concert review: Symphony Silicon Valley

[calimac]

Interesting program. The centerpiece was a set of three concertos by Vivaldi, played by a small orchestra without conductor: one for two violins, one for bassoon, one a trumpet concerto arranged out of a violin sonata. The soloists were all orchestra members. A couple seemed to be stretching their limits as performers; the others seemed more at ease.

SSV's program notes are usually pretty good, but this time it said that the concerto for two violins is a concerto grosso. Buzz! No it is not, and their further description shows the writer has no idea what a concerto grosso actually is.

This was preceded by a work which has been cheekily called Ravel's Oboe Concerto for its large part for that instrument, Le Tombeau de Couperin. Fairly good performance with excellent care to Ravel's delicate orchestral balance.

One other concerto on the program, and a biggie: Beethoven's Emperor, his Piano Concerto No. 5. This is one of my favorite of all concertos, for its beauty and clarity. The finest moment comes when the lyrical slow movement evolves into the finale, which is just bright enough to perfectly melt the mood without trivializing the affecting music that came before.

Jon Nakamatsu as soloist played with crisp articulation and was a pleasure to hear as always, but he didn't seem to bring anything special to the work today. The music was most affecting in the first movement, which was also the only place where he soloist and orchestra lost touch with each other. Those are not mutually exclusive conditions.

Overall I thought the orchestra played the concerto in a rather mannered style, which I suppose was the responsibility of the conductor, Gregory Vajda. But orchestral musicians are insistent that the conductor is not responsible for the quality of their performance, so I guess he must just be some guy up there waving his hands.

On the CD player as I type this: a CD picked up from the ruins of Tower, music by a contempoary composer named Gloria Coates whom I've always wanted to check out. OK, I've heard music that sounds like bees buzzing in a jar, and music that sounds like an endless traffic jam of cars honking their horns. This music sounds like airplanes on a WW2 bombing raid.

Comments

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

The Tombeau has some sweet, delicate orchestration, and hearing it always reminds me of hearing it on airplane headphones while hurtling towards Iguanacon. Talk about your mixed memories. It's one of the orchestrated Ravel pieces I reach for now and then, though the piano original has two more movements, and it's a pity he didn't include them.

Which Vivaldi for two violins? Opus 3 number 8 is my big favorite, and Bach liked it well enough to set it for organ. Oddly, the recording I learned the piece from, with Oistrakh and Stern and Ormandy, has a different last movement. It took years to track it down, but it turned out to be an arrangement of a Marcello Oboe Concerto (number 9 of the concerti arranged for solo harpsichord by Bach). I used "Music Construction Set" on our old PCjr to record it with three voices, and I still like how it came out. I don't know how I did it, but I was able to convert the file to midi.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Which Vivaldi for two violins? Opus 3 number 8 is my big favorite

That's the one, though they didn't credit it by opus number.

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

I have a running joke about the way I compliment my potentially incipient significant other with regard to the beautiful way in which she says "Ryom Verzeichnis." If we do actually become a couple, and then become publicly known as such, I can explain it.

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

Oolp -- I left out a step, namely a suggestion that Vivaldi works be specified by their R. numbers, which is to say the Ryom Verzeichnis (catalogue).