between each work.
The music was pleasant enough (I really prefer Korngold's concert music to his film music, but Copland is the same composer in both forms), the playing was fine, but how were the acoustics? Bright, even harsh, top-heavy, intense and highly separated, with no reverb at all. Not surprising in a small house with plain plaster walls and very little carpeting. I'm sure they'll be making adjustments. It'll be interesting to hear them play Tchaikovsky's Fifth under these conditions in three weeks.
The following year, most of the same musicians and an entirely new board (a wise decision in both cases) formed a new orchestra. Ignoring the old orchestra's music director (also a wise decision), they invited guest conductors to lead a few irregularly scheduled concerts, and a more regular schedule but a continuation of the guest-conductor policy has continued as their practice into the third season which began yesterday.
Not such a wise decision was to continue playing in the old orchestra's hall, a sub-Frank Lloyd Wright building with the acoustics of a barn. Still, despite some roughness in performance due to the orchestra's very part-time status, especially in the first year, they got in some good performances, in particular an absolutely stunning rendition of the Sibelius Second Symphony under Yasuo Shinozaki in their first year.
This year, however, they've changed venues. The continued renovation and yuppification of downtown San Jose, which has had both its good and bad sides, has reached the old California Theatre, a once-landmark film-and-stage theatre opened in 1927 that had become a dive by my childhood and has been closed for 30 years. After years of negotations, it was renovated this year for the local opera company, and then the symphony asked if they could use it too. The acoustic renovation design had been for opera and nobody knew how well an orchestra would work in it, but they decided to give it a shot.
Yesterday was the first concert, which celebrated the theatre's heritage by consisting entirely of film and stage music from the theatre's heyday: film music by Copland (The Red Pony) and Korngold (the Errol Flynn Robin Hood), and overtures and suites from three Gershwin stage shows, including Porgy and Bess. Pseudo-20s news reporters greeted concertgoers at the door; the bar served free Shirley Temples; an old-style theatre usher, complete with flashlight, guided guest conductor Sergiu Comissiona to the podium, and changed a signboard reading "Now Playing" between each work.
The music was pleasant enough (I really prefer Korngold's concert music to his film music, but Copland is the same composer in both forms), the playing was fine, but how were the acoustics? Bright, even harsh, top-heavy, intense and highly separated, with no reverb at all. Not surprising in a small house with plain plaster walls and very little carpeting. I'm sure they'll be making adjustments. It'll be interesting to hear them play Tchaikovsky's Fifth under these conditions in three weeks.
