concert review: California Symphony
May. 5th, 2019 09:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacI went to three concerts this weekend, but owing to logistics I'll probably be covering them in reverse chronological order. At any rate, third on the list was the California Symphony, under its music director, Donato Cabrera, on Sunday afternoon at Lesher in Walnut Creek.
Their current composer in residence, Katherine Balch, contributed a new violin concerto. Balch turns out to be an unreconstructed modernist. The soloist, Robyn Bollinger, her best friend since conservatory days - with friends like this, etc etc - sounded variously like a baby bird in pain, a mule in pain, a cow in pain, and a car alarm in pain. You know, it's still possible to write great music today, even great music which by no means sets out to soothe the listener, but this ain't it.
But that wasn't why I was here. I was here for Bruckner's Seventh. I'm always eager to hear what a second-tier orchestra will do with such a work. The big waves of sound lined up to crash across the dry and unresonant stage in a powerful but neatly-ordered fashion. It wasn't subtle, but it was sincere.
Lesher is still selling single-serving containers of ice cream at intermission, but there's been a change since the last time I was here and complained about this in a professional review. Now the ushers equip themselves with small trash bags so customers have a place to throw the empty containers away. Good going.
Their current composer in residence, Katherine Balch, contributed a new violin concerto. Balch turns out to be an unreconstructed modernist. The soloist, Robyn Bollinger, her best friend since conservatory days - with friends like this, etc etc - sounded variously like a baby bird in pain, a mule in pain, a cow in pain, and a car alarm in pain. You know, it's still possible to write great music today, even great music which by no means sets out to soothe the listener, but this ain't it.
But that wasn't why I was here. I was here for Bruckner's Seventh. I'm always eager to hear what a second-tier orchestra will do with such a work. The big waves of sound lined up to crash across the dry and unresonant stage in a powerful but neatly-ordered fashion. It wasn't subtle, but it was sincere.
Lesher is still selling single-serving containers of ice cream at intermission, but there's been a change since the last time I was here and complained about this in a professional review. Now the ushers equip themselves with small trash bags so customers have a place to throw the empty containers away. Good going.
