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concert review: Symphony Silicon Valley
Last year the local paper's reviewer had a cow because SSV dared to begin its season with an ordinary concert instead of a fancy Gala Event. He's going to have a cow again this year because they did the same thing. But I like it this way. Just gimme the music. And music we got.
Admittedly the programming selection was a little odd. If you follow an old chestnut like Borodin's In the Steppes of Central Asia* with a piece of jangly postmodernism like Jennifer Higdon's Concerto for Orchestra, it's not a refreshing contrast: it's just going to clash, and increase the time it takes to get one's ears in position to appreciate Higdon's work, no matter how good it is, and Higdon's is very good indeed. I love the way she washes different timbres over each other. Dunno how well it was played, because I don't really know the work, but it sure seemed impressive. The movement for percussion and keyboards (plus harp) only was a big hit with the audience, enough that I bet they'd even enjoy Varese's Ionisation (the all-time masterwork for percussion ensemble) if anyone had the guts to play it around here.
The guest conductor, Emile de Cou, spends a lot of his time conducting ballet, and magically transformed Tchaikovsky's wet, sludgy Symphony No. 2 into The Nutcracker: tight, staccato enunciation, subtle but sudden shifts in dynamics and tempo to keep the repetitions fresh. Even the Borodin (a composer of notoriously heavy music) was brisk and oddly sweet (can an English horn sound sweet? This one did, if briefly), but I didn't realize what de Cou was up to until the second movement of the Tchaikovsky, a coy little march which was just as charming as could be. The orchestra, though in quite good shape to begin with - given that this was their first time together after the summer off - took that long to get fully in swing, but after that it just flowed lightly all the way to the end. No further reminders necessary that this is the same group that triumphed over the Symphonie fantastique at the end of last season.
*written to celebrate the annexation of same by the Russian Empire. Talk about politically incorrect! Just goes to show that if you spend too much time worrying about the politics of music, you'll deny yourself some good listening.
Admittedly the programming selection was a little odd. If you follow an old chestnut like Borodin's In the Steppes of Central Asia* with a piece of jangly postmodernism like Jennifer Higdon's Concerto for Orchestra, it's not a refreshing contrast: it's just going to clash, and increase the time it takes to get one's ears in position to appreciate Higdon's work, no matter how good it is, and Higdon's is very good indeed. I love the way she washes different timbres over each other. Dunno how well it was played, because I don't really know the work, but it sure seemed impressive. The movement for percussion and keyboards (plus harp) only was a big hit with the audience, enough that I bet they'd even enjoy Varese's Ionisation (the all-time masterwork for percussion ensemble) if anyone had the guts to play it around here.
The guest conductor, Emile de Cou, spends a lot of his time conducting ballet, and magically transformed Tchaikovsky's wet, sludgy Symphony No. 2 into The Nutcracker: tight, staccato enunciation, subtle but sudden shifts in dynamics and tempo to keep the repetitions fresh. Even the Borodin (a composer of notoriously heavy music) was brisk and oddly sweet (can an English horn sound sweet? This one did, if briefly), but I didn't realize what de Cou was up to until the second movement of the Tchaikovsky, a coy little march which was just as charming as could be. The orchestra, though in quite good shape to begin with - given that this was their first time together after the summer off - took that long to get fully in swing, but after that it just flowed lightly all the way to the end. No further reminders necessary that this is the same group that triumphed over the Symphonie fantastique at the end of last season.
*written to celebrate the annexation of same by the Russian Empire. Talk about politically incorrect! Just goes to show that if you spend too much time worrying about the politics of music, you'll deny yourself some good listening.